Good evening my dear loyal blog readers,
I want you to close your eyes and think of a slinky. Are you thinking of a slinky? I'm serious....well, I was just going to elaborate off some characteristics that a slinky possesses, but I just realized that you wouldn't be able to read it with your eyes closed.
Alright, think with your eyes open then....think of a long, silver, metal slinky in a physics lab. Your sending transverse and longitudinal waves....examining what happens when you send one wave down on one side and sending another wave on the opposite side or maybe sending waves on both sides...maybe one person on the other end is sending the wave and as it reaches your end, it bounces off you and goes back on a different side....OR maybe you possess a funny bone and are thinking of Jim Carrey's Ace Ventura: Pet Detective-When Nature Calls at the part where he slinks a slinky down from the monastery high in the mountains.
What's the point? Life is like a slinky.
Sound is sent through longitudinal waves. As teachers, we are projecting our voices of knowledge to our students and sharing our experiences. We start the ripple of pulses that alter pathways of students, hopefully in a positive way. We never stop and often have to present information in multiple waves..I mean ways.
Transverse waves are powerful and are easily visible. When you send one wave down one side and another wave on the same side, but on the opposite end, you will find that when they meet, the waves combine forming a giant wave and then pass on through as though they never met. It's like working with a person. You're combined efforts produce large results, but when you're finished, you carry on in your ways. Maybe the effort is an act of kindness where for a brief second, there's good in the world and it is evident.
There are times when waves heading for each other on opposite sides meet as well. When they meet, both waves are demolished producing a straight line for a brief moment until the waves pass through each other. I like to think of this as meeting someone with different views--both of you are stubborn and refuse to listen to each other.
There are times when only one wave is sent and it reaches the end only to bounce back on the opposite side. There are times when you are going to be by yourself and when you hit that wall, you WILL bounce back, but in a new direction. With the departure of Deb and Lois, we are recharged and are approaching things in a new direction.
And, there will be times when you will get tangled, knotted, and oxidized (yay chemistry!). Those knots and oxidization will be seen in your slinky because it will not compress as tightly as it once did when it was shiny and brand new.
Just in the four weeks I've been here, I can safely say that I have gone through all of these slinky experiences. I have collaborated with total strangers to do something nice/sweet/cool/amazing, I have met people that I don't share the same views or attitudes, I have fallen but have bounced back in a new direction *cough*chemistry*cough*, and I have been stretched and pulled beyond limits that I didn't think I could go beyond.
With two weeks left, I know that I will miss this place dearly. But like a slinky, I hope a wave will send me back up here in the near future.
GO, SLINKY GO!
Brit
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