Welcome to NCS-Tech!

Good morning all!

I hope you will forgive me for this departure from my usual daily posting, but I was tagged with this meme by fellow Jerseyan Barry Bachenheimer and I have to respond, or else I risk having a little visit by his associates from the land of Tony Soprano. ;-)

This picture, which I will call “From: Emily,” depicts the most awe-inspiring part of my day, every day, the first class to come to my lab every day, Kindergarten. It’s way better than anything I could ever draw, and seems a lot more authentic than an image found on Flickr.

It came to me, years ago, folded into a little tiny square, in an outstretched pair of little tiny hands, with the tiny little words, spoken in a tiny little voice: “this is for you.” We teachers get these gifts every day; for some reason, this one really hit me. (I still have the original.)

You have to see the Flickr version of the photo at right to see the notes that properly explain it, but, this picture Emily drew for me epitomizes student engagement in my classroom, particularly in Kindergarten. The level of detail is really astonishing for a child of this age! We start every lesson on the floor together, often running through complex, multi-step directions that the kids somehow always seem to follow. With the lights off, it’s like watching a giant, wall-sized television, and my littlest students are riveted to the screen with a degree of focus usually reserved for Spongebob Squarepants.

Yep, this is what I am passionate about, and what gets me up at 3:00 am every day: being surrounded by these tiny, inquisitive, intellectually curious little Spongebobs with their insatiable thirst for knowledge. Kids that take every challenge I throw at them with a smile and an “okay!” Students that have no conception of failure. Kids that just want to explore, learn, perform, and have fun.

What gets you up in the morning? ;-)

3 Simple Meme Rules:

• Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about…and give your picture a short title.
• Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt” and link back to this blog entry.
• Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce.

Ok … so I’ll keep this meme going by tagging these five folks:

1. Glenn Moses – http://mrmoses.org/
2. George Mayo – http://mrmayo.org/
3. Silvia Tolisano – http://www.langwitches.org/blog
4. Tina Coffey – http://tcoffey.edublogs.org/
5. Lee Kolbert – http://www.macmomma.blogspot.com/

Thanks, all!

-kj-