Monthly Archives: October 2015

Happy Halloween

Posted on October 31, 2015 by jyourist

(Thanks, John)

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Let’s do the Time Warp Again

Posted on October 30, 2015 by jyourist

Every year at Halloween, our middle school has a costume parade and contest and the morning is culminated by each grade level doing an all-grade dance off. This year the 8th graders had the song, “Let’s do the Time Warp … Continue reading →

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Transforming Brown v Board of Education

Posted on October 29, 2015 by jyourist

Sometimes after we read a text I will have the students use a process of found poetry as a closure. I xerox some random and not so random spreads of the book and the students select words on the pages … Continue reading →

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Ta-Nehisi Coates at NYPL

Posted on October 25, 2015 by jyourist

A few days ago, on Oct. 22, Ta-Nehisi Coates was the speaker at the Schomberg Center at the New York Public Library. The Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture is an invaluable archive of African-American resources. Skillfully interviewed by … Continue reading →

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Kensho

Posted on October 23, 2015 by jyourist

Kensho, 見性, in Japanese and in the Zen tradition, means initial insight or awakening, but not yet full Buddhahood or satori. It literally means “seeing” (ken) “nature” or “essence” (sho).

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A single room, a single book

Posted on October 22, 2015 by jyourist

Issatsu, Isshitsu (一冊、一室) — literally “a single room, a single book.” This is the concept for the bookstore Morioka Shoten (Morioka’s bookstore) in Tokyo. Conceived of by Yoshiyuki Morioka, a former bookstore clerk, a single title takes center stage in … Continue reading →

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Graceful about change

Posted on October 18, 2015 by jyourist

This weekend my sister and I talked with my mother about the request of her assisted living facility to move her to a new “neighborhood” within the facility, a memory enhanced unit. Mom has been declining, not just physically from … Continue reading →

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“And Now it’s October” by Barbara Crooker

Posted on October 14, 2015 by jyourist

the golden hour of the clock of the year. Everything that can run to fruit has already done so: round apples, oval plums, bottom-heavy pears, black walnuts and hickory nuts annealed in their shells, the woodchuck with his overcoat of … Continue reading →

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Micro-forest behind the faucet

Posted on October 12, 2015 by jyourist

Whenever we have some kind of root stalk of a vegetable left— like carrot, cabbage, celery (shown above)—I put the root end on a dish and splash it with water. What emerges are awesome micro-greens without any soil at all. … Continue reading →

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Cider under pressure

Posted on October 10, 2015 by jyourist

I had promised my students that we would have some of my awesome cider one day. They really worked hard this week, having their first big test, so yesterday I cooked up some cider with cinnamon sticks and sliced oranges. … Continue reading →

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