Tuesday, July 02, 2013

Today's Reads, Views, and Links

What's Actually Inside an Average Cup of Coffee

As a coffee aficionado, I found this quite interesting.  If you love coffee, check this book out.  It's well worth it (if not for the title alone).




******

Seven Ways to Boost Your Creativity

My favorite is #4 - Stay Positive

Although negative moods can sometimes spur creativity, researchers have found that it is during strong positive moods that our best creative work is done. In fact, the feeling of love or even thinking about love was shown to best encourage creative thinking.

The people who always inspire me the most tend to be positive.  I'm not discounting the importance of having a skeptic shoot wholes in my ideas.  That's vital, but I've found it to be vital in the later stages of an idea or project.

If I encounter too much skepticism or negativity in the beginning, I find that my creativity gets killed.

That's what I admire about Mr. Zutz.  He tends to hold off on "no" until later.  If I come to him with an idea to try something new, his attitude is always, go for it!

I can't tell you how encouraging and inspiring that is.

The same is true with Coach Mumm.  The first time I ever coached under him, I brought a long a playbook from Coach Dreschel, one of Mumm's idols, who ran a different type of offense than what Mumm did.

When I told him about this before one of our meetings, he said, "Bring the playbook.  I'm always open to trying new things."

I never did use any of those plays, but the environment of support and openness was vital.

I try to model this whenever a student brings up an idea for an essay or presentation.  Given them the go for it! And then hammer them with some constructive criticism on the second or third draft.

*****

As I begin to explore how I'm going to handle 1:1 in 205 next year, I think this will come in handy: 8 Great Videos About the Flipped Classroom.

I don't know if I'll ever really flip my classroom.  Or if I could even pull it off!

When I did attend a flipped classroom intro course, I was a bit surprised to see that I had already been doing some 'flipping' of my own in College Comp 2 by way of our class blog.

I also had a colleague say that one presenter told her that English teachers were really the first flippers since we would assign a story to be read as homework and then discuss it and analyze it during class.

Instead of 'flipping,' I think I'll go for what is known as a 'blended' class where some days will conduct class in a flipped environment (or on-line) and then other days we'll sit down and have a traditional classroom experience.

*****

The best Pixar movies as chosen by children.

This is interesting.

And it makes me wonder: just who are they targeting with these films? The kids or their parents?

Can they really satisfy both?

Ever since reading the book Imagine, which spends some time analyzing how Pixar is able to stay so creative, I've been really interesting in the Pixar approach.

But how long can they keep meeting the expectations of both kids and adults while continuing to be creative and push the limits?

For my money - here is my Pixar top five (let it be known, though, that I have not yet seen Up, Ratatouille, and Monsters University.

1.  The Incredibles

2.  Toy Story 3

3.  Finding Nemo

4.  Toy Story 2

5.  Toy Story 

*****

One of the assignments we do in College Comp 2 is the exploratory essay.  One of the subjects we explore in rough draft form is that of beauty.  This is definitely something I'm going to use in class next year: Love Me: The Cross-Cultural Manufacturing of Beauty.

*****

Eight Great Apps for Educators to Create, Display, and Share

I use a couple of these, but I'm definitely going to try Reflector (which can turn my iPhone, iPod, or iPad into a mirroring device so I can run my slideshows - which will be on my MacBook Air - while using my iPhone).  I have been waiting for this.  Too often when I present from a slideshow, I'm stuck at my desk.  I have a clicker that came with my MacBook, but that's not quite the same as being able to mirror the slideshow right from my iPhone or iPad.  I can't wait to get this.

The other one that I want to try is HT Professional Recorder.  According to this report it is built-in on your apple device (not sure how that works), but when you purchase this it must "unlock" the feature.  The app allows you to record off your iPad or iPhone with three interesting settings - "close to your phone," "conference room," and "auditorium."  I can't wait to get started using this.

Trello is another site that looks very useful.  Here is a pretty cool tutorial that I found.




Now, tell me, what teacher couldn't use more help being organized?

*****

And one of these posts just wouldn't be the same without an info graph:











****

We think we have high stakes testing today! That's a joke compared to this impossible "literacy" test that Louisiana used to give to its black voters in the 1960's.

*****

I think this is about the 20th time I've linked to this article, but it's worth the repetition: 25 Things Successful Educators Do Differently.

As with my chief way to remain creative, I think one of the most important things on the list above is to be positive.

And they hit the nail right on the head

Negative energy zaps creativity and it makes a nice breeding ground for fear of failure. Good teachers have an upbeat mood, a sense of vitality and energy, and see past momentary setbacks to the end goal. Positivity breeds creativity.

Another main point on the list is #14 - successful educators enjoy their work.  In the past I've met teachers who just don't seem to enjoy being around young people.  Then why are you doing this for a living?

It is easy to spot a teacher who loves their work. They seem to emanate contagious energy. Even if it on a subject like advanced calculus, the subject comes alive. If you don’t love your work or your subject, it will come through in your teaching. Try to figure out why you feel so unmotivated and uninspired. It might have nothing to do with the subject, but your expectations. Adjust them a bit and you might find your love of teaching come flooding back.

Numbers 15 (Teachers adapt to students needs) and 16 (successful educators welcome change in their classrooms) will be put to the test this year in our new 1:1 environment.

The one I need to work on the most is #13 - communicate with parents.  This is one of my biggest fears, but this is something I'm going to work on stepping out of my comfort zone with and improving this aspect of my teaching.  In fact, that's "my assignment" that I'm going to model for my Ramp Up to Readiness lesson plan on stepping out of your comfort zone.


*****

And, finally, what we all want to know: The Secrets of Top Students





No comments: