DaveShearon

Carnival of Education #77

TextSavvy has the Carnival this week, and his blog is worth some time as well!

Wearing teachers out

I have said before that I'm not sure which of the following four-word phrases is the most dangerous to public schools:

"I'm just a teacher."

or

"This too shall pass."

Right now, I'm leaning toward, "This too shall pass," because the only people that have to change their minds for the first one to go away are some teachers.  But, for the latter to fade, lots and lots of politicians, from the US Senate to the local school board, and lots and lots of administrators and "consultants" and text book companies and, well, it goes on and on, have to stop what they're doing.  (Note, I didn't say change their minds -- some of these know what they're doing isn't good for schools, but it's good for them.)  Anyway, this post from a junior high teacher gets at what I'm saying:

The political climate regarding teaching is starting to wear on me.

Last year I threw out almost every thing I'd ever created to teach from the red textbook from Holt. I kept to the schedule, even when it made no sense. I spent at least one class period a week on spelling, because that's the area administration decided upon which we would focus. More than halfway through the year, the English chair decided we would adopt the Sheri Henderson way of teaching writing, and we had no say in that decision. So, yet again, I threw out something (this time, something not even well-tried) for the newest "solution."

I'm beat.

This young woman is in her 9th year.  She has likely just reached the top of her game as a teacher and, instead of taking advantage of that, her superiors are jerking her around as if they WANT her to decide, "This too shall pass," and quit trying to think for herself. 

Of course, if it were possible that the next text book or pedagogical strategy or classroom management scheme would be THE ONE!, then this might make sense.  But, there is no THE ONE!  There is no programmatic solution to helping all students learn at higher levels than we expected of all but the very elite just a few decades ago.  Rather, it takes connections -- human connections -- between teachers and students.  It takes connections to get students to engage with the work that's required to learn and grow at top capacity.  And those connections get tossed when the next bright idea comes along and makes more teachers start to think, "This too shall pass."

Note to school boards:  If your administrators aren't spending there time supporting teachers in teaching the way they think is best -- in calling teachers to higher levels of excellence based on the teachers' strengths -- then your adminstrators are part of the problem.  Think about that the next time they assure you they are going to train those teachers into doing a better job.

Mindset by Carol Dweck

I am just finishing Mindset by Carol Dweck, Ph.D.  Great book!  A must read for parents, teachers, coaches, executives, friends, couples, leaders, those who face challenges ... well, that pretty much covers everyone, doesn't it?  Dr. Dweck's terminology has evolved to using short, Anglo-Saxon words to describe her constructs.  There is the "growth" mindset and the "fixed" mindset.  In some of her academic pieces,  these are called "incremental" and "entity" theories (sometimes, "naive theories"). 

Here are the basics:

A "fixed" mindset focuses on "abilities" or "traits."  In academics, this mindset promotes the belief that one either is or is not smart, that a "smart" person does not have to work to master material, and that failure, rather than being a signal for greater effort or better strategies, is a signal of lack of intelligence.  As a result, those with a fixed mindset avoid challenges and decrease effort after setbacks.  In athletics, the fixed mindset focuses on "natural ability."  In relationships, the focus becomes "fit" and "mind reading."  In business, it leads to leadership based on intimidation and a need to prove how "smart' the leader is.

A growth mindset, on the other hand, takes setbacks and challenges as signals of an opportunity to learn.  In academics, an individual with a "growth" mindset is willing to try difficult subjects and continue to work toward mastery.  This is NOT about those who lack  ability needing to work  more.  It is about those with equal amounts of whatever the genetic component of intelligence is getting very different results in things such as organic chemistry based on their mindset.

In athletics, the growth mindset translates into someone able to handle setbacks and yet continue to perform in that moment and to go on to practice and develop better skills for the future.  In relationships, growth equals bouncing back from hurtful to have your brothers and been willing to work at developing a relationship over time.  Finally, in business, the growth-minded leader develops the skills and capabilities of others in the organization and allows them to make great contributions.

I know I'm inspired to strive to operate more out of  a "growth" mindset in all areas of my life.  I suspect you will be also.

Poof!

A team-member in a recent consulting engagement, who is also an accomplished magician, e-mails:

I had agreat time as well. I want to work with both of you again. More later.
I am judging the close-up contest at the convention of the Society of American Magicians in Louisville, KY.

Having a great time.

Gotta go.

POOF!

Funny!

SPSS Customer Service Problems

I try not to begrudge software companies for reasonable protections of their intellectual property.  It is sad but true that the selfish, dishonest, and illegal behavior of a few causes problems for all of us.  But I've just run into a licensing scheme for SPSS statistical software that is extraordinarily customer unfriendly. 

Apparently, though I successfully installed the $200 "Graduate Pack" and went through their online registration process, I did something wrong.  Maybe.  Or maybe it's their fault.  But, either way, yesterday after the close of business, the product suddenly quit working and throws an error report that "the license will not permit that operation" every time I launch the software.  Turns out that, either due to my mistake or some problem on their end, the software was only installed in "trial mode" that expired after two weeks.  AND IT NEVER GAVE ME ANY WARNING THAT IT WAS IN TRIAL MODE!! 

I've used other software with trial periods -- MindManager comes to mind -- and they've usually given you at least a warning on launching the program and generally a countdown to the drop dead date.  Not SPSS.  Nothing.  Nada.  And, what's worse, they won't respond timely to the problem.  It's a common enough situation that the first three FAQs on their customer-service site read:

Where do I find my Authorization Code or License Code?

What's the difference between a License Code and an Authorization Code?

I installed the software two weeks ago and it was working fine. Now it's not working. What happened?

The first suggestion is to use the License Authorization Wizard in the software itself to register over a high-speed internet connection.  Great.  No problem.  I go through the process, keying in the 19 digit authorization code that is in the manual.  And I get back the response that my software is now licensed, though I may have to re-start the product for it to take effect.  OK.  No problem.  Shut 'er down and re-start.  Same thing.  Throws the error report and won't work. Repeat the whole "License Authorization" rigamarole; same result.  Repeat; nothing.  Ok, now it is really their problem, not mine.

The FAQs mention that the code was on a "yellow sheet" loose in the box with the product when delivered.  What?  Are they kidding?  A critical piece of information on a separate sheet loose in the box?  That's ridiculous.  And, of course, it's long gone now.  Or maybe it was never there.  Regardless, it's not a solution for me now.  But, wait!  They also have a "License Code Request Form" on their web site.  Now, I'm "logged in" to their site.  They have my customer identification information, including my e-mail address. (Why is a fax number a required field on this form?  That doesn't look good!)  So, they're going to retrieve my license code on the spot, or at least e-mail it to me, right?  Nope.  The form, as far as anything on the site shows, does nothing worthwhile.  Instead, it returns this message:

Your customer service inquiry has been sent to SPSS Customer Service who will process it and get back with you shortly.

AND CUSTOMER SERVICE IS ONLY OPEN 8:30 - 5:00 CENTRAL TIME, M-F!!

So, my partner and I have a deadline of next Friday for the first draft of our Capstone paper, I've been doing data analysis all week and need to be immersed in it this week, and, instead, I'm sitting here writing this post because of REALLY POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE FROM SPSS!!

Resoultion:  On Monday, I got an e-mail from an SPSS representative in response to a  license request form I had submitted.  The e-mail asked for the "lock code" for my machine and told me how to obtain it. I sent that and the registration authorization back and got a return e-mail containing a 95-character license code.   I entered this through the license wizard, started SPSS, and got a message that "the license has expired"!!  So, it now being a M-F betwee 8 and 5, I called, sat on hold for 15 minutes, talked to a customer service representative who, after putting me on hold for several more minutes, put me through to technical service.  The technical service representative had none of the information about me from my registration, even though the customer service representative had that info.  He had to set me up anew in their system.  Then he went through some questions, generated a set a files, zipped them up and e-mailed them to me.  With him on the phone, I unzipped them into the main SPSS directory and ran a batch program that was among them to "clean" the flag in SPSS that made the program act as if it had been in trial mode.  Oh, and I had apparently licensed the program correctly because the customer service records showed it licensed on the day I installed it, 2 weeks before it shut down.  The batch program worked.  Problem solved.  Three days lost.  And apparently this happens to folks with Graduate Pack 14.0 fairly frequently.