Theory of Mind and The Virgin Madre Maria Pile Driver

After taking over as principal at my first escuela,  Bernie Madoff Elementary Finance Academy, I had great ideas that I could change the little ones learning through the power and glory of professional lucha libre. Being the brilliant practitioner I am, I decided that the best way to get to the niños was to get through to the teachers first. So, after being hired, I came to my new school, walked around for 15 minutes, you know, to get the "cultura" of the neighborhood, and then decided how I would change the place: Wrestling Professional Development. I would teach all of the teachers the techniques I had learned as a luchador and they would in turn es teach the little chimichangas at our school. That, I believed, and I believe to this day, will change education for the better. Even Mr. Sprinkles agrees with me. But alas, it was not to be.

After the first day of professional development, in which Sra. Huesos broke three ribs after I applied my famous Virgin Madre Maria Pile Driver on her to demonstrate how we should approach Balanced Literacy, I decided that perhaps my new teachers were not yet ready for my new form of professional development, and I went back to giving them handouts about how to do hall duty. I guess they didn't see things like I did. 

Que sara sara. 

In other news, the ISTE 2011 keynote was held today and a bunch of us all piled into a giant airplane hanger  (I was there, as you can plainly see in this photo),  and finally, I saw another hispanic in the crowd: One Dr. John Medina, un doctor de cerebro  that wrote some famous libro about how your brain works. I haven't read it, but I hear it is for sale real echeap on Kindle for like $2.99. Must be a big seller! Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, so he was the big-time keynote dude who came on after some people did some kind of music video, and then some others came out and stomped around and made a lot of noise and he talked about the Theory of Mind, where little kids learn that after a while, other people think differently than we do. Kind of like when I learned that not all teachers have my vision for bringing learning through Lucha. He was pretty good, even if he did not mention Lucha as much as he could have. Perhaps he is not as el hispano as I thought. 

And by the way, if you are not here, don't sweat it esé. There are lots of people that got your back. Like this lady, who is doing it all from her couch without even getting up. Check it out. 

Gotta go, someone told me that the tamales at this one place was out of sight. Adios.  

Mind Maps and My Burrito

One time, a long time ago, I was working on my padre’s ranchero, El Rancho Chongo on the outskirts of Ciudad Aduana, when one of the caballos came up to me on his horse and asked me what was the best way to fix a burrito, because he was going to invite one of the local mujeres over for dinner and he wanted to show her his burrito. I told him, ay que culo, there are about 50 ways to fix your burrito (which by the way, Paul Simon stole as a title to one of his songs years later after seeing one of my famous “Cholo Chain Matches” in East LA back in the 1960’s but that is another story ), which flustered him no end.

“I only know of two ways to show her my burrito” he said.

“Hijole güey! Your mamasita didn’t teach you nothing, because there are as many ways to show your burrito as there are day laborers in a Home Depot parking lot in San Diego!”

I then went into a long explanation about burritos. I had to think about  all the different burrito showing ways there were: I showed him my burrito which was the biggest by the way, my padre’s burrito, my brother’s burrito..ay ya ya. Each gaucho on the ranch had his own burrito to show. There were so many burritos on that ranch. So little time. By the end of the day, that vato had seen as many ways to make a burrito to show his lady friend as there were B-list estrellas in the Betty Ford Rehab Center  in Rancho Mirage. 

Anyway, I wish that I had had a way to come up with a whole bunch of burritos without having to actually show him each and every one on the ranchero. 

So, esteemed campus administrator, suppose someday you have to think of a lot of ways to do something, and you need a tool to show some of your   compas how to do it? Is there a tool you can use? Of course there is that’s why you are reading this el stupido! 

Surf your little self over to http://bubbl.us and see one of the coolest little mind mapping tools there is around. You can make a mind map on the spot, save it, send it out, heck, you can even invite your homies to partake in the mind mapping party. Like Paris Hilton in a Las Vegas lounge on a Friday night, you will never have to be alone again when you mind map. Why would you even need to mind map? Hey, you’re the educator esé,  but really, when your staff sees the mind map on the big screen at your next staff meeting, the PE coach with the big belly might just put down the sports section long enough to notice what you are talking about.

I’m just sayin’.