This is the very 1st Blog of the New Lunar Year 2022 by TAT Productions Angela Terga after a hiatus of life and death.
But it's a New Year and it deserves a New Blog. HERE YE! Here NOW introducing the creative process of writing and publishing a memoir through blog posts by sharing the exploits of a rebel teacher on the move. The year of the Tiger calls for courage.
LEARN HOW TO GET GOOD LUCK IN 2022 - YEAR OF THE TIGER PREDICTIONS
This is a blog about teaching and learning throughout 32 years in educational establishments at several US settings, in Venezuelan cities, and Cuba, from 1970 to 2018, topped with recommendations for the future of mankind.
Theories and methodologies implemented and developed by a Bilingual Language Arts Teacher Translator/Interpreter, Filmmaker, Author, and Marketer, offering a wide range of experiential learning opportunities for Peace building through inclusion and diversity.
Each blog post of "Memoirs of a Mad Teacher" includes
1. A Story Plot
2. A Lesson
3. A Holistic Evaluation
Memoirs of a "Mad" Teacher aims to create awareness and bring hot topics of discussion to an open forum. "Never keep your words to yourself, tell, let it be known, and you will have laid a grain of sand to social awareness" is TAT Productions motto for this Blog.
Memoirs of a Mad Teacher differs from a blog in that its contents will be published in book format once there are 100 posts published and keeps a narrative going in a non linear sequence of events throughout the journey of self discovery of the Memoir entity.
Although TAT Productions continues to offer Writing, Publishing, and Production services, this year, the focus will be in pitching . You can be the next best seller on the block, if you just take the first step.
However, being an affiliate of Amazon has allowed me reach a greater audience and create more awareness in the work that TAT Productions embraces in multicultural media arts.
SURPRISE! SURPRISE!
CONTINUATION OF THE FILM – Spiderwoman/Hybrid
DIGITAL BOOKSTORE/ASSOCIATE BUSINESS – Newage Stories
COMPETITIONS – 1. I AM SOJOURNER TRUTH 2. ISABEL III 3. UTOPIA "Spiderwoman" Taharai, the Hybrid 4. Max and the Rock
The first competition will be Screencraft's.
TAT Productions has in store a great many surprises this year.
For starters as an Amazon Associate, WHICH I hereby acknowledge publicly, I will be sharing with you the best book reviews that meet TAT’s NEW AGE STORIES standards.
Goliath Amazon's share of the publishing market sales the most books worldwide but independent bookstores like NewAgeStories are on the rise getting a piece of the pie.
Since writing and reading go together so well, Not only can independent authors place and market their books internationally in view, but can also recommend their favorite picks on certain subjects.
This new website will talk about books in a real deep way. www.angelaterga.com and www.angelaterga.com.
Because it matters what you feed your intellect... What we consume goes into our subconscious and as you process it and understand, it manifests and becomes part of our reality.
This year, TAT Productions is …….
Coming out with the Blog/Memoir fusion, “Memoirs of a Mad Teacher” with the intention of shining a light for TRUTH (I AM SOJOURNER TRUTH) into the world of teaching, teachers, students, education practices and theories that mold society’s evolution.
For the past five years, TAT Productions has been:
learning-earned a media management master's degree at Arkansas State with emphasis on social media,
built two websites,
sold 100+ articles, became an amazon affiliate, and published two books for clients ;
took care of family matters, my 90 year old father who just passed on to the land of bliss
and the renovation of an old house into a new home alone.
Meanwhile, transforming into a senior body with double hip replacement surgeries and all.
A forcefully Retired Teacher, the Teacher pension for 20 years of service in FLDOE, (private years not counted) was the best choice to make while waiting for the disability hearing (could barely walk).
As good as new with two prosthetic hips, this new lunar year of 2022 promises to bear new fruit, if I'm bold, stick with it, and at the same time relax and enjoy the ride.
Once the blog posts reach 100, they will be published in book formats. “Memoirs of a Mad Teacher” chronicles 30 years of education experience throughout two countries in rural as much as in urban settings during the decades of the 80's, 90's, and up to 2018.
Ms. Terga, a graduate of Florida Atlantic University’s 1994 Class of Education majors (now in dwindling enrollment) will always be a Language Arts Teacher because "even the smallest crayon leaves a mark" (Amy Bowllan) which means to me that everyone's voice counts and in Language there is creation and creativity, passion, culture, and change. This last is necessary to evolve, diversify and self realize, the ultimate goal of education.
Language Arts classrooms require all modality of learning and teaching and must be a safe place to speak out and move around while creating something visual and audible that can be acted upon, kinesthetically, individually and/or in a group. Sharing the present products to the class and receiving feedback creates the awareness of learning.
Although not a newbie teach, MS. Terga had taught English and Spanish as Second Languages to children and adults while enrolled at Berlitz School of Interpreters in Caracas. For a decade, teaching and learning went hand in hand, as they always do. But the joy of teaching could never be greater than a the first English language class of pre-K group of kids. The love they give will follow you this far and wide.
It was natural to become a translator. Translation and Interpretation skills can be learned very early in life by children of immigrants whose second language passes on to be not their vernacular, but the mainstream language of the new location. Once they are assimilated into the new culture linguistic patterns, it takes the place of the thwarted vernacular.
However, interpreting and translating are not easy and one must train by doing. The technical jargon used by each discipline varies and therefore encourages specialization.
Back in the States after a decade, at the Miami Herald during the mid 80s, translating international news was a lot of fun, but being a mother became the first choice.
Learning would continue after relocating to the once sandy beaches of lake Okeechobee's sugar country with a family of three. Placed in an elementary classroom after FAU's program, in Ms. Terga’s class, there would be many exceptions and allowances made on an individual and group level to accommodate for circumstantial and developmental differences such as reading level and other psychological and emotional needs that arise—no class should try to ever become homogeneous. And every child deserves a teacher.
One could hear the voices going on at any given time in Ms. Terga’s Language Arts class. They're needed to be group activities and informal evaluations on an ongoing basis with small to medium size groups. There needed to be presentations.
These activities were followed by periods of silent reading and writing, which were most successful if the noisy time together had inspired and fueled the creative critical thinking process.
Educational research has encouraged the transformation of the classroom into a place where students can explore their ideas and learn to think for themselves without fear. After all is done, we learn from each other, and we internalize the learning according to our emotional state of mind and how much we interacted with the ideas.
Specialty schools, called magnets, such as the one Ms. Terga belonged to for 7 years in Miami, usually do a better job of preparing students for the real world. In cooperative settings where they are part of following the way to the best solution for all, not just the most popular, students thrive the most.
The leader-follower mentality can be redirected by developing cooperative behaviors in the spirit of unity and humility. Hurray for classrooms where the human mind feels it is safe to express its ideas, inquire about and voice its opinion.
However, the teacher evaluation instrument used to determine the effectiveness of a teacher, along with myriad other requisites, still requires teachers to be “teaching” (lecturing to students) and all interruptions and movements are checked and noted against the “performance” of the teacher.
That’s one of the first discrepancies of being a teacher that would make anyone mad— to be evaluated on different terms than you are expected to perform at.
More than ever, the teacher has become a Facilitator, someone who doesn’t lecture much but presents quests and guides the learning. But when the time for teacher evaluations come around, they must hold their students’ attention for almost 20 minutes WITHOUT interruptions.
One, students don’t learn from lectures. As the old Chinese proverb goes
“Tell me, I’ll forget. Show me, I remember. Involve me, I understand.”
For the vast majority, schools can only reach the show most of the time and on occasion, the synthesis. Involving requires higher levels of creativity. It requires a product.
Ms. Terga was lucky that she got to teach at a school of creativity, which enhanced not only the student’s but her creativity, too.
To quote Chinese4Kids, 16 Chinese Proverbs On Teaching and Learning, “Phil Collins once said, “in learning you will teach, and in teaching, you will learn.”
Ms. Terga calls our US educational foundation Social Darwinism in action. The classic structure of an authoritarian figure as the teacher who sets the rules of the game of learning that every kid in every school must follow, supervised by a head or two above just doesn’t work anymore.
We see this inflexible body replicated in our social economic systems from banks to churches, from corporations to classrooms. Those at the top all have a higher salary than the majority who do all work and allow only those close friends and family into the loot. The higher you get, the less work you do, and the more you are compensated while keeping the rest away. Holding on to that power we see schoolboards and local governments across the nation whether in urban or rural settings.
Deserving people are denied entrance into the positions of power where they can affect the most change and progress. EVERY society Ms. Terga has experienced, from Cuba to Venezuela, to America suffers from the same lack of principles.
The higher we get, the less traffic there is going up the ladder of socio-economic status and the tougher it is to get through the gate keepers. Then there are the few whose quantum jumps surprise us all in the vast majority who stay in the same spot, generation after generation, growing roots. Perhaps those will yield the greatest fruit from which lots will feed.
ONCE GROUPTHIKING SETTLES IN,
WE ARE READY TO ACCEPT INJUSTICE AS THE NORM
As we observe Poverty in America Month this January 2022, we must reflect on the causes and find a solution together.
In the land of Opportunitym we must ask: What is Opportunity, and how do you create it?
Some folks live in hopeless assertion that there will be no transfer of wealth in their direction. Like Eeyore, the world has shown them this stark truth, and they go about their lives with their eyes cast down upon their dreams, daring not to look at their own selves in the mirror.
Old fashion lecturing still goes on today and even new age teachers will resort to it when they must. It is a safe ground. There are cut offs and limitations. You raise your hand and …what? Yes, W. A. I. T. for the who? Yes, the teacher, to call on YOU, NOT him or her, but YOU. Capiche?
During the first 7 years of teaching in the US, Ms. Terga taught at a rural school where an aid once said to kids: “You don’t come here to socialize.” The words have stuck because schools are social institutions and that’s where we must learn to socialize. It behooves us all, young and old to grow health social beings.
As with the beginning of a new year in the classroom, this blog will begin with the calendar year ahead and bring to the awareness of the public the days and events that make us aware of the needs and observations of our historic truths versus myths.
Here is the Federal Holidays observance schedule for the 2022 Year.
2022
*If a holiday falls on a Saturday, for most Federal employees, the preceding Friday will be treated as a holiday for pay and leave purposes. (See 5 U.S.C. 6103(b).) If a holiday falls on a Sunday, for most Federal employees, the following Monday will be treated as a holiday for pay and leave purposes. (See Section 3(a) of Executive Order 11582, February 11, 1971.) See also our Federal Holidays – "In Lieu Of" Determination Fact Sheet at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/work-schedules/fact-sheets/Federal-Holidays-In-Lieu-Of-Determination
Most of the schools where Ms. Terga taught were Title I, meaning a high percentage of the students were eligible for free or reduced lunch. (BTW Teachers should receive a free lunch at every school, along with lower interest rates and tax liability. No teacher or family should have to pay tolls to get to school. Those and many other privileges handed out to politicians are owed to teachers). But that’s food for another blog.
While there is no official multicultural calendar of observance days and months published by the Federal agencies that Ms. Terga was able to find and share with you, the National PTA Organization does publish its own.
Here’s the official PTA.org multicultural calendar for future Month Awareness reference.
And another CALENDAR from Oregon.
BUT MS. TERGA’S FAVORITE CALENDAR IS THIS ONE:
As much diversity as there in the State of Florida, particularly in south Florida, would call for the observance of several calendars created by universities and public agencies.
Not being able to find a multicultural calendar BY ANY FLA GOVERNMENT AGENCY at the state or city level confirms the lack of multicultural awareness in our daily lives. Multiculturalism is not a flowery word we throw out there when we eat empanadas or listen to Asian music. It's an awareness. But there is no Multicultural Awareness Day of Month known. There is however, a Global Diversity Awareness Month but we shouldn't wait til October to start being aware of how we feel and what we think about diversity.
The National Poverty Awareness Month is here and it is time to examine how we look at Poverty in America.
Take a look at USA Facts on Poverty
A lot of folks think that poverty is a choice, a mind frame, and a mentality. They say that if we think ourselves poor, we will attract poverty in a never-ending cycle generation after generation. Traditionally poor families grow very slowly in wealth if at all.
While there is truth in that and I would like to dive into that theory, poverty, never-the-less is a fact that can be proven numerically by averaging and graphing the results in a Bell curve.
In fact, poverty is a matter of how much difference there is between top and bottom, and we see a lot of that in this country, around every other corner, in every major city as well as small town.
Poverty should not hap
pen in America! This is a popular opinion, and much support goes to bring relief.
The question is not if there is poverty in America, we only need to look around to notice how huge the disparities are, we see the differences everywhere, but nowhere more markedly than among people of color, immigrants, migrants, and refuges both in urban and rural settings.
The question (or at least one of the most important ones) is, how to close the gap between the have and the have nots and why we should.
Another most relevant is Why should we worry about closing the gap between the rich and the poor?
How do you end the growing disparity and close the gap between the top and bottom wealth owners of the world? A balanced society would be one in which there is half as much of one as of the other. But we know that we are living in a skewed time-period in which 90 vs 10 percent is the gap between rich and poor as far as wealth distribution is concerned.
To others the world is perfect as it is, and no one will be able to change it in its course of never- ending war and disparity.
Try this National Poverty Level calculator per family size at different percentages. For example, you may be at 133% of the poverty level in your state and still qualify for aid programs.
BATTLE CREEK, Mich., Jan. 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation will host the sixth annual National Day of Racial Healing, a virtual celebration of truth-telling, community and racial healing and a timely call to action for positive, sustainable change, featuring performances and conversations with community leaders, advocates and artists standing in solidarity for racial equity.
"Today we hold important and much-needed conversations to lay the groundwork for racial healing, but we can't stop there," said La June Montgomery Tabron, president and CEO of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. "The increased awareness of racial inequities that permeate our systems and structures have been compounded by the pandemic and require our urgent action to transform our communities for children and future generations."
Premiering at 3 p.m. EST / 12 p.m. PST, the National Day of Racial Healing serves as a stage for building multi-racial solidarity in order to combat the effects of hate and build greater appreciation for our shared humanity. In-depth discussions and panels will explore how racial healing is a necessary element of achieving racial equity and will examine how we can build a better future by pursuing real solutions and prioritizing positive action to catalyze the process of healing.
The 75-minute virt
ual event will be hosted by Soledad O'Brien, broadcast journalist & founder of Soledad O'Brien Productions. The program will feature panels and conversations with actress Julissa Calderon, author & activist Heather McGhee, Detroit's Director of Arts and Culture Rochelle Riley, and more. W.K. Kellogg Foundation President and CEO La June Montgomery Tabronwill talk with Standing Rock Sioux Nation Indigenous scholar Connie Brownotter to kick off the event, which will also include performances by Grammy Award-winning artist John Legend, poet Reyes, Supaman, and the Ndlovu Youth Choir. Closed captions will be available in English, Haitian Creole and Spanish.
Here’s the official PTA.org multicultural calendar for future Month Awareness reference.
And another one from Oregon.
Not being able to find a multicultural calendar in Florida or Miami is rather unsettling. Such diversity as there in the State of Florida, particularly in south Florida, would make you think ther would be several created by universities and cities. However, nothing official is published.
The National Poverty Awareness Month
A lot of folks think that poverty is a choice, a mind frame, and a mentality. They say that if we think ourselves poor, we will attract poverty in a never-ending cycle generation after generation. Traditionally poor families grow very slowly in wealth if at all.
While there is truth in that and I would like to dive into that theory, poverty, never-the-less is a fact that can be proven numerically by averaging and graphing the results in a Bell curve.
In fact, poverty is a matter of how much difference there is between top and bottom, and we see a lot of that in this country, around every other corner, in every major city as well as small town.
Poverty should not happen in America! This is a popular opinion, and much support goes to bring relief. But many think it is inevitable no matter how just a world is. True, but let's make a more just world anyway.
The question is not if there is poverty in America, we all know the disparities, we see the differences everywhere but nowhere more markedly than among people of color, immigrants, migrants, and refuges both in urban and rural settings.
The question (or at least one of the most important ones) is, how to close the gap between the have and the have nots.
Another most relevant is Why should we worry about closing the gap between the rich and the poor?
How do you end the growing disparity and close the gap between the top and bottom wealth owners of the world? A balanced society would be one in which there is half as much of one as of the other. But we know that we are living in a skewed time-period in which 90 vs 10 percent is the gap between rich and poor as far as wealth distribution is concerned.
To others the world is perfect as it is, and no one will be able to change it in its course of never- ending war and disparity.
Try this National Poverty Level calculator per family size at different percentages. For example, you may be at 133% of the poverty level in your state and still qualify for aid programs.
While we ruminate on this global phenomenon which is POVERTY and how to build a more JUST and EQUAL world, let us feel the interdependence of all things on Earth.
We are the Power of One. To learn how to become more just and equal world we must begin to understand how we learn. Get involved!
