Why Do I Teach?

Short, but worth the read from The New York Times on-going column 'The Stone':

Why I Do I Teach?

Why Private Schools Are Dying Out

There are some really fascinating and nauseating points in this article. Perhaps we should discuss in a faculty meeting?


Worth a read "Why Private Schools Are Dying Out" - Chester E. Finn Jr. - The Atlantic

http://mer.gy/1wk

Summer reading

The Google Certified Teacher's list recently had a conversation about
books on the topic of 21st Century Students/Learning. Here is a Shelfari another teacher (from the Village School) put together with all of the suggestions (some of which have already been mentioned in this blog). Let's take the time to add more to the shelf ...?

Carolyn

http://www.shelfari.com/o1514890621/shelf

Why You Never Truly Leave High School

This is an interesting article from New York Magazine highlighting the importance that experiences in adolescents play in shaping our lives.  Ms. Senior notes that high schools are arenas of 'social combat' that are 'almost sadistically unhealthy places to send adolescents' for a variety of reasons, including the lack of contact with adults:  ''...psychologists Joseph and Claudia Worrell Allen note that teenagers today spend just 16 hours per week interacting with adults and 60 with their cohort. One century ago, it was almost exactly the reverse."  Because of this, adolescents establish their own set of rules for sorting or creating a hierarchy as the only thing they often have in common is age.  Ms. Senior points out that this non-mixing with people of a variety of ages is artificial and never occurs again in one's life.  She also cites various studies centered around the powerful emotion of 'shame' and how adolescent actions involving shame can stick with people their entire lives.  She also notes that high school might be the defining American Experience because just like a high school, we live in a world that is a 'box of interacting strangers'.  

I recommend it as worth the time to read as it raises interesting questions about how Blair is perhaps different from the larger public high schools that the studies focus in on, and whether even with our communities ability to overcome some of these obstacles there could be more that we could do as the adult members of the community to help our students navigate this important time in their lives.

Why Your Never Truly Leave High School

Influences on Student Learning by John Hattie

Blair brought this site to our attention at the last PDC meeting:

Growth Mindset

Teachers: Will We Ever Learn?

This recent piece from The New York Times is well worth a read.  Although it addresses public education, several of Mehta's arguments are applicable to the independent school world, and in fact, I would argue that independent schools should take a lead role as the incubators for several of the ideas Professor Mehta puts forward.

Teachers: Will We Ever Learn?

Can a Computer Grade Your Essays?

This article (link below) from today's NYT describes a new edX plan to offer essay-grading software on the web for free.  The software is a logical complement to edX's goal of providing free courses online, as it will allow those courses to use essays as evaluation tools.  Moreover, the software should provide students with quicker feedback on their written work.

Of course, critics are concerned about the software's ability to evaluate writing with a formula:
“Let’s face the realities of automatic essay scoring,” the group’s statement reads in part.   “Computers cannot ‘read.’ They cannot measure the essentials of effective written communication: accuracy, reasoning, adequacy of evidence, good sense, ethical stance, convincing argument, meaningful organization, clarity, and veracity, among others.”

An interesting read, and the free software, once available, could be an interesting complement to what we already do in assessing student writing and providing feedback.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/05/science/new-test-for-computers-grading-essays-at-college-level.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&hp

Furthermore, I know others (Hans and Stacey, for starters) have used edX or Coursera for online coursework, and I look forward to giving it a try sometime in the near future.

The Empirical Kids

This is an interesting article from David Brooks in today's New York Times regarding how current college students view the world.  It made me think about how our own students view the world, what shaped their views, and made me reconsider what approach our students, especially the seniors headed off to college, will take to their own education and professional choices.

The Empirical Kids

The Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning

Thanks to Marty Miller for passing along this link to The Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning at St. Andrew's Episcopal School.  The CTTL is run by former Blair faculty member Glenn Whitman, and the website includes a blog as well as links to other resources.

Another great source for professional development.

http://www.thecttl.org/aboutcttl/index.aspx

Alfie Kohn: "Feel-Bad Education"

In thinking about our first PDC Thursday Discussion tomorrow evening, I've been reading Alfie Kohn's most recent book -- Feel-Bad Education.  This collection of essays are a wonderful introduction to Mr. Kohn's thinking and approach to education, and I've found a number of things that really strike me as significant.  It is definitely worth taking a look!  The library copy will be back on the shelf later this week...

Amazon Link:
http://www.amazon.com/Feel-Bad-Education-Contrarian-Children-Schooling/dp/0807001406

Outlining in Reverse & John McPhee On Structure

    

 I thought this was an interesting piece in today's New York Times that discusses the writing process and outlining AFTER you have written the story.  Granted, Hamburger is a professional writer who admits to beginning his writing career as a pre-writing 'outliner', but it can be useful in class to have students first write their essay, then go back and outline it, and then of course after finding all the missteps and gaps, go back and rewrite the essay filling in the missing pieces of the reverse outline they created.

Outlining in Reverse

     I would also recommend John McPhee's recent piece in The New Yorker entitled 'Structure'.  Unfortunately, it's part of the locked subscriber on-line content, but if you have access and enjoy non-fiction then it is the master (in my opinion) discussing his craft.

Note:  Blair users can access the document at this link:  "MCPhee" Google Drive Share

Quiet: The Power of Introverts

     Hans already shared a post on Susan Cain's Quiet:  The Power of Introverts, but I'd just like to follow-up with a recommendation for reading the book or at least taking a look at the link that Hans posted for Cain's interview and TED Talk on the topic:  How Do Introverts Share Ideas?
     Cain offers wonderful insights regarding how introverts often adopt a 'public' extrovert personality because our society, and particularly our educational system, tend to overvalue the gregarious and out-going over those who would rather spend time alone in quieter settings or who dread too much interaction with others.  This can be an exhausting process for anyone who feels they have to live their life in this manner.  She has an excellent chapter on the difficulty that some Asian students have integrating themselves into the American school system where talking often signals wisdom and understanding as opposed to the predominant philosophy in Asian societies that not speaking and focusing on contemplation and a reserved public persona connotes true wisdom.  Additionally, Cain argues that the concept of 'group work', both in business and in education, has its limitations because of the number of introverts in our society and that businesses and schools should remain cognizant of the fact that they should always offer a mix of opportunities for individuals to create, work, and learn.
     It's an interesting, relatively quick read that covers many areas that we discuss quite frequently:  public speaking, how people learn, efficiency and structure, personal relationships etc.  The library has a copy on display right now for those who want to spend some quiet time inside on a nice, comfy couch.

Interesting Blog

Below is the link to a blog I occasionally looked at last year and returned to today.  The author, Stephen Valentine, is at MKA and, at one point, worked with Stacey as an intern at the PEA Summer Session.  I appreciate his thoughtful blend of personal and professional reflection on the subjects of teaching and learning.

http://www.refreshingwednesday.com/my_weblog/refreshing-wednesday-table-of-contents.html

Getting to No - Robert Evans

Dr. Evans's article from Independent School Magazine - Winter 2012.

Getting to No

The Case Against Color-Blind Admissions by Ronald Dworkin | The New York Review of Books

An interesting piece for those interested in civil rights, constitutional law, college placement, or how to create a diverse school community (even at the secondary school level).  Raises some interesting questions how admissions teams should weigh the different talents, backgrounds, and characteristics applicants bring to the table.

The Case Against Color-Blind Admissions by Ronald Dworkin | The New York Review of Books

Books as a Social Learning Tool

This is an interesting project to allow learning through shared annotating of More's Utopia. Another way books are evolving.

http://chronicle.com/article/Social-Reading-Projects/135908/

The Wayfinders by Wade Davis

As Explorer-in-Residence at National Geographic, Wade Davis may well have the coolest job in the world and definitely the best title.  And while his recent collection of lectures does give us a peak into the life of a modern-day explorer, it also is a collection of some of the most poignant prose and thoughtful evaluation of modernity I have read in quite some time.  With discussions of the power of language to craft culture and the void created when languages are lost and the force of sacred geography and how we respond to the physical spaces in our lives, this book touches on so many things that continue to come to mind in conversations in class.  I can't recommend the book enough...

I'll leave this with two quotes:

"We too are culturally myopic and often forget that we represent not the absolute wave of history but merely a worldview, and that modernity -- whether you identify it by the monikers westernization, capitalism, democracy, or free trade -- is but an expression of our cultural values.  It is not some objective force removed from the constrains of culture.  And it is certainly not the true and only pulse of history" (p 193).

From the Joint Declaration of the Mamos of the Sierra Nevadas:   

"Who will pay the universal mother for the air we breathe, the water that flows, the light of the sun?  Everything that exists has a spirit that is sacred and must be respected.  Our law is the Law of Origins, the Law of Life.  We invite all the Younger Brothers to be guardians of life.  We affirm our promise to the Mother, and issue a call for solidarity and unity for all peoples and all nations" (p 147).

Against School?

This article is probably the most interesting piece I've ever read on education.  I find myself challenged everytime I read it.  I question how much overlap I have with the historical model, the breadth and meaning of the content I teach, the level of curiosity and thinking that really goes on in the room.  It's from Harper's Magazine and came out when I first started teaching.  Teacher Man, by Frank McCourt, comes to mind as a parallel.

Against School

Advocating for "long reads"...

Schooling: What Should Children Read?

Shakespeare vs. menus: The battle over public school reading lists.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/22/what-should-children-read/?smid=pl-share

This article references the type of longform writing that provides opportunities for breadth of subject matter, but enough depth to challenge the reader in important ways.  Both ProPublica and Longform are fantastic sites, and of course the Gladwell articles from the New Yorker are powerful reminders of how good non-fiction writing can be.

Links:

http://www.gladwell.com/

http://longform.org/

www.propublica.org

Freedom & Diversity: A Liberal Pentagram for Living Together by Timothy Garton Ash | The New York Review of Books

While he is writing specifically about today's Europe, Ash's comments on multiculturalism (or moving beyond it) have relevance to our school communities as well.  He writes:

Nor is this only a task for public policy. It is the personal responsibility of every one of us who lives in such a society. The character of everyday interactions, at school, at work, on the street, in the café, will affect the attitudes of migrants and postmigrants at least as much as any high policy. Small slights alienate, small courtesies integrate.

Freedom & Diversity: A Liberal Pentagram for Living Together by Timothy Garton Ash | The New York Review of Books