A Slow Circle

What is the role of imagination in education and learning? Certainly imagination is desirable for educators who would like their young students to grow into creative, interesting adults. Imagination is probably also desirable for students who have a great wish not to be bored to death. But could it be more than just an antidote to classroom doldrums and later-life ennui? I have a friend and colleague currently doing a teacher training course in which he was given an assignment to write on the topic, "What is reflection? How can reflection help teachers?". The question was enraging. Indeed, reflection seems like it might be a useful practice for teachers. How might thinking  help teachers? How might breathing help teachers? This is the kind of pablum that passes for teacher training.¹ If gaining a license to teach is school is simply intended as a costly signal then perhaps this kind of generic busywork is fine, but what if teacher training could be more effective? Allow me t

Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin A really beautiful book. The details are so rich here that the story feels more grounded in Goha's life in a way that the first three books never did. I love the conversation between Goha and Moss about women's magic. Le Guin wrote that she wanted this story to be about the people who inhabited the worlds of traditional fantasy, the ones who things happened to rather than those causing all the action. I think it succeeds and feels very unique as a result. Tales of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin The further I go in these books the more I appreciate them. These short stories are great because you get to see such a variety of characters and their lives, not beholden to any single overarching narrative. Or at least that narrative can only be glimpsed through a dozen broken mirrors. I particularly enjoy the love stories. The Other Wind  by Ursula K. Leguin The last of the Earthsea books. There are more viewpoint characters. Like so many of her other book

Why do we teach history? This question may seem obvious but in light of recent scaling back of history and humanities programs  it bears consideration. Others have answered this question more deeply but I will provide a few reasons of my own before discussing how roleplaying fits in.  History helps us understand where we came from and why things are the way are now. These origin stories help give context to our understanding of modern life. The origin of history is basically just memory and stories. History teaches cause and effect , or at least provides data on correlations. We can look at how all sort of historical events have panned out over time and use that information to help inform our decisions about the future. History as an academic subject stems from this 'leadership training' approach.  History trains us to decide what is true and what is important . Every historian, student or even reader of history must make decisions about what to include or exclude and how

     I have long been fascinated with the idea of domain play and games in which players can make an impact on the world, not simply act as the main characters in a movie. What happens when the movie is over? How will the characters be remembered when they are gone? Who will remember them? As a GM I hope to provide the players with an experience in meaning making that allows them to build a legacy.     In order to have a game in which it is possible for players to affect history greater detail and care are required in worldbuilding. For players to feel the weight of their actions and receive a feeling of true accomplishment, the world needs to exist in as tangible a sense as possible. This kind of a game requires not only detail, but verisimilitude and objective systems. Players need to know that their actions will succeed or fail based on the objective rules of the imagined world rather than the whims of an idle god (or GM).     I have for several years now favored setting my fantasy

       I just finished the book Energy and Civilization: A History by Vaclav Smil. It took me year to read it and it was the most informative book I've ever read. It comprehensively traces the history of energy usage throughout human history. The book also made me a much better GM. Mosts GMs are familiar with worldbuilding as the stockpiling of lore and backstory, as an exercise of mapping and building a fictional world and populating it with non-player characters and monsters and treasures with which to surprise and challenge and hopefully entertain the players. I'm not saying it isn't those things but I do think worldbuilding is something more. The RPG world is the shared fictional enviroment the GM and players inhabit together during play. In traditional play the GM makes up the facts of the world and communicates those to the players through play. Some GMs are better at communicating those details than others, some have more complex worlds some simpler, some realities

This is a record of my process for making an English reading unit based on a book. Rather different than other posts here, I think it could be beneficial to actively record my process and leave it a place I can easily reference it later. I can also refer friends and fellow teachers here so that we can compare our methods. For background: I teach English as a second language in primary school. I think the process is somewhat generalizeable to theme-based learning in other contexts. 1. Choose a book.  Ideally this should be an enjoyable, interesting, or at least informative but working teachers know that this isn't always guaranteed. This can be the hardest part. I rely on years of knowledge of my target audience's reading level and interests. You will be better at this the more experience you have. A good proxy for interest is books you liked (or would have liked) when you were younger. It helps if you can also enjoy the book as an adult. Another factor is how easily you can cre