My Home Office

When I’m not at school, I spend a fair amount of time in my home office. That’s where I do most of my lesson plans for school, write many of my tests and quizzes, and design the lessons I present in class.

I thought I’d take everyone on a brief tour of my home office. 

On the desk, my two computers. You’ve seen my iMac at school. Sometimes it’s just easier to lug it into school, then to try to do what I need to do on the school computers. To the right, not in the picture, are two VHS VCRs, a Betamax tape player and my printer.  I use these in my video business.

To the left, not shown as well, is a table where I try to keep all the paperwork in my life organized. 

On the wall are things that are representative of what I find important. In the upper left is the signed picture from astronaut Chris Cassidy, a Jason Mraz poster that was given to me by my oldest son, and a signed Aztec Two-Step poster that was given to me by my youngest son. 

On the right side is my college diploma and below that, a poster from The Wasp Woman - a really bad science fiction movie. Hanging over that poster is my old badge from Apple.

On the shelf above my iMac are business cards from many of the jobs I’ve held over the past 20 years and an assortment of knick knacks including a rubber brain, two miniature billboards from my days selling radio, a collection of books about video editing software and the complete issues of The National Geographic up to 2007.

Behind my desk is a huge print of a shipwreck - see below.

That’s my home office. 

That’s were I put my lessons together. 

That’s where i am when I figure out how to best stump my students with a ridiculous bonus question on a math test.

Not Yet

I learned something interesting in my graduate class the other night and I think I might adopt it next year.

When a student fails a test or quiz, instead of scoring the work with a numerical or letter grade - ie 56% or F, the idea is to simply write “not yet.”

In other words, to tell the student that they have not mastered the topic - yet. It’s a more positive way of responding to a failing score. It implies that it’s only a matter of time and work before the student understands the material.

The big, red “F” is thought to be so final and depressing that students end up feeling that they’re incapable of understanding the material. 

The theory is that by using “not yet” it encourages students to keep working towards understanding. I usually write “see me” and maybe the students perceive that as a punishment or something, I don’t know.

Using “not yet” makes sense to me. Of course, I’m going to do it in red pen, so I might be damaging their self-esteem anyway.

Have I Harmed My Students’ Psyche?

A school in England has told its teachers to stop using red pens to correct papers and tests. The school’s vice principal told reporters that red is a “very negative color.”

Instead, they are to use green pens, and to make sure they make two or three positive comments on all homework papers. The students can respond to those comments and are instructed to use a purple pen to do so. 

Really?

Seriously?

Is this the silliest thing you’ve ever heard?

I’ve been using a red pen to correct homework, quizzes, tests and projects all year. Have I harmed my students’ psyche?

I use red because it stands out on the papers. I have students who use black, blue, purple and green ink, plus pencil for their work. Red stands out so they can see my comments and corrections.

I can just see it now: in 25 years, after all teachers have been using green ink to correct students’ work, green will be perceived as a “negative color,” and we’ll have to go back to a nice, neutral color like...red.

Failure is the First Step

“Trying is the first step towards failure.” 

– Homer Simpson

It’s a funny line, so typical of Homer’s ridiculously cynical world view. But, it’s an attitude that pops up in the classroom. Sometimes kids don’t want to try something new because they’re afraid they won’t understand it or they’ll fail the test on the new topic.

If you think about it, it kinda makes sense but it is a completely limiting mind set. It’s as if the student is saying:

“I know this stuff really well and everyone thinks I’m really smart, so I’ll just keep doing this stuff. If I try something new, I might not ‘get it,’ and then everyone will know that I’m not as smart as they thought I was.”

I know it sounds a little convoluted, but if you think of it from that student's perspective, you can at least understand where he/she is coming from.

But whether conscious or unconscious, this way of thinking is the antithesis of education. Nobody understands everything all the time. 

Failure is a central part of learning and everyone should feel comfortable with initial failure. It’s how you identify what you need to work on.

When I was studying for my MTEL exams to become a teacher, the first thing I did was to do a sample test. Then, when I scored it, I could identify the areas I needed to review and study. If I’d been all embarrassed about doing poorly on parts of it, I’d have never learned what I needed to learn.

I think Homer has it exactly wrong. He should be saying:

“Failure is the first step towards success.”

We Thought We Had All the Time in the World

Section 60 is not about a troop surge or a war spending bill or whether we should be fighting these wars at all. It is about ordinary people trying to get through something so hard that most of us can’t ever imagine it. Everyone I met that afternoon had a gut-wrenching story to tell.

Mary McHugh is one of those people. She sat in front of the grave of her fiance James “Jimmy” Regan, talking to the stone. She spoke in broken sentences between sobs, gesturing with her hands, sometimes pausing as if she was trying to explain, with so much left needed to say.

Later on, after she spoke with a fellow mourner from a neighboring grave, I went over and introduced myself and told her I was photographing for Getty Images and had brought my family on our own pilgrimage to the site. I told her we had been living in Pakistan for the last few years, how we had come back to the States for a few months for the birth of our second child.

Mary told me about her slain fiance Jimmy Regan. Clearly, she had not only loved him but truly admired him. When he graduated from Duke, he decided to enlist in the Army to serve his country. He chose not to be an officer, though he could have been, because he didn’t want to risk a desk job. Instead, he became an Army Ranger and was sent twice to Aghanistan and Iraq – an incredible four deployments in just three years. He was killed in Iraq this February by a roadside bomb.

I told her how I had spent a lot of time in Iraq and Afghanistan, photographing American troops in combat. I told her that earlier this year I was a month in Ramadi and then a few more weeks in a tough spot called Helmand. I told her how I am going back to Iraq sometime this summer and that I was very sorry to see her this Memorial Day in the national cemetery, visiting a grave.

Mary said that they had planned to get married after Jimmy’s four years of service were up next year. “We loved each other so much,” she said. “We thought we had all of the time in the world.”

This is a portion of photographer John Moore's 2007 blog post about his iconic image. It's worthwhile to read the whole thing. 

Please remember all the Jimmy Regans and Mary McHughs this Memorial Day.

Bare Walls

Yesterday, I was sitting at my desk correcting papers. I looked up and was struck by how much stuff we have hanging on the walls and displayed around the room.

I thought back to the first day of school where there were just four posters on the wall - the lab safety poster, the periodic table, word problem keywords and the Hellenic mission statement.

Now, I see a room filled with student work. I see Pi stretching across three walls, student presentations about constellations and elements. I see rockets, hand-made globes, a fake clock (smashed, of course), a huge poster about Bernoulli's Principle and  so much more.

It's amazing to think back to the bare walls. 

In just a few short weeks, we'll be wrapping up the year and will be back to those bare walls, ready for another exciting year of math and science at the Hellenic.

Macbeth Project Downloads

Here are the links to download the three parts of the Macbeth Project:


Macbeth Trailer

Macbeth

The Blooper Reel

If you want a higher resolution copy, I'll make DVD of the project. If you do want an actual DVD of the project, please let me know and I’ll be happy to make one for you. I do, however, need to charge $3 for the DVD to cover my out-of-pocket costs.