I love my pastor, Rob Bell, because he always challenges in relevant ways. He showed pictures of Dr. Emoto's work demonstrating how thoughts (words written on paper and taped onto glasses) affect the patterns of frozen water crystals. This clip shows some of them.
Clip is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWn4QF6dCwM
The logical, skeptical part of me has trouble comprehending this, but it demonstrates the power of thoughts. We all have had feelings where we can sense a tension in the air between people even when no words have been spoken. My wife has an incredible sixth sense about people and situations. Dr. Emoto's work possibly shows the science behind those feelings.
As a teacher who is getting very excited about Web 2.0 teaching and tools, I have been following many conversations on blogs and on twitter. I am excited as I change my teaching style through the new tools available. I was also considering the TPACK model as shown to me by Matt Townsley here. We were tweeting about the importance of curriculum and pedagogy driving the proper use of technology and not vice-versa. As many have argued, it's not about the technology.
I could not help but think that with all of the excitement in blogs and twitter about the new tools, we always need to focus on the students first. The old cliche "they don't care about how much you know until they know how much you care" still rings true. The water crystals reminded me of this again. Our students need our positive thoughts and verbal encouragement as much as they need the "new tools". Take time, especially now in the crazy end of the year, to positively affirm all the good you can find in every student.
Whoa! I didn't realize you went to Mars Hill church. Very cool. I've heard of Rob Bell through some of the NOOMA vidoes our youth group kids went through. We should talk about your experience at Mars Hill sometime, Michael...
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