Picturepocket's Blog

Category: learning

  • Get Smart

    I am blown away by how effective the after school tutoring program has been so far. After just a couple of months, the middle schoolers are getting right to work and many completing their weekly homework. Some of them even seem to look forward to the time now and call it “club.” Most of the…

  • The Right to Be Wrong

    I just watched the series Transatlantic, another Netflix World War II miniseries set in occupied France. The story is about how some Americans saved artists, writers and thinkers of the 20th century from the Nazi invasion of Europe. Unlike The Light, We Cannot See, this is based on real people in history. It was surprising…

  • Infinite Potential

    Last week, I helped an eighth grader do his math homework. Algebra is not my strength, but we figured it out together. It was about slopes on a graph. There were ten problems and when we finished the seventh, he said he could submit the assignment for a passing grade. I asked him if he…

  • The Tutorial

    Last week I started a new side-gig, tutoring middle schoolers after school. It’s a program in Cornelius, a smaller community just west of Hillsboro. The time commitment is just 90 minutes, twice a week, but still managed to make me nervous starting out. I’ve been instructing adults for the last two decades, so it’s been…

  • ArmorAll

    There are certain Bible passages that are more popular than others because they distill truths from scriptures and are easy to remember. One if those is Ephesians 6:11-19 where Paul uses the metaphor of Roman armor to help visualize spiritual concepts. I have heard many sermons about this and even participated in a summer-long women’s…

  • Cubits & Curiosity

    I was thinking about my Dad recently and his impact in the world. While he never built anything large, nor entertained a wide audience, after his death, for years, I would run into people whose lives he had crossed and created a meaningful connection. One of his talents was listening, not necessarily for relational purpose,…

  • Artificial Learners

    There has been talk of using Bard or some other internet-base artificial intelligence to “help students” write papers. As a college composition instructor, I foresee this becoming an issue in class. I am all in favor of using electronic resources to find information for students, but I don’t want to shortcut the thinking process. The…

  • Black Balloons

    Over the hill, adventure awaits.

  • Only Together

    In leadership, telling people what to do can move the immediate process along, but if not done well, can undermine your long term goal of having people do things on their own. This is the same for parenting, teaching and leadership within a business or organization. The purpose of meetings and conversations should not be…

  • 99 Jobs and Then Some

    Eliana went back to school this week, and I am so, so grateful. For the last year I’ve been her mom and her teacher. The curriculum was through Hillsboro Online Academy, so technically there was another human on the other side of town somewhere grading her work, but I was the one facilitating the learning.…