The New Civic Gateway– Really?

by Gary Juren, Architect

  During one of my recent architectural road trips, I was pleased to hear the local radio announce that the long awaited opening of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge is scheduled for March 2, 2012. Texas Independence Day, how fitting.  Well, I decided to veer off course and see for myself the final touches being added to what civic leaders have billed for over a decade as “the new civic gateway.”

  The Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge is one of three Santiago Calatrava designed bridges being built over the Trinity River in Dallas, Texas as part of the Trinity River Project. The $93 million cable-stayed bridge is 400 feet high and 1,870 feet in length.  Upon completion it will connect from Singleton Boulevard in West Dallas to Woodall Rodgers Freeway in downtown.  The second Calatrava IH 30 Signature Bridge has been funded and is currently under design.  It will rise 300 feet above the Trinity River and span 1,100 feet.  Just as the IH 30 Signature Bridge acts as a gateway for East/West regional traffic the third proposed IH 35-E Bridge becomes the gateway for North/South traffic.  The design has not yet begun.  It has recently been reported that Calatrava may not be designing the third bridge.  These bridges designed by renowned Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava will continue to make North Texas a great destination location for world class architecture. This is another jewel in the crown for Dallas. Nearby and connected by the Woodall Rodgers Freeway is the 68 acre Dallas Arts District and under construction is the Perot Museum designed by another Pritzker Prize Award winning architect, Morphosis.

  As I approach the bridge I am struck by how this neighborhood, an area in decline for decades, will be transformed.  Singelton Boulevard is lined with used tire shops, scrap yards and vacant buildings.  It seemed odd to be building a “designer” bridge to an area people did not want to drive through.

With the opening of the bridge, private development will quickly transform these declining properties.  With its stunning views of the downtown skyline it is ripe for urban renewal.  Urban building styles, similar to what is being developed in the Uptown area of Dallas, is likely to be coming soon.  There also exists a treed residential community known as La Bajada.  Made up of modest one and two storey homes, this neighborhood must have its character protected.  The gentrification of the former “Little Mexico” neighborhood north of downtown was a mistake and should not be allowed to happen to this viable community.  It will be a challenge for City Planners to balance the desires of the real estate investor and the needs of the residential community.

  The Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge is a beautifully proportioned bridge designed by a world renowned architect.  When viewed up close the bridge’s powerful white arch and graceful network of tensioned cables are awe inspiring.  As a local neighborhood architectural icon it should be on everyone’s “Do Not Miss” list.  To describe the bridge as “the new civic gateway” – probably not.  Traveling at 60 mph down Stemmons Freeway the new bridge seems to get lost.  It’s just not on the same scale of a Golden Gate Bridge, a Brooklyn Bridge, or even the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.   

These are the elements that define the image of any great city.

  To me, the postcard images of the Dallas Skyline will still be defined by ReunionTower, Fountain Place, and Peagus – The Flying Red Horse.

  What do you think?

Don’t Fear the Fear

by Holly B. Smith

In the classroom, my junior college business speech students had one fear that surpassed all their other fears – The Impromptu Speech.  I even stopped putting this speech on the syllabus because the absences for that day rose by 50%.  Everything about this speech frightened them, and for my first semester in the classroom, I was unable to get them over the fear.  It was a shame, too, because the impromptu is perhaps the most powerful of all the speech forms.  It requires quick thinking, being able to answer on your feet, persuasive techniques, careful word choice, and promotes confidence.  It is a small speech packed with soft skills from which all students will benefit.

During the next semester, I was in my office for a student conference with a “ghost” – a student who disappears after the first month of a semester and reappears at the end of a semester in an effort to scare away a failing grade.  For every reason I gave him for his grade, he matched me with his own counterpoint.  He told me why he deserved a second chance, made his three points, and then restated his plea for leniency.  Had he bothered to show up for class, he would have recognized that he was giving an impromptu speech….without fear.

Our fears of public speaking are definitely valid.  It’s in our biological nature to be uncomfortable when people are staring at us.  It feels threatening, even like an attack sometimes.  We are also rightfully uncomfortable with the idea of failing, of being rejected by our audience, and fearing the unknown.  What was different between my office and the class?  Why was this student giving such a good speech?  He didn’t have the fear.  (Well, in his case, the fear of failing may have overridden his fear of the speech itself.)  I realized I had to find a way to remove the fear from the speech, to separate them so that they were not associated.  The speech was not the enemy, the fear was.

I began slowly introducing my students to the impromptu speech format:  state your position, give three supporting points, and restate your position.  I would take a topic from the textbook, split the class in half, require each side to either submit three pro or three con points, then present to the other group.  I had them give me their three reasons for convincing parents to pay for their college.  The next week, I asked them for three reasons why I should delay the midterm. Then, I moved on to “would you rather” topics…” Would you rather have a noisy neighbor or a nosey neighbor?”  We always used the same format of an impromptu speech.  They enjoyed this so much that they would remind me that it was time for our “would you rather” topic.  Once they stopped associating the creative process with the fear of producing a speech, the result was enthusiasm and confidence.

On Impromptu day, there was the initial wailing and teeth gnashing until I reminded them that they’d been preparing for this speech for weeks.  “All you are stressing about is the fear.  Don’t fear the fear.”  And their confidence went through the room.  So did their grades.
For more information on how to incorporate impromptu speeches in your CTE classroom, try the following links:

• http://www.presentation-pointers.com/showarticle/articleid/121/
• http://www.best-speech-topics.com/good-impromptu-speech-topics.html
• http://homeworktips.about.com/od/speechclass/a/impromptu.htm
• http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110216062152AAqPQfx *”would you rather” questions

In-state Tuition for Illegal Students?

Nancy Gorman, CTE Web site Publications Editor

The topic of in-state tuition rates for illegal students has become a hot topic, even in the records mentioned by prospective U.S. presidential candidates.  (i.e,  Rick Perry, Governor of Texas, who is a proponent of this plan.)

Perry’s position states that helping these students achieve a post-graduate education will provide a better educated public in the near-future years.  A better-educated person is a far better asset in the business world and able to make a contribution to society, in the long run.

Wouldn’t Perry’s statement be true of any prospective collegiate?  A better-educated person makes a greater contribution to business and society!

People who disagree with this plan feel that the legal residents deserve the slots available for post-graduate education as a benefit from the taxes their parents have been paying.

I don’t know how you feel about this, but I also look at it from the perspective of results of a post-graduate education:

• How many freshmen actually graduate from college? (Have we wasted a few years of subsidized tuition?)
• Do they have living/eating arrangements in college?
• How many students seek tuition aid (from any source, not just the Federal Government)?
• How many graduates pay back their student loans in full and on a timely basis?
• How many students are dependent on their parents’ financial support for the full college program?
• Do “illegal students” partake of the U.S. education and then return to their homeland, educated and contributing to their home society?

These points make a considerable difference to me when money (here in the U.S.!) is extremely tight, many workers here are out of jobs and income, and their children certainly will suffer in the near-future years to come. 

High school graduates who seek a college education and have been contributing legal citizens should have a preferential position in the available slots to attend a college/university.

Importance of Student Engagement

by Jerry Wircenski

In his new book, The Highly Engaged Classroom, Robert Marzano provides teachers with an in-depth treatment of research-based instructional strategies that can be used in the classroom to enhance student achievement. 

One of the key points in the book is the importance of student engagement.  If students aren’t engaged, there is little chance that they will learn what is being taught in class.    Basically, student engagement happens as a result of careful planning and classroom delivery on the part of the instructor.  The author emphasizes that no instructor will have all students engaged at high levels all of the time.  However, every instructor can create an environment in the classroom in which engagement is present the majority of the time.

The engagement model proposed by Dr. Marzano begins with the first step, which is attention.  Attention is a short term occurrence that ranges from a few seconds to a few minutes.  The following strategies and activities have been proven to solicit attention from students:

·        The level of activity in the classroom- Maintaining a lively pace can help keep energy high.  Any classroom activity that raises the level of activity in the classroom can help heighten students’ energy levels.

·        A positive demeanor on the part of the instructor is the second and most general influence on the attention level of students.  The instructor can communicate a positive demeanor through demonstrating enthusiasm and intensity.

·        Humor can change the culture of a classroom and is associated with enhanced productivity.  Humor reduces stress in students and promotes creative thinking.  Humor has been shown to produce a 40 percentile point gain in instructional effectiveness.

·        Game-like activities help trigger interest.  “Inconsequential competition” is an aspect of games that helps trigger and maintain interest.  Instructors should organize competitive games in such a way that students enjoy the challenge but do not feel compelled to win.  Competition might have a negative consequence in that it could embarrass some students on losing teams.

·        Another activity that triggers and helps maintain interest is the use of unusual information.  Student curiosity is the driving force which underlies motivation.

·        Effective questioning strategies can trigger interest. When a student is answering a quest6ion, his or her working memory is fully attentive to the task at hand.  Students’ attention to questions is most likely due to the fact that a quest6ion presents missing information.  One of the problems of questioning is that once an individual student answers a question, the others in class may disengage.  Consequently, increasing the number of students who respond to any given question helps capture the attention of more students.  Increasing the rate at which students respond is a commonly mentioned strategy to increase the effectiveness of instruction.

By incorporating these research-based “best practices” into instructional planning and delivery, instructors will increase the interest level of students which will, in turn, motivate them and keep the level of engagement in the classroom at the highest possible level.

SOURCE:  Marzano, R. & Pickering, D.  (2011).  The Highly Engaged Classroom.  Bloomington, IN: Marzano Research.

Quotations for Use in Motivating Students

by Mickey Wircenski

Instructors who wish to have highly motivated and engaged students in their classrooms are constantly looking for different ways to promote motivation and engagement. There are lots of strategies that can be used to accomplish this. One method is to use quotations and “sprinkle” them throughout a lesson, unit or semester. These quotations can be used for class discussion, group brainstorming, individual projects and individual consultations. Posting them around a classroom can be a positive addition to a positive learning environment.

For example, on a daily basis, or at least systematically, the class can discuss the meanings of the quotations as they relate to personal projects. Students scan also keep a list of quotes that are the most meaningful to them. The class might post a list of quotes on the bulletin board and periodically update it.

 The following quotes can be used as a “starter” list:

•  “The person on the top of the mountain did not fall there.” (Anonymous)
• “Without a struggle, there can be no progress.” (Frederick Douglass)
• “Genius is 99 percent perspiration and 1 percent inspiration.” (Thomas A. Edison)
• “Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after the others have let go.” (William Feather)
• “I hated every minute of training, but I said, “Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.” (Muhammad Ali)
• “I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.” (Michael Jordan)
• “Perseverance is failing nineteen times and succeeding the twentieth.” (Julie Andrews)
• “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no help at all.” (Dale Carnegie)
• “It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up.” (Vince Lombardi)
• “I am the greatest. I said that even before I knew I was.” (Muhammad Ali)
• “Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” (John R. Wooden)
• “Decide that you want it more than you are afraid of it.” (Bill Cosby)
• “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” (Eleanor Roosevelt)
• “Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.” (African proverb)
• “Do the best you can in every task, no matter how unimportant it may seem at the time.
• No one learns more about a problem than the person at the bottom.” (Sandra Day O’Connor) 

SOURCE: Marzano, R. & Pickering, D. (2011). The Highly Engaged Classroom. Bloomington, IN: Marzano Research.

What’s “Professional” Etiquette?

Tips for soon-to-be professionals

By Sara Inés Calderón 

It’s been almost 10 years since I was in high school and five since I graduated college, but in that time I’ve learned a great deal about what “professionalism” means and how vital it is to understand these often unspoken rules. Although my parents are professionals, in the hustle and bustle of my childhood, I don’t recall that we ever sat down and went over the rules of the workplace. This didn’t happen in high school, either — or in college. It wasn’t until I landed in the workplace a few weeks after graduating with my B.A. that I began to realize that I had gaps as far as what to expect in the workplace.

I’ve learned that different etiquette is acceptable in different places, but it’s good to know these practices generally. In doing my research for this article, the best summation I found was: “In theory, etiquette is a way for everyone to express mutual respect for one another. In practice, it's a confusing set of arbitrary guidelines not everyone follows.”

I’ve often found that behavior expected of me was not expected of others, and that, simply because a co-worker or supervisor was violating accepted etiquette, it didn’t mean it was okay for me to do the same. This article attempts to be a resource for young people about to enter the workforce or the professional atmosphere of academic institutions by covering general etiquette, appearance, hygiene, conversation, handshakes/introductions, cell phone/personal computing use and dining etiquette.

General 

• Always be on time. If you are going to be late, call your work and let them know.
• It’s nice to open doors for women, or hold the door open for someone coming in behind you or in/out of where you are going.
• Try to always say “please” and “thank you.”
• Always be courteous to your co-workers, even when they’re difficult or you don’t like them; this includes everyone from CEOs to janitors.
• Don’t be too personal with your co-workers or supervisors. If you do befriend them, try to keep your friendship relegated to mostly outside of the office.

Introductions and Conversation

• You really can make only one first impression. People will remember it.
• During introductions, stand up if you aren’t already. Speak slowly and clearly.
• Handshakes should be firm but don’t squeeze too tight, look the person in the eye, greet them with a smile (or pleasant expression) and keep it to 2-3 seconds.
• Address people by title/Mr./Ms. unless they tell you otherwise. If you forget their name/title, or can’t pronounce it, just ask politely for them to repeat it. 

Appearance and Hygiene

• Dress for the job you want, not the job you have. Remember first impressions? If you want to climb the ladder, you have to start off looking and acting like a manager so that people will think of you that way and give you the chance to do it.
• Dress codes differ from job to job so before you start look at the dress code. Generally, too tight/baggy or too short/long is not a good idea and professional colors tend to be bland — think gray, brown, black, navy blue and white.
• Men, you should keep all hair, face and head, trimmed and neat. Women should keep their hair combed and wear only appropriate (again, look around your office to find what the norm is there) amounts of makeup.
• Keep your nails clean and trimmed, polish your shoes.
• Cover your mouth when coughing/sneezing and try not to hiccup too loudly. If you’re sick and can’t stop, you should go home — no one wants to share your germs.
• Try not to touch your face at work, it seems like fidgeting and can be distracting. 

Conversations

• Be a good listener. Everyone from customers to co-workers and supervisors appreciate good listeners.
• Use appropriate volume/tone of voice and try to always be calm. Start conservative, and after you’ve observed your office and figured out the etiquette, adjust.
• Try not to use slang, and even if your co-workers/supervisors/customers use profanity, this doesn’t mean it is okay for you to do it. Life is not fair and workplaces are definitely not always fair. 

Cell Phones and Personal Computing

• Generally, you should turn off your personal cell phone at work. Some workplaces don’t mind occasional use, but you should keep that to a minimum.
• Some places don’t mind you checking personal email/social networks during business hours; some do, but don’t abuse the privilege.
• Be careful about what you put in writing. Remember that company emails amount to documentation, so if you’re upset, wait and think before writing an email. Most problems are best worked out in person, anyway.
• Don’t forward a bunch of junk emails (think: jokes, pass this on to 10 people, etc.) with your work email.
• With a company cell, unless told otherwise, keep your personal use to a minimum. 

Dining

• Unless you’re told someone else is paying, pay your share of a meal, or at least be prepared to help tip.
• Don’t speak/chew with food in your mouth or gesture with a utensil/food.
• If you’ve been invited to a formal dinner and don’t know what to do, try to mimic the behavior of more experienced guests (for example: elbows on table or not?).
• If there are lots of forks and spoons, a general rule is to start from the outside in; you could also slip away and ask a waiter or just observe what others are doing. 

References 

• http://www.yesteach.org/TipsProfEtiquette.htm
• http://www.careerbuilder.com/Article/CB-1273-The-Workplace-Professional-Etiquette-You-Dont-Think-About/?ArticleID=1273&cbRecursionCnt=1&cbsid=61ee3c2350d7402db6bd802878142b24-323443738-VA-4&ns_siteid=ns_us_g_professional_etiquette
• http://www.dba-oracle.com/consultant_etiquette_manners.htm
• http://www.buzzle.com/articles/professional-etiquette.html
• http://www.pvamu.edu/pages/1887.asp
• http://www.ccfrussia.ru/?mod=s_page&sp_id=109
• http://careerplanning.about.com/od/communication/a/email_tips.htm
• http://www.workplacemoxie.com/Customer-Service/CS-Professional-Etiquette.shtml

Ideas…How to Pursue the Good Ones

Holly Smith
Cluster Specialist for Business Management Administration, Finance and Marketing

“An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.”  Ghandi

Ever been driving home, and somewhere between dropping a cell phone call and that stick of gum, you are suddenly struck with a brilliant idea?  Whether it was how to prepare the chicken that night, a better way to teach a lesson to your students, or the perfect birthday gift for someone, when you found the idea clattering around in your busy brain, you were so elated that you almost swerved?  And, by the time you pulled into the garage, the idea had vanished as though it never existed?  You thought if it were any good, it would come back to you, right?  But, the next morning left you still struggling to remember it.  It must not have been a very good idea to begin with, you end on finally.

When I find myself with an idea that I think could turn into something, I have some “tricks” I use to keep the idea around and give it a chance to become useful (or evaporate into the garage, as it were).

First, I have to write it down.  I keep a small, purse-sized notepad with me at all times.  My family calls it my “crazy person” journal since I often scribble like a crazy person with my lips mouthing the words as I write.  Writing the thoughts down commits my brain to come back to it.  Next, I put, whatever I’ve written down, someplace that allows me to see it often.  It does me no good to misplace a potentially good idea in the caverns of my purse.  Instead, it goes next to my keys, by my toothbrush, or taped to my monitor if I can find the room.

Next, I let the idea marinate.  The recipe for the marinade is:  One part Research, One-Half part serious consideration, and One-Half part “whimsical wishery”.  For research, I ask around if anyone has bought the gift of which I thought, or tried implementing the idea I had.  I go online to make sure someone hasn’t already done it better, faster, and possibly cheaper. 

Then, I really think about it.  If it’s a gift, do I have to order online? Have it shipped?  Can I buy it locally?  Is it practical?  While I thought it was a good idea days ago, does it still seem that way, or has it turned silly?  If it’s an idea for the classroom, is it practical, fun, engaging, will it be received well?  Can I beg, borrow, and steal what I need for the idea, or will I be seeking funds to accomplish it?

Finally, I allow myself some time to daydream.  If I had an idea, for example, of how to use coupons to take the most amount of food I can to our local food bank, I really let my imagination go wild.  I see a fleet of trucks with some clever logo on the side as we drive around the city collecting coupons from those who don’t use them.  We have a special day at each grocery store where we do our mega buys.  We have tee shirts, a Facebook page following, and our tweets for daily savings are popular.  Eventually we go into other communities and teach them how do what we do.  Local elementary schools begin using our idea as a method of teaching math.  One day a benefactor steps in and establishes a community service scholarship named after what started as my daydream.  If this idea becomes anything, it will be pared down and changed and adjusted.  But, before it fully forms, I give it the chance to become anything.

After this, if my idea is still around, I sketch it out with more detail.  Then, I make the purchase, start implementing it into a lesson plan, or put it into action in my life.  I don’t leave it there on the paper where it cannot accomplish anything.

Admittedly, most of the ideas in my journal are not great; some are real stinkers, and some don’t even make sense.  But, they are there.  Perhaps in the jumble of words is a good idea waiting to be turned into a fantastic lesson plan that will engage my students again.  With a few simple steps, and a crazy person journal as a back up, there always remains the possibility that I have some brilliance left in me.  The excitement of that alone is enough to make me swerve off the road.

Tips on Engaging Immigrant Parents

By Sara Inés Calderón

If you’re a teacher in Texas, chances are you’ve had encounters with parents who are immigrants, and may not speak English.  It wouldn’t be an oddity, considering that more than one in ten people in Texas was born in another country (that’s 2.9 million people), more than 1 out of 3 Texans speak a language other than English at home, and 36.5% of the state identifies as Hispanic*.

Although The State of Texas has historically had very strong ties to Mexico, engaging with immigrant parents (who are overwhelmingly Mexican) may not be easy for all teachers.  There are all sorts of barriers standing between teachers and immigrant parents that neither party can necessarily control; however, on the educational end, there are some things you can do to pave the way to easier communication.  Here are a few tips to help.

Different Educational Systems

• Systems:  It might help you to understand that, in other countries, public schooling is structured differently, so parents might not understand how the system works.
• Educación:  The word “educación” in Spanish is all-encompassing to mean manners, culture and other things outside academia; therefore, parents might see their role as providing one type of educación while it’s the teacher’s job to provide the other.
• Teachers as Professionals:  Teachers in Mexico and other parts of the world are seen as respected professionals, like doctors and lawyers, and might consider it disrespectful to question their authority.
• Low Educational Attainment:  Many Hispanic immigrants don’t have high educational levels when they come to the U.S., as continuing past a certain grade might require them to pay tuition.
• Multiple Languages:  Not all Hispanic immigrants speak Spanish.  Brazilians speak Portuguese and several indigenous groups have their own languages and may not speak Spanish.

Communication Strategies

• Start early:  During registration, introduce yourself to parents and explain school structure, such as grading structures or field trips, and make yourself available to them for any questions.  Also, this would be a good time to explain to parents what your expectations are for their involvement with their children’s education.
• Face-to-face:  If your parents don’t speak English, don’t understand the school system and are new to the country, they might feel more comfortable with face-to-face communication.  Try to be visible, greet parents before/after school and build rapport with parents at the beginning of the school year to lay a foundation.
• Try everything:  Make phone calls, send emails and send home flyers with your students; try every method to communicate with your parents.
• Scheduling:  Because many immigrant parents may work multiple jobs or have transportation issues, make sure you schedule meetings with plenty of advanced warning and during hours when they can attend.

Language Barrier Strategies

• Recruit Translators:  Older children who have English fluency, parents who are bilingual, staff members who are bilingual
• Native Language Use:  Whenever possible, communicate information in the parents’ native language, include phone numbers of bilingual liaisons or other staff.
• Student Translators:  Parents might use their children as translators, which could be awkward at times, but necessary if the school cannot provide another one.

General Strategies

• Goals:  At the start of the year, ask your students to brainstorm with their parents and come up with a list of goals or a study plan they’d like to accomplish that year.
• Bribes:  Give your students incentives to get their families involved in school.
• Cultural Relevance:  Incorporate aspects of your students’ culture when you can, when it corresponds with your curriculum.
• Cultural Prep:  If you feel unsure, you might want to ask a bilingual coordinator or someone else about parents’ cultural norms before you meet them.
• Recruit Volunteers: Recruit immigrant parents to be volunteers for anything you can think of; this could be especially useful if you can find a bilingual volunteer to help you recruit other immigrant parents.
• Be Empathetic:  Sometimes parents may be truly struggling to put food on the table, dealing with family illness or other hardships.  Given such circumstances, school functions may not be at the top of their priorities list.

Resources

• Engaging Immigrant Parents http://www.wilder.org/download.0.html?report=2262
• Mexican Immigrant Adolescents http://www.cedu.niu.edu/~shumow/itt/MexicanImmigrantAdolescents.pdf
• Speaking their Language: Successfully Reaching Out to Immigrant Parents http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3908
• A New Vision for Engaging Latino Families (PowerPoint) http://www.pta.org/n_pta_presentation_6_2009.ppt
• Immigrant Parents and the School http://www.nasponline.org/communications/spawareness/Immigrant%20Parents.pdf
• Building Partnerships with Immigrant Parents http://mysite.verizon.net/vze2vghs/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/nceaimmparents.pdf
• *Texas’ Foreign Born Population http://www.cpa.state.tx.us/specialrpt/undocumented/2backgrnd.html
• Educational Attainment of Foreign-Born Hispanics: 2000 and 2008 http://pewhispanic.org/files/factsheets/hispanics2008/Table%2023.pdf

When Saving is the Weakest of Your Strengths

The Opinion of an Aspiring “Crazy” Coupon Lady
Holly Smith
Cluster Specialist for Business Management Administration, Finance and Marketing

“Extreme Couponing” on TLC has me enamored.  I love watching it and seeing regular, ordinary people take bits of paper, from the newspaper or a website, and turn it into money.  I aspire to do that.  I’ve even started to coupon on my own.  I am fortunate to have a spare refrigerator in my garage, and it’s stacked with yogurt tubes and juice boxes.  My food pantry is lined with jars of pasta sauce, salad dressing, and a variety of canned food items.  My husband opened up the bathroom cabinet to fine a neat stack of toothpaste tubes and rows of his favorite body spray and deodorant.  He was even concerned enough to ask, “Is everything okay?”  And, I was gleeful.

I also find myself watching shows about hoarding around the same time at night as the coupon shows.  I watch with the same wide-eyed, rapt attention, but for different reasons.  With the coupon shows, there is a thrill seeing money saved and people stacking up groceries to the ceiling.  With the hoarding shows, there are people trapped by their own compulsion and watch their accumulations mount and mount up around them.  One show is about quick math and a tenacity to ‘beat the system’ (with a dash of greed thrown in), and the other show is a peek inside the lives of people who have lost control. 

But, as I’ve compared the two shows, I began to notice that a lot of those who take the coupon thrill ride are burgeoning hoarders themselves.  Cars are kicked out of garages, husbands are kicked out of their man caves, and even families will live surrounded by stacks of paper towels and toilet paper.   People who admit they do not have a baby nor friends with a baby have a year’s worth if diapers.  They refer to all their supplies as a “stock pile” and even have plans to hand it down to children.  (Even boxed cereals and canned foods have an expiration date, people.)  And, who can use 500 toothbrushes?  Most of the couponers I’ve watched have good intentions.  They started this because of a loss of income normally.  A single income forced a radical shift in priorities.  I think about my teachers in this regard, how many of them have saved every scrap of paper that had, at one time helped them, because there was probably nothing else available for them.

Now the “ouchy” questions arise.   Do you have one desk drawer in your classroom that holds items for which you have no memories?  Do you shove items into the back of a closet because you don’t have time to deal with going through them and it’s a bit embarrassing to have them out in the open?  Do your filing cabinets have items older than your children? For the rules of the bedroom closet, if you haven’t worn it in two years, donate it.  If you haven’t taught it in 3-5 years, at the very least, scan the documents and recycle the paper.  Does the information even come close to matching up with the current TEKS?  Do you have pens from your CTSO that don’t work, but you’ve kept them anyway?  Toss them.  Have the items from your classroom crept into the trunk and backseat of your car?  Then, do they crawl their way into a corner of your house?  Invest into some high school help this summer and scan it, save it, and recycle it.  Take some time to get on top of your stockpile before it kicks someone you love out of their favorite part of the house.

I think most of us are somewhere between a couponing person and a hoarding person.  We know that saving all of the years of teaching information is valuable because we never know when we’ll need it.  It’s useful and, in a way, it’s a testament to how we’ve carefully saved our information over the years.  We enjoy being the go person on this knowledge the same way a couponer enjoys hearing people applaud when five filled grocery carts only cost $12.98.  We have the equivalent of a couponer’s “stockpile” or a hoarder’s…….living room.  But, we have to make sure we aren’t burying ourselves in years of outdated materials.  The easy solution to our situation is that we have technology on our side.  Instead of keeping 30 stapled copies of our favorite test, let’s scan in one and get rid of the rest.  Don’t let your instinct to save keep you from taking advantage of your “stockpile” of items.  Don’t amass so much information that you can’t use any of it because you can’t find it.

Don’t get me wrong, this week I will be buying 8 packages of my dog’s favorite treats because the store is having a “buy one, get one free” (BOGO for those in the know) sale, and I also have four “BOGO” coupon.  I will walk out of the store with eight bags of free dog treats because I know that we will use them.  I also know the sales cycle for most grocery items go on sale every 8-12 weeks.  I buy just enough to get us through, and then I’ll get more the next time round.  I am not going to let the thrill of having a good a treasure of any item overtake my ability to recognize how much I actually need.  For now, knowing that fact means I can remove the “crazy” from my “Aspiring Coupon Lady” title.

Learning and the Brain

by Mickey Wircenski
CTE Project Director

Educators and neuroscientists recently met at the 28^th Learning & the Brain conference.  The topic for the conference was iGeneration: How the Digital Age is altering Student Brains, Learning & Teaching.  “Whether we like it or not, our students’ time and attention is increasingly being consumed by what appears on a screen in front of them.  For today’s students-an iGeneration of digital natives-as well as many adults, what unfolds on the screen is as gripping and as meaningful as anything that happens in one’s real life” (Kenneth, Kosik, MD, Co-Director, Neuroscience Research Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara). 

The sessions at the conference were all focused on preparing the iGeneration for the global community of the future.  One particularly pertinent session for those of us in Career and Technical Education was entitled Learning, Leading, and Teaching in the 21^st Century.  The speaker, Dr. Tony Wagner, is an Innovation Education Fellow at the Technology & Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard University.  Dr. Wagner made the following points:

1.   The global Achievement Gap is the gap between what even our best schools are teaching and testing versus the skills all students will need for careers, college, and citizenship in the 21^st century.

2.   The Seven Survival Skills for careers, college and citizenship will be:

a.       Critical thinking and problem-solving

b.      Collaboration across networks and leading by influence

c.       Agility and adaptability

d.      Initiative and entrepreneurialism

e.      Effective oral and written communication

f.        Accessing and analyzing information

g.       Curiosity and imagination.

In order to reach this next generation of students and fully prepare students for the future educators must move from an information-based learning system to a transformation-based learning system.  The differences between these two systems is evident in the following:

Information-Based Learning System	Transformation-Based Learning System
Focus on “timeless learning” (academic content that has stood the “test of time”)	Focus on using content to master the competencies of “just-in-time” learning
Rigor is content mastery (getting more right answers)	Rigor is figuring out the right question/problem to be solved
Studying existing content by disciplines	Exploring questions and new problems with and across disciplines
Learners working alone and in competition Motivated mainly be extrinsic rewards (grades)	Learners working in teams Motivated more by intrinsic rewards (pride in mastery, contributing)
Taught by isolated content experts through memorization/recall	Taught by teamed coaches through inquiry, exploration/discovery-hands on
Accessed mainly by multiple choice, computer scored tests	Assessed through auditing strategies, digital portfolios, and exhibitions of mastery (merit badges)
Prepares learners for a “world of the past”	Prepares learners for a “world of the future”

For more information on this topic:

1.  www.changeleadershipgroup.org

2.  LearningAndTheBrain.com

3.  The Global Achievement Gap (Tony Wagner)

4.  Change Leadership: A Practical Guide to Transforming Our Schools (Tony Wagner, Robert Kegan, Lisa Laskow Lahey and Richard Lemons)