Seeing the earth from different angles

There is more than one way of looking at the earth. There is more than one way to look at a classroom. There is more than one way to deliver a quality foreign language program in a school.

A number of years ago, I flew to Paraguay, and as the plane went lower I was able to observe the earth simbolized as Paraguay. What I noticed was the brilliance of the color red on the earth. The land was red out in the country, and in yards within the capital city of Asuncion. The red earth made a mark in my memory, and I acquired that characteristic of the Paraguayan land from on high.

The plane landed, I took a ride through the city of Asuncion to the residence where I would be staying. I observed not the red earth that I saw from the sky, but instead, a piece of Paraguayan land filled with green everywhere. There were so many trees, bushes, and shades of green. I felt so happy to be in this new land, and to see the beautiful display of colors and nature all around me. No red land from this perspective.

When entering the neighborhood and then the yard of the home I would be residing in, I could not help but notice the abundance of orange, grapefruit and banana trees everywhere. Now, I was not looking at just green trees, but specific kinds of green trees. I had an even different perspective. Still no red earth at this level of vision.

During the first several weeks in Paraguay, I visited the Paraguay River, and some big lakes. I saw some of the rural landscape around Asuncion, but did not see the red earth, that I saw from the sky. I saw rolling hills, covered in green vegetation, a big lake and white houses around it. I saw so many flowers of all kinds of shapes, sizes and colores. I never saw so many flowers so richly endowed in their plant kingdom. I saw women walking down streets with baskets of bread balancing on their heads. Still another perspective of the land.

As we teachers go into a classroom of students, ready to begin the tasks of acquiring knowledge and skills, we are able to experience the class, its talents, strengths, landscapes, from different perspectives. There is not such thing as a class filled with students. Rather, it is a class filled with learning styles, different motivations, strengths, weaknesses, and different skill sets. We are teaching to ideas, and talents, and bringing forth strengths and challenges in those ideas and talents. We are delivering reinforcements in old perspectives, and delivering content in new perspectives. Students are adaptable, but withing a balance of old and new abilities, and strategies. It is an art, and a science to see what works with what student. What perspective to take and how to see it from one angle or another.

In a foreign language classroom, there are so many opportunities to present to students using many different language acquisition strategies, or simple learning techniques. It make a foreign language classroom an adventurous place to be both for teacher, and for student.

Soil, Soil, Soil

Here in northwest Florida, we have long hot summers, and high humidity throughout much of the year. This creates optimum conditions for insect and bacteria growth, even those insect pests that irritate our gardening efforts. Therefore, we organic gardeners have to give extra care to our garden soil. Soil, soil, soil. The soil will make or break a garden. A healthy soil will produce healthy plants that will resist insect pests to a point. Other factors will also help the plants resist insect pests as well.

To care for the garden, a healthy layer of compost needs to be fed and mixed in with the earth, and other layers need to be put on the garden periodically. Some of the compost needs to be mixed in and some need to simply cover the earth like a sheet. On top of that a layer of mulch will protect and keep the compost in place and keep the water in place. Without mulch, heavy rain can wash out the compost sheet, and not provide a firm barrier from our hot sun rays tagging the land.

The compost has to have part carbon elements, such as grass, weeds, pine needles, leave, and nitrogen elements, such as kitchen vegetable and fruit scraps. The compost content is very important. I am still in the process of developing healthy content for the compost bin. I have much to learn. I know from others that a good mix of horse manure and hay is a good form of soil compost. Mushroom compost
and fish compost are great too.

Much of what we can do with our gardens is restricted b y the heavy burden of home owners associations with all their dos and don’ts.

I am learning all the time how to have a good organic garden. Your suggestions are encouraged. I also subscribe to Google Alerts on “organic gardening,” ” gardening,” “compost.”

Keep Your Coffee Grinds

I did it, I called Starbucks and asked if they can save their coffee grinds as I would like to pick them up for my garden. The person at Starbucks stated that there are 6 other people who regularly go there with buckets to gather up the old coffee grinds. Wow, I was impressed. I have varified with a couple gardeners that used coffee grinds is great for the soil. You take the grinds and mix it in the soil around your vegetables and this really nourishes the earth. I have a number of vegetables and have started doing this as of the beginning of the last summer. Maybe that is why my tomatoes came in good this year.

Kenneth Fach in Tallahassee