Showing posts with label education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label education. Show all posts
The important narrative below arrived on my computer via GOOGLE search while I was inspired to learn as much as I could about St. Benedict. This personal quest for information came about as I watched a 2014 documentary on PBS entitled "The Rule" by independent film directors, Marylou Tibaldo-Bongiorno and Jerome Bongiorno.
I invite you to read (below) and then share these writings of this anonymous 2008 blogger from San Beda College in the Philippines. His words seem to have been understood and written in a blog St. Benedict and His Rules adapted from the book The Benedictine Rule of Leadership: Classic Management Secrets You Can Use Today by Craig Galbraith (2004).
Finally, you really should look at the documnetary "The Rule" and learn about and enjoy the amazing education work of the Benedictine Monks of Newark.
__________________________________________________________________________
Benedictine Way of Leadership
"We can learn to lead by discovering the power that lies within each one of us to make a difference and being prepared when the call to lead comes. But when that time comes, there are certain rules that you must apply to achieve success.
As a student of San Beda College, we must equip ourselves with a proper work attitude in the corporate world. Because of the Benedictine Rule of Leadership, we are taught on how to strike balance a true Benedictine Character and Industrial competitiveness. Benedict's renowned practicality makes his way of life appropriate wherever people live and work together. His values can be applied to the family, the parish, the school, and the workplace.
Rule of Common Interest:
Superior organizations are at all times shaped as elite fraternities, with a clearly stated common purpose. Mission statements must be precise declarations of the common purpose, as well as promises of organizational behavior.
Rule of Selection and Formation:
Organizations are only as good as their people; superior organizations should not be easy to join, and the primary motivator for selection and formation is the promise of fraternity and stability. There must be no preferential treatment of members.
Rule of Merit and Seniority:
This rule explains how to deal with job-assignment issues. Age should not be considered a relevant measure of talent, and, while seniority must be honored because it creates continuity and a reference point for experience, merit should always be the determinant for rewards or positions of authority.
Rule of Focused and Independent Ventures:
Benedict believed organizations should remain lean, self-sufficient and focused on a common objective. He warned against too many levels of management or bureaucracy, and of the dangers of centralization and hierarchy. He believed that subsidiary or offshoot groups should be economically autonomous, maintaining only cultural and philosophical bonds.
Rule of Innovation:
Benedict recognized that paradigms would be challenged and periodically upset. He believed innovation within the existing paradigm would come from the lower levels of the membership, while innovation that challenged the paradigm would come from senior members. Innovations that break the paradigm had to come from outside the organization.
Rule of Ethics:
The rule states that ethics is a fundamental, structural part of the organization and its management system; ethics cannot be forced, so the leader must create an environment in which members naturally make the proper ethical decisions. The ethical leader must ensure that there are no fraud, dishonesty and greed in business practice. He or she must give emphasis to disciplinary acts and have corporate cohesion.
Rule of Stability:
Vow of stability means building strong and sure foundations, avoiding unnecessary and foolish risks, and investing for the long term. A leader must invest in their training, make the workplace enjoyable, and ensure that they remain on board for the long run. Maintaining stability in his relationships with subordinates means building a strong is a good start to achieve success. For the Christian leader, seeking stability means building a solid, disciplined spiritual life and knowing and holding to one's spiritual values despite the pressures of competition and a constantly shifting marketplace. This rule provides for continuity in leadership succession, ideals, culture and job security.
Stable organizations provide continuity – continuity in leadership succession, in organizational ideals and culture, and in job security. The three keys to stability are community, fairness and tenure. The rule does allow for organizational transfers, but only under proper conditions and if a certain process if followed.
Rule of Purposeful Ritual:
Cohesiveness is an all-important bonding process. It is the Positive power inherent in the motion of "elite fraternity". it creates the sense of group "togetherness". However, St. Benedict said that it comes from a management process. it can be traced to purposeful ritual. Ritual provides a powerful sense of stability in a troubled world. the rule also carefully lays out the nature and times of different prayers, and how they change it according to the season. Customary is a document that describe the special custom, celebration, ideal, and other standards of behavior fit the community. it reflects the collective experiences and wisdom of the community. Rituals, must be tied clearly and unambiguously to the shared common objective of the group to be achived. Ritual cannot be contrived or fake. It must be cyclical events and consistently applied. It must be aesthetically pleasing and does not create cohesiveness.
Rule of Group Reliance and Mutual Respect:
Building and nurturing a cohesive working team, St.Benetict would likely offer mutual reliance. Members must learn to rely on other community members. In a Truly cohesive organization, reliance is deep, intimate, and multidirectional. Mutual respect must be given for any and all members of the team,regardless of social status, job title, or station in life. He calls the emphasis on mutual respect between group members the "good zeal", of the community.
Rule of Discipline:
Benedict held that leaders should see discipline as a lesson plan, not as punishment. Benedict believed that cohesive organizations gave second and third chances. He stated that there should be no favoritism in matters of discipline and that the ultimate penalty of discharge from the community, while sometimes necessary for the health of the group, was as traumatic as an amputation and had to be very carefully considered.
Rule of Counsel:
Benedict's idea was that executive appointments should be democratic. Any member of the organization could become a leader, regardless of seniority, as decisions had to be based on merit alone. For St. Benedict, efficiently accomplishing a set of complex and diverse task, require a blend of single-leader management structure and the cohesive dynamics of modern team management. The rule outlines a strict process for selection of senior executive. It also establishes how that senior executive must subsequently interact with the group. He believed that the initial selection of Chef Executive Officer should be a largely democratic process. Sound judgement thus become the standard in Benedictine model. Age, rank, and seniority should be irrelevant. Only the best and the most deserving need apply. Merit is the most consideration.
Rule of Grumbling:
Benedict discouraged complaining, but recognized that grumbling was a major indicator of the health of his organization. He declared that the source of grumbling ought to be found and any problems fixed. Subordinate grumbling is a vital sign that is believed to be the best indicator of health of an organization. Vital signs are not just monitoring devices. Tracking grumbling should be an obsession for the senior executive. Leader’s decisions may be the root cause for subordinate grumbling. Grumbling is contagious and infectious. Some grumbling may, in fact, be justified; if so, fix the problem.
Rule of Leader:
The Rule of Leader explains that actions speak louder than words. Leaders were to teach by example, and were to keep track of, and study, their own failures and successes.
Rule of Humility and Moderation:
Benedict thought the basic leadership virtue was humility. Leaders had to show aptitude and objective, but their enthusiasm was to derive from a aspiration to look up and contribute to the health of the organization, not from individual personality. He believed that true humility was a skill one had to learn and practice.
Rule of Iron Resolve:
Effective managers need to be good administrators and leaders attributes are the inner or personal qualities that constitute effective leadership. To a practicing executive it seems obvious that an effective leader's behavior is a critical factor and will depend not only on his or her own innate personal attributes including ethics and his or her own acquired skills but also on the situation, people and tasks involved. Persistence, honesty, and humility. Persistence pays off! Honesty may not always get you what you want, but I believe it should be a core value in all aspects of life. And humility is self-explanatory. People want to relate to you and feel like they are being seen eye-to-eye. Arrogance tends to alienate others."
As a student of San Beda College, we must equip ourselves with a proper work attitude in the corporate world. Because of the Benedictine Rule of Leadership, we are taught on how to strike balance a true Benedictine Character and Industrial competitiveness. Benedict's renowned practicality makes his way of life appropriate wherever people live and work together. His values can be applied to the family, the parish, the school, and the workplace.
1. The Benedictine Rule Of Leadership:
Rule of Common Interest:
Superior organizations are at all times shaped as elite fraternities, with a clearly stated common purpose. Mission statements must be precise declarations of the common purpose, as well as promises of organizational behavior.
Rule of Selection and Formation:
Organizations are only as good as their people; superior organizations should not be easy to join, and the primary motivator for selection and formation is the promise of fraternity and stability. There must be no preferential treatment of members.
Rule of Merit and Seniority:
This rule explains how to deal with job-assignment issues. Age should not be considered a relevant measure of talent, and, while seniority must be honored because it creates continuity and a reference point for experience, merit should always be the determinant for rewards or positions of authority.
Rule of Focused and Independent Ventures:
Benedict believed organizations should remain lean, self-sufficient and focused on a common objective. He warned against too many levels of management or bureaucracy, and of the dangers of centralization and hierarchy. He believed that subsidiary or offshoot groups should be economically autonomous, maintaining only cultural and philosophical bonds.
Rule of Innovation:
Benedict recognized that paradigms would be challenged and periodically upset. He believed innovation within the existing paradigm would come from the lower levels of the membership, while innovation that challenged the paradigm would come from senior members. Innovations that break the paradigm had to come from outside the organization.
Rule of Ethics:
The rule states that ethics is a fundamental, structural part of the organization and its management system; ethics cannot be forced, so the leader must create an environment in which members naturally make the proper ethical decisions. The ethical leader must ensure that there are no fraud, dishonesty and greed in business practice. He or she must give emphasis to disciplinary acts and have corporate cohesion.
Rule of Stability:
Vow of stability means building strong and sure foundations, avoiding unnecessary and foolish risks, and investing for the long term. A leader must invest in their training, make the workplace enjoyable, and ensure that they remain on board for the long run. Maintaining stability in his relationships with subordinates means building a strong is a good start to achieve success. For the Christian leader, seeking stability means building a solid, disciplined spiritual life and knowing and holding to one's spiritual values despite the pressures of competition and a constantly shifting marketplace. This rule provides for continuity in leadership succession, ideals, culture and job security.
Stable organizations provide continuity – continuity in leadership succession, in organizational ideals and culture, and in job security. The three keys to stability are community, fairness and tenure. The rule does allow for organizational transfers, but only under proper conditions and if a certain process if followed.
Rule of Purposeful Ritual:
Cohesiveness is an all-important bonding process. It is the Positive power inherent in the motion of "elite fraternity". it creates the sense of group "togetherness". However, St. Benedict said that it comes from a management process. it can be traced to purposeful ritual. Ritual provides a powerful sense of stability in a troubled world. the rule also carefully lays out the nature and times of different prayers, and how they change it according to the season. Customary is a document that describe the special custom, celebration, ideal, and other standards of behavior fit the community. it reflects the collective experiences and wisdom of the community. Rituals, must be tied clearly and unambiguously to the shared common objective of the group to be achived. Ritual cannot be contrived or fake. It must be cyclical events and consistently applied. It must be aesthetically pleasing and does not create cohesiveness.
Rule of Group Reliance and Mutual Respect:
Building and nurturing a cohesive working team, St.Benetict would likely offer mutual reliance. Members must learn to rely on other community members. In a Truly cohesive organization, reliance is deep, intimate, and multidirectional. Mutual respect must be given for any and all members of the team,regardless of social status, job title, or station in life. He calls the emphasis on mutual respect between group members the "good zeal", of the community.
Rule of Discipline:
Benedict held that leaders should see discipline as a lesson plan, not as punishment. Benedict believed that cohesive organizations gave second and third chances. He stated that there should be no favoritism in matters of discipline and that the ultimate penalty of discharge from the community, while sometimes necessary for the health of the group, was as traumatic as an amputation and had to be very carefully considered.
Rule of Counsel:
Benedict's idea was that executive appointments should be democratic. Any member of the organization could become a leader, regardless of seniority, as decisions had to be based on merit alone. For St. Benedict, efficiently accomplishing a set of complex and diverse task, require a blend of single-leader management structure and the cohesive dynamics of modern team management. The rule outlines a strict process for selection of senior executive. It also establishes how that senior executive must subsequently interact with the group. He believed that the initial selection of Chef Executive Officer should be a largely democratic process. Sound judgement thus become the standard in Benedictine model. Age, rank, and seniority should be irrelevant. Only the best and the most deserving need apply. Merit is the most consideration.
Rule of Grumbling:
Benedict discouraged complaining, but recognized that grumbling was a major indicator of the health of his organization. He declared that the source of grumbling ought to be found and any problems fixed. Subordinate grumbling is a vital sign that is believed to be the best indicator of health of an organization. Vital signs are not just monitoring devices. Tracking grumbling should be an obsession for the senior executive. Leader’s decisions may be the root cause for subordinate grumbling. Grumbling is contagious and infectious. Some grumbling may, in fact, be justified; if so, fix the problem.
Rule of Leader:
The Rule of Leader explains that actions speak louder than words. Leaders were to teach by example, and were to keep track of, and study, their own failures and successes.
Rule of Humility and Moderation:
Benedict thought the basic leadership virtue was humility. Leaders had to show aptitude and objective, but their enthusiasm was to derive from a aspiration to look up and contribute to the health of the organization, not from individual personality. He believed that true humility was a skill one had to learn and practice.
Rule of Iron Resolve:
Effective managers need to be good administrators and leaders attributes are the inner or personal qualities that constitute effective leadership. To a practicing executive it seems obvious that an effective leader's behavior is a critical factor and will depend not only on his or her own innate personal attributes including ethics and his or her own acquired skills but also on the situation, people and tasks involved. Persistence, honesty, and humility. Persistence pays off! Honesty may not always get you what you want, but I believe it should be a core value in all aspects of life. And humility is self-explanatory. People want to relate to you and feel like they are being seen eye-to-eye. Arrogance tends to alienate others."
Find more education infographics on e-Learning #Infographics
13 Nov 2014
11/13/2014 01:52:00 pm
by Unknown
What Students Remember Most About Teachers
Dear Young Teacher Down the Hall,
I saw you as you rushed past me in the lunch room. Urgent. In a hurry to catch a bite before the final bell would ring calling all the students back inside. I noticed that your eyes showed tension. There were faint creases in your forehead. And I asked you how your day was going and you sighed.
“Oh, fine,” you replied.
But I knew it was anything but fine. I noticed that the stress was getting to you. I could tell that the pressure was rising. And I looked at you and made an intentional decision to stop you right then and there. To ask you how things were really going. Was it that I saw in you a glimpse of myself that made me take the moment?
You told me how busy you were, how much there was to do. How little time there was to get it all done. I listened. And then I told you this:
I told you to remember that at the end of the day, it’s not about the lesson plan. It’s not about the fancy stuff we teachers make — the crafts we do, the stories we read, the papers we laminate. No, that’s not really it. That’s not what matters most.
And as I looked at you there wearing all that worry under all that strain, I said it’s about being there for your kids. Because at the end of the day, most students won’t remember what amazing lesson plans you've created. They won’t remember how organized your bulletin boards are. How straight and neat are the desk rows.
No, they’ll not remember that amazing decor you've designed.
But they will remember you.
Your kindness. Your empathy. Your care and concern. They’ll remember that you took the time to listen. That you stopped to ask them how they were. How they really were. They’ll remember the personal stories you tell about your life: your home, your pets, your kids. They’ll remember your laugh. They’ll remember that you sat and talked with them while they ate their lunch.
Because at the end of the day, what really matters is YOU. What matters to those kids that sit before you in those little chairs, legs pressed up tight under tables oft too small- what matters to them is you.
You are that difference in their lives.
And when I looked at you then with tears in your eyes, emotions rising to the surface and I told you gently to stop trying so hard- I also reminded you that your own expectations were partly where the stress stemmed. For we who truly care are often far harder on ourselves than our students are willing to be. Because we who truly care are often our own worst enemy. We mentally beat ourselves up for trivial failures. We tell ourselves we’re not enough. We compare ourselves to others. We work ourselves to the bone in the hopes of achieving the perfect lesson plan. The most dynamic activities. The most engaging lecture. The brightest, fanciest furnishings.
Because we want our students to think we’re the very best at what we do and we believe that this status of excellence is achieved merely by doing. But we forget- and often. Excellence is more readily attained by being.
Being available.
Being kind.
Being compassionate.
Being transparent.
Being real.
Being thoughtful.
Being ourselves.
Being kind.
Being compassionate.
Being transparent.
Being real.
Being thoughtful.
Being ourselves.
And of all the students I know who have lauded teachers with the laurels of the highest acclaim, those students have said of those teachers that they cared.
You see, kids can see through to the truth of the matter. And while the flashy stuff can entertain them for a while, it’s the steady constance of empathy that keeps them connected to us. It’s the relationships we build with them. It’s the time we invest. It’s all the little ways we stop and show concern. It’s the love we share with them: of learning. Of life. And most importantly, of people.
And while we continually strive for excellence in our profession as these days of fiscal restraint and heavy top-down demands keep coming at us- relentless and quick. We need to stay the course. For ourselves and for our students. Because it’s the human touch that really matters.
It’s you, their teacher, that really matters.
So go back to your class and really take a look. See past the behaviours, the issues and the concerns, pressing as they might be. Look beyond the stack of papers on your desk, the line of emails in your queue. Look further than the classrooms of seasoned teachers down the hall. Look. And you will see that it’s there- right inside you. The ability to make an impact. The chance of a lifetime to make a difference in a child’s life. And you can do this now.
Right where you are, just as you are.
Because all you are right now is all you ever need to be for them today. And who you are tomorrow will depend much on who and what you decide to be today.
It’s in you. I know it is.
Fondly,
That Other Teacher Down the Hall
Two of my former Kindergarten students enjoying a quiet moment together at Campbelton Beach, P.E.I.
3 Jul 2014
7/03/2014 07:48:00 am
by Unknown
What Is A Teacher?
A teacher is the one who listens to the "strange" boy talk about his fascination with dragons and not judge. A teacher listens intently to the very animated child and might not understand what he is speaking of, but a teacher listens.
A teacher is the one who listens to the 7th grade girl complain about her over-protective mother and how she wishes she could wear what clothes she wants. A teacher calmly tells the child that her mother is just being a good mom and taking care of her. A teacher watches the teenager roll her eyes and inside cries because a teacher worries about what trouble that girl could get into one day.
A teacher sits next to the small boy, even though his clothes and he smells. A teacher wonders of the last time he bathed or his clothes were washed for him, but he can't add two digit numbers so a teacher sits by his side and helps him.
A teacher will call home to message machines over and over again trying to get through to the parent of the child who has been missing from school for days at a time without any reason. A teacher will take a 30-minute duty free lunchtime to call home and speak to the parent of a gifted child who again has done brilliantly on a class project.
A teacher wants to recognize the hard work children have done even though it is expected from some of them.
A teacher believes there are no bad students, just challenging ones.
A teacher will question and teach her students how to question.
A teacher can take criticism from students. A teacher will stay up until midnight to change the next day's lesson plans because the students said they needed to be taught in a different way than previously taught.
A teacher stands in the cafeteria and watches certain children waste food, throwing away what they don't eat while others have been given a free lunch and ask for people's extras because they know there is nothing at home. A teacher thinks of their own lunch in the classroom and knows they could go with less. A teacher looks at the students who do not have that choice.
A teacher pulls apart two girls or two boys bigger than them while they try to rip out each other's hair for no better reason than one supposedly said something about the other. Even though a teacher might get hurt, a teacher doesn't want the students to hurt each other.
A teacher puts extra pencils, crayons, and notebooks in a cart at the back-to-school sales because a teacher knows there will always be someone who needs them.
A teacher gets angry when a child has such potential and wastes it. A teacher sympathizes with the children who want nothing more than to be able to "get it" but they do not have that gift.
A teacher wipes the nose of the little kindergartner who fell on the playground and everyone laughed at him. A teacher cleans him up and lets him sit in the classroom while recess finishes. He's too embarrassed to go back outside.
A teacher will question why those students who cannot sit still must sit still through hours of state testing. A teacher knows a better way of assessing these children's knowledge, but a teacher must do what the state says. And have a positive attitude about it.
A teacher will stay up late grading papers and projects, writing comments and giving suggestions.
A teacher will step in front of the intruder to protect the students, the children, and someone else's baby.
A teacher will accommodate for a child's needs so that child can be successful in the way he or she needs to be successful. This is not always due to a learning disorder.
A teacher will tell any child "good job" for any simple or complex achievement, a perfect spelling test or their 500th strike out.
A teacher will accept change and adapt, as long as the teacher is given the opportunity and the training to change and adapt.
A teacher will be patient and remind he or herself that the student is only 9 or 13 or 17.
A teacher realizes this is public education. It is not perfect. It never will be. It will constantly change and a teacher must change with the flow, the current trend, and the newest idea.
A teacher will be a mom or dad if the need is there.
A teacher will put a student against a wall on timeout and put them in their place if need be.
A teacher will make the students cry, laugh, get really angry, and question why. A teacher will cry, laugh, get angry, and question why with that student.
A teacher educates every student to achieve his or her best and if someone or something impedes that process of learning, a teacher will make it go away.
A teacher often comes to work when it is still dark outside. A teacher will leave when it is dark again.
A teacher works on the weekends, on holidays, during the summer.
A teacher goes to graduation and hugs the student who called them names, wrote bad things on the Internet about them, lied to their face, and disrespected them. A teacher whispers in that student's ear, "I am so proud of you. I knew you could do it."
A teacher thanks the parents for their support, even when they do not get it.
A teacher thanks their colleagues for their support, even when that teacher doesn't get it.
A teacher doesn't get exasperated with a learning support student. A teacher doesn't tell the student to "try harder" but simply says, "Try again." The student is already trying hard.
A teacher can never leave their work at the office.
A teacher's day does not end when the buses pull out.
A teacher builds relationships and teaches the students to build relationships.
A teacher teaches students, not a subject matter.
A teacher never ever gives up.
A teacher is a gift. Cherish them.
*Published in
HuffPost Education 07/01/2014
Words To Live By! Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of '97. Wear sunscreen.
30 Jun 2014
6/30/2014 10:53:00 am
by Unknown
Today someone on social media caused my brain to rewind to the June 1997 graduation advice from Chicago Sun columnist Mary Schmich and put to a spoken word video by Baz Luhrmann in 1998. Here are the words (and lyrics?) and why everyone should consider following this important advice everyday.
If you want to skip the required reading you can fast forward to the end of this post and see the advice in a video encapsulation.
The truth is the free advice is a s good today as it was in 1997.
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it.
The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience...
I will dispense this advice now.
Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded.
But trust me, in 20 years you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked...
You're not as fat as you Imagine.
Don't worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum.
The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind.
The kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.
Do one thing everyday that scares you.
Sing.
Don't be reckless with other people's hearts, don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.
Floss.
Don't waste your time on jealousy;
Sometimes you're ahead,
Sometimes You're behind.
The race is long, and in the end, it's only with yourself.
Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults;
If you Succeed in doing this, tell me how.
Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.
Stretch.
Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your
Life.
The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don't.
Get plenty of calcium.
Be kind to your knees, you'll miss them when they're gone.
Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't, maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't, maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary.
Whatever you do, don't Congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either.
Your choices are half chance, so are everybody else's.
Enjoy your body, Use it every way you can... Don't be afraid of it, or what other people Think of it,
It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own...
Dance... even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.
Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.
Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.
Brother and sister together we'll make it through
Someday your spirit will take you and guide you there
I know you've been hurting, but I've been waiting to be there
For you.
And I'll be there, just tell me now, whenever I can.
Everybody's free.
Get to know your parents, you never know when they'll be gone for good.
Be nice to your siblings;
They are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.
Understand that friends come and go, but for the precious few you should hold on.
Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.
Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard;
Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.
Travel.
Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will Philander, you too will get old, and when you do you'll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.
Respect your elders.
Don't expect anyone else to support you.
Maybe you have a trust fund, Maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.
Don't mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will look 85.
Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.
But trust me on the sunscreen...
If you want to skip the required reading you can fast forward to the end of this post and see the advice in a video encapsulation.
The truth is the free advice is a s good today as it was in 1997.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of '97.
Wear sunscreen.
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it.
The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience...
I will dispense this advice now.
Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded.
But trust me, in 20 years you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked...
You're not as fat as you Imagine.
Don't worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum.
The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind.
The kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.
Do one thing everyday that scares you.
Sing.
Don't be reckless with other people's hearts, don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.
Floss.
Don't waste your time on jealousy;
Sometimes you're ahead,
Sometimes You're behind.
The race is long, and in the end, it's only with yourself.
Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults;
If you Succeed in doing this, tell me how.
Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.
Stretch.
Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your
Life.
The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don't.
Get plenty of calcium.
Be kind to your knees, you'll miss them when they're gone.
Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't, maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't, maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary.
Whatever you do, don't Congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either.
Your choices are half chance, so are everybody else's.
Enjoy your body, Use it every way you can... Don't be afraid of it, or what other people Think of it,
It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own...
Dance... even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.
Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.
Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.
Brother and sister together we'll make it through
Someday your spirit will take you and guide you there
I know you've been hurting, but I've been waiting to be there
For you.
And I'll be there, just tell me now, whenever I can.
Everybody's free.
Get to know your parents, you never know when they'll be gone for good.
Be nice to your siblings;
They are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.
Understand that friends come and go, but for the precious few you should hold on.
Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.
Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard;
Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.
Travel.
Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will Philander, you too will get old, and when you do you'll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.
Respect your elders.
Don't expect anyone else to support you.
Maybe you have a trust fund, Maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.
Don't mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will look 85.
Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.
But trust me on the sunscreen...
Find more education infographics on e-Learning Infographics
7 Characteristics of a Digitally Competent Teacher
- You can integrate digital skills into everyday life: digital skills are transferable.
- You have a balanced attitude: you are a teacher not a techie.
- You are open to using and trying new stuff: find digital tools and explore how they work.
- You are a digital communicator: you can use email and social media with ease.
- You know how to do a digital assessment: you’re a sound judge of the quality of information, apps and tools
- You understand and respect privacy: you treat personal data with the respect it deserves
- You are a digital citizen: you know how to behave online appropriately and you’ll pass it on to your pupils
23 Feb 2014
2/23/2014 05:33:00 pm
by Unknown
You think you know what teachers do. Right? Wrong.
You went to school so you think you know what teachers do, right? You are wrong. Here’s a piece explaining all of this from Sarah Blaine, a mom, former teacher and full-time practicing attorney in New Jersey who writes at her parentingthecore blog, where this first appeared.
By Sarah Blaine
We all know what teachers do, right? After all, we were all students. Each one of us, each product of public education, we each sat through class after class for thirteen years. We encountered dozens of teachers. We had our kindergarten teachers and our first grade teachers and our fifth grade teachers and our gym teachers and our art teachers and our music teachers. We had our science teachers and our social studies teachers and our English teachers and our math teachers. If we were lucky, we might even have had our Latin teachers or our Spanish teachers or our physics teachers or our psychology teachers. Heck, I even had a seventh grade “Communications Skills” teacher. We had our guidance counselors and our principals and some of us had our special education teachers and our study hall monitors.
So we know teachers. We get teachers. We know what happens in classrooms, and we know what teachers do. We know which teachers are effective, we know which teachers left lasting impressions, we know which teachers changed our lives, and we know which teachers sucked.
We know. We know which teachers changed lives for the better. We know which teachers changed lives for the worse.
Teaching as a profession has no mystery. It has no mystique. It has no respect.
We were students, and therefore we know teachers. We denigrate teachers. We criticize teachers. We can do better than teachers. After all: We do. They teach.
We are wrong.
We need to honor teachers. We need to respect teachers. We need to listen to teachers. We need to stop reducing teachers to arbitrary measurements of student growth on so-called objective exams.
Most of all, we need to stop thinking that we know anything about teaching merely by virtue of having once been students.
We don’t know.
I spent a little over a year earning a master of arts in teaching degree. Then I spent two years teaching English Language Arts in a rural public high school. And I learned that my 13 years as a public school student, my 4 years as a college student at a highly selective college, and even a great deal of my year as a masters degree student in the education school of a flagship public university hadn’t taught me how to manage a classroom, how to reach students, how to inspire a love of learning, how to teach. Eighteen years as a student (and a year of preschool before that), and I didn’t know shit about teaching. Only years of practicing my skills and honing my skills would have rendered me a true professional. An expert. Someone who knows about the business of inspiring children. Of reaching students. Of making a difference. Of teaching.
I didn’t stay. I copped out. I left. I went home to suburban New Jersey, and a year later I enrolled in law school.
I passed the bar. I began to practice law at a prestigious large law firm. Three years as a law student had no more prepared me for the practice of law than 18 years of experience as a student had previously prepared me to teach. But even in my first year as a practicing attorney, I earned five times what a first year teacher made in the district where I’d taught.
I worked hard in my first year of practicing law. But I didn’t work five times harder than I’d worked in my first year of teaching. In fact, I didn’t work any harder. Maybe I worked a little less.
But I continued to practice. I continued to learn. Nine years after my law school graduation, I think I have some idea of how to litigate a case. But I am not a perfect lawyer. There is still more I could learn, more I could do, better legal instincts I could develop over time. I could hone my strategic sense. I could do better, be better. Learn more law. Learn more procedure. But law is a practice, law is a profession. Lawyers are expected to evolve over the course of their careers. Lawyers are given more responsibility as they earn it.
New teachers take on full responsibility the day they set foot in their first classrooms.
The people I encounter out in the world now respect me as a lawyer, as a professional, in part because the vast majority of them have absolutely no idea what I really do.
All of you former students who are not teachers and not lawyers, you have no more idea of what it is to teach than you do of what it is to practice law.
All of you former students: you did not design curricula, plan lessons, attend faculty meetings, assess papers, design rubrics, create exams, prepare report cards, and monitor attendance. You did not tutor students, review rough drafts, and create study questions. You did not assign homework. You did not write daily lesson objectives on the white board. You did not write poems of the week on the white board. You did not write homework on the white board. You did not learn to write legibly on the white board while simultaneously making sure that none of your students threw a chair out a window.
You did not design lessons that succeeded. You did not design lessons that failed.
You did not learn to keep your students quiet during lock down drills.
You did not learn that your 15 year old students were pregnant from their answers to vocabulary quizzes. You did not learn how to teach functionally illiterate high school students to appreciate Shakespeare. You did not design lessons to teach students close reading skills by starting with the lyrics to pop songs. You did not miserably fail your honors level students at least in part because you had no books to give them. You did not struggle to teach your students how to develop a thesis for their essays, and bask in the joy of having taught a successful lesson, of having gotten through to them, even for five minutes. You did not struggle with trying to make SAT-level vocabulary relevant to students who did not have a single college in their county. You did not laugh — because you so desperately wanted to cry — when you read some of the absurdities on their final exams. You did not struggle to reach students who proudly announced that they only came to school so that their mom’s food stamps didn’t get reduced.
You did not spend all of New Years’ Day crying five years after you’d left the classroom because you reviewed the New York Times’ graphic of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and learned that one of your very favorite students had been killed in Iraq two years before. And you didn’t know. Because you copped out and left. So you cried, helplessly, and the next day you returned to the practice of law.
You did not. And you don’t know. You observed. Maybe you learned. But you didn’t teach.
The problem with teaching as a profession is that every single adult citizen of this country thinks that they know what teachers do. And they don’t. So they prescribe solutions, and they develop public policy, and they editorialize, and they politicize. And they don’t listen to those who do know. Those who could teach. The teachers.
Copyright The Washington Post © February 22, 2014
The Answer Sheet By Valerie Strauss
The Top 75 New York Times Best-Selling Education Books of 2013
23 Dec 2013
12/23/2013 09:52:00 am
by Unknown
The Top 75 New York Times Best-Selling Education Books of 2013 ©
By DEBORAH HOFMANNDecember 18, 2013 published by The New York Times ©
In lieu of a lesson on this last Wednesday before the holiday break, we asked Deborah Hofmann, the senior editor of the New York Times Best Sellers List, to create a special list for us of the top 75 best-selling education titles of 2013, and to explain how she defined and ranked books for this new category.
We hope it starts conversations, introduces you to new ideas and authors, and provides inspiration for teaching and learning well into 2014.
The Learning Network
Teaching and Learning with The New York Times
Reading List | The Top 75 New York Times Best-Selling Education Books of 2013
By Deborah Hofmann
Welcome to the debut of the New York Times Best-Seller List of Education titles.
This collection of eclectic and far-ranging titles is intended to get people talking and thinking about the many ways we discuss education, how we present sometimes arcane subjects, and how we think about teaching and learning at all ages and in many contexts.
The list was compiled by looking at every adult nonfiction title that was reported each week to the New York Times Best-Seller Lists though Dec. 7, in both print and electronic formats. This includes titles that were released in earlier years, but continue to enjoy sales; for this first experiment, we wanted to cast a wide net to see what turned up naturally.
I classified a title as “Education” after I examined multiple standard sources, including its industry identifiers, reviews and interviews, to create a sort of card catalog of titles that — to this editor’s sensibilities — spoke to an enduring appetite for books that try to teach the reader, or tell us how we learn or why we learn — or, sometimes, why we do not. There were no vetting experts or outside education consultants. Had that been the case, we might still be debating.
Although some titles are familiar for having made the traditional best-seller list that is published weekly in the Book Review, many of the titles are books that were reported, but perhaps often in quantities too low in any given weeks to qualify for the traditional rankings. Cumulatively over the months and in this subgroup, however, they emerge in clearer relief. They are ranked below by their relative reported sales, the same way we rank all books on the best-seller lists.
Please note that I chose not to consider for inclusion any titles that are actively tracked toward ranking among the Childrens’ Best-Sellers List categories, so you will not find classroom evergreens or coming-of-age narratives here.
One might argue that some of these titles are simply too narrow, too literal, or, in some cases, spoofery or farce. But isn’t argument what makes for lively hand-raising and calling out of turn?
1. America the Beautiful, by Ben C. Carson with Candy Carson
2. Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman
3. How to Read Literature Like a Professor, by Thomas C. Foster
4. How Children Succeed, by Paul Tough
5. The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch
6. The Signal and the Noise, by Nate Silver
7. Pathways to the Common Core, by Lucy Calkins, Mary Ehrenworth and Christopher Lehman
8. Far from the Tree, by Andrew Solomon
9. The End of Your Life Book Club, by Will Schwalbe
10. The Smartest Kids in the World, by Amanda Ripley
11. Reign of Error, by Diane Ravitch
12. How Music Works, by David Byrne
13. Charlotte Mason’s Original Homeschooling Series, by Charlotte Mason
14. The Autistic Brain, by Temple Grandin and Richard Panek
15. Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data, by Charles Wheelan
16. One World Schoolhouse, by Salman Khan
17. The Theoretical Minimum: What You Need to Know to Start Doing Physics, by Leonard Susskind and George Hrabovsky
18. F in Exams, Richard Benson
19. Letters to a Young Scientist, by Edward O. Wilson
20. On Writing, by Stephen King
21. NurtureShock, by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman
22. De-Textbook, by Cracked.com
23. F for Effort, by Richard Benson
24. The Whole-Brain Child, by Daniel J Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson
25. Walk in Their Shoes: Can One Person Change the World?, by Jim Ziolkowski with James S. Hirsch
26. Teach Like a PIRATE, by Dave Burgess
27. What You’re Really Meant to Do, by Robert Steven Kaplan
28. Make Good Art, by Neil Gaiman
29. The Education of a Lifetime, by Robert Khayat
30. The Naked Roommate, by Harlan Cohen
31. Sticks and Stones, by Emily Bazelon
32. Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking, by Daniel C. Dennett
33. College (Un)Bound, by Jeffrey Selingo
34. Confessions of a Scholarship Winner, by Kristina Ellis
35. How to Create a Mind, by Ray Kurzweil. (Penguin)
36. Pandora’s Lunchbox, by Melanie Warner
37. Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger’s, by John Elder Robison
38. This Is Water, by David Foster Wallace
39. Heretics and Heroes, by Thomas Cahill
40. Instant Vocabulary, by Ida L. Ehrlich
41. Onion Book of Known Knowledge, by The Onion
42. Disney U, by Doug Lipp
43. Smithsonian Book of Presidential Trivia, by Smithsonian Institution and Amy Pastan
44. Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing, by Mignon Fogarty
45. Things Come Apart, by Todd McLellan
46. Real Talk for Real Teachers, by Rafe Esquith
47. The School Revolution, by Ron Paul
48. What Great Teachers Do Differently, by Todd Whitaker
49. Why Teach? by Mark Edmundson
50. The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, by Nicholas Carr
51.Shouting Won’t Help, by Katherine Bouton
52. Teach Your Children Well, by Madeline Levine
53. Big Book of How, by Editors of Time Magazine for Kids
54. Teacher Man, by Frank McCourt
55. Is College Worth It? by William J. Bennett with David Wilezol
56. Here Is Where: Discovering America’s Great Forgotten History, by Andrew Carroll
57. Art As Therapy, by Alain De Botton and John Armstrong
58. A History of Western Music, by J. Peter Burkholder, Donald Jay Grout and Claude V. Palisca
59. My Bookstore, by Ronald Rice
60. Hello! My Name Is Public School, and I Have an Image Problem, by Leslie Milder and Jane Braddock
61. Thinking in Numbers, by David Tammet
62. Who Owns the Learning? by Alan November
63. Good Luck, Graduate, by Gregory Lang
64. First Class, by Alison Stewart
65. A Year Up, by Gerald Chertavian
66. Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
67. History’s Greatest Hits, by Joseph Cummins
68. Strings Attached, by Joanne Lipman and Melanie Kupchynsky
69. Hope Against Hope, by Sarah Carr
70. Learning by Doing, by Richard DuFour, Rebecca DuFour, Robert Eaker and Thomas Many
71. Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice, by David Stinson and Anita Wager
72. Information Dashboard Design, by Stephen Few
73. Fire in the Ashes, by Jonathan Kozol
74. What Your Third Grader Needs to Know, by Hirsch, E. D., Jr.
75. All Roads Lead to Austen, by Amy Elizabeth Smith
Sales of both print books and e-books are reported confidentially to The New York Times; retailers were not asked specifically about Education titles. The sales venues for print books include independent book retailers; national, regional and local chains; online and multimedia entertainment retailers; supermarkets, university, gift and discount department stores; and newsstands. E-book rankings reflect sales from leading online vendors of e-books in a variety of popular e-reader formats.
Original URL:
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/18/reading-list-the-top-75-new-york-times-best-selling-education-books-of-2013/?_r=1
Sending Your Child to a Major American University Costs $244,953 (Cdn$)
12 Feb 2007
2/12/2007 07:01:00 pm
by Unknown
For the first time ever the total cost of attending one year of university has exceeded $50,000 (US$) or the exchange equivalent of $61,238 (Cdn$).
While there have been several Ivy League schools exceeding the $50K barrier before this increase, George Washington University , in downtown Washington, DC, has become the first major university to charge costs which not only are obscene, they far exceed inflation costs and any other cost except the rising cost of a share of stock in Google or RIM.
Bloomberg News reported on February 9, 2007, the change in tuition fees approved by the Trustees of the university.
This increase in cost to obtain a four year bachelors degree takes place in the shadows of the Capitol Building and the White House.
As disgusting as this obscene tuition fee seems, it will be implemented only a few kilometres from southeast Washington, DC, one of the most impoverished areas in the United States.
Attribution for Mind Map from SDSU education web!
The following material appeared directly as cited in the Technology Section called Q & A and the byline was from J. D. BIERSDORFERYour Name, on the Web
Q. How do I make my own Web page and use my own name for the Web address?
A. If you don’t want to use the free site-hosting, page-building tools and templates available on sites like Google Page Creator (pages.google.com) or Yahoo’s GeoCities (geocities.yahoo.com) because you can’t have your exact name for the address, you will need to do a little more work.
The basic process involves buying the domain name for your site, finding a company to host it (so people can get to it on the Internet) and then building the site. Many Web site design and hosting firms have package deals that do most or all of it for you.
There are many companies that sell and register Web site domain names, including GoDaddy (www.godaddy.com), Dotster (www.dotster.com) , Register.com (www.register.com). On these types of sites, you can see if your name is available and register it there for a small fee. These types of sites can also usually guide you through the hosting and site-building part of the process.
Designing and building the site on your own may take some time if you are unfamiliar with the coding used on Web pages and other standard tasks like uploading them to a Web server.
Sites like www.2createawebsite.com and www.webmonkey.com have free tutorials on the process, and most bookstores have many volumes on the subject of Web site creation.
On a personal note, I found and use BlogJet as my WYSIWYG ... HTML and XML editor. Pictures and videos all can be easily added to your posts with attribution included.
BlogJet is easy to use and has every feature which I require and allows for editing, posting and publishing capabilities. In my opinion, this easy to use blog editor allows newbies and professionals, alike, easy, safe, fast coding and publication of your writings directly into the blogging world.
There is a one time cost for long term use of this software. Should you have the need there is a family plan for more than one blogger in a home which is a plus for creative and connected family bloggers.
Additionally, if you desire version upgrades of BlogJet (Version 2.0 - was recently released). You can get significant version upgrades at a reduced price. These are great value for money tools in the blog world. Both first time purchases and upgrades are attractively priced. You really get GREAT value for your purchase.
Test drive it for free and see how it adds to your blogging experience!
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