This is worth five minutes of your time… I’m glad I watched in this morning. An adult student recently emailed, “I know you’re positive but how’s your health?” It was a great compliment and question. This morning, I wasn’t feeling too positive. Until I watched this.
Category Archives: Small People
Fact or fake?
Netsmartzkids has some great resources for teachers and parents who want to keep their kids safe online. Among those resources are some “Into the Cloud” animated videos–each about five minutes long covering some aspect of being safe online.
I’m sharing one in the hope that it will pique your interest and you’ll explore the site. There are free ebooks, activity sheets, games… lots of things to use with kids. But I do have another purpose behind the sharing.
I hope it will get you thinking. I’ve recently noticed that many people are using social media for “research.” Some of this is relatively harmless. “What is the phone number for this local business?” This question makes it necessary for the researcher to wait for a comment that includes the answer. I’m always tempted to point out that a Google search would likely reveal the answer in seconds.
No wonder the phone company started charging for directory assistance. People were calling 411 instead of using the directory. What does that say about us?
But what might be of greater concern is the people who are posting symptoms and asking for medical advice. And, as if that’s not troubling enough, there are often plenty of folks willing to demonstrate their “expertise.” I’m always tempted to post “Call your doctor.” Or, in some cases, “Go to the E.R.”
Telemedicine is a valid concept but it’s not a product I’d contract for on Facebook or Snapchat.
And then there’s financial advice. One of the social media groups I’m part of gets multiple questions every day from people wanting to know things like “What’s the best form of business for me to adopt” and “How much should I charge for…?”
Yes, there is some value in soliciting opinions–but in addition to being able to separate fact and fake, we also could get a lot better at separating fact and opinion. I don’t teach it often but I do have a “thinking skills” program. In addition to differentiating between divergent and convergent thinking, it includes the skill of “happying” and the skill of “crap detecting.”
In that course, I used to ask students to bring in a newspaper. We’d then look at every headline closely and answer this question: “Is the headline a fact or an opinion?” One of the learning outcomes is that we tend to accept opinions as facts if those opinions support what we already believe.
So here’s something else for you to think about. When you start scrolling on Facebook, what are you looking for? Cute kitten or puppy photos are probably safe (although some are digitally altered and do not depict reality–fact or fake?). Or are you hoping to find a lot of people (it is called social media) who agree with your opinions and beliefs?
Kids aren’t the only ones who occasionally get suckered by what’s on the Internet.
Talking to Kids about Coronavirus
Among the more important things we can do regarding the Coronavirus is to have good conversations with kids about it. This video is less than four minutes long but offers some great tips and “how to’s.”
You can also read the related post.
Winning by Losing
A small gaggle of middle school girls approached me somewhat shyly. They know whining isn’t allowed in my classroom but we weren’t at school, we were at the Guilford River Festival. I suspect they also would have claimed what they were doing was actually begging, not whining.
For those who don’t know, the Guilford River Festival is a truly awesome annual event that’s extremely family and kid-friendly. There’s lots of free stuff–my job was to hand out free balloons to kids–and fun stuff. The girls were offering a competition based on a game we sometimes play at school. “Are you smarter than a PCMS student?” They were having trouble getting contestants and begged me to visit their set up and play.
When I arrived, the girls and their game host immediately disappeared to “strategize,” triggering a certain amount of suspicion in my mind. Upon returning, they all had a noticeable “cat that swallowed the canary” look.
The game host explained the rules and process carefully and quickly. I think I heard him say that the game was “only slightly rigged.” I would be competing against the girls but I had the first chance to answer the questions. If I answered the question wrong, they could “take the point” by answering correctly, proving they were smarter.
The questions were of a historical nature and not too difficult but my suspicions were at an all-time high so I thought long and hard before answering. I could almost hear the clock ticking and the music playing. The first question required a date for an answer. When I answered, the game host declared “wrong!” and the girls went into a huddle. After some whispering, the shouted an answer in unison. “Billy Bob!”
“Correct!” Since the audience was small, the girls provided most of the applause.
The second question required a person’s name for an answer and I admitted I was tempted to answer “Billy Bob,” but went with what I was sure was correct. Again, my answer was declared wrong. Again after huddling the girls answered nonsensically and were declared correct.
I suppose some would have felt cheated but I found myself laughing and having fun. Maybe it wasn’t about the questions. Remember, the original question was “Are you smarter than a PCMS student?” It was becoming clear that I was not–they were outsmarting me.
The process continued with the girls winning all the points and me being skunked. It was at that point the game show host indicated I shouldn’t go away empty-handed and presented me with the pictured t-shirt. My response was genuine: “This is definitely worth losing for.”
I may be risking over-analysis but the experience left me not only laughing but also thinking. Winning and losing are words and people give meaning to words–it’s not the other way around. Sometimes we win when we lose. I’ll enjoy that shirt and the memory of losing to a gaggle of giggling girls who did, in fact, outsmart me. So thanks to the girls and Herrick Excavation for hosting and sponsoring the contest I won by losing.
Here Comes the Judge! Again!
The first time was about six years ago in my book . In Chapter 13 I touched on the occasions when the kids at school try to enlist me as judge and jury to settle a dispute. I offer one example and admit that my solution to it was based on “a bit of laziness and lack of desire to don a judge’s robe.”
Handing the case (problem or question) over to the judge can be alluring for many reasons and it’s not just the kids who do it. When I teach real estate courses I am often barraged with questions that start with “What if…?” With kids and adults, there are some obvious undercurrents. The kids’ questions are usually relative to what’s fair and sometimes are instructions. “Make her stop!” “He’s not playing fair!” The adults are looking for the right answer–usually to a subtle and sometimes legal question.
For at least as many years as the book’s been published, I have deflected many legal questions in real estate classes by including the observation, “If anyone finds a reasonably priced judge’s robe, buy it for me. I’ll reimburse you for it. Then I can slip it on when I’m asked these sort of questions and act all-knowing and certain while I pronounce my verdict.”
Well, it finally happened. At a recent Associate Broker Workshop a student showed up with a “surprise” for me, proudly presenting me with a black robe–and no expectation of reimbursement. I of course modeled it at the beginning of the workshop. It got a lot of laughs. It also reminded me of how thoughtful students often are. Most importantly, I now carry it in my “teaching kit” and plan to make it a visual aid.
See, I think acting as judge and teacher are actually often a conflict of interest. In a learning environment, when students give the teacher too much authority they may not think and all they really learn is the judge’s (teacher’s) opinion. I also have a rule in my adult classes that you’re not allowed to use the phrase “Walter said in class…” For one thing, I find I’m often misquoted. For another, you are suggesting you only learned what I said. I’d rather hear you say, “I learned in class…” I want to teach you to think, not quote the teacher.
The fact that things seem complicated or complex doesn’t mean we should let someone else do our thinking for us. I’m reasonably certain the world is round–or at least approximately so. But if a kid asks me I’m likely to reply with questions. “What do you think? How can we find out? What have you learned about that so far?”
While the power that goes with the judge’s robe is tempting, another thing I like about not wearing it is I can teach subjects I know almost nothing about. I once substituted for a second-year high school Spanish class. The kids knew me. As they were getting seated one called out, “Mr. Boomsma, do you even know Spanish?”
There was no hesitation when I answered, “No I do not. But I do know how to teach it. Let’s get started.”
So while I am profoundly grateful to Carole Scott Gartley of Brad Carter Real Estate for the robe and her thoughtfulness, I probably won’t be wearing it too much–just to get some laughs and make a point.
“You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go… “
― Dr. Seuss, Oh, The Places You’ll Go!