Mixtape Monday: October

What makes it into your mixtapes? If this is a concept that’s foreign to you, what I mean is, what’s on your playlist?

In the past, committing something to a mixtape was a process that was done with great consideration and thoughtfulness, because skipping through tracks was problematic and you had to listen to the whole thing as you created the tape. When the CD came along, the process was far easier, but you still had be careful about which tracks you were going to fit into your precious 80 minutes of recording space. Now in the age of the playlist, things are much simpler and you can chop and change as you like, which is great, but it also means we’re not spending as much time deciding on the content, because if we make a bad choice, one simple click and it’s gone.

I’d like to try to amalgamate these concepts into the playlist I’m going to introduce today: each choice is carefully thought through and has been watched from beginning to end before making it onto the list; I’m only going to choose five items for the playlist and I plan to update this list fairly regularly with fresh and interesting stuff.

So, without any further ado:

1. Ken Robinson: Changing Education Paradigms. A slightly simplified version of his amazing and ground-breaking TED Talk, this video talks about what’s wrong with education and why we’ve got to work on changing it. You’ve almost certainly heard this before, but it’s worth a refresher. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

2. Alan Watts: What if Money Didn’t Matter. Again, something that I think has done the rounds fairly extensively, but nevertheless, this is a powerful message to wake up to nonsensical cyclical existence. Speaks for itself really: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd1IkirWmDo

3. David Foster Wallace: This is Water. This talks about shifting perspective towards seeing things that are there, but which we didn’t realise before. I show this to my classes and it stirs up a lot of debate. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKYJVV7HuZw

4. 30 Things You No Longer Need Because of Smartphones. Short and to the point, this video shows just how far things have progressed. Where will the next five years take us? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCowytZ0qV4

5. Linchfield Primary School: We Are the Young. If you want a feel good song for the day that’s guaranteed to get buried in your head, this is it. This is what you get when you take the time to let kids shine. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xFi0k5BBIM

Please feel free to comment or tweet me with your playlists or recommendations. I love discovering more.

Till tomorrow…

#WorldTeachersDay

Today I’m talking about appreciation.

It’s World Teachers’ Day, which came as a surprise to be honest. I never know when any of these commemorative days are happening and almost always find out after the fact, so I’m quite pleased to have discovered today before it’s over.

The point of any of these days is, I believe, to show appreciation for whatever is being honoured. Instead of launching into a long verbal meander about the merits of teachers and their importance, I’m going to take a different tack.

Herewith are the greatest teachers I’ve had the pleasure of being taught by:

1.         My father. He is a genius with his hands and his ability to see something before it exists astonishes me. The greatest lessons he taught me were that firstly, if I was going to do something, I had better do it properly. The second lesson was that I could do anything I wanted in the whole world, as long as I was the best at it. I’m not claiming to be the best at what I do, but his lesson inspired me to be the best I could be at everything.

2.         My mother. Thanks to my mother, I was not stuffed full of pills and told to sit down and be quiet. She was always my champion when I wasn’t understood at school and she went to great lengths to develop my potential. She has taught me never to give up, never to settle when life says no to my dreams.

3.         My grandmother. She taught me, above everything else, that knowledge is a beautiful thing and that knowing more about our world is a wonderfully rewarding practice in itself.

4.         My Grade 9 English teacher, Mrs Chittenden, who got me interested in Shakespeare, who put up with reading my awful poetry and who would sit and listen to me talk when it felt like no one else in the world would. She taught me to value myself.

5.         My cousin, @clairegunnphoto, who gave up everything to pursue her dreams and who is now living that life. She taught me to follow my heart and she helped open my eyes to the world by sharing perspectives.

6.         My great friend and mentor, Nigel Bakker, who showed me how to be excellent at what I do and who helped shift the way I approach teaching. He continues to be a source of inspiration, guidance and a pillar of strength.

7.         My girlfriend, Jordan, who teaches me directly through the heart. She has an uncanny ability to see through all my nonsense, and to get to the real crux of what’s happening in my head. Her wisdom, patience and unbelievable compassion are an example to me every day.

8.         Finally, life itself continues to be my greatest teacher. With the many different experiences and moments it makes available to me, I am taught more and more and more and I hope the learning never stops. Well, until it has to, if you know what I mean.

I hope today is one of meaningful reflection for all of you. If you’re a teacher, I hope you are congratulated and thought about by those around you and that you take some time to consider the impact you have on others’ lives. Regardless of what you think, you are making an impact, and I hope you are aware of this in order for that impact to be the best one you can make.

If you’re not a teacher, then take some time to reflect on those who have taught you, whoever they may be. You would not be who or where you are today without them.

PS: Does anyone else see the irony in the fact that we can't add an apostrophe to a hashtag, thus making #WorldTeachersDay technically grammatically incorrect? Sorry, but you can't turn English teacher mode off! ;)