Live and Learn New Mexico!

I haven't blogged in a while, mainly because after entering the XQ Super School challenge, I was tired. I needed a break. But I also had little to say, and I haven't been feeling passionate about too much. I decided to ride out the bloggy feeling... Then the new season of The Voice started. I love the show, as many do. More than I do the contestants, I have found myself watching how the coaches have learned and grown as coaches over the years. I only recently realized that what is happening on this show is a good example of what I would like to see happening in our kids' learning. Is it that important to win? The Voice is a competition, of course, with many levels. First, there is the level of the singers who compete in teams then as individuals to ultimately win. Then there is the level of the coaches. If a team member wins, their coach wins as well. Like teachers in our public school system, they are judged on how well they coach their teams to success. If you wat...

I've known all my life how much music can heal. Whenever I need to, I cocoon myself in my car, crank up the Imagine Dragons, the Killers, Beck, or Sara Bareilles and just drive. When I emerge later, I feel better. Music is emotion. Music is expression. Music is memory, as I found out when I watched Alive Inside , a documentary about how music can unlock memories and emotions in Alzheimer's patients. I cried through the whole thing. But it was amazing to see how music could bring life back to those who had none. Amazing! In the movie, patients in nursing homes listen to music of their generation with headphones, and it unlocks memories they couldn't access otherwise. Makes total sense to me. Remember the show Dateline? They had a Dateline Timeline, where they would have a trivia question -- what year did these things happen? They would then give you a few clues, one usually a song. I could always guess the year by the music clue -- for example, I knew what was happening ...