« November 2005 | Main | January 2006 »
Courtesy of one of my classmates, here's a couple of pictures of our work from last semester! (And, of course, this doesn't include the individual research each of us did as we prepared for Capstone projects.) I know I felt pushed, and I think most of my classmates did, also. I learned a lot and am trying to integrate it. That process will have to chug along beside new learnings this next semester as the readings have already started!
Chris Lehmann has a new blog and a new position -- he's principal of the soon-to-open Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia! Maybe we'll be able to get together when I'm up there for one of the MAPP on-sites this Spring. In fact, he'd like my cohort mates, so ...
While you're at his site, check out his post on visiting Benjamin Franklin HS. He's right about engaging kids; it's critical. And he's right about relationships. I'm not sure he's right when he suggests that teachers can't use Like Water for Chocolate in English to support what's going on the culinary institute. I don't know Pennsylvania's laws or what Philly has done on mandating curriculum. There are pros to having a substantive, substantial core curriculum that every student in a system is entitled to receive. Their are cons to taking it to the point where no flexibility is left for teachers. Of course, some of it depends on how much you expect students to read. If it is 25 books per year, I suspect there's room for Like Water for Chocolate and a few others besides!
This post at Asymmetricl Information reflects a common elitisim among academics, professionals, etc. -- that non-intellectual jobs can neither be interesting nor meaningful. Wrong. Some folks consider their work a job, some a career, and some a calling, and that's true regardless of the job. Gallup has found this. So have researchers like Amy Wrzesniewski. Administrative assistants. Hospital orderlies. Hotel maids. Doesn't matter. Some folks in any job find it engaging and meaningful. And almost any job provides a space for some individuals to excel in ways almost hard to imagine until we see them do it. So, though it is common for academics, intellectuals, professonals, etc. to think that what they have is far different from those in "lesser" jobs, it's just not true. We all much more alike than that! Pretty amazing, and pretty wonderful!
Recent Comments