TEACHER AS HUMAN BEING
BADGE

WILD GEESE

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
​                                                       ~ Mary Oliver
This is perhaps the easiest and most difficult badge you have the option to earn in this class. It is designed to remind you that even while you are studying to be a teacher, you get to be a person, too. I offer this bonus badge in hopes that later, when you become a teacher (and/or whatever else you decide), you'll give yourself permission to just be. 

Sorry, but this badge doesn't replace another required badge. It can, however, help your final grade. Here's how: I do use the plus/minus system when I award final grades. So if you complete this badge, I'll bump your final grade up a notch, which is to say if you've earned a B, you'll get a B+, or if you earned an A-, you'll get an A, and so on.

Just to reiterate, this bonus badge is absolutely optional.

Level 1 Activities

  • In keeping with the overall spirit of this badge, documenting your evidence is crazy simple. You'll only need to set up a single folder to put in the appropriate spot in our class Badges folder. Then create a single Google Doc in that folder that in which you'll paste the URLs that will link me to your evidence via your blog or Twitter feed. 

  • Blog OR  tweet about each of the following experiences. Please provide photographic evidence that you've completed the activity. One picture and a one-line caption posted to your blog or Twitter account will suffice. (To clarify, you don't necessarily have to be in the picture, but you can be.)

  • Take a walk by yourself with no predetermined destination.

  • Drink a full glass of water. Think about how water is seriously the best. 

  • Take a selfie with someone you love.
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  • Play a game (board game, card game, hide and seek, I Spy, other) OR  blow a bubble OR  chalk a message on the sidewalk. (I have sidewalk chalk if you need some.)
 
  • Read this poem, then write down 3 gratitudes. Do with them as you will.
 
  • Check in with Cindy at least once to report something you did on Level 1 that gave you a sense of well-being. (NOTE: This doesn't have to be a separate meeting. Any passing conversation will suffice, before/during/after class.)











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Level 2 Activities

  • Blog OR  tweet about each of the following experiences, using no more than 1 picture + a one-line caption. Update your Teacher as Human Being checklist accordingly. 

  • Stop. Just stop. Look at the sky. <<but not the sun because: ouch, permanent retinal damage>>
 
  • Eat a piece of fruit. (DId you hear that? Your body just said "thank you.")
 
  • Interact with a live (non-human) animal. Just watching one counts. <<< BE SAFE >>>
 
  • Do a cartwheel OR  swing on a swing set at the park OR  fling your arms wide and spin in circles OR  perform some other physical feat that will make you feel foolish and wonderful.
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  • Really read this poem right now immediately. Don't just skim it, or you'll miss the point.
 
  • Check in with Cindy at least once to report something you did on Level 2 that gave you a sense of well-being. (NOTE: This doesn't have to be a separate meeting. Any passing conversation will suffice, before/during/after class.)
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Level 3 Activities

  • Blog OR  tweet about each of the following experiences, using no more than 1 picture + a one-line caption. Update your Teacher as Human Being checklist accordingly. 
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  • Take 10 deep breaths, even and especially if you feel like you have no frickin time to do it right now. (Can you feel that? Life seems to be the tiniest bit more manageable.)
 
  • Build a tiny snow person OR  a tiny rock sculpture OR  a tiny stick figure (out of sticks).
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  • Read a page of something that you love that has nothing to do with earning your degree.
 
  • Add one thing to this list that will make you feel like a whole and happy human being and do that thing.
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  • Check in with Cindy to report the activity you completed while earning this entire badge that made you feel most like a whole and happy human being. This will constitute your "metacognitive reflection." (NOTE: This doesn't have to be a separate meeting. Any passing conversation will suffice, before/during/after class.)
 
  • Submit proof that you have completed all Level 1, 2, and 3 activities for your Human Being badge by Thurs., 5/9, at 11:59pm.  To submit your materials, copy the link from your Human Being Badge folder and include only this one link in the evidence section of Cred.ly. Ask Cindy or your classmates if you have any issues. Badges submitted incorrectly will be declined without review.  DON'T FORGET: Tues., 5/9, is a hard deadline for this badge!   THE CLAIM CODE FOR THIS BADGE IS: 7E7-B2C6-935
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