Oh, snap!

It's been a frustrating week or so.

Since misery loves company, I found it interesting to read a post by Darren Draper in which he says:

Google 2001 is nice, but what some teachers really need is more like Google 1983. That way their experience on the Internet would better coincide with the experience they are providing for their students.

Shortly after this post, Dan Meyer's post on the efficacy of textbooks was pushed my direction:

[Textbooks are] perfect for below-average teachers with limited imagination and limited love for their own content areas, the sort that need a pick axe, a shovel, and a map to the goldmine handed to them before it'll occur to them to start digging.

It's kind of an indictment that this has been such a profitable business model for so long.

Once again the network has pushed in my direction my thoughts, but more eloquent, punchier, and- dare I say- ballsier (is that even a word?) than I might dare to write myself¹.

And then, just as I was starting to feel good about my situation today, the entire staff gets this email:

'nuff said.

_____________________________________________

¹Perhaps why they have thousands of readers and technorati "authority" of 165 and 191 while I have tens of readers and an authority of 11.

Interesting Finds, Vol. 2 (dy/dan edition)

Forgoing the list of several items, this item deserves a post of its own.

geometry.mrmeyer.com

Dan Meyer has posted his entire geometry curriculum online for everyone to see. He included his presentations in PowerPoint, Keynote, and .pdf format, and has .pdfs for all of his handouts. In my opinion, this takes some real huevos (if you know what I mean). He's opening himself up to major criticism on things he's obviously spent hundreds, if not thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of hours creating. I'm not even really into geometry that much, yet I spent a couple hours perusing his stuff (and thinking it quite good, by the way). For all the criticism he may have received over the years for not giving homework or being to much of a smart alec, regardless of your feelings you've got to give him some high marks for throwing his stuff out there for anyone to use.

This raises the obvious question: Why isn't everyone doing this? I realize not all teachers have the digital know-how to post their creations online, but it seems like an obvious thing to do. It makes me feel silly for not doing it.

I've created lots of material for classes in the last six years, and am constantly working on more. Perhaps I should work on finding a way to share more of that to the world.

Dan: I'm awed by your openness and dedication to sharing your knowledge with the rest of the teaching community. Bravo!

Interesting Finds, Vol. 1

I'm going to attempt to post interesting bits I've found recently, both as a way to share with the community things I've found, and as a way to reflect upon items I've found. I won't go as far to guarantee I'll do this weekly (I'd like to), but whenever I get together 5-10 interesting items, I'll be sure to throw them out there. Let me know what you think!

1. Practical Theory: Teaching and Shortcuts

  • Chris Lehmann, inspired by Dan Meyer's 8th episode of his dy/av series, asks that if "Herculean" effort is needed for teachers to be truly effective and great- are there things new teachers can do to help prevent burn-out and reduce the high attrition rate common among new teachers? The comments also contain some good ideas on how to keep good, hard working teachers in the profession. As a teacher that was hired one week before his first teaching job to teach brand new classes with no set curriculum, the humongous work load on new teachers strikes a chord with me, as does the problem of teachers who take too many "shortcuts."
    • Penelope of Where's the Teacher? adds to this thread as well as part of her critique of Hollywood teacher movies. Check it out.

2. The entire dy/av series

  • Dan Meyer decided to create a summer series of short videos on planning, working, management, and more. The series is probably more effective than 95% of new teacher orientation programs (in my opinion). Each week I've looked forward to the next episode, and will miss it when it's gone. Follow this link to the 10th and final episode, which includes links to the other 9.

3. Google Reader Preview Extension for Firefox

  • In Will Richardson's post on the new improved delicious, he quickly notes he's been using this preview extension for Google Reader which allows you to view the actual webpage in the reader window by clicking on a preview button. Why is that cool? It's cool because it means you can read and leave comments directly through Google Reader. No more having 25 tabs of articles whose comments you want to read and where you want to leave comments. I've been looking for something to allow this functionability through GR for awhile!! NOTE: You do need to install the Greasemonkey User Script Add-on to install the GR Preview Extension.

4. Science Teacher: A blog

  • I've been keeping my eyes out for them for awhile, and have just now found my first good one. I've been interested in reading another science teacher who blogs primarily on the teaching of science (as opposed to just edu-tech stuff). Michael Doyle's blog Science Teacher does just that. I'm hoping to do a little more science specific blogging, and I'm grateful for the model that I've found. Thanks to Clay for pointing him out.

5. World War Z

  • Maybe this goes better on a summer reading list, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading Max Brooks' zombie novel, World War Z. It's written as a series of interviews with individuals from around the world recounting the days leading up to and during the "dark years," or their wars with "Zack." Besides being just a good read, it also has some very subtle (but existent) social commentary on consumerism and our service based economy. One of the more interesting parts was the description of job training courses occurring in the midst of the Zombie War. The teachers were all former illegal immigrants, because 80% of the legal population was in the service economy, and didn't actually know how to do anything. Definitely a good read, even if you're not into social commentaries.