Issue #150 - The Spaces in Between
Issue #150 - The Spaces in Between
Thrifty Fifty
It feels like a milestone, I know that some weeks the writing is a little rushed and raw but we did it, that’s writing pretty much fifty odd issues every year, for the past three years.
If you don’t know, previously this newsletter was The Modern Languages Digital Digest and you can go right back to March 2019 to read the first Issue. Midway through lockdown I decided that I wanted to write as me, so with Issue #42 it became what it is now. I imagine that things will change again, but not too much, it’s fun to write and it doesn’t take up too much of my time. Anyway, thank you for sticking around, and also welcome to the flurry of new people who joined this past week.
I’m already halfway through teaching my mini course. I’ve warned the students that it will be over before they know it, and it is a shock for me too to realize that it’s almost week 4. I feel as if the start of semester is just settling down, and it felt that way catching up with a couple of colleagues over lunch, almost like catching a breath to chat and enjoy someone’s company, and be able to talk shop without feeling guilty, at least for some of the time.
I hope that you’re well and things are good. I know you prefer email and messaging, but you’re welcome to click the like button down below or leave a comment, always great to hear from you.
Stephan
Teaching & Learning
It was fun week, we held pitch presentations for our instructional video projects. The students are going to teach on some interesting topics; some arts and crafts ideas, some practical demonstrations, even some financial and productivity subjects. Next week we’re going to take a closer look at community learning and I’m going to challenge the students to think about how their learning objects might sit in this context, and of course whether they’ll serve a community.
I also think, just like other forms, learning is storytelling, and especially when it serves a need. Sometimes it can be obvious, if someone is teaching you how to cook on a budget it might be bringing attention to issues such as food poverty, health and financial insecurity, and other times the learning may be oblique but certainly I think that there’s meaning, absolutely there is meaning in the courses that you choose to teach and the learning you design.
As an aside, I finished reading The Storytelling Animal by Jonathan Gottschall, and in the many theories he posits about why we tell stories, he suggests stories help us better function as humans, that they perform many evolutionary purposes. For example; they are a form of cognitive play and a way to practice and prepare for what life will throw at us along the way. Stories help us test drive emotional experiences, they act as low-risk, high yield learning activities.
Life Lessons
The culture wars have completely consumed the GOP, to the extent that they’re not even sure what their demands are as they make a bad job of holding the White House to ransom over the raising of the debt ceiling. The only thing they are sure of is that the world needs to be less “woke”, this thing that they’re totally against but can’t seem to define. It seems to involve campaigns against the teaching of Black History in schools, in fact the rewriting and whitewashing of all histories that don’t feature fictionalized depictions of heroic white men who were explorers, warriors and protectors of a certain religion and way of life.
In schools themselves, this week teachers were asked to remove books from all classroom libraries, at least until they have all be approved by the district librarian. Healthcare, including vaccines are deemed “woke”, so is testing or wearing masks on public transport. In the meantime there are some laws that need passing, spending to agree on, there is poverty, the education system is underfunded, there have been 62 mass shootings this year already, and it’s only the first week of February, but no, the most important issue is wokeness. Also this week, Microsoft added a power-saving option on X-boxes, presumably to save a bit of electricity when the machine is on but not being played, and you can only imagine what the reaction was from Republicans.
Almost all conservative (and some other) news outlets are now using with the word “woke” instead of liberal or progressive. Outrage sells and this is seen as a vote winner and opinion divider that could possibly give the Republicans the presidency in a couple of years. It is crazy, and I can’t believe the air time these stories get. Even a small cafe in Connecticut called “Woke”, as in “Wake up and have a coffee” had to defend itself against conservative ire.
The real news depressingly marches on, the killing of Tyre Nichols in Memphis, the war in Ukraine, and in the UK the scenes of public sector workers on marches and manning picket-lines. So many stories, it’s hard not to feel the weight of all this. I feel pretty helpless somedays and I want to do something, and hopefully I am in my own way, contributing to a better future, somehow.
Lost and Found
I was pleased that EEAAO received some Oscar nominations, including best picture, and I’ve been listening to the sound track on my commutes to work, especially the song This is a Life featuring vocals by Mitski and David Byrne. A deeper dive in Son Lux’s discography took me to their YouTube site which has a wonderful playlist of what they call Movement Interpretations of their songs including this one Easy performed by Dr. Allwell. I’ll be honest, I could have probably picked any of the videos in this playlist, they are ace.
A couple of books that I’ve ordered from the library, including They can’t kill us until they kill us by Hanif Addurraqib, who I’m learning is a poet and essayist, writing about music and culture, who has featured in the New Yorker, NYT and The Guardian, and was the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation 2021 ‘Genius’ Grant (in the same year as Ibram X. Kendi). I’ve also requested another collection of essays, How to Read Now by Elaine Castillo (affiliate link) which a few friends have recommended. To mark Black History Month, our library has a list of books by Black authors, and there are a couple of titles that I’ve also added, including None but the righteous by Chantal James (affiliate link), set in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and The Ballad of Perilous Graves by Alex Jennings that is also set in New Orleans.
If you visit wikishootme you’ll find a map linking sites that have been mentioned or listed in wikipedia, it is an incredibly useful way to find local information, even some historical or municipal data that might be useful if you’re researching or applying for something.
I’m looking for podcasting projects, it’s been a while and I would really like to get out and about with a microphone. I was trying to write a list of tips for students and this dog-clicker idea is just brilliant. Also, this is fantastic, Adobe Podcast Enhance is an Ai that will clean up your audio, it seems to bring your voice closer to the mic, give it a little bass and lose some room hiss, it is very neat and you should try it out.
Netflix password sharing is on the way out, there’s going to be a crackdown, and a few people are wondering if that might potentially backfire on them. You’re going to need to sign out and sign back into each device once a month.
Finally, if you’re ever trying to read an article that sits behind a paywall, what can sometimes work is typing archive.is/ between the https:// and www. and you’ll be directed to archive.today where you’ll be able to click a series of links to the piece itself. It won’t always work, but worth a go.
Thank you
There’s still snow on the ground, it is supposed to get colder still this weekend, minus-8˙ celsius on Saturday, but don’t worry there’s plenty of sport on tv, including the opening games of the six nations rugby tournament, so no need to venture out. I might go and retrieve the card from the trail cam, as I haven’t taken a look since the new year. I know we’ve had visitors, its just that they’re elusive and always seem to dodge the lens. The batteries probably need changing too.
Okay, time to go, it is mid-morning and have a few more chores before I send this out. I hope that you’re doing well. As I reminded a friend of mine this morning, this time of year can be tough, but it’s not as bleak as it can seem. Now is the time to exercise your inner introvert, find pen and paper, draw, make, read, listen, whatever you want to do…do it.
This seems to be the rhythm in our household at the moment, the boys come in and head upstairs to their rooms, we find our spaces and something to occupy our time and then we eat together and head to bed early.
Apologies folks, in my rush to answer a call and a few other distractions I sent this out with a few more typos than usual (I know, that many!) and even some gaps and missing links. What a shambles. If you're arriving here from the email, know that this is a corrected (as far as I can see) version and won't send your head spinning.