My father led a class for Dave Ramsey‘s “Financial Peace University” this past fall at his church in Manhattan, Kansas. Since I’m exploring some new job as well as consulting possibilities following the completion of my PhD this fall, he shared the Lesson 11 CD with me over the holidays titled “Working In Your Strengths.”
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As a Star Wars fan familiar with the “Mary Did You Know” song, I found the YouTube remix “Vader Did You Know?” song and video HILARIOUS today. Enjoy! This video is a great example of fair use and legal video remixing. Show this to your students and discuss it. Is this legal? Are the creators
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Here is a quotation worth considering in our communications landscape awash in information: From “Democracy and education: an introduction to the philosophy of education” by John Dewey, published in 1916. In Chapter Fifteen: “Play and Work in the Curriculum” he wrote: Doubtless the fact that children normally engage in play and work out of school
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These are my notes from Steven Covey‘s keynote address at the ISTE Conference in Philadelphia on June 28, 2011. Steven presented over a videoconference connection. MY THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. Leadership is a choice, not a position – I define leadership differently than most people Today I want to discuss leading your
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In his 2001 book, “High Tech/High Touch. Technology and our Accelerated Search for Meaning,” John Naisbitt argued modern technologies often encourage us to live “distanced and distracted lives.” Certainly that critical observation is even more true ten years later in 2011 with the growing ubiquity of social networking sites and mobile phones than it was
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Thanks to a VoiceThread project on “The True Story of the Three Little Pigs” by one of my UNT students, I learned recently about the website “Teaching Children Philosophy.” Tom Wartenberg, the creator of the website, published the book “Big Ideas for Little Kids: Teaching Philosophy through Children’s Literature” in 2009. Tom built his website
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Yesterday in St Paul, Minnesota, I had an opportunity to interview educator Carl Anderson about his ideas on learning and the purpose of school. Carl has been conducting interviews with many people the last few years and asking them about these topics, and he’s heard some diverse answers. Many people disagree about the purpose of
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Guest post from Richard Byrne. Every year I review thousands of free web-based resources on my own blog. Many are the times that I get emails or comments from readers telling me that they cannot use one of the resources I’ve reviewed because the resource is blocked by a filter. There’s not much that I
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The purposes of education extend far beyond the narrow “achievement” which is measured on standardized assessments. Mike Rose reminds us of some of the most important purposes of education on pages 36-38 of his wonderful book, “Why School? Reclaiming Education for All of Us.” He writes: Reading and writing gave me skills to create with
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I good friend of mine and classmate from college is considering entering the teaching profession as a second career after he retires from the Air Force in a couple years. He asked me for my recommendations of books to read about teaching and being a teacher, and I thought I’d share my list here so
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This recent post by Martin Jorgensen is one of the most heartfelt and touching stories I’ve read in quite awhile. Savor and bask in the sunshine the day may offer. Martin’s website is “The Digital Narrative.” Technorati Tags: life, philosophy, dad, father, hero
Here are two nuggets worth reading and sharing with others relating to leadership, passion and learning. From Tracy Rosen via a blog comment: “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”
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Dan Lovejoy is a graduate student in the Technical Communication and Rhetoric program at Texas Tech University, and lives in the Oklahoma City area. Dan interviewed me and several others for his 7 minute, 40 second micro-documentary “Real/Virtual.” Among others, he asked participants over video to respond to the following questions: Have you had an
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Success can be and is defined in many ways. We don’t (as a general rule) like failure as human beings, and our school systems certainly have a low tolerance for failure. Yet failure is not only a pre-requisite for creativity, it is also required for “success” in virtually every context. This Michael Jordan advertisement for
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I love to take photos. My iPhone is the best digital camera I’ve ever owned, because it is almost ALWAYS with me. Here are a few recent photos I’ve snapped which have seemed notable for different reasons. These are all posted to my Flickr account. I found this juxtaposition of the high-tech digital and the
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I watched Hector Ruiz’s moving TedTalk “The power to connect the world” at lunch today. I resonate with his passion for the 50×15 project, which seeks: …to enable affordable, accessible Internet connectivity and computing capabilities for 50 percent of the world’s population by the year 2015. Yesterday at our monthly Oklahoma Creativity Project education committee
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I’m sharing the commencement address for graduating seniors in Howe, Oklahoma, this evening starting at 7:00 pm US central time. Connectivity permitting, I’ll webcast my presentation live on Ustream. I haven’t seen the program yet, but I’m guessing I’ll start around 7:15… I’ll post an update to twitter when I have a better idea of
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A couple of years ago when our family spent time in and around Jemez Springs, New Mexico, I met several local residents who aspired to “live off the grid.” By “the grid,” they meant the electricity grid to which most of us in the “developed world” are connected every minute of our lives, and without
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I am reading Rob Bell’s book “Velvet Elvis” along with about 50 other men in our church’s Friday morning men’s group, and came across the following passage recently which resonated with me as a teacher. Rob wrote: Tour guides are people who see depth and texture and connections where others don’t. That is why the
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