"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."

The Inspiring Teacher Series: Interview with Mara Mooney

Welcome to The Inspiring Teacher Series - a tribute to inspirational K-12 teachers and college professors, and what we can learn from them and each other about the craft of teaching. Now let's meet...

Mara Mooney, J.D.
Assistant Professor of Legal Studies
Clayton State University

Morrow, GA

Ms. Mooney is a graduate of Lafayette College in Easton, PA (B.A., cum laude, Government & Law; Phi Beta Kappa) and Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, GA (Notes & Comments Editor, Emory Law Review; Dean's Fellow in Legal Research and Writing). She is the author of the textbook, Fundamentals of Georgia Real Estate Law, and co-author of the forthcoming article, “Assessing the Role of Personality Traits in Student Performance in Traditional, Hybrid, and Online Classes.” She has been teaching at the university level since 1996. Ms. Mooney is a full-time assistant professor in the ABA-approved Legal Studies Program and Paralegal Certificate Program at Clayton State University. She was instrumental in developing the program’s four-year bachelor’s degree in legal studies, and she is in the process of developing a minor in legal studies. Ms. Mooney is an active faculty member at Clayton State, where she has served on several university committees, such as Faculty Council, the University Hearing Panel, and the University Curriculum and Planning Committee. Prior to joining the faculty at Clayton State, she practiced law with Alston & Bird, LLP in Atlanta, GA, where she represented national commercial real estate clients. She also taught at two ABA- approved paralegal studies programs in Pennsylvania. At Clayton State, Ms. Mooney teaches traditional, hybrid, and online courses in Introduction to Law & Ethics, Legal Research & Writing, Real Estate Law, Contracts & Torts, Law Office Skills, and Homeland Security Law.

What inspired you to teach?
The hope that I could make a difference in people's lives inspired me to become a lawyer, but it also inspired me to ultimately become a teacher. My former life as an attorney was rewarding in some respects, but I felt that the long, solitary hours toiling away in a high rise office building, one cog in the corporate wheel, wasn't my true calling. I did a lot of soul searching, thought about the values and human interactions that were important to me, and realized that I was meant to be a teacher. Over the last ten years, I can truly say that the time I spend with students in and out of class, is the most rewarding and enlightening part of my professional day. I am so fortunate to have found a career that combines my two loves, law and teaching.

What teaching methods are most helpful in guiding students towards their
goals?
The teaching methods I find most helpful are to be active, engaging, and enthusiastic in my classes. Our students crave as many hands-on activities as possible. The more we can give students an opportunity to experience the actual type of work they will be doing, the more the students feel energized to achieve their professional goals. Students also respond well when current events are used as a catalyst for discussion in class. Finally, I believe that most students perform at an optimal level in class when their teacher promptly replies to emails and conducts him or herself in a fair, yet approachable manner. I once had a law school professor who made me feel incompetent for coming to his office with a question about civil procedure. As a result of that unpleasant experience, I realized the power that teachers have over their students' achievement in school. I try to serve as an example to students by treating them in a respectful, encouraging manner.

What would you like to improve about your teaching?
I am an organized person, and yet, I never have enough time to make those tweaks and improvements to my classes that I always say I am going to do, but never seem to have time to address before the next semester begins.

What skills should be emphasized in high school to succeed in your college class?
Writing, writing, writing! Poor written communication skills will translate to lower grades in school, but students may not realize that a poorly written cover letter or resume will also be a barrier to entry into their chosen career. I constantly tell students to read aloud what they have written and to proofread their work. There is an excellent book, written in an engaging style, entitled “Woe is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English” by Patricia O’Conner, that can help. Students should understand that people will form professional impressions based solely on the quality of someone’s written work.

What is the one thing you wished you would have known when you started your teaching career?
I wish I would have known how rewarding it is - I would have started teaching even sooner!

Why It's So Hard to Teach for America

From The NY Times:

A Chosen Few Are Teaching for America

HOUSTON — Alneada Biggers, Harvard class of 2010, was amazed this past year when she discovered that getting into the nation’s top law schools and grad programs could be easier than being accepted for a starting teaching job with Teach for America.

Ms. Biggers says that of 15 to 20 Harvard friends who applied to Teach for America, only three or four got in. “This wasn’t last minute — a lot applied in August 2009, they’d been student leaders and volunteered,” Ms. Biggers said. She says one of her closest friends wanted to do Teach for America, but was rejected and had to “settle” for University of Virginia Law School.

Continue reading: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/12/education/12winerip.html?adxnnl=1&ref=homepage&src=me&adxnnlx=1279303377-lPYYIqulcG+KpQPsB0DEFg

On Facebook, Telling Teachers How Much They Meant

Great article in the NY Times:

On Facebook, Telling Teachers How Much They Meant

Darci Hemleb Thompson had been on the lookout for Alice D’Addario for many years. From her home in Hampton, Va., Ms. Thompson, 49, who is married and has a 12-year-old daughter, was determined to find Ms. D’Addario on the Internet. She tried every search engine and networking site she could find.
About 18 months ago she hit the jackpot.
“Nice to see one of the greatest teachers of all time on Facebook!” Ms. Thompson wrote on Ms. D’Addario’s wall. “I love to go to your page just to see your smiling face. Even your eyes still smile. You are an amazing person!”

Continue reading: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/14/nyregion/14facebook.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&hpw

Read comments from AJC Education writer Maureen Downey and her readers:

http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2010/07/14/adults-use-facebook-to-find-and-celebrate-former-teachers/

The Inspiring Teacher Series: Interview with Greg Henley

Welcome to The Inspiring Teacher Series - a tribute to inspirational K-12 teachers and college professors, and what we can learn from them and each other about the craft of teaching. Now let's meet...

L. Gregory Henley, Ph.D.
Director, International Center for Entrepreneurship

Robinson College of Business
Georgia State University
Atlanta, GA

Bio
Dr. Henley is the director of the Herman J. Russell, Sr. International Center for Entrepreneurship at Georgia State University. His passion is to help entrepreneurs succeed and his experiences have prepared him to do so. With a BS from MIT and an MBA and Ph.D. from Columbia University, he’s been blessed with opportunities in both business and academia. Prior to joining Georgia State University, Dr. Henley taught at the University of South Florida’s (USF) Center for Entrepreneurship, helped start the entrepreneurship undergraduate major at the University of Tampa. He worked in the Center for Entrepreneurship at Columbia University while pursuing his Ph.D.
Dr. Henley’s entrepreneurial experience includes starting a mortgage company, an investment advisory firm, acquiring a community bank in Alabama and another community bank in Florida. Although he began his career working for large companies, including Procter & Gamble, Chemical Bank, and New England Telephone Company, entrepreneurship has always been his passion. Dr. Henley has held positions of President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. His consulting assignments included evaluating bank acquisitions, working with de novo banks, E-commerce start-ups and implementing the installation of a web site for a bank client. He is an active investor in small businesses and real estate.
He is interviewed frequently for his views on a wide-range of entrepreneurship topics by the media and has been quoted in media outlets ranging from the Wall Street Journal, Atlanta Journal Constitution and the Christian Science Monitor to Heart & Soul. Dr. Henley also wrote a monthly entrepreneurship column for Business-to-Business, an online publication for Atlanta executives.
Community involvement is an important part of Dr. Henley’s life. He is an active member of St. James United Methodist Church. He has served as a judge for business plan competitions for organizations including the National Black MBA Association’s Entrepreneurial Institute, the Youth Entrepreneurs of Atlanta at Morehouse College, and the Future Business Leaders of America. Dr. Henley also speaks to youth organizations throughout the nation and recently has addressed the Piney Grove Baptist Church youth program, the Atlanta After-School All-Stars, the Montgomery, AL chapter of Jack and Jill of America and M3Boys in Berkeley, CA.
He has begun a multi-year initiative, “Dr. Henley’s Road Trip,” in which he intends to interview entrepreneurs in all 50 states for a book. His goal is to also host the monthly entrepreneur forums that he currently hosts in Atlanta during his trip around the country.

What inspired you to teach?
During my business career, I noticed that a lot of people, especially people of color, have started businesses. However, many of the same people seemed to have trouble running the businesses effectively. I thought that I could help people (of all colors) run businesses more effectively, so went back to school with that objective in mind. Since my Ph.D. program, I have been teaching entrepreneurship and business strategy at business schools and, hopefully, my students can run a business better than if they hadn't taken my class.

What teaching methods are most helpful in guiding students towards their goals?
In the classroom, since I teach business courses, I try to relate everything back to the real world so students can relate to something they are familiar with. This includes bringing in businessmen, using case studies and talking about some of my business experiences. In addition, whenever possible, I like students to reach out to the business community. Examples of this include assignments for students to interview entrepreneurs and internships. For business classes, application of the material is critical to prepare students for the real world. So, telling them something and asking them to take a multiple choice question may be good for some things, but is a poor method for many business concepts. Getting the students to apply what they've learned is a goal. Often, this can be done via case studies and sometimes by working on projects for businesses. Some of the more challenging (for me and the students), but rewarding courses I've taught involved students working for real businesses. The students are able to apply business concepts, but see how businesses are actually run - the good, the bad and the ugly.

What would you like to improve about your teaching?
It's very important that I reach the students on their level. If I can get their attention, then I can teach them. Improving my teaching requires that I get constructive feedback to insure that what I'm doing is working. As I get older, using tools that are consistent with the way students learn can become more challenging, so I need to work to make sure that I'm communicating in ways they grasp. So what I'd like to improve is my knowledge and understanding of what is important to our students.

What skills should be emphasized in high school to succeed in your college class?
The skills that should be emphasized are certainly business skills. But, more broadly, I'd like for students to be able to think more analytically and in more depth. Other specific skills are a basic grasp of math and, importantly, writing skills.

What is the one thing you wished you would have known when you started your teaching career?
The value of testing early whether the students understand the material I'm presenting. In one of my first classes, I presented the material and got the verbal feedback I hoped for when I asked questions that indicated the students understood what I was telling them. However, when it came to apply the material for an assignment, the students did poorly - and my hopes and expectations were dashed. What I learned is that some of the early exercises, questions and tests that I needed to implement should be better tied to what I expected the students to learn. Also, that I needed to implement those exercises, questions and tests earlier in the semester so that I have time to make adjustments if I need to. The other thing I learned is that quite a few students are in the class to get a grade, but not necessarily to learn. This is in contrast to me whose primary reason for being in the classroom is because I want to teach.