The Scrabbled: Making Fun of Each Other since '99

I was talking education with a student’s father last Friday. He is originally from Koto, India and sent me an article about India’s Cram Schools which have incredibly increased his hometown’s population.

Students drop out of high school and move out in order to attend a 2-year cram school to prepare for the entrance exam to one of a few Indian Institutes of Technology. These IITs are renowned, as you can imagine.

While teaching for the next two years, I’ll be attending Seton Hall one weekend a month for a degree and certification in teaching. This weekend marks the start of that program. The class is called Becoming a Teacher II: Technology.

Anyway, I swear to you my professor just asked, “Now, what does the right button of the mouse do?”

My school is opening their Back To School Night with this video. Has anyone ever seen this before?

It actually makes me feel anxious and insignificant. Thoughts?

I love, love, LOVE the TED talks. I’ve yet to watch one that wasn’t absolutely fascinating and mind-opening in some way or form. Jonathan Haidt’s The Read Difference Between Liberals and Conservatives is no different. It’s the sort of open and honest talk on a subject that effects all of us almost every day that both sides of the equation could watch and nod their heads to. Definitely worth freeing up twenty minutes (and your undivided attention) to check out.

So I just finished my first “week” at my new teacher job at a Jersey City middle school (it was 3 half-days). I’ve put myself through quite the emotional rollercoaster: one anxious night of sleep; reflective meaning of life questions on the Hudson; and endless over-planning. But after class today, I felt so positively happy, I couldn’t believe it.

Some of my students have already expressed the fact that they both a) have fun in my class and b) are trying hard to follow the rules for me. This is overall much more fulfilling for me personally.

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Thursday July 24th at the Whole Foods Bowery in NYC. Anyone wanna join me? It’s only $30.

Madconomist has a pretty lengthy advice article explaining at length why American youths should think twice about the current education/career system in place and it’s a really thought provoking read. Certainly, there’s plenty to disagree with and perhaps more than a few radical ideas and recommendations, but there’s also some really good stuff. Advice on keeping your head above water in potentially turbulent times, on higher education, and learning skills and crafts, and on bettering yourself as a person — not to improve the ego, but to make yourself more capable of shifting and adjusting with the times. Very much worth the read, regardless of whether or not you have the time.

Quite Possibly, The Most Unorthodox Piece Of Advice Ever Given To The American Youths.

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Apparently kids are learning a new way to do math that involves less memorization and factoring and such and more creative methods. One example caught my interest:

When they multiply 23 times 5, they’ll do five 20s to get 100, and then add five 3s to get 15, and they put that all together and get 115.

This is how I’ve always done math in my head. Percentages, multiplication, whatever, I break it down into mini problems and add them or half them or whatever. But apparently kids are having a lot of problem learning this way.

How did you folks learn it? How do you do it now? Any of the parents here have any thoughts?