Reading List on the Net {11.10.15}

Another compilation of various bits on the net I've been reading, watching, or looking at. It feels like so much! The last posted reading list was the first of October but some of these I'm sure are spillover from that list. I might have to carry over some of these. {I did. Who knows when that will be posted...}

7 Must Read Books on Education
It is interesting how we come up with 'must read' books, in any subject or genre. I have been doing quite a bit of research lately on educational philosophies and this post came up in my search. There are quite a few tagged posts with 'education' at Brain Pickings. I would like to read quite a few of them. Anyway, the 'must reads' in this post are:

• The Roving Mind by Isaac Asimov
• The Element by Sir Ken Robinson
• A New Culture of Learning by Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown
• The Uses of the University by Clark Kerr
• DIY U by Anya Kamenetz
• Waiting for Superman by Karl Weber
• Five Minds for the Future by Howard Gardner

I have compiled my own list of 'must reads' based on recommendations of individuals I highly respect. You can see those on the CMEONEO website. Admittedly it is an inadequate list; there is always so much to be read. Speaking of reading...

Living Library Books: Skipping Meals 
I skip meals sometimes but like Liz, I enjoy food too much to do it too often. But the point of this post isn't really about food for our bodies; rather it's the food for our minds.

Contrary to common opinion, reading is not a leisure activity for the few who prefer it to sports or other hobbies. Minds that regularly feed on literature are not only active and growing, but the bodies they inhabit also receive energy. The whole person whose mind is caught up in the words and thoughts of others through books is thriving emotionally and spiritually, because bodies are not just calorie burners, but contain persons, persons with souls, and souls need their own kind of food. Words have the power of life and death. The world was spoken into existence by a word, and its life-giver and sustainer is called The Word. Our designer intended us to be people who live by words.

A Woman Reading

I have my SafeSearch on, so hopefully you aren't greeted by some unappealing images. This search was started while looking at "The Letter" by Camille Corot. At some point I thought I recalled it was said to also be titled "A Woman Reading" but I didn't see it in the images when I searched. But I loved the images it brought up.

Book Review in the International Christian Community for Teacher Education Journal 
A book I have wanted to track down because 1) there are submissions by Jack Beckman, who also contributed to When Children Love to Learn, which I thought was a wonderful book for educators, and 2) because it is about education. This review was brought to my attention recently and now I want to look at the book even more. The book is titled Schools as Communities: Educational Leadership, Relationships, and the Eternal Value of Christian Schooling, Edited by James L. Drexler.

“Where there is no vision, the people perish…” Proverbs 29:18a (KJV)
Anyone who has engaged in the calling of Christian education knows that it can be — and usually is — one of the most exciting, delightful, fulfilling, and joyous ministries that a believer can know...
And anyone who has engaged in the calling of Christian education also knows that it can be — and usually is — one of the most daunting, exhausting, demoralizing, and frustrating ministries that same believer can know...
And so the question is: How can Christian schools resolve the chasm between the experiences of the first and second paragraphs above, prevent the sort of divisions and offenses within the educational body that the scriptures warn about, embody healthy and continuous educational improvement, and become the dwelling places ofshalom and agapé that will transform the lives of all who are touched by that community?

Cherish the Ladies- The Lake Isle of Innisfree

A youtube audio. This is one of my favorite poems. I honestly do not even know why. It just is. (Thanks to Headmistress)

Attention, Please!
Cindy Rollins talks about why changing up curriculum bits and pieces aren't the magic we hope they will be in our homeschools (or in any school, really).

We starve our students by feeding them sawdust. At first they eat with joy because it is new sawdust but when they cannot digest it their attention diminishes. We panic and buy a new flavor of sawdust and once again our student settles into what he naturally craves - good food for the mind.  He is hungry and excited to eat once again. Only once again we have failed to provide real food for his mind and so his attention is shortened.