Get Over Your Selfie!

Last week, I watched a high school student walk through a crowded hallway holding her phone in front of her and sticking out her tongue. She was taking a “selfie.” A selfie, for the two readers (I should stop there, right?) who do not know this term, is a picture taken of one’s self by one’s self almost always with a cell phone.

And there are a lot of selfies on the web and social network sites. One could argue that their purpose is to publish them. Many selfies are taken at arms length and look slightly distorted. Some are taken into mirrors.

The rise of the “profile” picture has encouraged people to take lots of photographs of themselves. People of a certain age are now as concerned with documenting their lives as they are with living them. An event doesn’t happen without photos. And nothing works better than a picture of me at an event.

It is seductive. I want to show my friends where I was. I want to take a picture with a celebrity or in front of a landmark. I want to show the world me! See me! Here I am! Look! Look! LOOK!

When my grandmother was packing to move, we discovered her old camera. I suggested that she use it to photograph her apartment. She told me that she didn’t know how to use the camera. I was confused. She had stacks of photos of her travels. However, as I looked at those pictures, I noticed something: she was in all the photos. She had never used her camera. She had always given it to someone else and asked that person to photograph her. Who knew that my grandmother was a trailblazer? She’d do wonderfully on Facebook.

What does it mean to be so focused on taking one’s own picture? When the point isn’t the experience, the sharing, or even the people, we are left with a narcissistic focus on the self –the selfie. It is always about me. Take the picture of me. Look at me. See where I have been and with whom. “Like” me!

And if you are with me, I might just cut you out. Another aspect of this phenomenon is the odd profile picture that is clearly a group shot – but the group has been excised. I have stopped noting how many people have disembodied hands on their shoulders or around their waists. Don’t look at the whole picture: look only at me!

To get you to look at me, I get tagged. Tagging (again for those two readers) is the labeling of the people (if there are other people – or their disconnected limbs) in the photo. Sometimes, we tag people who we wish were in the photo. Or were just outside the photo. Or might like the photo. Look at me!

The way to ruin someone’s perfect self-portrait: bomb it! Photo bombing is the practice of sneaking into someone else’s picture and facing the camera, often with an odd smile or funny face. It is not enough that I have lots of pictures of me; I have to ruin other people’s pictures. When you are looking at your picture, instead you will see me! Don’t look at you; look at me!

There is nothing wrong with a strong sense of self or a healthy ego. However, taken too far, we become all about ego and little else. When the world becomes one big mirror, we become obsessed with our image in it. We are important, yet there is so much more. Our cameras can record beautiful sunsets and landmarks, historic events, and feats of great courage and skill. Or they can be filled our distorted faces with our tongues sticking out.

Seven Simple Shortcuts I Really Use

Recently, I have seen several videos and articles on “life hacks,” quick tricks that make life a little easier. Here are seven that I actually use:

Get your lost smart phone back: If you use a pass code (as you should) to lock your smart phone, how will someone be able to return your phone to you? It is simple: put a “If lost, please call…” number on the lock screen. Of course, this number should not be the cell phone number! I use my work number. You can make this in any program and take a screen shot of it. I made mine in Word.

Get your flash drive back: I name my flash drives with my phone number. I also have an “If Found, Please Open” document on each one that lists both my email and phone number. This way, I help a good Samaritan find me without going through all the files on the drive.

Get your luggage back: In every checked (or carried-on) suitcase, I place a piece of paper at the top. If someone opens my bag, that person will see a note with my contact information and itinerary. Just to help my bag get to the correct destination, I put the airport code on a piece of tape on my luggage. My luggage is also marked with large orange H’s as well. It is very easy to spot and cannot be mistaken for someone else’s bag.

Stop annoying cell phone calls: My default ringtone on my smart phone is silent. I assign individual ringtones to my family and close friends who call frequently. I have a standard ringtone I assign to most other numbers. However, if I get a call from an unknown number or someone who has never called before, the phone doesn’t ring at all. I don’t even notice spam calls- and when I see I’ve missed an unknown call, I block that number.

Easy closet origination that shows you which clothes you really wear: When I put my laundry back in the closet, I put the hanger in backwards. This way, it is obvious which clothes I have worn recently. Each summer, I take out the items that are still hung on forward facing hangers. These are the clothes to give away because I have not worn them since my last closet clean out.

Thin your wallet and have more at your fingertips: Rather than stuffing my wallet full of loyalty, insurance, and other cards, I photograph or scan them and keep them in my smart phone. Yes, there are apps that do this, but this is far more simple. Most of these cards I use infrequently. Rather than having them make my wallet bulky, I create a photo album and store them there.

Good passwords you can remember: I have two types of passwords: those I need to have in my head and all the others. I let my password manager program (I use 1Password) create long and random passwords for any websites that I use only on my home computer. For the rest, I recommend creating a long and unique password using the first letters (or suitable replacements) for a phrase you know well. So, if I was going to use Hamlet’s famous speech, my password might be: 2BoN2b-TiT? I alternate capitals and replace words with numbers or symbols when I can. I often insert a special character somewhere in the password as well. I can remember this password and it is going to be much more difficult for someone to hack.

Do you have similar little life hack shortcuts? Post them in the comments!

Let’s Hear It For The Nerdmobile!

Years before my family and I even considered a minivan, I had a great idea: What if I decorated a vehicle to look like one of the shuttlecrafts on Star Trek? I shared this idea with wife and, perhaps since we weren’t talking about actually buying one, she gave it a thumbs up. That was all I needed.

We didn’t need a minivan with one child: a sedan and a fun red sports car worked for our family. However, when child number two was on his way, we knew that we’d need more space. Since space is the final frontier, it was time for my idea to be a reality. It was time to trade my bachelor sports car in for the ultimate symbol of parenting: a minivan.

When people ask me why I turned my minivan into a Star Trek shuttlecraft, I tell them that, if I was going to be a minivan dad, I was going to own a vehicle worth driving. It would a fun expression of my love of Star Trek and the fact that I was now a parent schlepper shuttling my kids around town. 

The first “shuttlecraft” was a gray 1997 Oldsmobile Silhouette. I debated whether it should be white or gray. My wife pointed out that a white van with red stripes would look like an ambulance. Besides, my model shuttlecraft was gray. So I went to a sign shop and asked them to make my van look just like it. They did a great job! I drove the first shuttle Galileo for about seven years before replacing it with the van I have been driving for ten years in April.

And now I am facing the end of that era: I am about to replace my minivan with a car, a sedan. Now that my younger child is about to get his drivers license, I am finally considering purchasing a car to replace what my elder child affectionately calls the “nerdmobile.” My minivan days are coming to an end.

Our minivan has, in many respects, been like everyone else’s: It has been in the elementary school pick up line, the high school parking lot, and done a ton of car pooling. It has been to sports games, rehearsals, and field trips. It has taken dozens of Sunday school students to churches, temples, mosques, mandirs, and other houses of worships. It lets us take grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, neighbors, and friends with us! It goes back and forth from summer camp every year.

However, there are aspects to our minivan that most parents will never experience. Do people often photograph your car? Do you come out of stores to find people gathered around it? Do people flash you the Vulcan salute on the highway? How many notes have been left on your minivans that were not about car accidents?

In our community, the van is our on-the-road signature. When we are further afield, it is our connection to the wonderful science fiction and Star Trek fan community. We are never anonymous on the road. While this may have some obvious downsides, it has also means that my elder child, when driving her father’s “nerdmobile” knew that she would be held accountable for her choices on the road – and her father would be, too.

The van isn’t going away immediately. For the short term, we’ll keep it as a third car. But its days are numbered. We’re not pushing strollers, carrying diaper bags, or signing up for carpools any more. We don’t move bikes, sports equipment, or double basses any more. A sedan will be just fine for our needs.

Yet, I will miss the “Enterprise” as others call it. If you drive a minivan, you know that it is a little house on wheels. It is where the kids will talk and reveal their concerns and feelings. It is where their friends will forget there is an adult at the helm and let a dad eavesdrop on their adolescent concerns. It held the entire family when the entire family was in one place. That doesn’t happen much any more.

We boldly went where no minivan had gone before. That journey is coming to an end. A new one is beginning. We had the shuttle. We had the shuttle’s next generation. Now it is time to go explore new vehicles and new stages of life. Something tells me that I am going to miss the nerdmobile and the young family it transported.

Introducing the iTeacher!

All the problems with education are solved! No need to worry about poor achievement, bad teachers, or lack of funding. The iTeacher has come to our rescue! The iTeacher is a fully automated teachbot. It will do everything a human teacher could do – and more!

Do your teachers drone on and on and on? Are their lectures long and boring? Do students skip the lecture and just read the PowerPoint slides? Are they filling class time with meaningless busy work? Replace your nineteenth century teacher with a twenty-first century educator: the iTeacher!

Why pay expensive teachers who lecture or fill time with worksheets and readings during class? The iTeacher has the entire Internet at its “fingertips” instantly. This teacher can answer every question flawlessly. The curious student need look no further than the iTeacher.

The iTeacher’s lectures are more informative, entertaining, and effective because it has access to not just Kahn Academy, but every recorded teacher lesson online! Students will flip when iTeacher stands before the class. Record your best teachers, fire them, and use iTeacher instead!

And iTeacher’s PowerPoints are perfect! Students can link their laptops, Chromebooks, iPads, smart phones, smart watches, tablets, notebooks, or even their desktops at home to iTeacher and get it all!

iTeacher can evaluate student progress flawlessly and constantly! No one has every made objective tests like iTeacher! How many terms does the student know? Can the student recall all the details from last week’s lectures? iTeacher knows! And iTeacher can then create additional tests for those who need to repeat material or move ahead. Everyday can be test day with iTeacher – and iTeacher can use the resources of College Board, ACT, SAT, and AP to prepare students for more tests! iTeacher is a test-o-matic!

No more waiting for feedback! iTeacher corrects everything instantly and returns it to students before they even finish! Tired of tracking down your child’s teacher? iTeacher returns emails, phone calls, tweets, messages, texts, or high frequency transmissions within twenty-seven seconds!

But what about class management? Can an iTeacher really handle a group of tenth graders? Of course! iTeacher keeps kids busy constantly! iTeacher can generate over two hundred activities in less than five minutes. Students will not have time to goof off!

But if they do, iTeacher has a full array of behavior modification applications! iTeacher can fill out behavioral referrals more completely and properly than any human teacher. iTeacher is even equipped with a low power tazer – just in case! And iTeacher has read all students’ cumulative folders, IEPs, and 504 plans! So if a student needs to be reminded why he flunked fourth grade, or how his father’s rehab failure might be his fault, the iTeacher can put him in his place with personalized and targeted verbal redirection.

Why struggle to align your curriculum to state standards and the Common Core? Everything the iTeacher does is labeled with the appropriate target, goal, objective, skill, and Department of Education skew number! Think of how well your students will score on those all important achievement tests!

iTeacher can work with students of all abilities and backgrounds. iTeacher speaks every language! iTeacher will keep all the support staff up to date. It can interface with iCaseManager, iCounselor, iDean, and iSchoolPsych!

Tired of lectures, worksheets, and scantron tests? Frustrated by lack of feedback and responsiveness? Fed up with teachers who just test and average? Sick of teachers who can’t handle kids?  Wait no more!

It is time for the iTeacher! Your students deserve it!

Going to a Frat Party? Atlantic’s Article Says You May be Held Responsible if Things Go Wrong

The latest edition of The Atlantic should be required reading for all students in or entering college and the people who love them. It features a shocking and powerful article about college fraternities by writer Caitlin Flanagan.

The article opens with a story of a frat partygoer who decided to put a bottle rocket up his behind. Another partier falls off a deck while trying to record this moment. The lawsuit that results brings us to the main issue of the article.

The writer provides a description of college fraternities. They are “as old, almost, as the republic” and they, “emanated in part from the Freemasons.” She notes that many very successful men have been fraternity brothers, and that these organizations have done a great deal of community and charity work. However, they “ also have a long, dark history of violence against their own members and visitors to their houses, which makes them in many respects at odds with the core mission of college itself.”

She relays the history of fraternities from 1825 at Union College to a revival thanks to Animal House in the 80s. When the national drinking age was raised to 21, fraternities became a primary source of alcohol to college students.

Thus, there have been many lawsuits against fraternities for issues such as “manslaughter, rape, sexual torture, psychological trauma” as well as, hazing, and many forms of physical injuries. Ms. Flanagan states that since 2005, “more than 60 people—the majority of them students—have died in incidents linked to fraternities, a sobering number in itself, but one that is dwarfed by the numbers of serious injuries, assaults, and sexual crimes that regularly take place in these houses.”

The writer asks and answers the question, “why don’t colleges just get rid of their bad fraternities?” The answer is that fraternity alumni are good donors, fraternities are a source of housing, and fraternities have become so politically and legally powerful that they successfully fight regulation.

Are kids in jeopardy in frat houses? An eighth of college students live in fraternities or sororities. They generate billions of dollars. Lawsuits provide a public record of the problems. These usually involve one of four issues: binge drinking, sexual assault, hazing, or physical or emotional injury. Ms. Flanagan uses the graph below to demonstrate their frequency:

She spends a great deal of time discussing stories of frat party mishaps. She discovered that, “kids fall—disastrously—from the upper heights of fraternity houses with some regularity. They tumble from the open windows they are trying to urinate out of, slip off roofs, lose their grasp on drainpipes, misjudge the width of fire-escape landings.” Students fall from fraternities far more than they fall from dorms or other buildings.

The lawsuits against fraternities were a, “serious threat to their existence.” First, fraternities established their own self funded insurance system, the Fraternity Risk Management Trust. Then they created a risk-management policy called the Fraternal Information and Programming Group (FIPG). This group publishes “a risk-management manual—the current version is 50 pages—that lays out a wide range of (optional) best practices.” The writer states that, “I have read hundreds of fraternity incident reports, not one of which describes an event where massive amounts of alcohol weren’t part of the problem—and the need to manage or transfer risk presented by alcohol is perhaps the most important factor in protecting the system’s longevity.”

Here is a key idea that college students and their parents must understand: these “risk-management” policies are designed “to establish that the young men being charged were not acting within the scope of their status as fraternity members. Once they violated their frat’s alcohol policy, they parted company with the frat.” Thus they are no longer covered by the frat’s insurance. Instead of the frat or the university being liable, individual kids are held responsible.

Fraternities have lots of rules. If they are violated, the violator stands alone, “’I’ve recovered millions and millions of dollars from homeowners’ policies,’ a top fraternal plaintiff’s attorney told me. For that is how many of the claims against boys who violate the strict policies are paid: from their parents’ homeowners’ insurance. As for the exorbitant cost of providing the young man with a legal defense for the civil case (in which, of course, there are no public defenders), that is money he and his parents are going to have to scramble to come up with, perhaps transforming the family home into an ATM to do it. The financial consequences of fraternity membership can be devastating, and they devolve not on the 18-year-old ‘man’ but on his planning-for-retirement parents.”

There are clear procedures to be followed when something goes wrong. However, “the interests of the national organization and the individual members cleave sharply as this crisis-management plan is followed.” The plan is outlined in the article. However, the author notes that, “the young men who typically rush so gratefully into the open arms of the representatives from their beloved national—an outfit to which they have pledged eternal allegiance—would be far better served by not talking to them at all, by walking away from the chapter house as quickly as possible and calling a lawyer.”

The author does provide a counter point that outlines the benefits of fraternity participation. She speaks with a representative from a Greek organization who presents compelling and powerful reasons to join a fraternity. She quotes a mother who says that her son’s fraternity was critical to his success in college, “Her son had waited until sophomore year to rush, and freshman year he had been so lonely and unsure of himself that she had become deeply worried about him. But everything changed after he pledged. He had friends; he was happy.”

Here is the key question: should college students who make poor choices, usually under the influence of alcohol, be held personally responsible when there are terrible consequences? To what degree should the organization that facilitated that consumption be called to account? Right now, if you step into a fraternity, member or not, there is a chance that those consequences may be laid at your feet.

I have boiled down a detailed article to less than 20% of the whole. I urge you to read the entire piece.

Joining a fraternity in college can help a student make friends, do good work, and have an active social life. It could mean taking responsibility, both personally and financially, for the many ills and issues that plague Greek life.

I ❤ Science Fiction

I was introduced to science fiction in Sunday School. Yes, religious school! I attended a Humanistic Jewish Sunday School (now called Kol Hadash) and my teacher used Star Trek to teach values, decision-making, and the power of human beings. I remember debating Captain Kirk’s choice to destroy the “god” Val in the episode, “The Apple.” Another teacher used the short stories of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. to teach similar lessons. I was hooked.  I had always been a reader, but now I devoured science fiction short stories, novels, television shows, and movies.

I didn’t know many other people who shared my interest. I found fan groups and subscribed to a few publications, but that wasn’t the same as having real people with whom to discuss my passion.

In high school, I joined a fan organization called Star Fleet and started a chapter. While my group had few meetings, I developed pen pal relationships as we created a very amateurish fanzine.

At the end of my high school career (when I could take the car for longer journeys on my own), I discovered science fiction conventions. For a few years, I even had the courage to drive to a convention in St. Louis each year. I made friends whom I only saw at these cons.

I wandered into the student union during my first week of college, and asked if there were any science fiction groups on campus, “Oh,” the bored person behind the desk yawned, “you mean the Galaxy Rangers.” I winced at the name, but answered, “Yes, I guess I do.” The Galaxy Rangers turned out to be a social group that met every Tuesday night. They became my lifelong friends.

After college, as the Galaxy Rangers grew up, conventions served a double purpose. They were a celebration of SF of course, but they were also reunions. There was always a Saturday night dinner with the Rangers at a con, and plenty of catching up time. Eventually, we only saw each other at conventions.

The Galaxy Rangers got married and had children. We bought homes. Getting to conventions became more of a luxury. Real life got in the way of my SF habit. I was working hard at my “real” job, and it was all I could do to read an SF book here and there and get to the Saturday of a convention.

A few years ago, I went to a book club meeting at one of the local SF conventions. The discussion was lively and the group warm and open. I joined the book club, and I have participated every since. Now, I have another group with whom to explore this wonderful passion.

And then, one year ago, a friend invited me to work on one of the local fan-run conventions, Capricon. Hesitantly, I said, “yes.” My wife asked when I would have the time to do this, and I quickly quit one of my many work committees!

While I cannot say that I was a huge help with this year’s convention, I learned even more about the magnificent SF fan community. I got a peak backstage at a con, and it further reinforced my deep connection to the world of science fiction fandom.

And let’s be candid: we science fiction fans can be a lonely bunch. Don’t jump to stereotypes. Don’t play the “get a life” card. They are an accepting, welcoming, and interesting group of people.

It is so important to be connected to strong and healthy communities. Whether this is through participation on a sports team, performing group, or religious organization, these communities keep us grounded and connected. I am so lucky to have fallen in love with science fiction and its fantastic fans. 

The Grading Game

I have memorized all of my students’ grades. That’s right. I didn’t need to copy them from the school system on to my spreadsheet. I knew them. I double-checked, of course, but I was correct.

I know my students’ grades because I worked on them for hours. I reviewed each student’s progress for the last five months. I went back to their assignments and my notes. My family thinks I perseverate over these grades. They may be correct.

I am struggling with grades and grading – again. This year I have fully committed to grading by standards. My students’ grades are determined by their proficiency in eleven specific targets. Each assignment focuses on one or more targets and is recorded in my grade book, not by assignment, but by the skill.

So what should be so difficult about assigning an end of the semester grade? A student is proficient in some skills, inconsistently proficient in some, and still developing in others. Great. We know which skills this student needs to focus on next semester.

But is that a B? Is it an A? What is it?

Then there are things that are not easily measurable: passion, engagement, or even growth. Grades must be justified, so most teachers base them solely on things we count, and then we only see those things and something important silently slips away.

Did I mention that I hate grades? I think grades shift focus away from real learning and redirect it to a game of collecting a kind of college currency. Grades plant poison in the teacher-student relationship. I wish we could just look at students’ skill levels and leave it at that. But that is not my world.

I hate grading so much that I’ll write a blog post to avoid doing it. I really should be finishing those grades right now.

I translated my scores into numbers that reflect their degrees of mastery. A 4 is a student who could teach the skill, a 3 is a student who is proficient, a 2 is a student who is developing proficiency, and a 1 is a student who doesn’t demonstrate the skill adequately.

We work on these skills in class. We practice, and they get feedback. We look at models and respond to each other’s work. We conference and revise and review and discuss and do all sorts of activities.

So why can’t I just give them a grade?

I made a chart: a student getting an A should have primarily 4s, 3s and 2.5s. A student getting a B should have 2.5s and an occasional 3 or 2. My son looked at the chart and detected its flaw: “you are weighting all the targets the same,” he said.

We have spent more time on reading. Should it count for more? How much more? We only had one unit using research skills. Some skills are interrelated: writing a paragraph claim is a step toward writing a thesis. And how much should “work completion,” “class participation,” and the other “effort” skills weigh?

I played math games, and tried to add the numbers together. I came up weighted and unweighted scores. I gave some targets a multiplier.

I ended up using everything. I looked at all the systems and scrutinized each student’s grade individually. I stayed up late several nights in a row checking and rechecking.

There has to be a better way. I have resolved to ask my students to help me find it. If you have it, please share. Yes, simply averaging their grades and coming up with an 88% would be easier –but it would be wrong (look here, here, and here if you want to know my thoughts on averaged grades).

I want my students’ grades to accurately and honestly reflect their skills and learning. I want their grades to be fair. And I want to get some sleep!