“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.”

– Martin Luther King, Jr.

On display at White Cube Bermondsey in London from January 22 – April 14, 2014 is a new solo exhibition from artist and photographer Darren Almond entitled, To Leave a Light Impression.

In a breathtaking series of night-time landscape photos, Almond takes 12 – 30 minute long exposure photographs under the light of a full moon. In a recent interview with The Guardian, Almond explains:

“With long exposures, you can never see what you are shooting, but you are giving the landscape longer to express itself.”

 The ‘Fullmoon’ series have taken Almond to every continent over a period of 13 years. Born in 1971 in Wigan, United Kingdom, Darren Almond lives and works in London. He graduated from Winchester School of Art in 1993 and held his first solo exhibition in 1995. For more information on the exhibit, visit WHITE CUBE.

What Is a Maker Space?

The Grand Center Arts Academy (GCAA) Makerspace in St. Louis, Mo., is a drop-in, laboratory-like environment where students design products that serve an authentic purpose. Students choose what they want to make and are mostly self-guided in their creations. Andrew Goodin, facilitator at the GCAA Makerspace, provides an array of low- and high-tech materials for student tinkering. Goodin might use probing or clarifying questions to help students think about their design challenges, but generally, his role is to be a guide on the side—Makerspace learning is student-directed.

The so-called “Maker Movement” is an approach to invention and innovation with a decidedly do-it-yourself ethos. Businesses and institutions are dedicating virtual or real “maker spaces” that are a sort of sandbox for launching and testing ideas. Schools like GCAA are integrating maker culture as a way to engage students in interdisciplinary, creative problem solving.

GCAA consolidated the layout of their library to make room for their Makerspace, which they characterize as a “STEAM room” because it maximizes students’ creative application of STEM concepts in a project-based atmosphere. “Rather than learning a concept first, and then demonstrating their understanding on a test, students in the Makerspace synthesize background knowledge and apply their artistic skills to learn and create,” write GCAA educators.

Learn more about GCAA’s Makerspace by following the Makerspace project’s blog.

ASCD Express, Vol. 9, No. 9. Copyright 2014 by ASCD. All rights reserved. Visit www.ascd.org/ascdexpress.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite

 L0030150 Credit: Wellcome Library, London 

Illustrated Sinhalese covers (inside) showing the events between the Bodhisatta’s renunciation and the request by Brahna Sahampati that he teach the Docrine after he becomes a Buddha. 
19th Century 
From: Dhammacakkappavattana sutra 
Size: 5.9 x 43.9 cm 
Collection: Asian Collection 
Library reference no.: Or Singhalese Manuscript 143 

Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons Attribution only licence CC BY 2.0, see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ 

A Prayer to Know Presence
Friday, January 24, 2014

My colleague and fellow faculty member of our Living School for Action and Contemplation, James Finley, offers a prayer for us to experience union with Divine Reality:

May each of us be so fortunate as to be overtaken by God in the midst of little things. May we each be so blessed as to be finished off by God, swooping down from above or welling up from beneath, to extinguish the illusion of separateness that perpetuates our fears. May we, in having our illusory, separate self slain by God, be born into a new and true awareness of who we really are: one with God forever. May we continue on in this true awareness, seeing in each and every little thing we see the fullness of God’s presence in our lives. May we also be someone in whose presence others are better able to recognize God’s presence in their lives, so that they, too, might know the freedom of the children of God.

Adapted from Oneing, “The Perennial Tradition,” Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 81-82
Excerpted from the epilogue to James Finley’s forthcoming book,
Little Things that Fill the Whole World:
Gospel Metaphors of Spiritual Awakening.

Gateway to Silence:
That all may be one

SAMR Survey – please look for this in your e-mail.  Please complete, the information will be important to assess how we are doing with the adoption and use of technology.  This survey is for our use only and will not be shared.  I will also use the survey to make sure that our wifi signal is of sufficient strength throughout the school.  If there are problems with wifi coverage, I will be sure to contact Francis Liu to fix any problems.

The ten ‘Golden Rules’ of Google Apps for Education

Google Apps, and cloud solutions in general, are revolutionizing the way educators teach and students learn.

Google Apps are revolutionizing how educators teach and students learn. Here are 10 ‘Golden Rules’ to consider when using them. (360b/Shutterstock.com)

Using the power of interactive, cloud-based technology, school administrators and teachers can connect with students in a meaningful way, enhancing the overall learning experience. That said, first approaching these platforms can be overwhelming.

For those of you embarking on the Google Apps journey, here are ten Golden Rules to consider:

1.Energizeeveryone in your school community with a compelling internal marketing plan. Help lead the charge to have everyone be a part of this exciting new technology. Get everyone on board.

2.Expandyour knowledge by taking advantage of the training that Google offers. You cannot fully utilize the program if you’re not aware of what it can do. Check out the list ofGoogle in Education Global Summitsand see when sessions are going on near you.

3.Protectyour data with a reliable third-party backup partner. Google is secure, but you never know when it will have an outage or when a student might accidently delete important data. You would rather be safe than sorry when it comes to safeguarding all the information you’ll be pouring into Google Apps.

4. Inviteparents to participate through interactive components like Gmail, Calendar, Spreadsheet, and Sites. Make it easy for them to be part of their students’ educational experience.

5. Collaboratewith other teachers in your school or district with Google Docs. Share lesson plans and notes from meetings quickly and easily.