The Uncommon Common Core

The Common Core is certainly the next 'phase' of education.  There has been much discussion about it, but probably not enough.  It isn't on the tip of anyones tongue outside of a few faculty members who are aware at my institution.  In my class for education majors, I am open to hearing what the students think about it and, for the most part, they are somewhat uneducated in the change.  For one, it is out of their hands and their current, immediate goal is to get that teaching certificate and degree.  Also, no one else is talking about it besides me.

I listen to a lot of audiobooks due to my 30min (or more) ride into campus, and then back again to get home. Today, while doing the regular routine of cleaning house, I began a new book. So far, the book is interesting. It’s focussed on what we envision as ‘extraordinary’ and ‘special’ traits that leads to success in ones field may sometimes be the affect of some other, seemingly unrelated parameters. Of course, the chapter that I am in is discussing academic success, so I am riveted and may not be able to do more than this post until the chapter is completed. However, none of the above is what I am writing this post about.

Far too few posts...that's what full time work does

If you have looked here the last 2 months, you'll notice very few posts.  It's not that I don't think about posting or have posts I want to generate.  Instead, it's just the desire to have my free time be a bit more free.  Work is, as you might expect, attempting to fill my days for far too many hours, so this is what had to be put aside to achieve normalcy in the off-time.  I hope that changes soon.

A Flaw in STEM??

Here's a recent article concerning the flaw in all the schools trying to improve the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) skill sets of their graduates.

Good Read

Study Advice from a Basketball Player

The amazing thing about studying is that in no other endeavor would you try to improve your abilities like they do their academics.  You'd never think of getting better at tennis by watching others play tennis, or just hitting that passing shot one time, or claiming you hit can hit the shot when your friend actually did.  No, you'd hold the racquet and you'd hit that shot over and over and...until it was you who could and will hit that shot when the time comes.  But, no one reminds us that to learn we must practice after we get to the point of being able to do until the answering or understanding is natural, obvious, fast, and part of how our mind processes information.  So, study like you are training.  Study like this guy trains.  At just double nickel, he can dunk!

Double Nickel

Profiling in the Classroom

While the above video, another great Ted Talk, is not specifically about the classroom, it's worthy of discussion if only because we, as educators, can help sway the discussions from preconceived notions and looks to one of personality, action, and who-they-are.

The Cloud Part of Education...Build a School in the Cloud

You never know where your next blog post might draw inspiration.  In the case of this post, it was a reply to an email to my friends James, Mike and Wayne concerning the above Ted Talk.  I highly recommend watching Sugata Mitra's presentation and his compelling argument.  My friends sent the link to me as part of our ongoing email conversations about the world, education and business...4 people on two continents having a go at trying to make sense of those three words via email is a hoot, by the way.  What follows is my response, just copied and pasted, to the email that reminded us of Mitra's Ted Talk...