Monday, August 31, 2015

In the blocks and waiting...

http://www.gettyimages.ca/detail/news-photo/jamaicas-asafa-powell-waits-in-the-starting-blocks-to-news-photo/171654229


A new school year is about to begin.  I am one of the Track and Field coaches at AMG and often use elements of coaching in my approach to teaching.  So, the photo of the Sprinters in the block is them waiting for the command of "set" and the gun firing ("go").

To ease myself back into the classroom, I am finding myself doing a fair bit of reading and one of the things that came up during a Brunch conversation was Cursive handwriting.  I have been doing a little bit of this as a daily exercise over the past six years and have always responded to the why do we have to do this question from students by saying that it was good for your brain.  This is true, but a bit of a vague answer.  I came across this article, from the New York Times, while doing some research:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/03/science/whats-lost-as-handwriting-fades.html?_r=0

Cursive writing has often been referred to as a lost art form.  It is something I remember doing during the late 1970s and early 1980s.  I believe that my sense of nostalgia has some value.

I am not quite ready for the gun to go off and the race to begin, so I will enjoy my contemplative moments in the blocks.