Category: Biography, Drama, History
By: Tonette Kellett on October 27, 2022
Thinking Fast and Slow by Kahneman is a book about two systems of thinking, an automated one and an “effortful” one. [1] This book is filled with so many ideas that a reader could discuss. For the purpose of this post, I have chosen four topics from the book to consider briefly. The first of…
By: Tonette Kellett on October 20, 2022
In Joseph Campbell’s book, Hero with a Thousand Faces, I am reminded that those things that I strive for in the area of fulfillment and satisfaction in life will nearly always lie outside of my comfort zone. Campbell cleverly uses mythology to walk the reader through three life stages common to all “heroes” – and…
By: Tonette Kellett on October 13, 2022
A Failure of Nerve challenged me in my thinking this week. I had to reconsider the way in which I thought about leadership roles. In considering the early explorers to the Americas, Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, and Giovanni Verrazano, Friedman reminds us that they did not have any of the advantages our astronaut explorers have…
By: Tonette Kellett on October 6, 2022
This week’s readings and video on threshold concepts were enlightening for me. As I read, it brought to my remembrance many instances of situations in my own learning where I have irreversibly crossed the threshold, never to unlearn or un-see a thing again. I thought particularly of learning to read and write using the Korean…
By: Tonette Kellett on September 14, 2022
I have to admit, I have had a difficult week. However, I managed to read Nelson Mandela’s book this week and finished Desmond Tutu’s reading tonight. I teach middle school math on the Choctaw Indian Reservation. I’ve been doing this for 21 years. For the first time, yesterday, a seventh grader took her own life.…
By: Tonette Kellett on September 4, 2022
This week’s assignments on culture mapping with Erin Meyer and the Power Point video with Karen Tremper made me think of situations I have experienced living cross-culturally. Meyer’s material was enlightening. Learning which countries were high context and low context, and the differences in communication between the two helped me better understand why some situations…
By: Sara Taylor Lattimore on September 3, 2022
I have a half written book, I titled “Fighting to Learn”. I started writing it in high school as I struggled to fit in the system and to learn the way I was expected to. As a student with an IEP (Individual Education Plan) I was given accommodations that were meant to help me be…
By: Tonette Kellett on September 1, 2022
I learned to enjoy reading at a very young age. I found it to be an escape from whatever was happening around me at home. My parents were poor, and at times, neglectful. Within the covers of a book I could be well off, or have doting parents. I could travel the world and experience…
By: Henry Gwani on September 10, 2021
Washington: The Making of the American Capital may be described as a narrative nonfiction about the political struggle of choosing and developing Washington DC as the capital of America. Unlike the bustling world-class city that it is today, Bordewich reveals how the US capital used to be an undesirable collection of farms and swamps that…
By: Kayli Hillebrand on September 1, 2021
Reading and writing have been emphasized in my life since a young age. I feel fortunate that both of my parents excel in these areas and were intentional with my development in them. My parents would reward me for reading a series of books with the corresponding doll and I remember playing typing games on…
By: Dylan Branson on April 12, 2021
https://prezi.com/p/w17ikpimplq-/?present=1
By: Dylan Branson on February 23, 2021
At Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s funeral service, Franz Hildebrandt recalled a conversation he had with Bonhoeffer: “Why should it always have to be the bad people who make the revolutions?”[1] The word “revolution” carries with it many connotations. For Americans, we may think of the American Revolution and the spirit of nationalism it evokes as cries of…
By: Dylan Branson on February 17, 2021
On April 8, 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was taken by two men to be led to his execution. He had been asked to perform a final service on Quasimodo Sunday – the Sunday following Easter. One of his fellow prisoners, Payne Best, describes the scene: “He had hardly finished his last prayer when the door opened…
By: Dylan Branson on February 8, 2021
In March 1933, Dietrich Bonhoeffer penned an essay he entitled: “The Church and the Jewish Question.” This was sparked by what was called the “Aryan Paragraph” – an order that only those of Aryan descent would be allowed to participate in civil service. Metaxas writes that Christians in Germany a unified Christianity that was “strong…
By: Dylan Branson on February 2, 2021
In 1933, Bonhoeffer was invited by Bishop Theodore Heckel to pastor the two German congregations in London. Metaxas writes that there were two reason Bonhoeffer wanted to go: To engage in the grounding experience of honest “parish work” and to push away from the church struggle in Germany to gain perspective on the bigger picture.[1] In…
By: Dylan Branson on January 25, 2021
In each of our journeys, there is a question that drives and guides the paths we take. While that may seem confining to some, the reality is that the question evolves and morphs as the journey continues. The question that drives us is not static, but it is dynamic. New information, new experiences, new insights,…
By: Dylan Branson on January 18, 2021
In May 2018, my roommate and I decided that for our weekly “Mansion Night”[1] we would break from our normal sharing and prayer and go to Shake Shack, which had just opened in Hong Kong. To say I was relieved would be an understatement. I was sick and tired of talking about Jesus and having…
By: Dylan Branson on November 16, 2020
The Towers stretch high into the sky as I pass through the city gates. Guardsmen who I recognize bow to me not out of recognition, but out of courtesy for a visitor to the City of Towers. I walk the streets that I once knew, everything exactly as I had left it and yet completely…
By: Dylan Branson on November 9, 2020
The boat gently bumps into the shore, waking me from my slumber. I sit up, the fog not as thick as it once was. A smile creeps on my face as I disembark onto the shore, seeing a rough path ahead of me. It isn’t easy going, but I find that it doesn’t bother me.…
By: Dylan Branson on November 2, 2020
Regret hits me as soon as I let go of the rope. The current of the river is too much as it drags me and pulls me every which way. I desperately scrounge around the bottom of the boat, looking for an oar or a paddle or something I can use to correct my poor…
