Sunday, April 20, 2014
Friday, April 18, 2014
Wonder Shirts
Today is your last day to order an "I Read Wonder" shirt this round!
Get yours here: https://www.booster.com/ccakids4
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Book Review: Stephen
Today we have a book recommendation from blogger Stephen! Check it out and put it on your summer reading list!
A book I would highly recommend is Creativity: The Psychology of Discovery and Invention, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
What especially attracted my attention is the section on what the concept of "difference" is.
The author explains that if you substitute the word "not" for difference, then it helps define what difference is and how it applies to our lives.
Here's an example:
Four (4) people share the same LIKE for Pizza and one does NOT. The one who does NOT would be called "different" by the other 4. The 4 might inquire as to why this person does NOT like Pizza. BUT, by the answers given and the conversation between individuals, even the people who like Pizza might find out more about themselves which would deepen their own experience in enjoying Pizza (and understanding those who don't).
So if you list the NOTs, then it describes the difference:
Not the same age.
Not from the same school.
Not working.
Not exercising.
Not riding the bus.
Not from the same school.
Not working.
Not exercising.
Not riding the bus.
By overtly clarifying what is different, the focus can shift on to what is the same about the people in the group.
For more informative thought exercises, check out the book: Creativity: The Psychology of Discovery and Invention by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Monday, April 14, 2014
Media Monday: Adam Pearson
Today's Media Monday article features Adam Pearson, an actor with NF, in the new movie starting Scarlett Johansson, Under The Skin. Check out the full article here.
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| Photograph: Richard Saker for the Observer |
Two excerpts:
"One of the main reasons for taking the role was because it was so moving and honest," says Pearson over a lunch of fish and chips in a south London cafe. "For me, the film is about what the world looks like without knowledge and without prejudice. It's about seeing the world through alien eyes, I guess."
***
More importantly, Under the Skin gave Pearson an opportunity to challenge what he sees as the stigma surrounding representations of disfigurement on screen. "There's a lot of fear around the unknown. If I can try to be as normal as possible and show there's nothing to fear – either on film or day to day, going round the corner to go shopping for milk – then the more people see it in wider society, the less stigma there is. If I just sit at home and mope, hugging the dog and crying, nothing's going to change."
He points out that facial imperfections are often used as shorthand for evil in films, whether it be Blofeld's eye scar in James Bond or the villain in Disney's recent adaptation of The Lone Ranger, whose face was severely scarred and who was given what appeared to be a cleft palate in makeup. "It's always used very lazily," explains Pearson. "In an ideal world, actors with conditions would play the characters with these same conditions, but that's a way off. Instead, film-makers tend to get a generic, 'normal' actor and use prosthetics. If they'd got Adam Sandler and blacked him up to play Nelson Mandela, there would have been an uproar ... but with scars and stuff, it seems like people are cool with that."
Source: "How Scarlett Johansson helped me challenge disfigurement stigma" by Elizabeth Day
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
April is Poetry Month
April is National Poetry Month!
What's your favorite poem?
Celebrate poetry month by leaving your favorite poem in the comments!
I love this one by Shel Siverstein, because it reminds me to be myself at all times...
that's how we will meet the kind of people we want and need in our lives.
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