Author: abendelow
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The promise of PBL with Millennials
Howe, Neil, and William Strauss with Reena Nadler. Millenials & K-12 schools: Educational Strategies for a new generation. (2008) by LifeCourse Associates. It is the premise of Howe and Strauss’ helpful guide that the digitally-weaned kids in middle and high school today (“Millenials,” born between 1982-2002), in their expectations, predilections, attitudes, and work habits, are…
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Begging the Cloud question
Aristotle, who defined question-begging “Begging the question” is a logical fallacy known as petitio principii in Latin. It occurs when the user–sometimes maliciously, often just ignorantly–uses a premise to his argument that, under closer inspection, cannot be supported. The fallacy is useful for those who want to prove something–it assumes part of the conclusion. The…
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Idart–motivating through social-mediated goal setting
Snaps to Dorit Elion for her Idart (not sure what the acronym stands for yet), a program leveraging social media to facilitate kids’ goal-setting. Her proposal is currently up for voting at the Houghton-Mifflin Global Education Challenge page right now. Her program would work with students setting specific, measurable goals (perfect for my school’s need…
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Drucker on teaching, pt. 2
This video must have been taken near the end of Peter Drucker‘s almost 96 years (he died in 2005), but he makes some lucid statements about what is happening in education because of the computer. Assuming you’ll find the long pauses he takes irksome, let me transcribe his main points (emphasis added): The single largest…
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Peter Drucker on teaching
In his excellent autobiography, Adventures of a Bystander, Peter F. Drucker offers his insights into the teaching profession. Remembering two excellent teachers of his youth, Miss Elsa and Miss Sophy, he draws a distinction between those who are “born teachers”–who have a “gift” for it. These are the teachers like Miss Sophy, whose natural personality…
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The technology of music: Yogic version
The Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda (1946) is interesting for the student of Hinduism. The author’s transcendental zeal from a young age (albeit karmically destined and foretold) is impressive. Yogananda’s accounts of mind-over-matter spectacles he encounters in his youth (e.g., in the Tiger-taming Yogi, the Levitating Yogi, and various mind-reading Yogi, etc.) can…
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As we approach summer and the Technology of Wilderness (via Camping)
I want to revisit a post from last summer when I had just experienced a strong dose of Nature on the Flambeau River, in northern Wisconsin (depicted in this blog’s current masthead and in this post. I wanted to connect my experiences with a vision of better schooling. I wrote about the important lessons that…
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Some technical improvements for the HS English teacher–before the flood
I’d like to engineer my classes smarter than the Army Corps of Engineers did the Mississippi flood control system and NOLA (and MR. GO) when contemplating inevitable flooding. It floods because it flows. There’s no avoiding it. The trick, then, is in anticipating and planning for the flood. (I enjoyed Harry Schearer‘s “The Big Un-Easy,”…
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Book Review: Unbroken (2010) by Laura Hillenbrand
Laura Hillenbrand is our generation’s non-fictional Hemingway, telling real stories with dispassion, incision, and grace. The New York Times called her style “crystalline.” It is an amazing war story, with all of the evil, all of the virtue, and all of the mundane in a voice that is measured and removed. The subjects and her…
The Wikiness 