Reaching Out to Students Via Twitter

Lots of good stuff in the Washington Post this week.  This time, it's a profile of an assistant principal in Maryland that uses Twitter to reach out to his students.

What I took away from this article:

• I was amazed at the disparity of Twitter use of black students vs. white students.  According to the article, black students use Twitter at about twice the rate of whites.  I hadn't noticed that at my school-maybe it's because most of my students are black.
• I didn't realize that comments on Twitter were being used to provoke fights...although I should have .  I've heard more about Facebook comments getting kids fightin' mad at my school, but I guess it shouldn't surprise me that kids would move on to other technologies to do this.
• It's interesting that the principal can get kids to follow him.  I'm surprised when my students follow me, even though I tweet links of videos and photos of our students in action.  I've pondered creating another Twitter account, one that's more personal and not constrained by the "official-ness" of my current account.

It is encouraging that a principal can engage kids in a conversation using social media.  So many kids use Twitter and Facebook to cause trouble/goof off, so it's nice to see them use it as (some) adults use it.

Breaking News: We're All Racist!

Wow, two posts on suspensions in one week!

Front page news in today's Washington Post:  black and Hispanic students get suspended at much higher rates than white students.  Wait a minute, I thought only my town did that to minority students (and needs an investigation from the Office of Civil Rights to uncover our wrong-doing).

The Post's article lists the usual litany of excuses for the disparity in suspensions:

• poverty
• cultural insensitivity
• poor classroom management
• households with single parents

In short, basically blaming everything except student misbehavior.  I love how the article quotes administrators, parents and activists, but not a single teacher (or even student).  This seems to be the typical mentality regarding public education: everyone's an expert on it, except for those actually in the classroom.  

If a newspaper is going to publish an article on possible racism in school discipline policies, shouldn't they at least talk to the students to ask if they feel discriminated against?  Or talk to teachers who can shed light on why they write the suspension reports that they turn in to the administration.  No, let's continue to get the opinions and eventual policies from people that haven't been in a classroom since they were students 30+ years ago.

Lies, Damn Lies & Statistics

Our local paper had an article today about the number of suspensions in our school system being down compared to last year.  Oh, really?

After a few year of being at this teaching gig, I've come to the realization that schools and school systems are evaluated on three numbers:

1. EOC scores
2. Graduation rate
3. Discipline incidences

If you're a principal or school administrator, you can manipulate two of those three numbers.  EOC scores are hard to change, unless you work in Atlanta.  But the graduation rate and discipline stats?  C'mon!  

There are too many kids every year who undeservedly walk across the stage in June with a diploma in hand.  There are administrators, counselors and teachers that do backflilps and contortions to get students across that stage every year.  I'd venture to say that oftentimes, the adults are more concerned than the students with getting the kids "graduated."

As for discipline stats, the same numbers-fudging occurs.  It's easy to say that our discipline numbers are going down...if no one is written up for things they should be written up for.  For the last two years, I've electronically documented the discipline referrals I've written, because I don't trust our administrators to follow through on the suspensions.  And I've been right--I've written up one girl for tardies/skipping at least four times this year, and she has yet to be punished for it.

The worst thing about all of this?  We're calling these kids "career-ready."  I'm sorry, it's either one or the other--either we coddle these kids and socially promote them all the way out of high school, or we start treating them like adults and make them responsible for their actions.  The best-case scenario in my mind?  Ten strikes and you're out.  If you are written up ten times in your school career, it's time for you to go to private school or get home-schooled.

It's Gotta Be The Shoes

What recession?  I hear about how bad the economy is, how school kids need to eat not one but three meals at school, everyone's out of work, blah, blah, blah.   But, apparently people can riot over the re-launch of Air Jordans that are nearly 15 years old and are selling for $180.

Can't wait to ask my students how many of them stood in line/rioted over these kicks.

Just Horrific

I wasn't really planning on writing a blog on this article, but I couldn't help myself.  Actually, the first time I saw it on Sports Illustrated's web site, I skipped over it.  However, upon further review, I have some questions:

• Why is a 28-year-old renting a hotel room on prom night for HS kids?
• Did the friend know her friend was only 12 years old?
• What is a 12-year-old doing sneaking out/drinking/sexing with high schoolers?
• If you're in jail, how can you say you're not a criminal?
• How can I read this entire article and not read one thing about parental involvement?

The last question: can I have my students read this?  The details are almost too shocking for a high school class; but at the same time, it's a powerful lesson for them to learn.

This Movie Really Sucks

I don't normally like watching movies/TV shows about my job, hence my apathy towards "Glee."  But I'm spending my first night of winter vacation watching this movie, and it really sucks.  No--really, really sucks.  You're supposed to laugh at comedies, right?

Winter Break To-Do List

From: gaston.k12.nc.us

OK, so we're at the winter break.  Not our normal two weeks, but I'll take 8 days whenever I can get it.

On one hand, I want to take a break, of course.  But, since the beginning of the school year, I've put off things I need to do for the spring, and it's probably time to get them done.  To commit myself to getting things done, I'll go ahead and list the things I need to do before the the spring semester:

*Create a first-day Prezi for Sports & Entertainment Marketing II
*Decide exactly how to teach Sports Marketing II on a block schedule
*Read up on technology facilitator stuff

I guess the list isn't as long as I think.  But, I'm pretty sure I'll be thinking about Sports Marketing II a lot over break.

You Got Me This Time, Google Earth

My daughter was sick on Thursday, and it was my turn to stay home with.  With hours of time on my hands, I decided to take Google Earth for a test spin.

Every year, I have my Sports Marketing students pick the college bowl games for extra credit.  In the past, I've given them a sheet of paper with the bowl games listed, and they have circled the answer.  With my sick day, I thought I'd try something cool...

My intent was to use Google Earth to plan a trip from the first bowl to the last one, 35 in all.  I've seen Google Earth used on TV to show various locales, and I thought it'd be relatively simple to show a trip from Point A to Point B to Point C.  Oops.

After 2+ hours, I had to give up.  I never could get Google Earth to do exactly what I wanted to do.  I'm sure there's a way to do it, but I probably should pay attention to those tweets I get with tips and tricks.  Maybe next time...

At any rate, it's a good lesson to pass on to my students about the frustrations of technology and how to work through them.

Boyz in Compton

CBS News and Sports Illustrated combined forces to highlight the plight of high school football players in Compton, CA, a city is notorious for its gang presence. At one time, there was an unwritten rule that gangs would leave high school athletes alone. The football and basketball players were on their way to something good, so the gangs wouldn't bother with them. 

Now, however, gangs do not appear to care whether a high-schooler is a baller or not--they're going to recruit them to the dark side. This story is sad on so many levels. I showed the above video to my class last week; I may have them read the article later. The article highlights how many precautions one star student-athlete has to take in order to not get caught up in the gang violence. Sad, sad, sad.

Really, Glee, You're Going There?

I was grading papers while my wife was watching "Glee" on the DVR on Sunday night.  I was only half paying attention to the show, but I stopped when I saw the scenes between the student and the teacher he had an affair with.

It's bad enough to depict that situation on TV, but it was even worse when two students discussed whether to tell administrators about this affair.  Um, let me think--yes!  Sadly, at the end of the show, there was some kind of justification to not tell administrators/law enforcement.  Something about letting the opposing glee clubs compete each other.

In the age of Sandusky and Fine is the message we want to send to high school students one of continuing cover-ups of illegal activity.

Note to Self: Use Video

Every year I've taught Sports & Entertainment Marketing, I've had my students vote for who they think will win  college football's most prestigious individual honor, the Heisman Trophy.  Until this year, I had always put together a PowerPoint that contained the stats of each player.  After we went through the nominees, students would turn in a ballot with their answer.  The students that were interested in college football were sorta excited, but no one else was.

This year, I decided to try the above SlideRocket.  Fortunately, my district has allowed the use of YouTube on a very restricted (and temporary) basis.  Since four of the five nominees' schools created a video of highlights for each player, it was easy to create a SlideRocket that was interesting to watch.

The neatest thing about using this SlideRocket was the students' reactions.  I had to calm down my normally staid first period because they were so excited about what they saw.  Now if I can just find the time to create these type of presentations more often...

Jumping Into Tumblr

From: techleash.com

Not quite sure how I did this, but I ended up on Tumblr last night.  I had heard of it before, but thought I didn't need the hassle of setting up yet another account.

Fortunately, my Sports & Entertainment Marketing II class produces a ton of photos and videos, so I'm hoping that I'll have enough content to at least make it interesting.  Maybe I'll even have students do some work on it. 

Any ideas are always welcome, of course.

Newt to Kids: Get a Job!

From: hillmanfoundation.org


Saw that GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich raised some eyebrows with his comments on the work habits of children living in poverty. Gingrich, never one to shy away from an opinion, said:

"Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works," the former House speaker said at a campaign event at the Nationwide Insurance offices. "So they literally have no habit of showing up on Monday. They have no habit of staying all day. They have no habit of 'I do this and you give me cash,' unless it's illegal."

Predictably, ole Newt ruffled some feathers.  But, does he have a point?  I think he does, and anyone that has taught in a high-poverty school must have some experience with what he's talking about.  Teachers have been getting a lot of flack about the performance of their students recently, yet we're not supposed to acknowledge the impact of poverty in the classroom.  Well, how does poverty affect student performance then?  I can't look at my students and tell which ones are poor by looking at them.

I hope that the issue doesn't disappear in the 24 hour news cycle.  It'd be nice to see more people discuss this.

Still Don't Understand Band Hazing

I was shocked to hear about the drum major from Florida A&M's marching dying, apparently after a hazing incident.  The video above is what we talked about in class.

In one of the sociology courses I took in college, we studied hazing.  I understand the basic theory behind it: hazing is something that makes people think that the group is worth joining and it also builds camaraderie.  Lots of organizations do it--the military, fraternities and sororities, sports teams, etc.   What I don't understand is how hazing made its way to marching bands.  Aren't these kids, on average, smarter and more well-behaved than the average college kid?

I hope that FAMU can get the band back together and put the hazing in the past, but I'm not sure that's possible, especially since the video showed that 30 out of the 100 band members were involved in some kind of hazing in the group.

I Hate You

Sadly, nearly all of my students don't understand the passion of college sports.  It's hard to be passionate for a team, and against a rival, when your "favorite" team is located 500-3000 miles from where you live.  Even my Duke-Carolina fans don't really seem to get it, although they're close.

This lack of passion inspired me to play the above video, ESPN Film's "Roll Tide/War Eagle" right before all of the in-state rivalry games.  I, of course, hate my in-state rival, but even my passion can't match the intensity of the entire state of Alabama.  I guess if the whole state of Virginia was as crazy as my friends and me, maybe we'd be the subject of an ESPN documentary...but I doubt it.

Does It Really Take This To Be An Agent?

 From:  pastor2pastor.org

There are lots of stories about sleazy agents out there, like the Black Santa case at UNC or the Sports Illustrated cover story on the agent who admitted to giving money to college football players, or the story about USC's own Reggie Bush and OJ Mayo scandals.  But this story from Deadspin about Albert Pujols' agent takes the cake.

It's one thing to give money to players, but Dan Lozano took it to a new level.   Too nasty for me to write about, but trust me--it's nasty.

Funny, I Don't Feel Like a Better Teacher

From: cartoonclipartworld.com


Well, after nearly a 48 hour delay of getting results from when they were promised, I found out that I'm a National Board Certified Teacher.  Funny, I don't feel like a better teacher now that I have that distinction.

I'm happy, of course, to have obtained certification, because a) it's hard and b) it's the only way to get a pay raise any more.  I do take the certification with a grain of salt, however.  I've seen really good teachers struggle to pass National Boards, and very average teachers ace it on the first try.  It seems similar to the SAT:  really good students can struggle with that test, while some very poor students do well on it.  What does it really tell us? 

How NOT to do PR

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I showed the video above to my class this week. If anyone ever needed to not go on the air with Bob Costas, it's Jerry Sandusky.  The stuttering answer to the question about being sexually attracted to boys was stunning.  I hope for his sake he has a good lawyer--although would a good lawyer let him go on TV like this?

The Waiting Game

 From:  fightingandwriting.wordpress.com

I was going to post a blog yesterday about getting my scores from the National Board people, but...their server's been down for almost a day and a half. I'll be lucky if I find out the results before school on Monday, apparently. 

Good thing I didn't plan any parties or anything like that.

RIP, Champ

I've never been the biggest boxing fan, but it was sad to hear the news about Joe Frazier's death.  Best remembered for his three bouts against Muhammad Ali, Frazier was far less visible (and less memorable) to casual boxing fans.

Anyway, this story was a good jumping off point of why boxing is less popular than MMA.  My students had some interesting answers as to why this was the case.

Disgusting

From:  zeiza.com

I love college football, more than any other sport, but some of these scandals are getting out of hand. It's bad enough to hear about what's been going on at Ohio State, UNC and Miami--at least those schools were doing what they were doing in pursuit of winning. But the allegations coming out of Pennsylvania concerning Joe Paterno's long-time former assistant assaulting young boys for decades are enough to make anyone's stomach curl.

There are already calls for Joe Paterno's head.  Hey, why not?  People think he doesn't coach anymore anyway, and there have been calls for his retirement for over 10 years.  But based on this incident?  I'm not sure.  According to the allegations, a graduate assistant told Paterno he saw the coach in question, Jerry Sandusky, performing sexual acts with a youngster.  Paterno reported the allegations to his boss.  After that, what was he supposed to do?

People may think that's a cop out, but I'm wondering what would happen if I reported a similar incident to the appropriate people...and nothing happened.  Am I responsible for the ultimate disposition of the case?

Just Say No

Wow.  I don't remember Chris Herren, even though he was in college the same time about the same time I was.  Herren was an all-world prep star who went to BC and then transferred to Fresno State and even played a little in the NBA.  Drugs wrecked his career--there are candid scenes in the ESPN documentary Unguarded where he explains his downward spiral to groups of students.

This is definitely a video I'll be showing my students in class.

Funny, I Don't Feel Overpaid

 From: jimvesting.com

I've been a big Rush Limbaugh fan for 20 years, and I seem to agree with him 99% of the time, but when it comes to teaching and public education, he's way off-base...again.

Earlier in the year I posted about a previous segment of his I thought contained serious errors, and when I went to check his web site today (as I do every day), there was a story on how teachers are overpaid.  Rush quotes from a study from the Heritage Foundation regarding their findings:

We're supposed to thank all of these public sector teachers. We're supposed to thank these people for the hard work they're doing educating our students -- and we're expected to say that we wish they were paid more. We are expected to say that they are being taken advantage of by the rich, evil 1% who aren't paying their fair share. That's the accepted narrative: "Teachers, principals, administrators rebuke are underpaid, underappreciated; we don't say thanks enough for all the hard work they do. Instead we're overpaying athletes and bankers and everybody else." When in fact the takers and losers that make up the Democrat Party base never say thanks for anything. All they ever say is, "It's not enough," and that's what these guys, Richwine and Biggs, have done at AEI and Heritage.

 C'mon Rush: I feel plenty appreciated.  Lots of people tell me thank you for what I'm doing.  I didn't get those comments when I worked in television, or even when I was in the military.  And I'm not demanding a raise, even though you can compare what recent graduates from business and engineering schools make versus first-year teachers and tell me who you think is underpaid.  And please, please substitute teach just one day, and then tell me what you think about teachers.

Fortunately, I'm not alone.  One of my favorite education writers, Valerie Strauss, wrote an article about the same study.  I'm not sure she ever taught, but she at least "gets it" when it comes to this issue.

Dialing for Dollars

From: indiatalkies.com

I stumbled across an article about Idaho's plan to tie teacher bonus pay into parent contact.  On one hand, I'm all for experimenting with compensation ideas for teachers (although I think the plans tied to test scores are a bad idea).  On the other hand, given that some schools (like mine) include many students who have parents that constantly move, up to four times in a school year, it could be quite hard for some teachers to talk to their students' parents on a regular basis.

The article mentions that many town in Idaho are so small that teachers and parents will run into each other at the grocery store.  If only I could be so lucky!  One of the benefits of living 25 minutes from school is not seeing my students and their parents when I go shopping!

Bastards

From: discoveryeducation.com




There are a lot of people that complain about what our legislators at the state and federal level do in regards to education, but for the most part, I haven't been one of them...until now.

It's one thing for our state legislators to extend our school year by five days. I understand that if you look at our students' test scores, they ain't all that. So, one could make the argument that five more days in school could increase our students' scores. Fine--add a week to the beginning of the school year, or two at the beginning and three at the end.

But, no. We take away vacations and teacher workdays within the established calendar so we can add our five days without adding five days of pay to our teachers' paychecks. I'm not upset about losing out on any money. What makes me mad are the options presented to us: take away Memorial Day, three days of spring break or other such nonsense.

Why do we need those days? As I tell my students, the longest stretch of the school year is from Labor Day to the end of first quarter. We go five straight weeks, five days a week. Students get on teachers' nerves and teachers get on students' nerves. Our students here had been relatively well-behaved until the last couple of weeks; now kids are starting to snap. We need those workdays to keep sanity for both our teachers and our students. Without them, where will the break come from?

Next Question

I'm showing this video in class tomorrow about NFL super agent Drew Rosenhaus.  Many of my students through the years have expressed an interest in being a sports agent.  We'll see if they change their tune after watching this...

Dan Wheldon

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I showed the video above to my class today.  It's hard to talk to a class full of teens about death, and I'm sure I didn't do a good job.

I wanted to make sure they knew about the risks of driving 230 mph, and why Dan Wheldon's death in particular was news.  Didn't hear until after I showed the video that NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson recommended that IndyCar not drive in ovals--the speeds are too fast.

Most of my students aren't racing enthusiasts, so I wonder how much of this video sunk in.  Was it something that they were interested in because it was such a spectacular crash, or are they truly interested in the underlying reasons behind a race car crash?

Keeping Track of Things With Evernote

From: galaxytab-samsung.net

I don't remember who turned me on to Evernote, but I thought it was important to note that I didn't stumble across it myself.  I'm sure it was someone in our instructional technology department.

Evernote is a web site (and an app) that you can download to different machines.  As you make a note on one machine, Evernote syncs that note with the Evernote app on each of your machines.  I downloaded it first on my school-issued Samsung Galaxy Tab.  Evernote works really well on the Galaxy, because you can attach pictures, videos and voice memos to the notes.

Evernote also works well with computers.  You can attach files from your laptop or desktop and open them up somewhere.  I even have it on my personal iPod Touch; I'm just not sure how much I would want to use Evernote on that.

As crazy as it's been to be a technology facilitator at my school, Evernote has helped me get (somewhat) organized with all of the things people are asking me to do for them.

Eeeeevil Technology

From: leftcoastcowboys.com

I swear I am at my wit's end with being a technology facilitator. Asking a teacher to do this job part-time is a recipe for disaster. At every other job I've had, there has been someone that works full-time on tech (and is very good at it). Heck, even when I started teaching, our school had a full-time tech person. When I look around the room while at our technology facilitator meetings, I see full-time techs giving part-time techs instructions on how to get tasks done. For all the talk about 21st century teachers and 21st century students, we sure don't seem to be making much of a commitment for supporting that idea.

What got me started on this rant was having to set up an LCD projector and laptop for our guidance department. Simple, right? Well, it is...until you have to ask teachers to take those items out of their classrooms in order for that presentation to happen. Are you telling me that our school can't afford to have a set-up that we can roll out of the front office for things like that? Why should teachers have to give up their equipment during class time for this?! I also have a general level of frustration with being a technology facilitator due to my own ignorance--I seem to be batting about .300 when it comes to getting things fixed.

If there's a way to get fired as a tech support person and stay as a full-time teacher, I'm all ears!

From the NFL to Teaching

I wanted to play a video to start class today, and I stumbled into a short one from ESPN's Outside the Lines show.  It's about former NFL player and his transition to high school teacher and coach.

My students thought the video was interesting.  Too bad more professional athletes don't step into the classroom...

Communicating With Parents

 From:  oswego.edu

Interesting article in the Washington Post recently regarding a school's communication breakdown with parents.  To sum it up, the parents wanted more timely communication with the school, especially regarding how the PTO money was spent.

I can't speak to the money part of calling parents, but I can when it comes to grades.  In the past year, our parents have had access to their child's grades via our grading software.  Great!  I try and keep my grades within a week of being up-to-date (even though I've heard stories from students at other schools regarding teachers that are less than prompt about entering grades). 

E-mail is great, too.  I try and answer e-mails from parents within 24 hours, and having a working e-mail address increases a parent's odds that they'll hear from me.

Phone calls?  Not so much.  I've never been a great phone person, but that's no excuse--that's my job.  My excuse for not calling parents more?  The phone numbers almost never seem to work.  The numbers we have in our system are too often disconnected or outdated.  I guess that can be a problem when your family moves four times a year.

I really should do a better job of calling parents.  I've already called more parents than normal this year, due to tardies, with varying success.  This week, I'll be making grade-related calls.  I hope something works...

That's Freakin' Crazy!

I showed my students the "60 Minutes" video about rock climber Alex Honnold.  And when I say "rock climber," I mean a guy that climbs rocks with nothing but his hands and feet.  No ropes, no harness, no nothin'!

Interesting things:  Honnold practiced climbing 3 hours a day, 6 days a week at a climbing gym in his home state of California.  He lives in a van while stateside, showering every few days.

My students seemed to be more willing to climbs the rockface than to go without showering for three days.  I guess that's a good thing!

Are You Ready For Some Fuhrer-ball?

ESPN pulled Hank Williams Jr.'s long-running song "Are You Ready For Some Football" off Monday's telecast of the Bucs-Colts game. Why? Because he compared President Obama to Hitler. This is nothing new of course. Two years ago, Megan Fox was fired from the "Transformers" movie series after comparing Michael Bay to the Fuhrer.

In this day and age, I don't understand how anyone in the public eye can compare anyone to Hitler. The simile is obviously radioactive, and there's no way to explain it away. It's just one of those things that can't be said in this day and age. That being said, is this the last incident like this? I doubt it...

Orioles Magic

Well, maybe not.  But I did tell my classes that the end of the regular baseball season is like nothing I've ever seen in 25 years of watching baseball.  To have one team (the Rays) come back from a 7 run deficit to win, another team lose in 12 innings and a third team winning in the bottom of the ninth--well, it can't get any better!

I would really love to see more of my students enjoy baseball.  There is a high level of "baseball ignorance" in my class, even among students that are football/basketball fans.  I hope MLB's Urban Youth Academy program, or something, will encourage more young urban youth to at try the sport out.

Catching Hell

I caught most of the ESPN documentary "Catching Hell," which focuses on one of the most famous fan-interference plays in baseball, the Steve Bartman incident at Wrigley Field in the 2003 NLCS.


One reason I remember that so vividly is working with a buddy at the time who was a full-blooded Chicago native and die-hard Cubs fan.  He was devastated when he walked into work the next day, and did not take kindly to teasing about the game.

I planned to record the doc as something to play in class at a random time, but after watching all of the security steps that Cubs took to get Bartman out of Wrigley that night, I'm beginning to think I'll play this during our section on security.  It's hard to find good material to relate to that section in Sports & Entertainment Marketing I, but this video may be as close as we can get.

Winning, Teaching-Wise

From: d-d-m.org


I had to call our district's technology service desk today and got a treat:  the voice on the other end of the phone belonged to one of my former students.  I had just found out last week he is working for our service desk.  This young man was one of my first students, and he was in the worst class I ever had--he wasn't bad, but the class was.  I'm sure my inexperience had a lot to do with that.

Anyway, it was great to see/hear one of my students "make it"!

Moneyball in Class

Attempting to tie in to the upcoming movie Moneyball, I used the book/movie as an excuse to do some Excel work with my students.

If you haven't read the book (and you're a stats geek), it's a wonderful recounting of the Oakland A's of the early 2000's, when they made the playoffs and competed with the Yankees and Red Sox, even though their payroll was a fraction of those two big-market teams' spending on player salaries.

What I took away from Moneyball was that the "Moneyballers" value different statistics than the rest of the baseball establishment.  Instead of valuing hitters by batting average, home runs and runs batted in, the Moneyballers emphasized on-base percentage, on-base plus slugging percentage, and a wide range of other stats.

Although it seemed like I talked for the entire 90 minutes of class, it was fun leading students through calculating baseball stats using Excel.  We also created some charts as well.  It saddens me to see students play games, etc. when they could be using something useful like Excel to make something useful and/or cool.  I hope I helped my students realize that Excel can be fun, too.

Here We Grow Again

1992: I remember sitting in the stands of a not-exactly-full 50,000 seat Lane Stadium in the early '90s, talking to my friends about how I wish Virginia Tech could get into the ACC somehow.  Like most people in Virginia, I grew up watching the local ACC schools on TV, like UVa and Maryland.  I didn't like being in the Big East at the time, what with one school (West Virginia) within reasonable travel distance, and a bunch of schools we had no culture or geography in common with.


Fast forward to 2010:  Virginia Tech wins the ACC football crown for the fourth time in seven years (while selling out its 66,000 stadium), and the basketball team defeats #1 Duke and makes it to the third round of the ACC tournament.  Perfect, right?  Across the country, the Big 12 nearly dissolved after losing Nebraska and Colorado, but Texas and its little brothers keep the league on life support.  The predictions of four 16-team superconferences seem premature.


2011:  Texas A&M wants out of the Big 12, which prompts some soul-searching among the remaining conference members.  Rumors begin to swirl about the Pac 12 and the Big 10 expanding again, while the ACC and Big East watch and wait.  But...the ACC makes its own moves by adding Pittsburgh and Syracuse.

I understand this makes some people mad, and it can make one do a double-take, considering that Syracuse was originally headed toward the ACC in 2003, until the Virginia legislature insisted on Virginia Tech's addition.  And, of course, what it all comes down to is money.  But a factor that may play an even bigger factor is a school's trust in the stability of its conference.  If Pitt and Syracuse were sure the Big East would be around in 10 years, they would have stayed.  If Texas and Oklahoma thought the Big 12 was going to survive, they probably wouldn't be meeting to discuss a move to a Pac-16.  The bottom line for me is, of all the conferences to make a move to ensure survivability, it shocks me (and many others) that the ACC made their move first.

We're Going to Write Right, Right?

From: controlyourdestiny.wordpress.com

Every year, I have my students do a final project.  The project is due in chunks throughout the semester, and (most of) my students turned in the first section today.

I don't think that I ask a lot in terms of using proper English and grammar.  Is it too much to conjugate verbs and figure out when to use "their" as opposed to "there"?  In no way do I want to blame this on English teachers--I'm sure they all do their jobs very well.  If there's any blame to go around, I have to point my fingers at my students.  When the only thing they enjoy reading is misspelled, abbreviated text messages, it's trouble.

I guess I just get frustrated reading papers that are dramatically bad.  C'mon, people!  Find something to read in your free time!  I promise, the more you read, the better you'll get at writing!

Taste Test

Tomorrow I'm doing one of my favorite activities in class--the taste test.

Background:  we're covering the seven functions of marketing, and the first function is Marketing Information Management.   Part of this function is surveys and taste tests, and my students don't have a good idea of what a taste test is.  I guess they weren't around for those old "we've switched Mrs. Johnson's brand of coffee, let's see if she notices" commercials.

One reason I like this is that my students are so surprised that I'm actually bringing things in for them to drink.  Gosh, am I really that strict?!

New for this year:  instead of doing Coke vs. Pepsi vs. store brand, I'm going to try this with clear sodas, like Sierra Mist, 7 UP and Sprite.  Let's see if they can tell the difference amongst those three!

Making Videos With Vimeo

Untitled from DrOldman on Vimeo.

Making videos doesn't have to hard--you don't even have to have videos to do.  The video above this post was done using Vimeo.  My colleague took photos I had shot at a football game, added music and a voiceover and...ta-da!

I don't have a Vimeo account, but I do have an account with another similar service, Animoto.  My district's instructional technology department turned me onto to this site.  If you sign up for the free version, you can only make 30 second videos, but hey, it's fun!

I haven't had my students use either one of these web sites in class.  In fact, I believe Vimeo is blocked in our district.  I may have my students try Animoto, but there's that pesky matter about requiring an e-mail address.  Using a site that requires e-mail addresses to sign in often seems to more trouble than it's worth when 25 students are all trying to log in at the same time (but maybe that's just me).

Cell Phones, Again

From: onlineparentingcoach.com

My favorite sports talk radio host, Steve Czaban, blows it up in regards to cell phones and teenagers. One year, one of my freshmen told me she was already on her fourth cell phone!

Since cell phones have begun popular, I've seen people pay more attention to what's on their phone than anything around them, including me, when I'm trying to teach.

I could go on and rant about this (and I'm sure you could, too), but I'll let my man Czabe close this post out about the "benefits" of giving teenagers cell phones:

- You can then start calling your new teenage boyfriend at any time, from anywhere, without your parents knowing anything about it.
- You can discuss when and where to lose your virginity together.
- You can text him naked pictures of yourself that will be used later for internet humiliation, retaliation, blackmail, and perhaps lead to suicide.
- You can become a self-absorbed Facebook generation dope, with little intellectual curiosity or awareness outside your social media "bubble."
- You now have a phone number where internet predators can reach you directly, at any time.
- You can text while driving, and possibly kill yourself and your friends.

Let There Be...College Football!

From: appstate.edu

After all of the scandals of the offseason, which seemed to drone on continually, college football finally arrived this week. Fore me this is a time of celebration: my students play College Football Ticket Roulette, I give out football-shaped Reese's, and the games begin. Some of my students ask why I don't get more excited about the NFL. Really? There's nothing like cheering for you alma mater!

Checking Out Edmodo

From: http://adams.jppss.k12.la.us/adams-sites/

In years past, I spent one full day getting my students up to speed on how we use technology in my class. I had them log in, check out my web site, blogs, document pages, etc. This year, I'm doing something different.

One reason is that I'm adding new tools to my class, like EduBlogs and Edmodo. Our district has an account with Edmodo, and I thought I'd check it out. Edmodo is a school-safe social networking site. One interesting thing is that so many other teachers in our school have accounts, so there should be lots of students with a working familiarity of it.

My approach to getting my students familiar with the technology of my class is to take baby steps each day. Today, we just logged in, created an Edmodo account and worked on our profile. That's it. Then we turned to a lecture for the rest of the period. Tomorrow, I'll give my students more time to work with technology in my class--most likely, I'll have them complete a blog assignment.

I'm not sure how well this is going to work, but this is the first time I've taught Sports & Entertainment Marketing I in a computer lab for a block schedule, and I think I should take advantage of what I've got to work with.

Edu-blogging it

From: thewritingbase.com

Despite having no time to plan for my classes while at school (thank you, technology facilitator position), and teaching a class I've actually taught before (which means I don't have to do anything new, right?) I've decided to try one or more new things in my class this semester.

This summer I signed up for an EduBlogs account, and I wrote my first post tonight. I've been using message boards and blogs on my school web site for years, but I was looking for a site where my students could write blogs themselves, instead of just adding comments underneath my posts.

For the first week (or two), I'll continue to have students earn their grade by commenting on my blog post...baby steps! But after everyone's got their feet wet, I'll assign them blogs to write on their own. Stay tuned to see how this works...

One down, 179 to go

From: catskillcommunitycenter.org

There's nothing like starting a school day with the e-mail system (and other assorted systems) down. My first 30 minutes of school were spent on the phone with our IT help desk. Fortunately, they had our problems fixed by noon, but, whew! Hope we don't have those problems anytime soon. I've already got enough stuff on my plate.

Classes went pretty good. I actually had two presentations about my class, one using Prezi and the other using SlideRocket. I've never used presentations on the first day of class, but it seemed to work fairly well, especially since we're back on the 90 minute block schedule.

It did seem like students were more talkative for the first day of school. Three of my students also had their cell phones out--already! My colleague next door already wrote up three students--already! I hope this isn't a sign of things to come.

Go Time

From: practicallygreen.com

Tomorrow is the first day of school, and I'm more excited to start the school year than any other year. Why? Here's what I think:

*I get to teach classes I already know, instead of piloting new curriculum or rewritten courses, or completely new courses
*I liked the kids I met at open house. The most demoralizing thing about school is putting up with the "clowns." I didn't see any at our open house, but I know a few of them must be out there.
*I can spend 50% of my day teaching. During workdays, I feel like I'm spending 80%+ doing tech support--my room is still unfinished.

I'm optimistic about this school year, and I don't dread getting the year ramped up, like I have before. Have I been teaching long enough to get that attitude, or is it something else?

Trials of the Technology Facilitator

From: funstoo.blogspot.com


When our school's technology facilitator left to go to another school in our county, I inherited the technology facilitator position at my school. Last year, I was also a part-time tech fac, but I worked as part of a team. Now, I'm alone.

In the first three work days of the school year, I think I've been approached by about 40 teachers with technology issues. I've even gotten e-mails over the weekend. The main problem seems to be the printer management software system our district installed over the summer. It's supposed to save us money, but we have a ton of people that can't print at all. There are other problems, too, of course, and I'm playing catchup trying to get everything resolved.

One thing that has struck me about the teaching profession is how technology-illiterate so many teachers appear to be. When I worked in the TV business, no one asked me for help, because we all had a basic level of "technology competence," for lack of a better term. Since I've started teaching, I've helped plug LCD projectors to laptops umpteen times, exhorted people to clean out their e-mail when it hits 100% capacity umpteen times, and helped many a folk with a mere point-and-click.

I don't mind helping people; I actually enjoy it. But I'm wondering what goes on in education colleges in terms of technology training. Is there any? And why do so many veteran teachers insist on not learning anything new? Did they cling to their chalkboards when the district was installing dry erase boards?

It's All About The "U"

Pretty damning scandal to come out of Coral Gables last week, what with 73 current and former University of Miami football players accused of taking cash and other benefits from a former booster/current felon.

Monster reporting by Charles Robinson and Yahoo!Sports on this. The booster, Nevin Shapiro, makes some wild claims about his time jock sniffing around the football program, but most of it seems to be corroborated by outside sources, or, the players themselves.

After the last year of scandals at UNC and Ohio State, I can see why many people are up in arms about this latest saga. Some even want the "death penalty" invoked. Others are reviving the ideas of paying players for all of the money they generate for their schools.

I'm not sure that either idea would happen, but I am sure that my idea won't: a minor league system for both the NFL and NBA. It's good enough for hockey and baseball. High school athletes with no interest in college can go straight to the pros in baseball and hockey; why not for football and basketball? I already know the answer: money. The leagues aren't going to make a huge investment (the NBDL doesn't count) in training athletes for their top levels when they have colleges doing it for them.

One can dream, anyway...

Last Day of Freedom

From: commmons.wikimedia.org

I try to look at these two months off during the summer as a chance to recharge and learn a new skill...but I guess every teacher does that, right?

The last two years have been especially busy: teaching two pilot courses and one brand new course, school improvement team chair, and virtual teacher, among other things. This summer, I didn't teach or take a class, so it was nice to have some "me time."

Some things I got to do this summer:
*install fog lights on my car
*read four (fiction) books, in addition to two marketing books
*go to New York
*work out a lot (although you couldn't tell it)
*revamped some old PowerPoints and activities
*checked out some new web sites, like edublogs and animaps

I didn't get to everything on my to-do list, but I'm glad I had some time to recharge. I'm hoping that this year goes smoother, so I won't need the summer off as badly as I did in 2011.

Conference Musical Chairs

From: lostandfound.cn

Just when I thought the conference musical chairs had ended last summer (with Utah & Colorado going to the Pac-12, Nebraska to the Big 10, Boise State to the Mountain West), here comes the music again.

Last summer, the key to all the moves was Texas. Had the Longhorns left the Big 12 for the Pac-10, the Big 12 would most likely dissolved. However, the Longhorns stayed put, and the other schools in the conference cut a deal to let Texas have a bigger slice of the TV revenue pie. At that point, it seemed like the expansion talk would die down.

During last summer's talk, much air space and ink was spent talking about how there would eventually be four "super conferences" of 16 teams each, which would then break apart from the NCAA and do their own thing. When Texas declined to join the Pac-10 (or Pac-12 or Pac-16), that talk was shelved.

Enter Texas A&M: the Aggies are apparently steamed that their arch-rival is getting their own network via ESPN, the Longhorn Network. Not only is Texas getting a bigger share of the Big 12 revenues, they would also earn an additional $11M from the Longhorn Network. The added exposure would surely put A&M and the other schools at a recruiting disadvantage. So the Aggies spent last week trying to get invited as the 13th member of the SEC.

Had the SEC invited Texas A&M, there's no way the conference would stay at 13 teams; they'd have to invite a 14th team to make equal divisions. Who would the 14th team be? Some reports were Missouri, Florida State, Clemson and Virginia Tech. The Hokies and Tigers (Clemson) both seem to be fine in the ACC, and Florida State said the SEC never talked to them.

All this is moot now: the SEC has turned down Texas A&M...for now. I believe if the presidents and conferences are still set on major conference realignment, it will probably happen after the current BCS contracts expire after 2013. After that happens, it's anyone's guess which teams will end up where.

There has to be a point where conferences decide that it's not worth exanding. One reason is geography: why would you want to play conference games against schools that are 500+ miles away? And not just football, but all the other sports, too.

Second: how many ways can TV money be divided up? Is 1/16th of a pie going to be greater than 1/12th of the old pie?

Let There Be Football

From: footballreportersonline.com


After everyone was waiting with bated breath for an agreement (especially ESPN--seriously, is there a day they don't run "NFL Live"?), the NFL got back to work with preseason games tonight. With all of the negative news regarding our financial markets, it's a shot in the arm to have America's favorite game back and working. Besides, having a $9B business in play doesn't hurt.

One of the chief complaints among NFL ticket holders has been the insistence of teams to include preseason games in their ticket packages, forcing fans to pay for two "fake" games. Many ticket buyers have been upset about this arrangement, and fans at home aren't thrilled about watching these contests, either. My question: are fans so excited about football, any football, that they will tune in to these games?

Speak No Evil

It surprised me that people had a negative reaction to the comments Steve Williams made on Sunday after his current boss, Adam Scott, beat his former boss, Tiger Woods this weekend.

On one hand, yes, Williams should have taken the high road and not said anything about Woods. And yes, his comments overshadowed the fact that Adam Scott won the tournament.

On the other hand, people knew Williams might have something to say--why else would reporters seek him out for an interview instead of the golfers. And, like many NASCAR drivers had said, athletes need a "cooling off" period prior to taking questions from the media--their emotions are still raw from the competition, and they can say things that they might not have said immediately after a game.

Bottom line: Williams is still a great caddy, he's already off to a great start with Adam Scott, and, lastly, he should apologize to Scott and promise not to pop off again.

And for those that say Woods is too classy to fire back at Williams, check out this audio from several years ago where he blamed Williams for bad results at three different holes (hat tip to Steve Czaban).

Fired For Blogging?

From: websitemakeoverworkshop.com


I like to tell people I started blogging to complain about my students. Actually, in the eight months I've been blogging, I think I've only written about my students a handful of times. There is one blog out in the blogosphere that is a master satire of current education, Teachbad.

After I started reading Teachbad earlier this year, I passed on the web site to a few colleagues. They were all in agreement that the blog spoke the truth (sometimes satirically and sarcastically) about the environment in which many of us teach. It's nice to know that there are other teachers that struggle with the same issues that we struggle with.

So, it was very shocking to see that the author of the blog, a DC teacher, wrote an article on The Washington Post's web site stating he believed he was among the 200+ teachers fired in DC due to his blog. The article goes into detail about the evaluations given to the Teachbad author from his master teacher vs. his administrator, and why he feels those evaluations orchestrated his exit.

It was interesting to read the comments below the post. Not every teacher was on Teachbad's side. Several said that he should've taken the time he spent writing his blog to improve his teaching. I'm sorry--we shouldn't have to spend every waking hour thinking about teaching, although many of us come close to that anyway. Other teachers pointed out that there are consequences for free speech. I'll have to concede that point. In my class, we talk about athletes and celebrities getting into trouble for tweeting something they shouldn't (paging Rashard Mendenhall).

I hope Teachbad gets a chance with another school district. He comes across to me as a teacher that really cares about teaching, but is bummed out by some of the inane regulations that all school districts seem to share (and DCPS appears to have many administrator-generated issues). We all can share his pain.

Re-branding

From: ukumillion.com

I grew up an Orioles fan, and the games weren't always on TV. Fortunately, I could catch a lot of games on the radio. It was fun to listen to baseball on the radio when your play-by-play buy is Jon Miller! So, I've been an early sports radio fan since I've been watching sports.

Living in the Triad area is like being in the middle of a sports radio desert. There used to be two sports radio stations (one from ESPN), but now there's none. I really miss listening to Steve Czaban in the morning and Mark Packer in the afternoon.

Fortunately, Yahoo Sports Radio is here. Yahoo took over the old Sporting News Radio this week. I had listened to Sporting News Radio when I could, and used to subscribe to the magazine. It's definitely a long-time sports brand, but apparently, Yahoo is a better brand for sports now. I'm not sure why, but I guess the average person/sports fan is more familiar with Yahoo than The Sporting News. Anyway, I can listen to Czabe online in the morning--great!

Imparting My Philosophy in Class

SEM I Philosophies on Prezi

While I was at my summer conference last week, I thought about the first day of school and what we would talk about. I've always disliked the first day of school: too much talking about me, the class, and rules, and not enough about the content.

In order to make this day go by "better," I decided to explain my class to my students on the first day by breaking it down into four quadrants: academics, workplace, technology and class. For each quadrant, I'm going to explain my theories about why the class works the way it does.

I hope this gives students a general idea of what the class will be like. If they come into my class with their eyes wide open, so much the better. At least the first day of school should be more interesting.

Butch-slapped

From: martysworldofsports.blogspot.com


The other shoe finally dropped on UNC this week. The firing of Butch Davis on Tuesday, and the resignation of athletic director Dick Baddour on Thursday has left UNC's football program, if not the athletic department, in shambles.

I, with the rest of the rest of sports fans of America, am stunned by the timing. The bad news has seemingly been unending since last summer, starting with an investigation into NFL prospect Marvin Austin's summer vacation, and then moving onto numerous players being declared ineligible, an assistant coach with a checkered past, a running back that switches license plates to avoid parking tickets and a plagarism/honor court scandal that degrades the academic institution of the school. There was easily enough stuff going on between July '10 and December of that year for the university to fire Davis.

What does it mean that the school waited until after the ACC media days and eight days prior to fall practice? Surely the AD and president knew the timing of Davis' firing was beyond horrible. It makes me think that either there's more damaging information out there that has yet to be released, or some of the big-money boosters finally had enough.

Another thing about this situation that makes me scratch my head: the reactions of the incoming freshmen. These are recently-graduated high schoolers who committed on National Signing Day to UNC, despite the program being investigated since the beginning of these students' senior years. One father said that they trusted the coaches when they said the worst of the storm was blowing over. Wait, what? Of course they're going to tell you that! Wake up!

Going to Summer Conference

From: greensborodailyphoto.com


Every year, our state CTE office holds a summer conference, which is only one county over from me. It's convenient to get to, and I pick up lots of good information every year. Plus, I've got to present my own stuff a couple of times.

After I finished my first year of teaching, a few of my colleagues talked about skipping the conference. In fact, I think at least two of the people I worked with (since retired) didn't go for the three years we worked together.

Why?

The older teachers would tell me that the conference was good for me because there was a lot to learn. True dat. For themselves, however, they said the conference tended to repeat the same classes/sessions over and over, year to year.

If that's true, I haven't seen it in the four years I've been going. And even if that was the case, then it may be time to hop into some other sections. I've enjoyed jumping around from business to marketing to tech ed sessions--there's always some new software or technology that vendors show off; those are the most interesting sessions to me. And with the pilot courses and Revised Bloom's Taxonomy effect on classes, it tells me there's a lot of stuff to learn at summer conference, even for experienced teachers.

Moral of the story: go to your summer conference!

The 27 Club

Returning home from a night out, I caught the crawl on CNN about Amy Winehouse's death. It got me to thinking that there are different levels of surprise about a celebrity's death: Shocked!, Really?, That's Too Bad, [Person] Was Still Alive? and others.

Amy Winehouse's death falls into the category "Not Surprised." Given the video above (her last concert, in Belgrade), it was clear that whatever rehab program she was in was not working. Another sad case of a talented rocker/musician passing at the age of 27 (Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain).

Winehouse's talent and propensity to make appearances in the tabloids were well known. I've never understood the lure of illegal drubs--why not stick to alcohol? Anyway, for the pro-legalization crowd, is this what we want? People to have unfettered access to lethal drugs? Too many wasted lives already...

An End In Sight?

Got home from a swim meet to see that the NFL owners have agreed to end the lockout...although the players need to sign off on the owners' proposal in order to get back to work.

I'm glad to see the NFL get back to work. In today's economy, it's not good to a have a $9B business sitting on the sidelines, assuming the players agree to the proposal. I wonder if my students returning in August will even notice the NFL missed OTAs, rookie camps, etc. Even if they don't, it's definitely a topic that can be mined over and over again throughout the school year.

And if we can't use an NFL lockout as a current event, there's always the NBA...

Predictably Cheating

From: usoge.gov

I found this article in the Washington Post by Duke professor Dan Airely. He's a behavioral economist who wrote a fascinating book I recommend, Predictably Irrational. Today's article breaks down the consequences of paying/rewarding teachers based solely on test scores.

As always, the comments are interesting, especially the very first one (from the doctor)...

What's Next For Soccer?

Despite playing soccer during my formative years, I'm no great fan of the game. However, I will watch the World Cup if our boys (or girls) are involved.

So I caught the overtime and penalty kicks part of the Women's World Cup, where Japan defeated us after scoring an equalizer with under 10 minutes left in regulation and tying the game in the second OT. The Japanese squad went on to win in penalty kicks.

Two Thoughts
1) There are girls playing soccer all over the U.S, around 1 million participants; in Japan, only 25,000 girls play soccer. It's impressive that the Japanese national team can take a limited pool of athletes and turn them into world champs. I guess the equivalent for us would be if our curling team won the Olympic gold medal.

2) After the '99 World Cup win, there was nationwide enthusiasm about women's soccer, to the point that a women's soccer league was formed and had a national TV contract. Call it a wild hunch, but I get the feeling that this year's squad wouldn't attract the same amount of publicity/endorsements that the '99ers did. Maybe it's the Mia Hamm factor.

Big Advertising in the Big Apple

Photo by: me

My family recently returned from a trip to New York City, and the advertising, particularly around Times Square, always grabs my attention.

Why? I guess it's because so much of it is devoted to promoting TV shows and movies. At home, most billboards are advertising local stores or services. In New York, I saw a ton of ads for the last Harry Potter movie, as well as Rizzoli & Isles, Alphas, Torchwood and many more.

The only TV show I can recall seeing being advertised via billboards around here was the show Witchblade, nearly 10 years ago. Why aren't there more TV shows being advertised outside a major media market like NYC? My guess: due to TV shows living and dying on viewer eyeballs, marketers believe they can get more bang for their buck by advertising these shows in major cities, where more eyeballs will see the ads. I also have to believe that trying to catch the attention of critics (based in big cities) factors in, too. Although critical success doesn't guarantee the survival of a show--I'm sure the cast and crew of Men of a Certain Age would agree with me.