Mr. Martin's Musings

Random thoughts from a random man...

Month: June 2015

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What Failure Can Teach Us

June 29, 2015 / / 0 Comments

No one likes to fail…right?  In most instances, we’ll do just about anything to avoid failing, as it’s one of the most demoralizing feelings a person can experience.  And yet, there are countless examples of failures in our society and history from which we can learn so much; indeed, even our personal failures can be moments of awakening.

To help us understand the power of failure, examine the various cases of failure below.  For each, consider what makes each example a moment of “failure.”   How did those who failed react?  Did anything positive come from the failure?  What lessons can one learn from studying this particular example?

 

Movies

It’s common for movie companies to shell out tens–and sometimes hundreds–of millions of dollars to bankroll movies that they foresee as potential moneymakers.  And we’ve all heard of those box-office blockbusters:  Titanic, Avatar, Terminator…  But what about those big-budget flops?  What causes them to fail, and what can we learn from them?

 

Sports

Much like the blockbusters, we can all think of legendary teams who have created dynasties in their respective sports, such as the Boston Celtics, New York Yankees, and–of course–the Green Bay Packers.  But what about those losing teams?  What do we make of those teams who have historically struggled to win, such as the Detroit Lions football team who went 0-16 in 2009?  What can we learn from a team like that?  Did they learn anything?

 

Education

Schools are certainly under a microscope today, as administrators, politicians, and the public are paying especially close attention to things like graduation rate, attendance, and test scores.  When schools are labeled as “failing,” they’re subject to intense intervention from state and federal government, and they even risk being shut down.  So what does one of those failing schools look like?  How can we determine if it’s experiencing success?

 

Politics

While we know that there is always a winner and loser in any presidential campaign, do you know there are also candidates who have run for office multiple times, only to lose every single one of them?  What do we make of them?  What keeps them coming back?  Can we learn anything from them?

Skipping Senior Year?

June 5, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Senior Year Senior year:  a final learning opportunity, or a wasted year of miscreant mischief?

In a recent editorial in the New York Times, Marc Bernstein, a faculty member in the Education Department at Fordham University, proposed an alternative to the traditional senior year:  namely, going straight to college, internships, or similar post-secondary fields.  As a means of opening up dialogue, the staff at the Times opened up his editorial to responses–and that conversation has just continued.

Another conversation revolving around alternatives to the traditional senior year occurred via NPR’s State Impact Ohio radio show, in which several players in Ohio’s secondary and post-secondary education worlds debated the merits of the current high school model.  The full audio clip can be seen below, and it reflects a similar debate raised recently by the CBS Evening News, in which they profiled two very different high school seniors and their perspectives on the necessity of senior year.

 

So what’s your opinion?  Is senior year worth it, or is it simply an extended slide in which students increasingly lose motivation, becoming simply occupants of desks rather than learners in them?

For your final post, juniors, you’ll get a chance to make an argument that answers that question.  In this blog, you can incorporate any number of the different elements we’ve discussed this year:  videos, audio, images, links, social media…the list goes on!  I’d also like to challenge you to go outside the classroom walls and interview your peers–either via video or audio recording–to get their perspective.  You could even host a podcast on the subject, complete with a conversation/debate between you and one of your peers!  However you choose to go about it, I want to get your perspective on the topic, and I want you to defend it using as many varied outside sources as you can!

Final Reflection Post

June 4, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Well, the year is coming to a close–can you believe it??  As we finish the trimester in Blog Writing, your final post will serve two purposes:  a demonstration of skills you’ve gained, and feedback for me on the strengths and areas for improvement of the course.  Ready?  Here we go!

 

Opener

Start your post like an email or a letter to me–I’m your intended audience, after all!  Just provide a little bit of context like below:

Dear Mr. Martin-

Whelp, this is it!  Our last day(s) together!  I just wanted to take some time to show you just how much I’ve learned about writing and blogging this trimester–you’ll soon see just what a pro I now am!

 

Section One – Blogging Elements

In this section, you’ll show me what you’ve learned about the art of blogging.  In this section, you need to include: 1) an embedded video; 2) a social media post; 3) an image; 4) a hyperlink.  For each, note why you’re sharing that particular video/post/image/link–make it something you want me to see or read!  Your response might look something like below:

I just had to share this video with you.  It’s an awesome clip from HBO’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” all about standardized testing.  He’s so awesome at pointing out some of the ridiculousness of it, while also making you laugh so hard you cry.  In fact, you should really check out some of his other clips on his official website–he reminds me a lot of Jon Stewart (which is probably because he also used to be on The Daily Show).

I also wanted to share this social media post with you–it represents quite possibly the happiest moment of my spring.  And it was made all the sweeter that I got to be there to see it happen!  (We won’t talk about the championship game…)

Thanks for the memories!

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Section Two – Writing Skills

In this section, you’ll both show and tell me what you’ve learned about writing.  Specifically, I’d like you to discuss what you’ve learned about paragraphing, purposeful punctuation, word choice, and/or sentence structure.  This can be written as a paragraph response, much like the ones above, but here’s the kicker:  as you write it, I want you to use purposeful punctuation like semi-colons, colons, and dashes!

 

Section Three – Course Evaluation

In this final section, I’d like you to talk about the course.  Specifically, I’d like you to discuss: 1) your favorite activity or assignment–and why you enjoyed it; 2) your least favorite activity or assignment–and either why it didn’t really work, or how it could be improved; 3) something I did that helped you learn better; 4) something I need to work on with my teaching; 5) your overall thoughts on the course–what worked, what needs to change, etc.  Please be honest and specific with your feedback–it really helps me improve!

 

Don’t forget to bring your post to a close–parting words of wisdom, sayonaras, plans for the future…whatever you feel like!  Also let me know if you plan on using your blog in the future–what should we expect to see in future posts???

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