Teaching Defined

Teaching is very metacognitive.

With an understanding of what the student is thinking,
one may begin guidance to that which the student
may think,
could think,
should think,
and so on.

Teachers are expected to do this service for the society. The entire community relies on teachers to use metacognition. I feel the outrage a community expresses when this fails, so where is the joy when this succeeds on a daily basis.

What Was I Thinking? "Monday I Wandered"

Because we are alone

I can relate to old things.

Unwanted like China

in a shop window.

I can relate to old things

gathering dust

in a shop window.

We are warmed by the late sun.

Gathering dust,

the old man fails to avoid my eye.

We are warmed by the late sun

though we don't smile.

The old man fails to avoid my eye.

Unwanted like China

though, we don't smile

because we are alone.

This is a "pantoum". The rule is a pattern of line repetitions. Let each line be 1,2,3,4 in the first stanza. The second stanza will begin with line 2 and then a new line (5) is followed by line 4, then another new line (6). Next stanza will begin with line five. The end of the poem uses the first and third line of the poem but it flips, so use the first line last. Send them to me if you like.

Well, There's Always Cheese

Grandpa thought

Poetry Defined

Okay, so, "poetry". I know. I did not get it either. Still don't say I do.

But I write in that mode sometimes.

In a college class, I finally came to understand what goes on in a poem. It is a puzzle between the poet and the reader. The question is, "Can you find out what feeling I am thinking about?" That is a very metacognitive thing to do. The poet gets a feeling, or image or something and then hides it using the rules of poetry.
Those rules include things like rhymes, rhythms or repetitions. You can use these or any others or none at all. The best ones hide grand things without obscuring them. I am no judge of poetry but the competition seems fierce. Surely it is a simple definition but it suffices for this.
The poetry here does not pretend to be anything but a puzzle between you and me.

What Was I Thinking? "Loop"

there you are in your best jeans.

The ones you did not fit in this time last year.

The ones you bought on faith. Faith I didn't know you had.

Or at least I thought you were completely faithless. Just because of the truth you told me about losing faith - then the truth you didn't trust me with.

Truth I was out looking for when I saw your car.

Not parked at Wal-Mart. Not getting cleaning supplies - because that's what you said - have to clean the house since no one else does. Cleaned it so much you used up the cleansers.

But when I came home I did notice the dust and looking for the duster I

found bottles and bottles of cleansers which made me wonder what all was missing since there sure as Hell was a lot here.

So much I was having trouble finding the damned duster.

So much that it was going to be tough putting anything new away.

And you didn't answer your phone.

So I just left to save you from your folly

but you weren't at Wal-Mart.

You were close and that guy quickly walked away and

you came toward me bravely waving. You're not in your sweats,

there. You are in your best jeans.

The ones you did not fit in this time last year.

Meme Defined

Stanislaw Lem and Douglas R. Hofstadter write about ideas. What happens to them? They are hidden away on pages bound in books and shelved.

But they live.

They enter you through your eyes and join the shimmerimg myriad of ideas careening around your mind. And sometimes one will really connect with some others. It gels. You get it. Other things make sense now. Something clicks and bells go off and you get a flash of insight that modifies the way you look at the world. Or some aspect of your job becomes easier. Or you sort the silverware piece by piece as it goes in the dishwasher so it is faster to put it all in the drawer.

That is a meme.

They are big or small but always useful. The usefulness makes them memes. It helps them grow. Someone sees you sorting the silverware and they go home with the meme too.
Memes can multiply as well as grow. The silverware sorting may create connections in someone else's mind about an efficient way to do something else. Some chore they connect but one you don't do, like milking a cow.

By the way, that song you can't get out of your head is not a meme. It is just annoying when you burst out with "Birds fall from the windowsill above mine..." three times a minute.

Metacognition Defined

Heard a great idea today. It is on its way to becoming a meme in my mind:

In reference to the science of artificial intelligence, it was about how adherents believe it will be here in five to ten years
and it will be defined by its own existence
and will change the world at that point
and possibly subjugate humanity.

The meme part is how similar that list is for religion. You could interchange the two nouns. The list changes dramatically and remains the same.

To me the definition
of metacognition
lies in that contradiction.

Your thoughts.

Put your thoughts here and we will tell you what we think.