What Teacher Tuesday means for Tuesdays shall vary. I see already. What I thought may be a nice place for cute stories and teacherly delights could also, very easily, become a venting ground filled with all things stressful and bleak. So, today, Teacher Tuesday will not use my words of worry, but another's words of light.
Oliver Sacks is something of a hero, or idol, or role-model, or friend-crush of mine. In his brilliant little book, Seeing Voices, covers of which I have the pleasure of being squished between at the moment, he quotes a few of the [many] riveting words of Joseph Church, on language:
So, ELL/ESL/EFF, and teachers of any language in any capacity: Curriculum redesigns suck. Administrators don't always know best. The days are long and frazzled. But, you have to admit, empowering a student to turn the universe inside out is pretty cool. Ey?
Sources:
Church, Joseph. 1961. Language and the Discovery of Reality. New York: Random House. pp. 94-95
Sacks, Oliver. 1990. Seeing Voices: A Journey into the world of the deaf. New York, New York. HarperCollins.
Oliver Sacks is something of a hero, or idol, or role-model, or friend-crush of mine. In his brilliant little book, Seeing Voices, covers of which I have the pleasure of being squished between at the moment, he quotes a few of the [many] riveting words of Joseph Church, on language:
"Language opens up new orientations and new possibilities for learning and for action...[it] is not just one function among many... but an all-pervasive characteristic of the individual such that he becomes a verbal organism...
Language permits us to deal with things at a distance, to ... manipulate symbols ... arrive at novel and even creative versions of reality... juxtapose objects and events far separated in time and space ... we can, if we will, turn the universe symbolically inside out."
So, ELL/ESL/EFF, and teachers of any language in any capacity: Curriculum redesigns suck. Administrators don't always know best. The days are long and frazzled. But, you have to admit, empowering a student to turn the universe inside out is pretty cool. Ey?
Sources:
Church, Joseph. 1961. Language and the Discovery of Reality. New York: Random House. pp. 94-95
Sacks, Oliver. 1990. Seeing Voices: A Journey into the world of the deaf. New York, New York. HarperCollins.
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