Philosophy Without A Home

Job Interview II Perhaps I was too subtle with the last post. Too often in the world of education everyone seems to think they are experts on education simply because they participated in the educational system. I even had one man complain that teachers and principals were recommending expensive educational programs. The point is if I'm not qualified to manage a retail store with no experience actually working in the store then perhaps we might defer to the experts when discussing education. That isn't to say that parents shouldn't speak up when they feel their children need an advocate. It also doesn't mean taxpayers don't have a right to question where their money is going. What it does mean is that most of the time we listen to the experts. More often than not they have the best interests of the school or children at heart and aren't trying to sca, upi/

I went on a job interview yesterday. Asst. Manager for a retail store. I shop whenever I have the money, I figure that makes me an expert on retail stores. The HR person interviewing me insisted on asking about my experience working in retail. Now I don't have much experience in a retail store. That is to say my experience consists of working at a gas station a few years back. I shop though and that should make me an expert. So I don't understand when the HR lady, who herself is not a retail store manager, asked me how I thought it was possible that she could hire me to supervise when I would know less than the associates I was supposed to be supervising.

I'm loving this idea by J Krause . I remember my days as a high school student. I was about as lazy and cocky as it was possible for a high school student to be, yes I know that is saying a lot. I did the minimum amount of work necessary to pass and probably less than that on many occasions. I did however pass, though sometimes I think just because the school didn't want to deal with me one more year. This may be good or bad depending on your point of view. It's good, because evidently I generally have a better grasp of the knowledge and skills that make up the high school curriculum than the average high school student. I personally don't see the harm in graduating from high school if you have the knowledge and skills high school is supposed to teach. It's bad because I never learned what to do when my limits were tested. I was never held back because of my lack of effort. I might have been given a poor grade, but never held back. After high school I went off to co

gTeachers Strike Originally published April 25, 2008 – 5:48 am by Brendan Can you imagine 400,000 people staying home from work? As a teacher I am often asked how I would fix schools in America. I always say the easiest way is to raise starting salaries to about $60,000 a year then wait seven to ten years. I figure the raise in pay will attract so many eager new students that colleges will be raising standards to keep classes to a manageable size. In about four years schools will have so many new applicants they can pick the best of the best. Then after a few years teaching we will start to feel the effect of these new high quality teachers. Before I get flamed like crazy this is not the entirety of what I would do if by some weird coincidence I actually had that sort of power and influence. It’s more of a discussion starter for a question that is more rhetorical than real. I would like to qualify that we do have many outstanding teachers in our schools. I think almost every educato

Teacher Pay Originally published May 21, 2008 – 6:15 am by Brendan When the folks at Global Scholar asked if anyone would like to be a blogger and not get paid I actually jumped at the chance. I’m one of those guys who has a book somewhere inside, but I can never seem to get it out. I figure it is because I can never seem to follow through with the first piece of advice any writer will tell you: sit down and write everyday. So here I am writing everyday. I’m pretty new at this blogging stuff, or old if you think about it. (As a motorcycle enthusiast I was writing about my travels before I knew blog was a word) I do have two blogs as a sort of diary for my boys that I hope they will take over when they get old enough. The surprising thing to me was how many blogs are out there just on the state of education. Today I looked at Educationwonk , Coach Brown , Scenes from the Battleground , And Three Standard Deviations to the Left , among others. It was Three Standard Deviations to the

I used to blog for my old company, but they took the blog down. I am not actually allowed to own the writings I put up on that blog, but as I reference them on occasion in my writing I am putting those articles up in my archives here for reference sake. I'll put the tag GS on those articles noting that they were originally published on the http://schoolfinder.globalscholar.com/blog/ Firing Teachers Originally published May 22, 2008 – 6:48 am by Brendan Yesterday I wrote about attracting the best and the brightest teachers. There are two basic things that need to change if we are going to attract the best and the brightest teachers. (This is not to say that some of the teachers now aren’t the best and the brightest.) The first is to raise teacher pay and the second is to increase the respect for the profession of teaching. It always shocks me how many people think teachers don’t work for their money. It also shocks me how so many people, when they find out I am a teacher

Watch this great TedTalk by Dan Pink . Being the educator I am I want to look at this idea from a classroom standpoint. How will this improve education? If we really want to over simplify educational philosophies we can say there are two basic ideas in play right now. First, there is the NCLB philosophy that views education as a simple ladder and students work their way up the ladder until they ultimately graduate from high school and are accepted into college. Second, there is the whole-child philosophy that views education as one great interconnected blob where students absorb material from all sides as they work on projects that aren't focused on one specific skill. I don't want to argue the relative merits of each idea, or even my over-simplification, I want to discuss how to motivate students in each philosophy. My oversimplification should make the choice obvious, but for those who didn't stop and watch the video first let's take a look. If you have problem that

originally posted May 1, 2008 – 6:41 am by Brendan (On a blog that is now closed) In Chicago, it is getting more dangerous to be a student. This year, 24 students have been murdered since the beginning of the school year. A pace that might exceed last year’s record of 32 murders. (None on school grounds) The interesting twist is that according to a recent survey from the University of Chicago , many students feel safer in their classrooms than outside of them. They just need to get to school safely and during that time they can concentrate on learning I suppose. Here we have schools, in the much maligned U.S. education system, combating gang wars in the neighborhoods that require parents and police to escort students to and from school, so that they make sure they get there safely, along with on average 85 percent poverty rates. Yet still, students manage to improve academically, according to the NY Times . I am proud of the improvements that have been made in the educational system

What personal characteristics define an excellent administrator? Attention to detail Ability to see the big picture Support of staff Elasticity of the mind - willingness to try new things Life long learner Open and transparent with his/her own personal development Follows through with commitments My blog on the subject from February http://philosophywithoutahome.blogspot.com/2009/02/what-makes-good-principal.html What Makes A Good Principal I am hoping to start a leadership training program this summer, if I am accepted. Moving on to administration has always been a desire. I had the opportunity after my second year of teaching, but I thought I needed more experience as a teacher. After seven years of teaching in two schools and three grades I think I'm ready to begin learning. In preparation of a possible interview request I thought I would reflect a bit about the principals I've known. In my seven years of teaching I've had 4 different principals. (I've also had 6 su

I'm one of those old fashion Irish guys who is quick to get mad and quick to forgive. That was fine as a kid, but as an adult I had to start learning how to be more mature. To do so I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and learned the universe did not randomly break things just to mess with my head. Then I worked at a summer camp as a cabin counselor. Children are not cats, you cannot herd them . I learned to let go and just let kids be kids. Next I taught. It turns out the average classroom has 29 Tom Sawyers and 1 Becky Thatcher. I learned students love to explore and learn, but they don't like uncertainty. If you make the classroom safe with predictable situations the students will stop trying to take over and start trying to learn. I had a mantra when I taught 4th grade. "You have to be smarter than the kids " Meaning simply that if I got into a war of wills with the kids I would always lose, but if I used my brain I could convince my students they wa

I used to have this in electronic form but the 3.5 inch floppy is long gone. The hard copy is a bit water damaged thus the difficulty in reading. If you would like to retype or run it through an OCR and correct the typos be my guest. I doubt it is good enough to warrant that much attention. On the other hand there are some good quotes that are still very relevant today. Please find your own and put them in the comments or I'll get to rereading it for the third time and see if I can highlight some of my favorites. Now onto the thesis in PDF form

In Chicago, it is getting more dangerous to be a student. This year, we eclipsed the number of murders in March, three months before the school year ends. The interesting twist is that according to a recent survey from the University of Chicago , many students feel safer in their classrooms than outside of them. They just need to get to school safely and during that time they can concentrate on learning I suppose. Here we have schools, in the much maligned U.S. education system, combating gang wars in the neighborhoods that require parents and police to escort students to and from school, so that they make sure they get there safely, along with on average 85 percent poverty rates. Yet still, students manage to improve academically, according to the NY Times . I am proud of the improvements that have been made in the educational system of the United States over the years. I know that we will continue to make improvements. And I hope that in the future when people forward spam emails

It is popular in some areas to complain about teachers. Tenure allows bad teachers to continue working long after they have should have been fired. I will admit I have met teachers that should have been fired years ago, but I also know people in all lines of work who should be fired. Teachers are overpaid. I know a lot of people think teachers are overpaid, but I also happen to think a lot of CEO's, bankers, politicians, and car salesmen are overpaid. Just because I think it doesn't make it right. Teachers should be considered glorified babysitters because students don't learn anything anyway. As for babysitter trust me it is a lot easier than teaching. Of course if people compare the prices of daycare and public school they might think twice about this comparison. Those who can do; those who can't teach. one of the best answers I've ever seen is here . It has been said that “He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.” I have often wondered whether there is any truth

Should we break up large factory style schools? Bill Gates found out that larger schools do have some advantages namely choice of classes. What they lack is the individualized student attention. Now we have two choices we can make smaller schools and use technology to offer the wide variety of choices students can find in larger schools. Or we can have larger schools with a better administrative structure. More of a decentralized structure al le Napoleon. With better teachers who have the knowledge, resources, and power to make positive changes. I'm thinking it would be easier to do the former. Simply because the infrastructure building is cheaper, but also because the advantages can be given to any size school.

Check out this SlideShare Presentation: Teacher Skills View more presentations from dendari .

An interesting question. There are those who love a good textbook [ How a Physics Textbook Changed My Life ]  and those who hate it [ I don't use a textbook in social studies . ]. As the world of education matures what and how we use textbooks needs to change also. Even publishers are looking for new ways to create textbooks. Textbook publisher sees future in e-books By  Gwendolyn Mariano  Staff Writer, CNET News March 14, 2001 The problem is if education is heading for a disruption as Clayton Christensen , Michael Horn , and Curtis Johnson suggest in their book Disrupting Class then simply improving textbooks won't be enough. Students in a classroom with a textbook, even a textbook found on a CD ROM, will not be good enough for a disrupted education. Where does all of this leave the textbook industry? In the same place as the rest of us, redefining what we do and how we do it — retooling for a new century.   David Warlick , May 15, 2004 In many school districts today (no

Using Twitter , Facebook, personal learning networks and time suck. An interesting tweet from @tryed. @glassbeed Interesting. Older students are dropping Facebook for Twitter In response I think to this retweet from @glassbeed RT @biggmaxx OK, this one's great...from one of my students today in class...."Twitter is Facebook for old people" When I was in college, the first time, we young students generally respected the older students. As a rule the older students worked harder and got better grades than most of us younger guys. We knew there was some sort of wisdom gained with age we just couldn't seem to use it. I mean doing homework, reviewing or even rewriting notes, going to sleep at reasonable hours, preparing for the day; we knew these sorts of things would improve our grades, but we just couldn't seem to do them. Here's my view of Twitter and Facebook. After reading I hope you will understand why it is not a wonder to me that older students wo

I was cleaning my oldest boy's room the other day. My wife saw me heading to the garbage can with a bag of broken toys. She wanted me to keep all of his toys because he will literally play with anything.  While it is true that I will often find him playing with broken toys, that doesn't mean we have to keep every broken toy in the bin because he will play with it if he ever gets to the bottom of the toy box again.  It did get me thinking though. Here's my theory on toys, gleaned from reading pop psychology articles over email. Plain boring toys, blocks, Legos etc, increase imagination because the child must build something with the toy, use the toy as a symbol or what ever that requires a bit of imagination. Trademarked toys, Lightning McQueen, or basically any Disney product, reinforce the story and hopefully the message it told. It builds some imaginative play but mostly helps retelling of stories and reinforcement of ideas. Video games and TV are mostly passive wat

So here I am reading this Clay Shirky post , Retrieved April 13, 2009, and thinking what would happen if newspapers did die out in our country. I don't have an answer that will save the newspaper industry, sorry guys. The fact is " Five years ago, the market value of the publicly traded U.S. newspaper companies was $80 billion. Today it is $5B ." or at least that is what I heard on 3:17 PM Nov 10th, 2008 on Twitter from @gcolony ). It would seem that the newspaper industry as we know it is dying and we really can't save it. On the other hand journalism isn't dead and it isn't dying. As I see it journalism is actually getting stronger, but we readers MUST be get stronger as well. Over the past decade of so my news source has changed from getting most of my news from the big 3, (Newspaper, TV, and radio) to most of my news from the Internet. Though I still get a lot of my information from major news sites. I tend to follow up with in-depth reporting from non-t

This is a long response to a comment on a LinkedIn article . Basically the parent wants to know why her middle school doesn't have quality Science support for gifted children.  In general the model for elementary schools in the U.S. is one teacher per grade teaching all subjects. This is the way one-room school houses worked, this is the way we still do it. That isn't to say it isn't the best way of doing things. In middle school the model moves from one teacher per class towards one teacher per subject. Then in high school the model moves to several teachers per subject. That isn't to say this always happens, just in general.  The biggest benefit of having one teacher (besides the lower cost of integrating several teachers into one) is the ease with which the teacher can integrate across subjects. The low level of mastery required for teaching the subjects at the elementary grade levels makes it possible to have just one teacher for all subjects. One problem I have

An old cartoon from 1993. Back then few people knew or cared about who the actual person was visiting a web site. That all changed of course, with Google and the economy based on tracking peoples movements on the internet.  Back then it was possible to use a fake name and pretty much hide your identity from most everyone else on the internet. Today almost every web site takes the basic information like your ip address, browser type, etc... 15 years ago the internet was more of a wild wild west environment for the general public. Outside the original University environment it was not uncommon for just about everyone to assume one or more pseudonyms. It is fun to pretend to be someone else and say or do what you wouldn't normally have the courage to do in real life. We still see this unfettered open lifestyle on many comment boards. I suspect that many webmasters encourage the anonymous partisan comments because it drives up hits to the original article.  On the other hand the we

Recently @ courosa tweeted this blog post The Interview Question you Should Ask . The question is "What do you do with your spare time?" The answer should be, according to the article, pretty much the same thing I do at work. Thus you are putting in twice as much time as the next guy and will be that much better. It is sort of the same idea as Malcom Gladwell discovered in his book "Outliers: The Story of Success" I haven't read it yet, but it seems to be making the rounds in my particular echo chamber and I have picked up on the basic idea. (or what everyone says is the basic idea) That is that to become an expert at something you need 10,000 hours of practice. Or the difference between someone who is accepted to a school like Juliard and someone not accepted is that the first put in 10,000 hours of practice (about 8 hrs a day for 10 years) while the second wasn't as dedicated. While I will conced the point that, "practice does make perfect",