Alone Time
Some people, like my younger sister, don't enjoy being alone. My sister in particular doesn't like the silence either. Me? My favorite part of summer vacation is waking up at 5 or 6, making some coffee, grabbing a book/comic/my sketchpad, and chilling out on my porch. The sun comes up on that side of the house and its so early, no one in the neighborhood is awake. I bask in the sun and the silence. Nothing but the chirping of birds breaks that silence and I love it. I also find that as a teacher, I crave alone time. Teaching is emotional work, from 7:30-4:00 I am emotionally invested in the people in my building. Not just the students, the staff as well, I'm invested in making the people around me feel good about themselves and their work. There so much negativity in this world already, so more than anything I want to be that small flicker of light in the darkness. In order to be in tune with the people in my school I listen with the intent to understand, like Turkle said in her article:
- Most of all, we need to remember — in between texts and e-mails and Facebook posts — to listen to one another, even to the boring bits, because it is often in unedited moments, moments in which we hesitate and stutter and go silent, that we reveal ourselves to one another
People are fascinating to me, because it is precisely in these moments that you get to know the person behind the mask. Mask on, mask off. I think this is also part of the reason why I don't engage in social media. I don't want to miss out on these very real moments.
I think that Wesch and Turkle are allies in this discussion. Turkle is pushing for a more authentic connection and so is Wesch. Wesch wants students to question and make authentic connections to their learning while Turkle, in this very technological age, pushes people to make authentic connections with each other, offline and in person.
Yovanny, I find your post very interesting. I agree that as a society we are having a harder time simply being alone. I often find the children I am babysitting or the students I teach are so used to being connected with technology that they often do not know how to create their own play. Often times, I find the children ask an adult to create a game or activity. I have also noticed over the years that children have a harder and harder time creating and using their imagination. I believe it is time to make our classrooms a place of conversation and creating.
ReplyDeleteI 100% agree, we need to create creative spaces in our classrooms and inspire the next wave. Thats very interesting though, the link between the loss of creativity and the increase in technology, I wonder what the root of that relationship is.
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