2006 November 23 Thursday.
Today is a National Holiday in Japan known as 勤労感謝の日. I call it Labor Thanksgiving Day. Also, today is a National Holiday in the USA called simply, Thanksgiving Day. Thanksgiving Day in the USA falls on the fourth Thursday in November, every year. This year it just happens to fall on November 23, so the two national holidays in Japan and the USA, coincide. However, it is not this way every year because the Japanese holiday is always on the 23rd of November, regardless of the day of the week upon which it falls. As a result, my classroom was closed today, so I used my extra free time to write some more pages for one of my many textbooks. I have written numerous textbooks, but none of them are finished yet. In fact, none of them will ever be finished, because when a student or a group of students have learned the newest page of any of my textbooks, I will write a new page or pages for them. Although about 90% of my textbooks are conversation dialogues, the other 10% deal with vocabulary and word associations. Today, I wrote three new pages for a textbook entitled Word Associations Fill in the 4th Word. For example page one starts out with; "red, yellow, green, _____." Any word that a student wants to write into the space for the 4th word is OK. There are no "correct or incorrect" answers. Some answers make more sense than others, but it is totally up to the student, to decide which word best fits the "pattern" of the first three words. What would be your answer for the forth word in the above example? I my case, I say; "blue". Other students have said "traffic lights", "the rainbow", "colors", etc. This is only the first example on the first page, of this endless conversation reference book. The vocabulary items, and associative concepts get more and more complex as the page numbers advance. While I was making these 3 new pages today, I had my own ideas as to how the thinking process, using these vocabulary items should proceed, but those are only my ideas. Some students have the same ideas as mine, but many don't. It is interesting to see what the students come up with for their 4th word. Sometimes their answers surprise and delight me. Many times, their answers introduce me to a new thought process. One that I have never noticed before. Is it any wonder that I love my classroom? My very own classroom, which started with just a thought. A thought that has become a physical reality since more than 10 years ago. A reality that is in fact, MY LIFE and my life's WORK. I AM, what I THINK, and,..... what I DO. At all times. The COSMOS is my canvas and my playground. It is also yours, as well, because we are all connected. Everything is connected. Everything blends into ONENESS.
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