The summer of ______ (fill in the blank)

What will you have called this summer? Scott Stratton in this TEDx Talk called this his 'summer of Owen'.




Before the summer is over. Before you forget the heat. Before it gets to September.

Will you take time to stop?

Matt Cutts - Try something new for 30 days

Is there something you've always meant to do, wanted to do, but just ... haven't? Matt Cutts suggests: Try it for 30 days. This short, lighthearted talk offers a neat way to think about setting and achieving goals. In less than 4 minutes, you can get started on your next 30 days!





Note : email subscribers will need to click through to Franklin Matters to view the video

Picking up on the idea of play, Maya Beiser really plays her cello!



what are you going to play today?


Note: email subscribers will need to click through to Franklin Matters to view the video

Designed by nature to play

In this TEDxBG Talk, Steve Keil advocates for play. The more you play, the bigger the brain.

So after watching this, you have permission to go out an play!




Can you imagine a world without play?

For more about play, you can visit Steve Keil's Play Manifesto Blog

The weird, wonderful world of bioluminescence

I love the line "Please remember to turn the lights off".



More TED Talks can be found at TED.com

Franklin, MA

Terry Moore: How to tie your shoes

How about a quick refresher on how to tie your shoes?





Franklin, MA

Kathryn Schulz: On being wrong

Kathryn Schultz says:

"I call this error blindness. Most of the time, we don't have any kind of internal cue to let us know that we're wrong about something, until it's too late."

"This internal sense of rightness that we all experience so often is not a reliable guide to what is actually going on in the external world. And when we act like it is, and we stop entertaining the possibility that we could be wrong, well that's when we end up doing things like dumping 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, or torpedoing the global economy. So this is a huge practical problem. But it's also a huge social problem."



Will you think about being wrong today?



Franklin, MA

Dave Meslin: The antidote to apathy

Dave Meslin talks about the antidote to apathy and outlines the seven barriers:

1. Intentional exclusion
2. public space
3. the media
4. heroes
5. political parties
6. charitable status
7. our elections

You have been anointed. You have been chosen. Do something about your community today!



Franklin, MA

Mick Ebeling: The invention that unlocked a locked-in artist

After making electrical circuit connections with play dough, what do you do? Try solving an impossible problem.

Mick asks himself these questions everyday:

if not now, then when?
if not me, then who?

if not now, then when?
if not me, then who?

More on the Eye writer can be found here


Franklin, MA

Hey Mom, let's make some squishy circuits!

Looking for something to do and entertain the kids? Got play dough?
Stop at Radio Shack for some electrical parts and make some squishy circuits!

What? Watch, it is only a six minute video to get the idea.




For recipes and activities, visit the web site referenced as Anne Marie Thomas finishes her demo: Squishy Circuits

Note: email subscribers will need to click through to Franklin Matters to view the video.


Franklin, MA

Eric Whitacre - Virtual Choir with 2,000 voices

Music is such an attraction point. Folks can disagree on other things but agree on good music. Or in this case, come together from all points around the world to participate in a virtual choir.





What a wonderful story and song! I can hardly wait to see the full release later this month.
Thank you Eric for accepting the challenge to join the choir and then for enjoying your journey in life with music!



Franklin, MA

Patricia Ryan: Don't insist on English!

Patricia Ryan has been teaching English in the Middle East for 30 years. She has seen great changes during that time and shares some insights on the dominance of the English language.

What has this got to do with Franklin?
Due to the school budget cuts, the foreign language program offered by Franklin's schools is reduced. When my daughters went to middle school, they spent time with Spanish, Latin and French in 6th grade before choosing one of the three to continue with in 7th and 8th. That choice and program is not available to Franklin's students today.

The School Committee and Administration faced with a reduced budget are forced to make choices amongst ever tougher options.

Patricia's talk presents arguments for maintaining other languages. The cultural value of other languages is hard to calculate but should be considered.





What do you think?
Leave a comment, send an email or join the conversation on Facebook!


Related posts on the foreign language program in Franklin

1 - From the budget workshop Jan 29, 2011
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2011/01/live-reporting-school-budget-workshop_29.html

2 - Foreign language update to School Committee Sep 2010
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/09/live-reporting-foreign-language-update.html

3 - Discussion in Jun 2010 on the middle school Latin decision
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/06/live-reporting-foreign-language-latin.html


Franklin, MA

What can you do with impossible?

"What three things do you know to be true?"

"everyone has stories we can learn from"

Step 1 - "I can"
Step 2 - "I will"
Step 3 - "infuse the stories with the specific things that make you you"

"great stories start at intersections"

"What can you do with impossible?"

Spend 18 minutes with spoken word poet Sarah Kay:




If and when you find your voice, spend a few minutes to write a paragraph or two and email your result to share with the others here as part of "Voices of Franklin"


Sarah Kay will be coming to Salem in May.

May 13-14, 2011Phil and Sarah headline the Massachusets Poetry Festival in Salem, MAPhil and Sarah will be performing and teaching workshops at this incredible two-day celebration of poetry. Click here to register and for more info!

Franklin, MA

"First time I smiled doing a derivative."

Salman Khan talks about how he went from a hedge fund analyst to Khan Academy. The use of videos in the classroom and the digital dashboard feedback provided for the teachers fosters better quality teacher interaction time with each student.




Thanks to TED Talks for sharing this video


Franklin, MA

How do you do the impossible?

French artist JR creates a bridge with his art. Photos of peoples faces, side by side, face to face - how can you tell who is who?

Art asks questions that sometimes can not be asked with words.



Behind each image is a story.

The Inside out project website can be found here
http://www.insideoutproject.net/



Franklin, MA

Bill Gates on State budgets and Education

TED Talks are the visual presentations of an idea from significant thinkers that gather at TED each year. TED has also spawned a number of conferences under the TED umbrella; TEDx, TEDWomen, etc.

Bill Gates spoke at this year's TED conference about the impact of government deficits on education. He focused on California but the comments are applicable for other states.

If the youth are our future, how do we prepare them to take care of this whole place?




The collection of information for the Fiscal Year 2012 budget can be found here:
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2011/01/fiscal-year-2012-budget-information.html


Franklin, MA

Finding compassion

On the train of thought around the words we use and how we use them, this talk by Krista Trippett makes some compelling points about compassion.

Krista talks at point about this remarkable observation from Matthew Sanford:

"He says that he has yet to experience someone who became more aware of their body in all its frailty and all its grace without at the same time becoming more compassionate towards all of life."

Later in the talk she shares some insights from Albert Einstein including:

"... He foresaw that as we grow more modern and technologically advanced, we need the virtues our traditions carried forward in time more, not less."

Franklin's charter was updated recently to bring some of the language to a more appropriate usage for today. I do believe we need to remember the values and virtues that Einstein remind us to use more not less.

We are members of a commonwealth. We need to help each other, together we can do more than survive. Divided we won't stand a chance.



Franklin, MA

Are we born to run?

As a life long runner, a lover of cross country (where to be successful you need to run in a pack), Christopher McDougal's TED Talk strikes a resounding bell for me. Will I ditch my shoes and start running longer? I don't think so. Ditching shoes to run in an urban environment is too risky. Nevermind the kind of weather we are having, running wouldn't be practical at all.

You do need to walk before you run. And in this weather, if you don't want to venture outside as the sidewalks are not cleared enough, go to the High School. Tue-Wed-Thu evenings beginning about 5:30 (as I recall) there is an indoor walking club. You can walk the halls of the school in the relative comfort of the indoor space and get the healthy exercise your body craves.



As the weather improves, move the walk outside. Walk through your neighborhood, walk to downtown and back, explore side roads in Franklin. There are lots of good opportunities for walking.

When you can walk 4-5 miles comfortably, when you can walk and talk the whole way without breathing heavy, then, and only then, should you consider bringing your walk to a faster pace. After being comfortable at a faster pace for some time (perhaps several weeks), then you can consider taking your faster walking pace into a jog or easy running pace.

What kind of pace is that? Covering the 5 miles in close to an hour. If you can do the 5 miles in under an hour, you should be ready.

Should everyone run? Maybe not, but most everyone should be able to walk.


Franklin, MA

Change, one laugh at a time

Cartoonist Liza Donnelly spends a few minutes (about 7 actually) sharing some thoughts about humor and change.




Have a good laugh today!


Franklin, MA

How to be truly awesome!

Neil Pasricha's blog 1000 Awesome Things savors life's simple pleasures, from free refills to clean sheets. In this heartfelt talk from TEDxToronto, he reveals the 3 secrets (attitude, awareness, authenticity) to leading a life that's truly awesome.


Good words for your job search! Watch and enjoy!








Now, go out and take the next step to find your best opportunity!


If you can make it to the PodCamp WesternMA in Westfield St Univ, you can practice being awesome there.


If you can go, you should see if you can go for free. The details can be found here