Media – Books 'n' Nooks

TED Talks: A Great Resource for Teachers

I have watched videos on TED Talks myself and it is a GREAT place to learn new things. However, only recently did I discover its nearly-unrivaled value in the classroom. With the culmination of marking copious amounts of movie reviews and having report cards ready for record deadlines this week, I have been in a bind for lesson planning time. Enter TED Talks. With a plethora of subject areas to choose from, this resource is a must-have!

There are two places you can find TED talks material. One is the main TED Talks website and the other is the TED Ed teacher resource platform. While the former offers video footage on just about anything you are curious about, the latter has subject-specific videos with mini-lesson plans around each.

This week I ran to TED twice, and we are only on Wednesday! On Monday, I showed my students 2 video clips from the TED Ed platform, one titled “What makes things cool?” and the other, “Why do people join cults?”. I introduced each one by discussing the concepts of “cool” and “cults” to activate students’ knowledge. After watching each video clip, I discussed with my classes the major ideas presented in the video and then probed their understanding by pushing them to make connections with other things in their lives. Students were intrigued and receptive and I was satisfied with my lesson-delivery.

The second time I showed my students a video clip on the TED Talks website titled, “How megacities are changing the map of the world.” Since my students are transitioning into high school and Geography is a compulsory course, this was a great segue into the different kinds of Geography and how each affects our lives. I discussed major concepts with my students after showing them the video in a “debrief” session and then parceled them into groups armed with chart paper and markers to answer the question, How does Connectography affect our lives?. I required that they be specific in their answers and offer examples wherever possible. Despite the initial bombarding of new terms and complex syntax used by the presenter, my student found this video interesting and the idea-sharing phase of our class session proved this. Students came up with deep analytical reasoning that really surprised me!

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The thing I like most about TED Talks/Ed resources is the amount of opportunity it allows for students to inform themselves and activate their critical-thinking skills. I am a huge pusher of “Think critically, kids!”, so this is quickly becoming my go-to resource even for days when I am preparing lesson plans in advance.

For those of you who have used this resource, let me know about your experience. I would love to hear about new ways to use it.

Soul Surfer: A Great Teaching Tool!

When the story of teenage surfer, Bethany Hamilton broke around the world, people everywhere stiffened with fear at the fate of the young girl. A true miracle-story, Bethany fought her way back to life and success. Soul Surfer, by director Sean McNamara does justice to Hamilton’s epic journey. Released in 2011, and with a very Christian-focused lens on Bethany ‘s journey, this film takes a hard look at the role of faith during times of adversity. I showed it to my high school English class and they were riveted.

I found this to be a great teaching tool because it allowed students to learn very important themes around faith, family, love, compassion, perseverance, disability, hardships and overcoming those hardships.

Award-winning AnnaSophia Robb stars as Bethany Hamilton, with Dennis Quaid and Helen Hunt in the role of her parents. Essentially a star-studded cast, Carrie Underwood and Loraine Nicholson round off the line-up. The Most actors do a solid job of making their characters come alive and displaying individual foibles and strengths. Robb was a particularly convincing Bethany Hamilton with her tear-jerking reactions to Bethany’s challenges. This movie connected with my students on several personal levels and it was this connection that allowed me to extend the learning into a writing activity (a movie review).

The special effects were quite well done with the surfing stunts and underwater scenes offering viewing depth and clarity.

Teachers, for those of you who would like to show this movie to your intermediate students (it is best suited for the 12-15 year age group), I have attached a Soul Surfer Movie Review Instruction Sheet that you can modify for their writing activity. Along with the instructional sheet it would be worthwhile for you to include a rubric of your choosing as well as a movie review that you think is of a high caliber.

After marking close to a 100 movie reviews, I found this to be a great tool (the movie and the ensuing review) because it helped start the conversation around good writing (including the proper use of grammar, syntax and punctuation – please refer to my previous post, Teaching Grammar in High School). As a diagnostic it worked rather well in identifying which of my students were strong writers and which ones would need more help and in what areas. Since this was a film that everyone enjoyed because they were able to connect to it, it was the perfect conduit for developing writing skills.

Additionally, Soul Surfer worked really well to reinforce goal-setting, a lesson that I did earlier in the summer with my classes. My students were able to see someone in a seemingly impossible situation encounter multiple failures and finally [SPOILER ALERT] succeed.

Available on Netflix, Soul Surfer is a feel-good movie perfect for a girls’ night in, or with the family. As a teaching tool it works even better because larger life-lessons can be had. Teachers, try it and if you do, please share your experiences in the comments below.

#WhatItTakes – The Entire Olympic Manifesto

Here is the entire #WhatItTakes Olympic Manifesto put together by Sport Chek, Shane Koyczan and Sabrina Benaim. This entire poem exudes so much pride in the spirit of Athleticism, but mostly it embodies the beauty of the Canadian Spirit. I am forever proud to be a Canadian. Eh.

OPENING

We hope every seat is full

We hope you hear them cheer for everyone but you

We hope defeat is in your cards

We hope your hope splinters into shards

that you must handpick from the bleeding wound of your defeat

We hope that every athlete you meet

is better, more determined than you

But you need to be tested the same way wrong needs right

The same way ROAR needs FIGHT

You must fight to be here

You must pay with sacrifice

You must disregard the price of admission

If you want in, it’ll cost you. It’ill cost you broken bones and blood

We hope for a flashflood of fear and uncertainty

We wish this misery upon you because it gives birth to brilliance

There will be a moment in which everything you want becomes a singular goal

A moment of debt when every heartbeat you own can’t pay for every breath you stole

You must pay with the whole of you

Because this is the price and these are the stakes

you must pay for all the hurts and all the aches

you must open your heart like a vault and pay for your pain

because THIS is what it takes.

VERSE#1

What will you do when your lungs burn and your body shakes?

When the disaster in your muscles go from tremors to earthquakes?

How will you hold on when every rung you reach for shatters in your grasp and there are more ways to fall than there are to climb?

How will you keep going when the hands on the clock refuse to applaud you until your best time is a broken record that skips over your next heartbeat?

How will you move forward when your feet feel like anchors you must drag across the finish line?

How will you sharpen into an ! the curled up ? of your spine?

What will it take to keep you from doubting yourself THIS time?

VERSE#2

You have to ask yourself, is your prime ahead of you? Or behind you?

Will your worst days remind you that your best are still to come?

Is the drum in your chest loud enough to keep your challengers up at night?

Do you have what it takes when the fight goes into extra rounds?

Will the surplus of pounds you lifted be enough to prepare you for the more that is required when what comes next finally arrives?

Are you committed to the grace it takes to turn your falls into dives to cut through the surface of the water?

Will you have what it takes when there’s no spotter to save you, and no net to catch you?

When your mind asks for more, will your body match you?

VERSE#3

Greatness walks up to you, she asks you two questions :
Can you see yourself in me & are you ready?

To push beyond your limits while shutting out the noise
To wear well each earned bead of sweat because you’ve worked just as hard
With a different set of rules to triumph before the clock ever starts.
Ask them why they call you anything other than athlete.
You see expectations and break them wearing muscles and tears,
Each one a testament to your strength.
To erase the idea of what you are supposed to be is not what you are here for,
You came to show the world what you are capable of.

There is no box to check for greatness,

They’ll know it when they see it.

CLOSING

There is a war you wage on yourself every time you attempt to do better

The letter of resignation you wrote is a no thank you note you keep using for target practice

THIS is what it takes.

These are the brakes you cut to keep yourself from slowing down,

To keep yourself from stopping,

Topping your last achievement will never ever take less effort than your maximum.

What takes you from start to finish is more than the muscle around your bones.

May exhaustion turn your arms into the stones you must lif tif ever you claim victory

May gravity always be the foe that prevents you from taking flight

May there forever be more fight in the other guy

May you be blessed with the nightmare of constantly asking yourself why you should keep going?

Knowing the boundaries of your reach will teach you to extend past them.

Do not CONDEMN failure

You will come to know it

You will be crestfallen

You will be beat down

You will at times drown in the drought of your determination

You will stumble

You will make mistakes

You will learn there was a level beyond the hard way.

THIS is your education

THIS is what it takes!

#WhatItTakes Olympic Manifesto – The Last Verse

So, the Olympic Games have come to a close. The athletes will be flying back, and their stories of struggle and failure or triumph will make the waves for weeks, if not years to come. The last verse of the #WhatItTakes Olympic Manifesto dropped today. Shane Koyczan is back, and it is fitting. Here it is, then.

There is a war you wage on yourself every time you attempt to do better

The letter of resignation you wrote is a no thank you note you keep using for target practice

THIS is what it takes.

These are the brakes you cut to keep yourself from slowing down,

To keep yourself from stopping,

Topping your last achievement will never ever take less effort than your maximum.

What takes you from start to finish is more than the muscle around your bones.

May exhaustion turn your arms into the stones you must lift if ever you claim victory

May gravity always be the foe that prevents you from taking flight

May there forever be more fight in the other guy

May you be blessed with the nightmare of constantly asking yourself why you should keep going?

Knowing the boundaries of your reach will teach you to extend past them.

Do not CONDEMN failure

You will come to know it

You will be crestfallen

You will be beat down

You will at times drown in the drought of your determination

You will stumble

You will make mistakes

You will learn there was a level beyond the hard way.

THIS is your education

THIS is what it takes!

-Shane Koyczan

Tomorrow will feature the entire Manifesto. Stay tuned!

Canadian Poet, Sabrina Benaim – Look Out World!

So, as promised, here we are with the 3rd verse of the Olympic Manifesto that dropped yesterday, August 18th. This one was a surprise and a pleasant one at that, because this was not written and performed by Shane Koyczan (like I expected), no, true to Canadian form, Sport Chek injected diversity in the form of a very talented and up and coming poet, Sabrina Benaim. I am in awe of how our Canadian-ism has faith in its people and subscribes to the philosophy of everyone deserving a chance to take a stab at greatness. Here, Sabrina Benaim wonderfully delivers.

Greatness walks up to you,
She asks you two questions :
Can you see yourself in me & are you ready?

To push beyond your limits
while shutting out the noise
to wear well each earned bead of sweat
because you’ve worked just as hard
with a different set of rules
to triumph
before the clock ever starts.
Ask them why they call you anything other than athlete.
You see expectations and break them
wearing muscles and tears,
each one a testament to your strength.
To erase the idea of what you are supposed to be is not what you are here for,
you came to show the world what you are capable of.
There is no box to check for greatness,
They’ll know it when they see it.

-Sabrina Benaim

The last two lines are a stunner. Let them linger.

Commercials that Make Me Proud to be Canadian

Being Canadian is woven into the fabric of my being. When I leave my country for an adventure abroad, I wear my flag proudly. It is my identity. A BIG part of who I am. When people ask where I am from, I skip not a beat as I say, “Canada”, and then I smile, and then they smile. They know us the world over. They know us for our kindness and our friendliness. They know us because we care, because we are daring and because we are humble.

While we watch the Olympic coverage, and the media is abuzz with patriotic adverts to rally the Canadian Spirit around our athletes in Rio, these two commercials are the ones that make me so very proud to be Canadian.

Tim Hortons’ Commercial: Nothing says “I am Canadian” better than a Cup of Joe from our beloved Tim’s. No matter what your day is like, a drive to Tim’s can turn it around. So, when Tim Hortons came up with #WhyWeBrew, I knew it was an important moment. True to the Canadian Spirit, this commercial believes “Because greatness is not what you have, it’s what you give”. Yes, we are a nation of givers.

Air Canada Commercial: This one is an exceptionally clever marketing campaign to galvanize Canadians to travel, especially with the summer coming to a close. However, it is more than just a smart marketing venture, it is a snapshot of what it means to be Canadian; a look at our adventurous side.

“You’ll love your home, but its border will not be able to hold you…Maybe to prove yourself, maybe because you’re needed, maybe to show off your big bad superpower brain. That’ll be you flying the flag, that when you leave, they’ll remember that smart, helpful, confident, tough, CANADIAN.”

Long Live the True North Strong and Free.

Verse 2 of #WhatItTakes Olympic Manifesto by Shane Koyczan and Sport Chek

Verse 2 of the Olympic Manifesto by Shane Koyczan dropped on Sunday, August 14th. Here is the video, and below it, the transcription.

You have to ask yourself, is your prime ahead of you? Or behind you?

Will your worst days remind you that your best are still to come?

Is the drum in your chest loud enough to keep your challengers up at night?

Do you have what it takes when the fight goes into extra rounds?

Will the surplus of pounds you lifted be enough to prepare you for the more that is required when what comes next finally arrives?

Are you committed to the grace it takes to turn your falls into dives to cut through the surface of the water?

Will you have what it takes when there’s no spotter to save you, and no net to catch you?

When your mind asks for more, will your body match you?

– Shane Koyczan

I realize too that I missed the Opening of this Manifesto (this would go before my post on August 13th, 2016), so here is the video for that, and the transcription below it.

We hope every seat is full

We hope you hear them cheer for everyone but you

We hope defeat is in your cards

We hope your hope splinters into shards

that you must handpick from the bleeding wound of your defeat

We hope that every athlete you meet

is better, more determined than you

But you need to be tested the same way wrong needs right

The same way ROAR needs FIGHT

You must fight to be here

You must pay with sacrifice

You must disregard the price of admission

If you want in, it’ll cost you. It’ill cost you broken bones and blood

We hope for a flashflood of fear and uncertainty

We wish this misery upon you

because it gives birth to brilliance

There will be a moment in which everything you want becomes a singular goal

A moment of debt when every heartbeat you own can’t pay for every breath you stole

You must pay with the whole of you

Because this is the price and these are the stakes

you must pay for all the hurts and all the aches

you must open your heart like a vault and pay for your pain

because THIS is what it takes.

-Shane Koyczan

With Verse 3 dropping on Thursday, the 18th, and Verse 4 (or the closing) on Sunday, the 21st, I shall be here, to post videos and the transcriptions. Monday, the 22nd, will feature the entire poem. All the best, Team Canada. We stand behind you.

Shane Koyczan and Sport Chek: A Powerhouse Team for the Canadian Spirit

So, I was almost out the door to enjoy a Friday evening last night when this came on the telly. I had to stay until its 60 seconds was up. I was riveted. Go ahead, see why.

This is the transcribed version for Verse 1 of the Olympic Manifesto created by Sport Chek with Shane Koyczan, a renowned Canadian spoken-word poet, at their helm:

What will you do when your lungs burn and your body shakes?

When the disaster in your muscles go from tremors to earthquakes?

How will you hold on when every rung you reach for shatters in your grasp and there are more ways to fall than there are to climb?

How will you keep going when the hands on the clock refuse to applaud you until your best time is a broken record that skips over your next heartbeat?

How will you move forward when your feet feel like anchors you must drag across the finish line?

How will you sharpen into an ! the curled up ? of your spine?

What will it take to keep you from doubting yourself THIS time?

– Shane Koyczan

First let me digress to just say that Shane Koyczan is a genius when it comes to Poetry. I have heard some of his work, mostly to do with his anti-bullying campaign and the To This Day Project, but this man truly has a way with words. They bend at his bidding. Here is a blow-you-away video from Shane Koyczan and the To This Day Project

The images, the music, and Koyczan’s poetry in this video come together for a devastatingly moving emphasis. The result leaves you speechless.

Returning to Verse 1 of the Manifesto though. There are a few more verses like this to land in the next week (fear not, all have Koyczan pounding out his incredible poetry), according to online newsfeeds, on August 14th, 18th and the 21st. Koyczan’s words are short but pack a punch that gets you right off that floor where you may lay beaten. His words reach out to drive into action not just Olympians competing for titles they have worked for most of their lives, but his words (as is usually the case with Koyczan) reach out to you and I, people carrying our own crosses on a daily basis. Koyczan drives his hand into your chest and lifts up your heart and you can feel it rise as you start to feel stronger. Such is the power of words to inspire, to galvanize toward something bigger. Such is Koyczan’s gift. For their part, the Sport Chek media team hand pick the best moments of the games and then slap on a crescendo of a soundtrack to perfectly unite with Koyczan’s spoken word. The result is a Carpe Diem moment. A YOLO effect. A fight-until-the-death philosophy that keeps you pushing.

I have the utmost respect for the talent powerhouse that Koyczan is, and then he goes and teams up with a Canadian sports retailer like Sport Check to really make a difference for the Canadian Spirit. That deserves a standing ovation.

So here’s to Koyczan, and here’s to our Canadian athletes competing in Rio, and here is to all the athletes and their families and their fans, and to you and I. In the words of Koyczan, “What will it take to keep you from doubting yourself THIS time?”

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