A Bloom Refresher

I use Bloom’s Taxonomy for the benefit of students in my classes.

I don’t know why the Taxonomy that Bloom et al developed seems to be kept in secret from students? Tell me why so few students are acquainted with Bloom et al?

I share the Taxonomy with my students and encourage them to apply the concept of action verbs in their individual learning, applying the concept of action verbs to scriptwriting, photography, interviewing, video production, and other creative inquiry and activity.

HERE is a useful list of verbs and a hierarchy of learning consistent with Bloom’s theory of learning.

 

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Creative Teaching

I am learning about teaching each day that I lovingly and diligently do this work.  I want to teach as a facilitator of student-centered learning and practice.  Here is an annotated bibliography of research writings about improvisation and other creativity in teaching

http://wiki.ubc.ca/Improvisation_(Teaching_and_Learning)

Sloth and torpor

My old fren-emy, the hindrance of sloth and torpor

How to blog and have it mean something

This story is required reading for my students: ROCKET MAN

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/11/25/rocket-man-2

Happiness and Suffering

I have been pondering the notion of Happiness and the Root of Suffering.  I am trying to simplify my understanding here, and I hope it helps someone else too.

What is happiness?

Happiness is when the heart and mind are freed from suffering.

How can one achieve happiness?

Happiness can be achieved as the causes of suffering are recognized and brought to an end.

What is suffering?

Suffering is the opposite of happiness.

Clinging or grasping to things is at the root of all suffering.

How can we become independent and free from clinging and grasping?  How can we end suffering?

The cessation or ceasing of unskillful clinging by mindful practice is the key to happiness.

We have to learn how to control unskillful grasping and clinging, subduing it by the power of insight.

 What can I do to suffer less?

The most effective way of dealing with suffering starts with recognizing it whenever it is present.

Borrowing from Buddhism, we learn: “Things, if clung to, are suffering, or are a source of suffering.”

Things are transient, unsatisfactory and devoid of selfhood.

We must find out what causes clinging to things, getting one to the root cause of suffering.

Knowing the cause, we shall be in a position to eliminate clinging and grasping to things, eliminating our suffering in a mindful way.

Knowledge of the root of suffering can be considered to be the most profound and most penetrating knowledge, putting one in a position to eliminate suffering completely.

Before and Today: Two Lumad women in Mindanao (#2 in series)

Two women from Bendum share their thoughts about the past and present, in the upland forests of Bukidnon, Mindanao, Philippines.

A Lumad Prayer in Bendum, Philippines

I am re-editing some documentary projects that I produced years ago in the upland forests of Mindanao, Philippines.  My son says my style as a filmmaker is antiquated and extinct, and he is probably correct, but it’s my best effort and hopefully achieves some level of mindful simplicity in an online context.