Category Archives: Teaching & Learning

Podcast 014: On Trust

Here’s a short solo podcast about my thoughts about over-reliance on others rather than trusting oneself. This habit of excessive co-dependency is something that comes from the way we educate our kids. Landscapes for Learning Podcast Episode #14 On Trust Please “like” on iTunes and share with friends who might be interested in the futureContinueContinue reading “Podcast 014: On Trust”

List for Learning: 27 Take-Aways from It’s Not About the Grades

 27 Take-Aways from It’s Not About the Grades: Landscapes for Learning Beyond Schooling Since everyone seems to be publishing books with rules for life and lists for “best” something or other, I thought I would make a list of possible take-aways from It’s Not About the Grades: Landscapes for Learning Beyond Schooling, my newest memoirContinueContinue reading “List for Learning: 27 Take-Aways from It’s Not About the Grades”

Out with Grades, In with Soft Skills

  If It’s Not About the Grades, then what kind of Learning Beyond Schooling? Modern schooling still subscribes to the notion that “If it [skills/learning] isn’t measurable, it doesn’t matter,” but this is totally outdated!  According to Seth Godin, real work that matters, that is purposeful and fulfilling, relies more on “soft skills” than “hardContinueContinue reading “Out with Grades, In with Soft Skills”

Human Resources for Teachers?

“What do you think about adding more personal wellness for professional development specifically designed for teachers by teachers at your school?”   School has begun and I am no longer a part of it, although I feel like I am still involved to a large degree because I spend almost all my time thinking andContinueContinue reading “Human Resources for Teachers?”

It’s Not About the Grades: Landscapes for Learning Beyond Schooling

About my manuscript in progress, It’s Not About the Grades: Landscapes for Learning Beyond Schooling (memoir of a high school English teacher)

Podcast 013: It’s Not About the Grades: INTRODUCTION

It’s Not About the Grades: Love for Learning Beyond Schooling is very close to completion, so I am recording a reading of a few chapters for feedback, as a faster way of getting “peer review” before I write proposals for publishing the final manuscript. INTRODUCTION  Download Episode HERE I would LOVE your input, insight, constructiveContinueContinue reading “Podcast 013: It’s Not About the Grades: INTRODUCTION”

Podcast 012: Preface, It’s Not About the Grades

It’s Not About the Grades: Love for Learning Beyond Schooling is very close to completion, so I am recording a reading of a few chapters for feedback, as a faster way of getting “peer review” before I write proposals for publishing the final manuscript. THIS PODCAST IS A READING OF THE PREFACE, A LETTER TOContinueContinue reading “Podcast 012: Preface, It’s Not About the Grades”

Podcast 011: Teri Almquist

  “Every student deserves a good teacher, every teacher deserves the opportunity to be a great teacher”  -Teri Almquist     Building an inner connection with yourself isn’t easy. This union, or yoga, is hard work. It’s about  trust–first in a teacher when you don’t yet know how to trust yourself and you are overwhelmedContinueContinue reading “Podcast 011: Teri Almquist”

Podcast 010: Nick Filth

Nick Filth grew up in an abusive home, dropped out of high school after ninth grade, was homeless for a time, and addicted to drugs, but ironically his experiences with THC and psychedelics sent him out of this world then back to his own life– his truth, which is a place and point of viewContinueContinue reading “Podcast 010: Nick Filth”

Tools FOR Inner Landscape Learning

I write a lot about how we need to encourage young people to travel the inner landscape FOR learning. Here’s one way (Vipassana/meditation) And another way:    And, of course, my favourite way: 

Becoming a Teacher

On Becoming a Teacher When you find out who you are, you find out you are limited: by rules, norms, laws, other people, physically, mentally, psychologically, intellectually. Your mind limits you as does your body; your birth limits you, as does your environment– all that is external to you, nature, and internal, by nature. LimitsContinueContinue reading “Becoming a Teacher”

Podcast w/ Myozen Joan Amaral on Zen, Zazen, Practice and Social Life

“The best way is to understand yourself, and then you will understand everything. So when you try hard to make your own way, you will help others, and you will be helped by others. Before you make your own way you cannot help anyone, and no one can help you.” ― Shunryu Suzuki   http://traffic.libsyn.com/landscapesforlearning/JoanAmaralfinal008.mp3ContinueContinue reading “Podcast w/ Myozen Joan Amaral on Zen, Zazen, Practice and Social Life”

About LFL Podcast

In this first podcast, I introduce myself and my purpose for the Landscapes for Learning podcast. http://traffic.libsyn.com/landscapesforlearning/001_ABOUT_LFL_PODCAST.mp3 I was motivated to create the Landscapes for Learning project to counter students’ and parents’ and schools’ over-valuation of grades and competition for college acceptance as the key to “the good life.” As a long-time educator, I sawContinueContinue reading “About LFL Podcast”

Podcast: A Parent-Teacher Conference

Solo Podcast: A Parent-Teacher Conference “A Parent-Teacher Conference about Values” is a solo episode about my book-in-progress It’s Not About The Grades: Love for Learning Beyond Schooling which I hope to revise and publish in the coming months. I provide a brief, yet incomplete, overview of the book in progress and read an excerpt from aContinueContinue reading “Podcast: A Parent-Teacher Conference”

Like a Flower Petal Blooming

“My book is  a story of the process of self-actualization, me as the central real-life character to whom others might also relate. It’s about how yoga provided me this portal to enter to deeper consciousness of my own life, my self and therefore my purpose, my identity, my existence. It’s also about how this portalContinueContinue reading “Like a Flower Petal Blooming”

Podcast Episode 005: How to Be The Hero of Your Own Life Story

“You ARE the hero of your own journey, and [this course] is the most important course you will ever take. You should be at the center of your own curriculum and let the rest of your schooling experiences supplement this foundational study of yourself…This is a solo mission– a private, individual, one-on-one class where youContinueContinue reading “Podcast Episode 005: How to Be The Hero of Your Own Life Story”

Learning is Life

  “To see young people come alive is the reward of teaching” —Joseph Cambell According to Joseph Cambell, famed author of The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), Myths to Live by (1972), and The Hero’s Journey (1990),  the goal of maturity is to know oneself —to understand the inner landscape– to be the hero of one’sContinueContinue reading “Learning is Life”

Educating Human Beings or Human Doings?

What kind of learning do you value and why? I value the kind of learning that helps people live qualitatively well as authentic “human beings” not just as skilful and knowledgeable “human doings.” Unfortunately, our current American public schooling system continues to dedicate most of its attention, time, choices, actions, deeply-ingrained habits, and resources toContinueContinue reading “Educating Human Beings or Human Doings?”

Restoring Balance: Too Much Schooling & Not Enough Learning”

Part of the this Landscapes for Learning mission is to draw attention to teaching and learning in a broader sense than schooling and to begin a new conversation about the kinds of learning we currently value in our American public schools. What I think is based on my own personal experience as a student, asContinueContinue reading “Restoring Balance: Too Much Schooling & Not Enough Learning””

Teaching & Learning About the Places That Scare You

The following quotes are taken from The Places That Scare Us by Pema Chodron where she describes the exploration of the inner landscape that I believe is sorely needed as part of kids’ education more than ever before: “We’re encouraged to meditate every day, even for a short time, in order to cultivate this steadfastness withContinueContinue reading “Teaching & Learning About the Places That Scare You”

Podcast: The Call of the Wild with exotic animal handler, Niki Cesar Tracchia

“All good things are wild & free” -Henry David Thoreau Niki tells her story about traveling across the landscapes of nature– as avid hiker/outdoor enthusiast, wolf-advocate (yes, they need our help!), Bikram yogi, and exotic animal handler. After a not-so-great, though sadly typical, experience with public high “schooling,” Niki blossomed into an avid learner andContinueContinue reading “Podcast: The Call of the Wild with exotic animal handler, Niki Cesar Tracchia”

Who am I?

My previous “Calling a Spade a Spade” post is about telling the truth– something our world desperately needs at this exact moment in time. Each of us has to talk about the truth, within our seemingly small and insignificant spheres of life, however uncomfortable or however much it may threaten our reputations.  Our integrity andContinueContinue reading “Who am I?”

Calling a Spade a Spade

“To Err is human; to forgive, divine”—Alexander Pope Softening, or “pussification,” as the late, great comedian George Carlin defined it, is destroying the integrity of authentic learning. When people fuck with the integrity of the learning process, when they weaken it and make it soft, it corrupts individuals and society far more than we knowContinueContinue reading “Calling a Spade a Spade”

Podcast: Meet World Traveling Yoga Teacher, Changu Changezi

003: Podcast with Changu Changezi Changu Changezi is an ordinary guy with an inspiring story about learning and landscapes. He is a traveling Bikram yoga teacher who lives his life with integrity, authenticity, and an unshakeable sense of self. He has been traveling the world teaching Bikram yoga for the past four years, approaching learningContinueContinue reading “Podcast: Meet World Traveling Yoga Teacher, Changu Changezi”

Podcast: Grace Tempany, Multi-potentialite and teacher-extraordinaire

Grace and I discuss our desire to begin a conversation about teaching as moral and teaching with courage and integrity. We discuss the need for more authentic forms of teaching and learning in school, so that kids can embark on their individual journeys toward the self rather than just trying to find the right answerContinueContinue reading “Podcast: Grace Tempany, Multi-potentialite and teacher-extraordinaire”

Tough-Love Lessons of Bikram Yoga

“We students (and future teachers) needed to learn how to be “unknowing,” to embrace beginner’s mind, become skilled followers; we were being asked to suspend our authoritarian ways of thinking to become humble, open, and flexible enough to learn about yoga postures and anatomy and mostly ourselves. How can you understand others or help themContinueContinue reading “Tough-Love Lessons of Bikram Yoga”