What the World Eats

I just rediscovered an article which I first saw when someone forwarded it to me and then I saw again while flipping through an old copy of Time magazine. It is a photo essay (which is drawn from a book called "Hungry Planet") showing what families in different countries eat, and how much it costs them. It's pretty interesting to take a look at. I think I will use it with my grade 5 class in an attempt to get them thinking about the factors that contribute to our food choices and what influences our attitudes and decisions regarding healthy lifestyles, things like family, peer, media, or how much we can afford to pay for food, or what is available at the grocery store.

Tintin

I read a lot of Tin tin as a kid, next to modern day comic strips he seems pretty tame...but maybe that's OK. Here is an article the economist did on him.

I have been playing around with the idea of what a teacher looks like. What one should look like, what the kids want to see, what I want to wear etc. I did a little getting to know me exercise with my grade 5 class the other day. I brought in a bunch of clothes each of which had a story of some kind attached to it. The kids got a chance to ask me questions about the clothes and then they got to decide on how I ought to wear the clothes. I was trying to play with the idea of clothing as a kind of visual culture, and as something which may give us clues about the wearer. They had fun and made me look pretty ridiculous. Apparently Devendra Banhart had a similar idea. If you want to dress him up click here.