Friday, October 18, 2013

Finding Mentors for my students: the highest work for a teacher (in the Littky/Washor Big Picture system)

One of the best things a teacher can do is to link a student to a mentor.

Here's what I wrote to a guy named Chris -- I heard him talk at a cafe and I just had to ask him to consider being a virtual mentor for some of my students...

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MY EMAIL to Chris
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Chris

Here's what I remember you said to your friend.

"God has a perfect body waiting for you."

What other words could be said to a person who is preparing to leave?  I could teach a class of 30 kids for a year and not one of them might come up with a better sentence.   

Your story could inspire others to "do what Betty did"  (I think you said her name was betty).
What did Betty do?  For 33 years she devoted herself to helping others.

A lovely statement, but why not tell three or four stories about "what betty did" and post them on a website.  Then I can point my students to read your stories about betty and maybe some of them will be inspired to "do what betty did" (help others) 


Thanks for your time.   I am between teaching jobs at the moment and the best use of my time is to hang out at coffee shops (not the chains) to look for people lie you who speak passionately, eloquently and with verve.  I want my students to be influenced by people like you.


I teach English as a second language during the summer to collect teens who want to improve their English (from Europe and S America) and then when I 'm in classes in a typical school., I try to inspire my U.S. students to reach out and assist the International students with their accents and to improve their conversation skills in English.

in other words, it's community service via facebook, skype, Instagram, twitter and email.  (things that many students like to do anyway)


Your story about Betty has inspired me and I will share it with my facebook friends and with my U.S. students (some of them are prepping for the SAT).  I also have a good friend who is a guidance counselor at a charter school and he will look for artistic minded kids who want to learn about "the real world"...  

Again, please write two or three stories about what Betty did specifically and that might inspire some of my U.S. students to begin reaching out to my international students. (I have a list at bibpenpals.com that shows their email addresses of international student who are waiting for conversation practice with U.S. teenagers)

Best wishes,

Steve

Here are some links about the need for graphic concepts in education.


a)  Dan Pink    the MFA  > MBA
  1. Is An MFA The New MBA? | Fast Company | Business + Innovation

    www.fastcompany.com › Fast Company › leadership
    Mar 28, 2013 - In fact, according to an annual survey tracking the career trajectories ofmore than 65,000 artists from hundreds of arts schools, the Strategic  ...
  2. Daniel Pink and the Economic Model of Creativity - Washington Post

    articles.washingtonpost.com › Collections › Brain
    Apr 2, 2008 - Or as Pink puts it in a classic bullet point: The MFA is the new MBA. ...More bullet points, delivered as Pink wandered the stage with a microphone headset ...World's Best Lasagna tops AllRecipes list for more than a decade  ...
    You've visited this page 2 times. Last visit: 8/12/13
  3. The New MBA - Visual and Active - Google Sites

    sites.google.com/site/visualandactive/Home/about-us/.../the-new-mba
    (Daniel H. Pink is contributing editor at Wired Magazine, American's leading writer and.... from Ringling more valuable than you ever imagined when you enrolled ... corporate positions, the rules have changed: the MFA is the new MBA. In.
b)  connected principals

c)  The Vimeo channel for a remarkable director of documentaries


Here is the trailer for his Genetic Modified Indian Cotton movie called "behind the label."  Please click to increase hits.
  1. Behind the label - Trailer HD on Vimeo
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN6dGq3m4rY

    vimeo.com/23493184

  2. May 9, 2011
    Behind the label A documentary by Cecilia Mastrantonio and Sebastiano Tecchio... I went to this link youtube.com/watch?v=sN6dGq3m4rY and there is a link to buy ... Seba Tecchio'stechnique has grown in complexity, adding layers of ... behind. label. cotton. GMO. GM. organic. OGM. documentary. india.

Let me know if it's okay to send your email address to selected students.  I'll ask them to keep their questions short and no more than one email message per month.


Steve Math Teacher
Steve McCrea
Editor, Building More-Responsive Schools by Abraham S. Fischler, Ed.D.  

I am a Test Prep teacher at Broward College (Continuing Education Department):  I teach the 12 Global Skills through the ARTS focus (and my students think like mathematicians and musicians)
I embrace the "musician's approach to academics":  practice, practice, practice until we achieve mastery.

Please give hits to these websites   
Schools that I admire   MetCenter.org    BigPicture.org    L1to1.org   essentialschools.org
chadphila.org      
www.MiamiArtsCharter.net and to my youtube channels


Math Teacher\
Mobile  +1 954 646 8246

1477504   ASCD Member since 2005.
I recommend membership in ASCD.org, the pubisher of Littky's important book
The Big Picture (2004).

Why not visit the web book?   www.Transform-Education.com  http://rcptv.com/te/

Visit the Travel Blog     RoadloversInternational.com


"People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I'm actually as proud of the things we haven't done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things." (Apple Worldwide Developers' Conference, 1997)



Please visit this video and raise its hits.
310 views on 10 May 2013
4 likes
please suggest a video that we can click

KATIE GIMBAR's  list of 16 videos about Flipping the Classroom.  let's celebrate her success


as an SAT test prep teacher, i like engaging the help of parents, so here are some hints
www.FreeVocabulary.com
www.MajorTests.com

I mentioned Dan Pink:  "Motivation 3.0" is a way of giving advice and sharing
Dan Pink talks about the new economy.




some of my blog posts

From Pablo

From Dennis Yuzenas

About Charles Cornelius  

Three-Minute training

John Corlette (I met him in 1972)

LIFE SKILLS
Not one person is expecting anything from you in the next 4 hours. So the ability to appreciate the task at hand and thinking creatively seemed natural.
A FUN SURPRISE: DISCOVERING YOUR DEPRIVATION
What I was depriving myself from was time in the day where there was no pressure and no expectations. For the same reasons that I felt most creative on Saturday mornings and on planes, 4 a.m. has become a place of productive peace. That feeling is why I love what I do. I don't need a vacation. I don't need to step away. I just need a couple hours a day before anyone else is up.

Making an omelette, coffee, playing guitar, exercising, listening to the Dan Patrick Show, learning a language, and getting some exercise all felt like optimal experiences when not in completion for mental bandwidth slated for the company. And by 6:45, I'm working on the biggest items on my plate that I can focus on without the threat of new stimuli for the next couple of hours.

Building a schedule that protects your love for what you do is critical to optimizing the quality of your life--and your work.
Paul DeJoe, FastCompany article


I have been following D.r Amen's recommendations about the use of email for several years.

1.  I look at email only once or twice a day
2. I stay focused.  Before looking at my email, I write the priorities of my day.  
3. Then I look only for email that are related to my priorities of the day.
4.  I don't worry about responding to each piece of email.  Set aside a day once a week to deal with every other message that you receive.  
5.  I tell my new clients to send me a text if they want me to look at an email within 24 hours.     Generally it takes 72 hours for me to look at every email message.


954 646 8246 is my phone


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ABOUT CHRIS

I hope he will write about Betty.  I can imagine some of the nice things that Betty did.   

If you are a teacher or a student and you want to get in touch with Chris, write him a letter send me the message.... and I'll pass on your email address and message to him.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Norman Perryman: A Life Painting Music: The Flow of Bach & Hosokawa

Norman Perryman: A Life Painting Music: The Flow of Bach & Hosokawa: The Flow of Bach & Hosokawa The German word Bach means brook or stream .  And Bach's music really does flow, pulsate, ...

Look at my home page of www.MathForArtists.com and www.LookForPatterns.com.  You'll see the image of FLOW.

Be a nice person and click on Norman's blog.  Let's share each other's joys and achievements.  Let's become curators of peak moments.  

I also recommend BrainPickings.org.


Norman Perryman: A Life Painting Music: The Flow of Bach & Hosokawa

Norman Perryman: A Life Painting Music: The Flow of Bach & Hosokawa: The Flow of Bach & Hosokawa The German word Bach means brook or stream .  And Bach's music really does flow, pulsate, ...

Look at my home page of www.MathForArtists.com and www.LookForPatterns.com.  You'll see the image of FLOW.

Be a nice person and click on Norman's blog.  Let's share each other's joys and achievements.  Let's become curators of peak moments.  

I also recommend BrainPickings.org.


Friday, October 11, 2013

School in Florida uses principles of "Time is a variable" and "The Student is the Class..." and the school is in Dr. Fischler's hometown (Tamarac)

Here are some photos of a visit to a "time-variable" charter school in Tamarac, Florida.






8129 N. Pine Island Road in Tamarac


Peter Willet, art teacher at Aiglon College, recommends Explain Everything (a mobile app) as a way to guide students toward effective presentations



 
Explain Everything
A mobile app for the iPad



Imagine that there is a way for students to organize their notes about a new subject and then get guided toward giving a presentation.  Imagine that the presentation is so effective that the TEACHER ends up learning something.
 
What does the teacher need to do to motivate students to use this app?
What does the teacher say to engage the attention of students?
What does the lesson plan look like that will accomplish this useful end?

I talked with Peter Willett, head of art at Aiglon College, and he described how some students learned about microeconomics and then made a presentation using Explain Everything.  Peter ended up learning something more about how a business works.  “Their presentation made perfect sense and helped me understand the topic better than I had before.”  

I wanted to know “What did you do with the students to prepare them to use this app?”  SEE THE COMMENT
I wanted to know the teacher talk, the procedures, the in-depth preparation that he needed to insert to give a foundation for these students to perform this remarkable performance of understanding.



His answer:  “I showed them the app.  They went at it and I left them alone.”

Let’s look at a statement by Dr. Richard E. Clark of University of Southern California.   For advanced, motivated students, give them a project.   For all others, use fully guided instruction.”

Export and Import almost anything to and from anywhere.

Explain Everything is available on iPad and will “SOON” be available for Android.
 
The Vimeo demo lasts about 4 minutes and it will give you and your students the overview needed to “get it.”  Click here and get started.  The photos in this post come from the Vimeo presentation.

Thanks to Peter Willett for the recommendation.

Peter adds, "It was the law of 'supply and demand'.  I will put my thinking cap on for more ideas about education and technology."

Thursday, October 10, 2013

A search for quotes about Visible Learning: Highlights from a speech by John Hattie

I did a search of "John Hattie visible learning quotes" (I'm looking for items to include in a school's video ... you can see the result at the end of this article ... after the video is approved by the principal)... and I ran into this powerpoint by John Hattie. 

He's hard on "constructivism."











I did a search of "John Hattie visible learning quotes" (I'm looking for items to include in a school's video ... you can see the result at the end of this article ... after the video is approved by the principal)... and I ran into this powerpoint by John Hattie.  Worth a look.



See the Powerpoint

http://www.treasury.govt.nz/publications/media-speeches/guestlectures/pdfs/tgls-hattie.pdf


Sunday, September 8, 2013

Matt Blazek delivers a workshop about projects and inspects a timeline project in a Dance Class in Miami (5 Sept. 2013)

Matt Blazek visited two schools in Miami to deliver workshops about projects.

The following video shows a project in a dance class that Matt reviewed.




This timeline is based on the 
The History of Dance by Gayle Kassing


This the first of a series of five videos 
showing Matt's presentation.

Part 2  of Matt's talk






Part 3 of Matt's talk




Part 4 of Matt's talk






Part 5 of Matt's talk



For more information about Matt Blazek's CD of Projects, contact him at mjblazek@hotmail.com.


You can see a review of his CD on youtube during a visit with Dr. Fischler in July 2011.





You can download his "Sample Projects" from SCRIBD.com



Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Focus on Projects 2013 at a school in Florida: (a) Microsoft's software and recommendations by Lutz Lehmann help the math students learn independence; (b) Dennis Yuzenas and Matt Blazek bring projects that build autonomy and mastery

Dennis Yuzenas presented the following lecture at distance.




Matt Blazek adds these observations about the shortcomings of Common Core standards compared to the international standards (such as IBO.org)





For additional math tips, here's how to engage students in class -- show a camera and ask students to describe a video game.

PART 1




Part 2





For more highlights from the Focus on Projects 2013 training day, please write to TheEbookman@gmail.com and contact


Dennis Yuzenas    www.WhatDoYaKnow.com

Matt Blazek   mjblazek@hotmail.com


Blazek describes the use of projects on a CD (leading to a digital portfolio)


Matt Blazek presents to President Emeritus Abraham Fischler (fischler@Nova.edu)


Here is an example of a teacher in a classroom that was equipped based on advice from Lutz Lehmann (German technology-in-education consultant)


Jaime Torres in a Windows 8 touch-screen environment





TransformTeaching.org for more free EBOOKS and Posters



Please use your clicks    www.YourNetImpact.com

Fischler and Robert Runcie (Broward Superintendent)










Projects with Dennis Yuzenas






Books to engage a teacher... a discussion with Dennis Yuzenas





Scenes from a classroom for Dennis Yuzenas


Projects with Omar Vasile












Special thanks to RiverCities school for providing Doggie Day Care to Dizzie, Matt's pawtner, while Matt Blazek was presenting at Miami Arts Charter School.   miamiArtsCharter.net


Testimonial about The Big Picture (2004) Education is Everyone's Business








A visit to Dennis Yuzenas at Oxbridge Academy.   Why not take time to learn more about his website?   www.WhatDoYaKnow.com    contact Dennis at dYuzenas@oapb.org

Quotes for teachers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRCavzIpGXQ




Enrique Gonzalez   exg068@lausd.net  
Principal of Highland Park High School












Dennis Yuzenas and Mindsets (part 1)







Yuzenas Part 2  Mindsets





Dr. Fischler talks about the Transformation of Education