Next Event: Olympic-Level Whining

From: buzzbox.com

It's been great to sit at home during the day and check out the odd judo or rowing event on NBC's Olympics, whether it's been on NBC itself or Bravo/MSNBC/NBCSports.  Apparently, some people are upset because they're not seeing the big sports (swimming, gymnastics) live during the day and have to wait for NBC's prime time wrap-up special.

NBC is an easy target: they have consistently finished last place in the ratings for some time now.  And for them, the Olympics is a big chance to make some money before their new fall TV shows get embarrassed again.  Despite the complaints, it appears that NBC has made the right decision with their tape-delayed broadcasts.  The ratings are through the roof right now, and if there is another Michael Phelps-type story, all the better.

My only complaint: why not show everything live during the day, and then do your recap at night?  The people working during the day will watch the prime time coverage anyway (I think).

Why Johnny Can't Write

From: rmc.edu

Good blog in the Washington Post this week about why Johnny can't write.  In the blog, a college professor tells the story of a student so ignorant that he couldn't even cheat write.

This blog was a follow-up to another blog post about how to make assignments plagarism-proof.  That has been something that has bothered me since I was a student.  If you care enough about the assignment to cheat, then just do the assignment.  If you don't care about the assignment, then don't do it (or don't do a good job on it).

As I explained at our summer conference last week, the only way I know how to make assignments cheat-proof is to ask a lot of open-ended questions.  This creates a lot of work on my end after students turn in their assignments, but it is worth it to me if I can get original work from them.

Long-term, I'm not sure what the answer is to stamping out cheating.  When I give out worksheets, the default response of my students is to turn to each other and share answers--before I even finish giving the instructions.  If we're going to fix this culture, it's going to take more than just a few teachers to do so.

Summer Conference Day 3: Collaborating

From: imdb.com

Collaborating seems to be one of those buzzwords that's been around at least as long as I've been in education.  Maybe we talk about it so much because teaching can be such a lonely profession.  If you don't talk to your colleagues, you may feel like you're surrounded by students all day long.

Over the last three days of our summer conference, I've been impressed with the enthusiasm and extent to which we have collaborated.  Maybe it's because all of this new curriculum forces teachers to either

a) do it all by themselves
b) rely on other teachers to shoulder the burden


Whatever the reason, it's great to see that we can put our minds together and lighten each of our collective loads.

Summer Conference Day 2: Taking Notes

From: chicgalleria.com

I was a presenter in a round table discussion on the second day of our summer conference.  I was worried that I wouldn't be able to talk intelligently for 15 minutes, but it turns out that I was pressed for time and didn't even get all my information disseminated in the allotted time.

The one thing that really struck me was the other teachers sitting at my table.  I soon as I started talking, people began taking notes (even though I told them I had supporting files available to download).  It was highly flattering that my colleagues felt what I said was important enough to write down--my family thinks my intelligence is one level below Homer Simpson.

Summer Conference Day 1: Whew!

I got to kick off our summer conference by leading a four hour workshop on the new SEM I curriculum.  I was nervous about the session would go well...turns out I shouldn't have been.  My group was wonderful and we got a lot of work done.

I spent about a month working on the Sliderocket above.  It was a useful tool for the workshop, especially since I don't have PowerPoint on my personal computer.  The only drawback--the convention center's wireless connection was so slow that the YouTube videos I embedded would barely play.  That was a bummer, but if it's the worst thing that happens, then so be it.

Failure to Lead

From: startribune.com

With the recently released Freeh Report, all college football fans (and Americans in general) have yet another example of leaders failing to lead.

One of the core leadership principles I learned in the Marine Corps is to know your troops and look out for their welfare.  In the Penn State case, the welfare of the victims was obviously of low or no priority to the president, athletic department administrators and Joe Paterno.   It became clear after the report that the senior staff knew Jerry Sandusky was being investigated by the cops all the way back in 1998.  So when an assistant coach tells you in 2001 that he catches the same guy in a shower with a kid, you're supposed to...what?  Tell him not to do it again?

To the leaders at Penn State, it's very apparent that the reputation of the school and the football program was of greater importance than the well-being of the victims of Jerry Sandusky.  Shame on those men for failing to act.  It's too bad that Joe Paterno has already passed--he could join his fellow "leaders" in prison when the time comes.

School is Too Easy

From: splgrafton.org

So, USA Today has an article on a survey of students.  The students report that school is too easy.  Yup, all of my students that graduated with a sub-1.0 GPA or 10th from the bottom in their graduating class--it was all because school was too easy.

Make sure you read the comments under the article.  There are actually a few teacher-defenders out there!

Common Core Exposed?

From: wikipedia.org

Our district devoted 3 days (18 hours) of training last year to Common Core standards.  I feel like I got off easy--our elementary teachers had to endure 54 hours of it.

It's not that I'm against Common Core standards per se.  There's always going to be some buzzword that will have administrators chasing their tails, as well as ours.  It's just that, after 18 hours of this training, plus more at our school, I really couldn't tell you what Common Core is all about.  It seems like most of our time was spent talking about how CTE already does the stuff that Common Core requires.  We ended up spending a lot of time working on our classes, which was fine, but it makes me wonder what good all of this does us.

Enter the story in the Washington Post this week:  a good indictment of the whole Common Core program.

Not Even a PhD Helps

From: biosulf.org

A surprising article from the Washington Post, at least for me: people with PhDs in science are struggling to get employment after getting their doctorate.

How much hype have we heard about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) in the last few years?  Politicians and administrators alike have funded courses and buildings and encouraged students to pursue careers in these fields.  Now it turns out that we have more scientists than jobs available.

I'm all for students pursuing their dreams, especially when it comes to (theoretically) high-paying, stable career fields.  But what's not cool is when we over-emphasize these occupations at the expense of others.  Those of us in business and marketing say hello!