Stop Stealing Dreams What is school for? The economy has changed, probably forever. School hasn't. School was invented to create a constant stream of compliant factory workers to the growing businesses of the 1900s. It continues to do an excellent job at achieving this goal, but it's not a goal we need to achieve any longer. In this 30,000 word manifesto, I imagine a different set of goals and start (I hope) a discussion about how we can reach them. Our kids are too important to sacrifice to the status quo. [We have a new cover! You can get your copy for free Here are four versions of the manifesto. There are several versions of the manifesto. One is a PDF designed to be read on your screen. The other featured edition is a PDF formatted to be printed on any printer. If you have a Kindle or a Nook or any other device, see below for some links on how to import the PDF to your device.
Hockey-Reference.com | Hockey Statistics and History Crossing Paths—We are here to Awaken Each Other. Who said we can only find answers through lovers, friends, acquaintances or family? Sometimes a complete stranger can answer our questions and give us insight with an inspirational direction. The other day I went to a coffee shop all by myself. As I was having tea, I contemplated life. As I was drowning in my own thoughts, I heard the word “Buddhism” coming from a girl who was sitting at the table right in front of me. I am not normally the type of person who eavesdrops. The girl was sitting with two friends and telling them about a man who she met at the airport. That man was a Buddhist. He explained to her how human beings are conditioned and refuse to think outside the box. He tackled God, religion and life. After speaking with this man for awhile, the girl had an epiphany. She told her friends that this stranger had awakened her in some way. He opened a portal for her. She experienced intense awakening—crying loudly when she reached the plane. Instantly, I had an epiphany myself.
Baseball-Reference.com - Major League Baseball Statistics and History CYSD Web 2.0 FERPA/COPPA Compliance Notable - Better Interfaces Through Faster Iterations Interiority - 01 | St Augustine of Hippo | Order of St Augustine This is our "resting in God." As the opening paragraph of the Confessions of Augustine acknowledges, "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you." (Confessions, 1,1.) Only in God is found the final happiness of any person. By way of the interior life we are capable of knowing and loving God. In the perception of Augustine, this requires our going into ourselves, of making perfect the heart so that with uninterrupted desire we may arrive at god. "Do not look outside; return to yourself. And, again, Augustine advised, "Enter, then, into your heart (Isaiah 46:8) and if you have faith, you will find Christ there. For Augustine, interiority was not only a means of approach of God. For Augustine, interiority – or inwardness – is actually three layers of ideas. Firstly and most simply, it is personal inward space (Confessions 10, 17). Secondly, it is inward personal revelation or illumination.
Three evolving thoughts about flipped learning - Casting Out Nines While specifications grading continues to unfold in class, I’m also still using and refining the flipped learning model. Recently I had time to reflect on how I’m implementing flipped learning in my classes, and I noticed that some of my thoughts on flipped learning have evolved over the last few years, including some breaks from things I’ve written here on the blog. Here are three of those thoughts that stood out for me. What I used to think: Pre-class activity in a flipped learning model is about mastering content-oriented instructional objectives. What I think now: Pre-class activity is for generating questions. I attended a talk by Jeremy Strayer last year, and he said something that stuck with me: that the purpose of pre-class work in the flipped classroom is to “launch” the in-class activity. So based on all of this, I’ve started learning away from “content delivery” as the main purpose of pre-class work and toward the notion of question generation. Here’s another evolving thought:
Philosopher Daniel Dennett Presents Seven Tools For Critical Thinking Love him or hate him, many of our readers may know enough about Daniel C. Dennett to have formed some opinion of his work. While Dennett can be a soft-spoken, jovial presence, he doesn’t suffer fuzzy thinking or banal platitudes— what he calls “deepities”—lightly. In a recent Guardian article, Dennett excerpts seven tools for thinking from the new book. 1. Dennett’s first tool recommends rigorous intellectual honesty, self-scrutiny, and trial and error. 2. Often known as reading in “good faith” or “being charitable,” this second point is as much a rhetorical as a logical tool, since the essence of persuasion involves getting people to actually listen to you. 3. A “Klaxon” is a loud, electric horn—such as a car horn—an urgent warning. 4. Like the use of “surely,” a rhetorical question can be a substitute for thinking. 5. The 14th-century English philosopher William of Occam lent his name to this principle, which previously went by the name of lex parsimonious, or the law of parsimony.
5 Strategic Tips for First-Year Administrators Once a fourth-grade teacher, I recently began my work as an elementary assistant principal in another district. Based on my research and what I have experienced so far, I'd like to offer five ways for a rookie administrator to successfully navigate his or her new position. 1. Establishing Relationships Relationships come before everything. 2. Just as teachers should never forget what it's like to be a student, administrators should never forget what it's like to be a teacher. I'm looking for examples of exemplary instruction so that we can take advantage of our expertise during teacher-led professional development. 3. Do less talking and more listening, but don't stop there. 4. Approach your job with the notion that everyone has something to contribute, because a valuable idea can come from absolutely anyone. 5. In today's connected world, all educators should be actively looking for ideas and resources from outside their district. What tips do you have for first-year administrators?
Next Generation Sustainability Maura K. Adams The word “sustainability” gets thrown around a lot these days. Sometimes the focus is on “financial sustainability,” making sure we can pay the bills over the long run. Other times, we talk about “personal sustainability” — getting the rest and care we need to function at our best. But hundreds of colleges and corporations are using “sustainability” primarily to describe their efforts to create a world that sustains both human and ecological well-being. When schools genuinely commit to this latter definition of sustainability, they are aiming to both exemplify and create such a world. Doing so is no easy task, but it’s one we can’t afford to avoid — and one that is already embedded in our missions, whether we recognize it or not. While schools have long been committed to certain aspects of what we now know as sustainability — diversity programs, global education, community service, and others — the environmental component is relatively new. Travel Endowment Investment Energy
We're All Failures Academics are wired to achieve, and their CVs are designed to showcase their every accomplishment. While rejection is a fact of academic life, most faculty don’t share the gory details. Every successful scholar has tanked job interviews; been turned down for fellowships, postdocs, and grants; and had publications that flopped. Faced with failure, academics tend to paper over it (which doesn't make it hurt any less) and quietly blame themselves. So it's been inspiring to see scholars like Melanie Stefan, Devoney Looser, Johannes Haushofer go public with "CVs of Failure" that list their numerous brushes with defeat in glorious detail. Theresa MacPhail: "It's Not About You." The best advice I received about rejection came from Andrew Lakoff at the University of Southern California, who told me early on not to take rejection personally. Jim Lang: "I Cut My Teeth on Rejection, and the Possibility of Rejection Keeps Them Sharp." Natalie T.J. For me, admitting defeat or failure is difficult.
The 7 Liberal Arts - Trivium, Quadrivium and Logical Fallacies In medieval universities the Trivium combined with the Quadrivium comprised the seven liberal arts. This teaching method is based on a curriculum outlined by Plato. One of the key intentions behind applying the Trivium and the Quadrivium is to distinguish between reality and fiction. By training the mind how to think - instead of what to think - this method provides a teaching of the art and the science of the mind as well as the art of the science of matter. Tools of Knowing The Trivium and the Quadrivium are often presented in a Pythagorean triagle which represents the human way of knowing : Any observation enters our mind through the 5 senses. The Trivium method of thought The Trivium is the first half of the 7 Liberal Arts. Within the process of seeing, conceptualizing and speaking it is important to be aware that the created concept about how we think reality is, does not equate reality as it really is. The Scientific Method The Scientific Method is a common procedure used in science.