Endowed With Inalienable Rights . . . By Whom?

The State Department has submitted a report to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in conjunction with something called the Universal Periodic Review.  The report is the federal government’s assessment of how the country is doing on the human rights front.

The very first line of the report states:  “The story of the United States of America is one guided by universal values shared the world over–that all are created equal and endowed with inalienable rights.”  Perhaps I’m being too picky or hypersensitive, but I couldn’t help but ask upon reading that sentence, “Would it have killed you to say that all are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights?”  After, the Declaration of Independence (to which the report is plainly alluding) uses that language.

More substantively . . . the notion that t

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Ruling Coming on Jackson Desegregation

JACKSON, Tenn. – A federal judge in Jackson says he will rule after Aug. 30 on whether to dissolve a nearly half-century-old local school desegregation lawsuit.

At a hearing Monday, both sides told U.S. District Court Judge Samuel H. Mays Jr. they support ending the suit, which has continued for 47 years and included 720 court filings, The Jackson Sun reported.

The court granted partial unitary status to the Jackson-Madison County schools a year ago, ending court oversight of issues including assignment of teachers, facilities, transportation and extracurricular activities. Assignment of students remains under court monitoring.

Mays said racial imbalance itself is not illegal and his decision must be on whether such imbalance is the result of past discrimination.

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Information from: The Jackson Sun, http://www.jacksonsun.com  

Copyright Associated Press, Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.

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Atul Gawande

There are 3 core requirements for success in “any endeavor that involves risk and responsibility,” writes Atul Gawande in his book Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance.

1. Diligence (“giving sufficient attention to detail to avoid error and prevail against obstacles”)

2. Doing right (dealing with “human failings, failings like avarice, arrogance, insecurity, misunderstanding”)

3. Ingenuity (“thinking anew…a willingness to recognize failure, to not paper over the cracks, and to change…obsessive reflection on failure and a constant searching for new solutions”).

Since we’re obsessed with performance – exactly how good are the teachers who come out of our program – we look for ideas outside of the normal K-12 world, like Gawande’s.

I asked my colleague Laura how she thought our teacher preparation follows Gawande’s precepts, and she replied:

1. Diligence

We are hyper-attentive to detail in every way. We show our trainees the “right” way to do everything: from shaking a kid’s hand at the door, to circulating, to having a difficult conversation, to giving feedback on tests and assignments, to writing a blackboard configuration. We leave very little to chance in their teaching because we believe details can make or break a class period or a year.

2. Doing right

We assume good intentions amongst our trainees. But when we see our people doing something that doesn’t seem right, we call them on it right away and try to identify the error or misunderstanding.

I would add: very few future teachers are guilty of “avarice.” But insecurity (theirs) and arrogance (ours; inherent in any prescriptive training program is the obvious belief that our way is effective) are possible pitfalls.

3. Ingenuity

We use outside evaluators to blindly observe our program graduates to see how they do compared to other rookie teachers.

We compile survey data on every hour of training (i.e., data on several hundred hours of training over the course of the year); every Tuesday, we pore over it, and make changes for the coming week.

When someone has figured it out better than us – like Lee Canter and “real-time coaching” – we adopt their methods quickly.

In addition to these 3 precepts from Better, Gawande advances another “Big Picture” idea in a different book that we’ll examine soon: The Checklist Manifesto.

Why you need to set limits

What happens if you don’t set any boundaries in your relationships? You wear yourself out doing everything for everybody and the next thing you know, you’ve cursed everyone out, grabbed a couple of beers, and slid down the escape chute.

The same thing can happen to your course. If you don’t set any boundaries and try to cover everything for everybody, you end up with a stressed-out course that can’t do anything for anybody.

Just say no

It’s fun to say “no.” Try it!

• “I’m sorry, but we can’t teach novices and experts simultaneously. We need to pick one or the other.”
   
• “Let’s focus on people who need to do X in situation Y. If we try to reach ‘everyo

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Multitasking or “making a hole in the water”?

I have neglected this blog and this post is by way of apologising to my readers but here was my day – the list below repeats itself day in day out with some changes, but that’s a standard day…Here is the story today:

1. Ran input sessions in the morning from 9-1
2. Observed teaching practices after lunch
3. Discussed lessons and gave feedback

That, in fact, was the very best part of my day as I was focussed on one thing at a time.

Then the multi-tasking began involving 3-4 of the items on my list at any given moment:

1. Writing Teaching Practice reports for my CELTA trainees
2. Marking assignments for same
3. Organising tomorrow’s visit by the DELTA external assessor
4. Making last minute flight changes for the CELTA assessor who is coming next week – who also wants a vegetarian meal…
5. Organising two alternative online class spaces for  a group of online trainees tomorrow
6. Answering  trainee  email about references, assignments, lesson plans
7. Giving information about courses over the phone – making arrangements for tests, interviews, payments
8. Chatting to tutors who pop into my office – how can I say ‘go away’….
9. Writing (or trying to) finish an article which somehow does not seem to be able to get past the first few paragraphs…
10. Trying to track down than certificate which I paid registered post rates to send and which my student has not received yet; calling the post office; getting some nothing information; being told I have to appear personally and fill in an application by hand; can’t do that via email, no, they have to see my face…
11. Sneaking guilty looks on twitter; opening 25 windows to look at all the links and not having time to really check even half of them properly
12. Finding a most excellent link or resource; rushing to de.licious it or quick to rush to our wiki to share with trainees; occasional quick shares on facebook…
13. Reading a most excellent blog post and not having time to respond properly….OK, I’ll stay up late and do it

Then a dear friend calls and says, shall we have lunch together sometime, meet for a drink, or have you disappeared inside that screen. I say, I can’t possibly, can’t you h

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