#Lisa bringing so much positivity and light to my inbox as always

[bangtanfancamp]

💌send this to the twelve nicest people you know or who seem to have a good heart and if you get five back you must be pretty awesome 💌

Truly the sweetest 🥲🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

[amandaj718]

Emmerdale Live and Organized - January 18, 2018

Welcome to the preshow. Yesterday, I talked about something positive about the show and fandom since things are just negative and argumentative around here. I’m going to try and find something positive again.

I love how the show is trying to right itself. No soap is perfect. Lots of mistakes are made in very limited time but the show is trying to fix its mistakes. The White Family wasn’t working? Time to bring in a family that does. Right now, it��s just Joseph Tate but that leaves the door open for other Tates to come and visit now. Fresh blood makes a soap run better. The engine has been squeaking and now we have some oil. Some Tate oil. Some nice history building Tate oil. This metaphor is beautifully mixed and I’m ok with that. I’m beginning to think this wasn’t a metaphor but I’m not feeling well, and everyone will accept that.

Anyway, if you can think of anything positive to say about fandom or the show leave me a message in my inbox on Tumblr or on my blog!

Let’s crack on! Hour-long episode. Let's do this!

This show needs a new opening. I’m sick of this one. GIVE ME FLOATING HEADS OR GIVE ME DEATH! (Cake or death?)

Ahem. Anyway…

Wishing Well

UM. Joe. Get the hell away from Lisa. Light of my life Lisa.

Joe? Lisa will frack you up. I hope she does too.

“It’s a shame you had to grow up.” – Lisa *nice line*

Guys. As much as I love Joe…DON’T TRUST HIM.

OH MY GOD. It was a plan! HE WAS GOING TO HAVE EVERYONE AT THE PARTY AND HE WAS GOING TO KNOCK DOWN WISHING WELL?!?! FUCK.

OH GOD. The kids. THE KIDS.

WOW. That’s a good shot. Scary as hell. LOVE IT.

OH GOD. NO. COME ON GUYS. You didn’t feel that?!?!

OH MY GOD. NO. THE KIDS! WISHING WELL. WHAT THE EVER LOVING FRACK?!?!

Eric. Want to call someone?!?! NOW.

Graham saves the day! Damn. SUPER HERO GRAHAM!

Is Graham the new James Bond? DAMN. I am all types of attracted right now. *winks at him* *he ignores me* *I go back to the basement*

Graham is here kids! YOU WILL BE SAFE. I hope. Eek.

ARE THE PIGS OK?!?!

I love how Sam is like, “WHAT DID THE KIDS DO?!?!” *HA. They are Dingles*

Graham is amazing. Lets all bow down to Graham.

I assume the pigs are ok.

Oh Lisa. *BIG SAD FACE*

The Pub Crew

Why does everyone act like Lydia isn’t awesome? SHE IS AWESOME. BACK THE FRACK OFF.

Ears burning Moira? *makes eyes*

Well, you have nothing to feel bad about Moira. This is all on Cain this time.

Samson and Noah. A pair to watch.

Faith looks beautiful! Also, Eric. STFU. You ruined that relationship.

KNEW IT! DAVID IS UP TO SOMETHING. What did you do?!?!

Harriet/Moira

Yeah. You didn’t stand a chance. I love you Harriet but COME ON. Its Coira. They are just messy and no one…

OH CRAP. MOIRA. NO.

Oh boy. Harriet is imploding. I’m actually happy about this. Harriet imploding gives the writers something to write about. A look at Harriet beyond the cloth or her time as a cop.

The Café Crew

Sure Nicola. You are totally in your 20s. I’m really ten years old parading as a 30-year-old. *wink*

Oh. We are inviting everyone! THIS SHOULD BE FUN. *evil smile*

“You ever feel so excited you feel sick?” – Paddy *All the time*

David’s Store

IT’S THE JOE TOUR. THE TOUR OF JOE. Everyone is getting a shake or two. That sounded dirty. I’m ok with that.

Tracy and Joe? ANYONE ELSE?!?! Trajoe? Joetra? I sincerely think David and Tracy are going to implode this year. Just my speculation. No facts to back it up.

“Party pants!” – Kerry

Who is he talking to anyway? It’s the third time that has happened and we know its not Graham.

What have you done David?!?! That look. THAT LOOK. Tracy and David are cute. I will always love their cute.

“Nibbles and Champers” – Kerry *I’m calling it that from now on*

Knew it. He did something with Leyla. KNEW IT.

Tracy looks lovely! Worried and lovely.

Tap dance David. Do the tap dance with Tracy. *eek*

Leyla and David ahoy.

Marlon’s Place

LOOK AT BOB! *SNORT*

Oh no. Its not a lads night? Jesse! Oh no.

“Yes Miss Grant.” – Bob *HE HE HE*

Paddy has a ton of glee at Marlons situation. Poor Marlon. He hasn’t gotten any in so long.

Are they watching WWE? *BIG SNORT* *I’m a fan of the Bella Twins. I wish I had their looks and their business sense. Also, I want John Cena. ANYWAY*

MARLON! NO. STOP IT. STOOOOPPPP ITTT.

“They say wrestling is fake?” – Bob *Oh Bob*

Jesse? Are you giving us some backstory there? Awwwww. Poor Marlon. Jesse! Awwww. *sad face*

Home Farm aka THE TOUR OF JOE

Home Farm looks better already! Amazing what a resident change can do.

Stop saying Magic Rod. Please. Stop. My dreams will be saying ‘Magic Rod’ and I will cry.

Lisa has her fancy sweater on! I love that color on her.

Love that shot of Graham watching from beyond.

Lisa is done with Joe’s crap. I love when Lisa tells off people. Sunshine. Light of my life.

No one heard a building falling in this small village? Maybe? PLOT?!?!

Dan and Kerry. They are adorable. DON’T TOUCH THEM SHOW.

Go away Magic Rod. Oh my god. THEY BOOKED THE WRONG GUY!

BOING BOING BOING! BOOOOIINNNNGGG. *I’m laughing because I’m crying over Wishing Well*

Oh boy. Get out of there Kerry. ABORT THE TRACY AND DAVID CONVO.

Oh. David. Shut up.

Wo are the other people at this party?

Really? You can’t believe this Debbie? REALLY. REEALLLY.

Debbie and The Dingles are going to come for you Joe. BIG TIME. WOW.

Moira’s Farm

Who cares about Harriet, Moira. Seriously. Let Harriet say what she needs to say. You two have been through worse.

Are we not going to address the beating a few weeks ago? No. Ok. Cool. Add it to the wrench event of things we don’t think about.

‘It’s Just Speculation!’

As per usual: Stay off the message boards, respect each other’s opinions, breathe, reboot and eat a Snickers. If you want to talk theory or the show come on over to my Tumblr @amandaj718. Appreciate what I write? Buy me a cup of coffee over at my blog, Amanda Jane’s Randomly Organized Pop!

Until next time, see you around in Emmerdale!

[teachanarchy]

Michael Foley, my high school Shakespeare teacher, was a known tyrant. As underclassmen, my friends and I would walk past his closed door, peer in the narrow vertical window, and see him gesticulating wildly at some hapless senior, blood vessels popping in his forehead.

We were genuinely terrified.

I would eventually discover that Foley wasn’t up there tearing into a student. He was channeling Othello, consumed with jealousy and demonstrating how pettiness can destroy even the most powerful of leaders. Foley did this with all of Shakespeare’s works, pulling out the most impactful bits and pouring his heart into them: impish Puck, Juliet at death’s door, and the gravedigger, woefully regarding Yorick’s skull.

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For me, at least, terror became inspiration. I’ve never forgotten him.

In education there’s a lot of talk about standards, curriculum, and assessment—but when we ask adults what they remember about their education, decades after they’ve left school, the answers are always about their best teachers. So what is it about great educators, like the theatrical Michael Foley, that leaves such an indelible impression? If the memory of curriculum and pedagogy fades with time, or fails to register at all, why do some teachers occupy our mental landscape years later? We started getting curious: What are the standout qualities that make some teachers life changers?

To answer this question, we asked our Facebook community directly. Over 700 responses poured in from teachers, parents, and students. When we analyzed the responses, some clear patterns began to emerge, across all age ranges and geography—even subjects.

Life-Changing Teachers Help Their Students Feel Safe

The research is unequivocal: People can’t learn if they’re anxious, frightened, or in trauma. Safety is part of the education starter kit. Unsurprisingly, many of our readers recalled that the best teachers establish a culture of safety and support in their classrooms, whether it’s physical, emotional, or intellectual.

Kristina Gorsuch Modaff describes her third-grade teacher, Mrs. Hilier, as having “a calming presence. She made me feel safe. She made me feel confident.” And when a student’s home life is less certain, school can be a welcome oasis: Jacqueline McDowell fondly remembers that her sixth-grade teacher “was constant and stable—she saw the whole me and was steady when other things in my life were not.”

And there were numerous stories of children with learning disabilities who found a haven and encouragement with a supportive teacher. Amy Rottmann’s high school creative writing teacher, Mrs. Harris, “made the quiet girl in the back with dyslexia realize she had a voice through poetry.”

Life-Changing Teachers Possess a Contagious Passion

A passion for education is in the blood of the best teachers—the word passion showed up 45 times in our audience responses—and the best teachers pass it on to students.

Math teacher Dave Bock’s passion for his material was “contagious,” recalled Jennifer Reese. “He delivered engaging lessons that piqued our curiosities, and gave us time to puzzle through solutions in our own ways.” Far away from math class, Lisa Maree Wiles thanked David Sidwell, her music teacher who gave his students “a love for music, a respect for our craft, and the passion to always be the best we could be!” And at least one teacher’s passion was ahead of its time: Jessica Chiado Becirovic remembers her senior year English teacher, Anne Godin, who “staunchly advocated for introducing her classes to multicultural literature before it was seen by many as important and valuable. She was a pioneer with a rebellious spirit.”

Life-Changing Teachers Model Patience

Learning can be slow and messy. Classrooms are filled with students—sometimes more than 30 at a time—who arrive each day with different emotional needs, and learn at wildly different speeds. Remarkably, life-changing teachers find a way to stay calm amid the chaos and play the long game, giving their students the time and support they need to learn.

Judy Barrera remembers Bernie Griff, her third-grade teacher. “He... went to the high school to get me books to read, and was the most patient teacher I have ever had. He gave me so much while I probably gave him a headache!” Some teachers don’t just model patience, but teach it as a life skill: “As a student I was always in a rush to see results and I made lots of mistakes,” said James R. Lamb. “Mr. Ingram taught me to slow down and keep my thinking ahead of the work.”

And long before learning from mistakes was supported by research, high school algebra teacher Susan Gilkey calmly taught her students that it was “OK to make mistakes, learn from them, and try again. She never made kids feel bad about it,” recalls Karen Spencer, a former student. “I hope I make her proud now that I carry on that same thinking with my middle school math students.”

Life-Changing Teachers Know When to Be Tough

If life-changing teachers are patient, they also know when to change gears and get tough. They’re the teachers who challenge us to be better students and better humans—and then up the ante and demand that of us.

For Claire Bush, that someone was Mr. Zimmermann, her 12th-grade English teacher. “I’d finish my work and then goof off. He was the only one who actually called me on my crap and challenged me. Being challenged actually helped me reach my potential. Now I’m an English teacher. I wish I had the chance to thank him.”  

Tough teachers don’t just hold students to high standards in the classroom—some kick their students out of the nest. Heather Miles remembers teacher Allan Edwards, who expanded her horizons and always “gave his English students rigorous content and pushed us to see beyond the small town in which we lived. He believed that we could always do more, and taught us to never settle.” And Barbara Minkler praises French teacher Mr. Smith: “He respected us, yet challenged us to reach our potentials. He stretched us with French existential literature. We had to give speeches, put on plays, and individually meet pronunciation and writing goals. He laughed with us, got mad and frustrated with us, and celebrated with us.”

Life-Changing Teachers Believe in Their Students (and Help Them Believe in Themselves)

The power of a teacher’s simple, unequivocal belief in a student was mentioned almost 70 times by respondents. Most of us have had some sort of self-doubt, but many students are crippled by it. Life-changing teachers have the gift of seeing potential in kids when others don’t, and then have the perseverance to help the children find it within themselves.

High school biology teacher Mr. Kyriakos was the one who helped Rachel Poff find her strengths: “He taught me that I was smart. I just needed to believe in myself. He died while I was his student and I cried like he was family. He changed my life.”

Laura Reilly Spencer’s teacher Libby Sciandra Cowan not only helped build her confidence as a student, but inspires her teaching practice to this day. “She believed that I could do great things, and I came to believe that, too. I hope I am half the teacher to my students that she was to me.”

Supportive advocates aren’t always teachers. Counselors and coaches can play this pivotal role as well. Nick Tutolo’s former coach, Jeff Ewing, continues to inspire him nearly 20 years later. “He valued teamwork, hard work, and pride. For a kid who was struggling to figure out where I fit, this went a long way.”

Life-Changing Teachers Love Their Students

Respondents used the word love a whopping 187 times (and that’s not counting an additional 157 heart emojis). Showing love for students—through small but meaningful gestures of kindness—is far and away the most impactful thing life-changing teachers do.

When Michelle Moyle was sick in bed, her fourth-grade teacher, Liz Thomas, arrived at her house with a stack of books to cheer her up—a gesture Michelle remembers some 38 years later. (If home visits are too hard, a positive phone call can do the trick.)

Kayla McNeil’s second-grade teacher, Kathy Nygren, showed her feelings for her students through her playful spirit. “She really loved all us kids. You could tell in the way she taught us, making learning fun by dressing up as a dinosaur or pilgrim. You never knew what was in her bag of tricks.”

Students can also feel a teacher’s love in something as simple as pronouncing their name correctly. Jena’ Lowry’s family moved all the time; she remembers how teachers used to constantly mispronounce her name. She was dreading it yet again on the first day of her 11th-grade English class, but her new teacher, Mrs. Holman, pronounced her name perfectly. “I was speechless,” Jena’ recalls. “She addressed us as if we each meant something to her. She captured our hearts, therefore she had our minds.”

Taking a step back, it appears that the most direct and longest-lasting way to reach a child—to really make a difference in his or her life—is through so-called noncognitive dimensions like passion, patience, rigor, and kindness. And when students are lucky enough to find a life-changing teacher, the benefits last a lifetime. In many cases, those students take up the vocation themselves: 145 of the people who responded to our question had become teachers, passing the gift of education forward to the next generation.

As the Fool in Twelfth Night says, “There is no darkness but ignorance.” Thanks to all who are bringing the light.