July 2023 Newsletter
So many good stories, and so much more time to explore them! Hopefully so, anyway – you may or may not be on vacation. Either way, we have a load of great videos and possibilities that we’ve assembled for you. Jump in, and feel free to share these with any who might benefit from them.
Featuring Favorites
We’ll start this month with three favorites from the NVIV series last semester.
First is The Silent Dance, about a performance group of deaf dancers, accompanied by an orchestra of blind musicians.
Second is Access to the Right Tool, which tells the story of a young man who sees an opportunity to fill a need in an entrepreneurially creative way.
Third is The Joy of Discovery, and in the course of just over a minute, you’ll be transported around the world in a beautiful expression of the love of learning.
Do you have a favorite NVIV posting? If so, please let us know which!
Getting Good at Grants
It is rare for teachers to understand how many resources are available to them for the interesting things they want to do. This year, we welcome those who want to learn how to pitch grant possibilities by getting involved in a project that can highlight students’ talents and perhaps even save lives.
It’s called the Wildfire Science And Prevention Project, and it’s a great way to help students better understand issues facing everyone (yes, everyone), while also helping you better tell the stories of your students’ successes to those who will support your school.
To learn more, go to our Contact Us page and in the comments field mention the wildfire project.
image by Tengyart from Unsplash (license)
Inspiring Solutions
A bit of a different thing for you this month: my Rotary club (the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley) has been hosting weekly programs of people who are making a difference in their communities for years. In the last week or so, we’ve launched a best-of podcast series, and the first episode (“Knitted Knockers – A Remarkable Story of Love, Generosity, and Service”) is a story I hope you’ll love and share.
Find the series and that episode at our Spotify page, or search your podcast app for Inspiring Solutions for a Better World.
Super Sips
Last month, we did what we sometimes do in the summer, and instead of doing a drawing, we gave Starbucks cards to everyone who entered. How’s that for a nice vacation item?
Didn’t enter last month? You can do so this month by letting us know which of the three NVIV episodes featured above is your favorite and why, or by listening to the podcast highlighted in the Inspiring Solutions for a Better World segment, just before this one, and letting us know what you think.
image by Nathan Dumlao from Unsplash (license)
Good luck!
First Finish
Are you on break at the moment? It’s possible that you’re teaching summer school, or perhaps in a part of the world where this is simply part of the school year. Regardless, we hope that these stories and resources prove inspiring to you, and welcome your feedback on our little newsletter.
As we say each month: May you inspire, and be inspired, each and every day!
In service,
Rushton and the Next Vista team
Muchas Freebies
We love sharing cool free stuff, and invite you to help us out. You can find the best of what we’ve gathered over the years on the Next Vista Resources pages, but if there is something free and powerful you love that you don’t find there, let us know about it using our resources submission form.
Images in the freebies section are screenshots from videos or web pages unless otherwise noted.
Worth the Watch
* Seeing children rise to the occasion is one of the greatest joys of our work as educators. The PBS Brief but Spectacular series is a gem for highlighting all sorts of viewpoints, and in this one, two 11-year-olds talk about the value of debate and democracy. (3:20)
* A heart-warmer for this month: there are a number of popular shows about expressing some sort of talent, and these are probably shows I’d watch if I had cable, dish (is that still a thing?), or the equivalent. My buddy Hadar suggested I watch this excerpt from Britain’s Got Talent about a teacher and a dance he did, and it’s a special one. (6:09)
* How will you be when students next arrive in your classroom? The story that Ryan Estis tells about an encounter in an airport with a barista reminds us of the power we have in how we choose to show up, and how important that may be for the people we meet. (5:21)
* Several years ago, we featured a wildly cool video about the “paperfuge,” a one-dollar centrifuge that requires no electricity and can be used in clinics anywhere in the world. This month, we’ll highlight another win that came from Manu Prakash’s lab at Stanford. With graduate student Jim Cybulski, the pair managed to come up with a way to make a microscope that may remind you of origami. Thanks to Shags for the find! (5:27)
* Another good spot from Shags is this piece on 3D-printed schools. The person highlighted, Maggie Grout, chose Madagascar as a place to approach the locals with her ideas about building small schools where they’re needed. As it’s a country with no armed conflict and welcomes foreigners, it was a strong place to start. A good reminder that a good idea, shared well, can make a difference. (1:16)
* In terms of novel enclosures, you might never have thought of converting an old plane into a home, but aeronautics enthusiast Bruce Campbell did. This story leaves a ton of room for questions, and might be a good starter for “I wonder…” activities with new classes in August. (2:11)
* There are plenty of interesting themes in this video from Great Big Story about a man in South Carolina in the United States who has rescued plants to create a celebrated garden. This was the share from CNN’s daily news email on Juneteenth – enjoy! (2:27)
* Also in the natural realm, we have millions of butterflies, and one not-so-natural spy hummingbird. This is a piece form Nature on PBS, and it yields some cool items about monarchs alongside a heap of great visuals. (3:07)
* Finally, a somewhat longer piece titled Saving Coffee From Extinction. I figure that teachers not burdened by the need to teach classes at the moment might be able to digest the rather ominous thought that the coffee we drink might not always be with us. Hopefully that last thought didn’t induce a stroke, but rest assured that there are interesting tidbits and messages of hope within the piece for the addicted. (9:59)
Worth the Read
* I believe that the biggest stress for most teachers is time, and specifically, that there isn’t enough to do the things the teachers are hired to do. In this article from EdSurge, titled One Idea to Keep Teachers From Quitting – End the Teacher Time Crunch, a task force in Texas sets out to better understand how to keep teachers in the profession, and ends up with some powerful suggestions about time.
* Michael Linsin puts out a weekly classroom management newsletter, and I share some of those here. In this post from June, he talks about how to deal with the most difficult students, providing an overarching perspective on consistency, reliability, and (your) attitude.
* Lori Gracey of TCEA put out a strong post on ChatGPT prompts for educators. It looks at possibilities in more detail than other lists I’ve seen without becoming problematically long. Among them is an example prompt for someone fine-tuning a resume for a job application. One note I’d add is that pasting resume content in ChatGPT or any generative AI tool is something to do carefully – yes, you’re likely to get some good possibilities for your resume, but that’s a lot of personal information going into the tool.
* Crystal Frommert penned a piece for Edutopia called Student-Centered Teaching in a Traditional School. It’s not only a useful guide to working with your different pedagogical approach, it’s a trove of links to articles that explore the ideas more deeply.
Recent Newsletters
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Last Bit
A shout-out to all the Maine special ed directors I had the pleasure of meeting in June! Jet-lagged as a result of having been in Japan in the first half of the month, I was waking up at crazy early hours. I got out for several walks as the sun was coming up, and caught this site one of the mornings I was in Bar Harbor.
Bar Harbor Morning (June 2023)
by Rushton Hurley
(CC by 4.0)
See you next month!
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