Supporting Our Community Colleges

I am a huge supporter of community colleges. I was an adjunct professor for several semesters at Miami Dade Community College and Broward Community College before moving to Georgia to teach full-time at the university level.

Simply put, community colleges offer excellent job training skills at an affordable price. They remain the best value for re-training, though their message gets lost in the noise of slick for-profit college commercials offering similar choices at drastically higher tuition cost.

Supporting Our Community Colleges, by Dr. Jill Biden

I am writing today with some exciting news and a great video that I want to share with all of you. I was delighted last spring when President Obama asked me to convene the first-ever White House Summit on Community Colleges to highlight the importance of community colleges to our students and our economy. I am pleased to announce today that this summit will take place on Tuesday, October 5th.

Continue reading:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-jill-biden/supporting-our-community-_b_717670.html

Teacher living her dream to teach

My inspiration to continue teaching every day is my students.

When I enter the classroom I have an opportunity to light a fire in them and my greatest reward is seeing that light come on and the ‘ah-ha' moment.

I have the privilege of affecting these children's lifelong learning.

Sound like someone you know? It's likely you. Continuing reading Moura teacher living her dream

http://www.centraltelegraph.com.au/story/2010/09/16/malindas-living-her-dream/

Teachers share what they've learned from students

If you want to teach young children to write, you must “cultivate your sense of astonishment.” I heard professor Donald Graves say that many years ago. He explained to us that if a 5-year-old comes bursting in with the news that he saw a firetruck on the way to school, you don't say, “Yeah, there's a station down the road. I saw that truck, too.” What you do say is, “You saw a firetruck! Wow! Did you hear the siren? Was it going really fast?” We need to share in the excitement a child feels about a world in which everything seems new. It's the way we help them learn to love language and to use it well. “Cultivate your sense of astonishment.” So I did. I cheered and exclaimed over the firetrucks, the baby teeth that fall out and the new ones that come in, the tadpoles that become frogs, the dandelions that turn into clouds of tiny parachutes, and learning to tie your own shoes. I said that it was all amazing, wonderful and, yes, astonishing. Then, one day, I realized that all of it is.

— Mary Mello teaches at Union Elementary School in Montpelier.

Continue reading Vermont teachers share what they've learned from students:

http://www.timesargus.com/article/20100912/FEATURES02/709129854/1016/FEATURES07

Five Ways to Ace College Exams

Wouldn't it be great if college classes were pass/fail, and students could focus on learning rather than competing for grades? Let's get back to the real world for a second, as I propose what I would do as a student to prepare for college exams:

CONTINUE READING @ THE HUFFINGTON POST:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/perry-binder/this-professor-sucks-five_b_705162.html

"Capturing the Friedmans" Dad Was My Unforgettable Teacher: Apply His Classroom Lessons to Set His Son Free

Just posted in The Huffington Post:

Capturing the Friedmans Dad Was My Unforgettable Teacher: Apply His Classroom Lessons to Set His Son Free

Arnold Friedman was a quirky nuclear physics teacher who wrote something odd in my high school yearbook: Perry - I would like to meet your 3-eyed kids, but don't blame me! (a seeming poke at the irradiated material we handled in his college-level class, and the resulting mutations) He was a funny, inspirational, award winning teacher whose teaching techniques I model in my college classroom. In 1986, students organized a retirement party and recalled that he was "unforgettable" and "he turned my life around."

In 1987, Mr. Friedman and his seventeen year old son Jesse were arrested and accused of molesting over a dozen young children in their home basement, where the retired teacher opened a computer school for kids.

CONTINUE READING @ THE HUFFINGTON POST:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/perry-binder/capturing-the-friedmans-d_b_689465.html

Humor in College & Blogging @ The Huffington Post

Today, we take the Crazy Classroom on a class trip to The Huffington Post, where I'm blogging on college-related issues. First up is humor...

The Case for Humor in the College Classroom

As college professors nationwide prepare for a new academic year, my message for them is simple: Lighten up! Your students just might engage and learn.

I never dreamed of being a college professor. Does anybody? When my third grade teacher asked us about our dream job, Molly said an astronaut; Evan, an actor. Perry: Obtain a terminal degree and lecture on legal morasses.

Continue reading at The Huffington Post...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/perry-binder/the-case-for-humor-in-the_b_679826.html

The Inspiring Teacher & What Makes a "Great" Teacher?

Good News - My Inspiring Teacher Interview Series now has a web site which compiles all of the teacher interviews from the Crazy Classroom blog. Please visit:

The Inspiring Teacher Series

http://www.perrybinder.com/teacher.htm

Also, I found an interesting article on teaching, including this segment:

What I do believe is that it's very rare to find a "natural teacher" who is a success from her first day to the last class twenty-five or thirty years later. It requires a number of years of "seasoning" in which many mistakes and many inspirational moments give us the repertoire of approaches that enable students who are willing learners to excel, but also those who are reluctant learners to arrive at a "tipping point" that can produce remarkable results. Bur (sic) to conclude that a "great teacher" is the most significant factor in determining the success or failure of a student twenty-five years later is, at least to me, ignoring the importance of many other circumstances, not a few of which are not "measurable."

Continue reading

Educating for Democracy: What Makes a "Great" Teacher?

Joel Shatsky

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joel-shatzky/educating-for-democracy-w_b_669140.html

Inspired by High School Theater Teacher and Her Play about AIDS

Bianna's High School Teacher's Play Changed Her Life
By BIANNA GOLODRYGA

How many people can say a high school play changed their life? I can and it's because of my inspiring teacher who wrote that play, Sharon Ferranti. Ferranti's play tackled a difficult issue – AIDS. For many Americans, the impact of AIDS in the mid-1990s was little more than a blip on the nightly news.

But for Ferranti, it consumed her life. "When you're 65 and 70, 75 you expect to have gone to a lot of funerals and hospitals. You expect to be watching your people go," Ferranti said. "That's not supposed to happen when you're in your mid-30s."

Continue reading: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Inspirations/bianna-golodryga-inspired-high-school-theater-teacher-play/story?id=11110388
Bianna Golodryga Inspired by Her High School Theater Teacher and Her Play
Bianna's High School Teacher's Play Changed Her Life

By BIANNA GOLODRYGA

The Case for $320,000 Kindergarten Teachers

From The NY Times...

The Case for $320,000 Kindergarten Teachers
By DAVID LEONHARDT
Published: July 27, 2010

How much do your kindergarten teacher and classmates affect the rest of your life?

Economists have generally thought that the answer was not much. Great teachers and early childhood programs can have a big short-term effect. But the impact tends to fade. By junior high and high school, children who had excellent early schooling do little better on tests than similar children who did not — which raises the demoralizing question of how much of a difference schools and teachers can make. There has always been one major caveat, however, to the research on the fade-out effect.

Continue reading:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/business/economy/28leonhardt.html?_r=1&ref=education

Top 10 Spelling Errors in Law Papers

Here's my list of mistakes that students (and attorneys) make all of the time

1- File a mew (new) motion
2- Going to trail (trial)
3- Singing (Signing) an Agreement
4- The Compliant (Complaint)
5- Tired (Tried) to flee the scene
6- Breech (breach) of contract
7- Statue (statute) of limitations
8- Legal principals (principles)
9- The principle point (principal)

10-Recover principle (principal), court costs, and interest

Honorable Mention…
A faulty (faculty) member – maybe the student got this one right

Painful Mention...

An attorney filed a Motion in court asking the judge for more time due to his upcoming back disk surgery; however, he mistakenly placed an unfortunate "c" where the "s" should be in the word "Disk."