Teach42

I got an email from Bionic Teacher asking me to answer the meme that had been passed on to him. So after following in his footsteps and reading up on meme in the wikipedia, I decided to give it a whirl. I’m really not into chain letters or mass forwards, I am fascinated by the idea of “language as a virus”. So in the spirit of spreading virii (the good kind of virii), here’s my answers to the meme.

First 5 Songs in Shuffle of Entire Music Library
Ain’t That a Kick in the Head – Dean Martin
Best of my Love – The Eagles
Without Me – Eminem
Fingertips: Blue Thing – They Might Be Giants
Two of Us – Aimee Mann & Michael Penn (cover of the Beatles Song from the I Am Sam soundtrack)

An interesting mix to say the least.

Current Book You are Reading (or lightly leafing through)
Bouncing back and forth between two books right now. Positively Fifth Street: Murderers, Cheetahs, and Binion’s World Series of Poker is my main book right now, but I’ve put it aside temporarily in order to read the novelization of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.

Last Movie Seen in a Theater and Where
As you might have guessed from the previous question, I’m a bit of a Star Wars nut, so my last movie in a theater was obviously Revenge of the Sith. I’ve seen it three times in the theater in the last week, in Mt. Prospect, in Berwyn and in beautiful Chicago Illinois.

Five People To Whom You’ll Pass This

Hmmm… How about a nice smorgasbord of folks.
Jenny – The Shifted Librarian
Jeff Moore – One Big Head
The Art Guy – The Academic Aesthetic (not sure if he wants his name published, it’s not on his blog)
David Warlick – Exactly 2 Cents Worth
Jack Vinison – Knowledge Jolt with Jack

The Bionic Teacher has an interesting post up entitled What I’ve Learned So Far. I recommend you go visit there and read through the post, but there’s a few quotes in there I want to mention.

“Comments mean a lot… Comments mean you have been heard. What you said mattered enough to someone to take the time to write something back… This is also something to keep in mind when I am grading papers.”

Interesting idea, bringing weblog comments back to the classroom and grading. Are they really so different? The comments you write on a paper are often the only feedback that a student gets. It serves as a conversation between you and a student and can be incredibly valuable or tremendously harmful. Are people who comment on blog posts ‘grading’ your writing? In some sense they are. They’re providing their own ideas and feedback about what you’ve written. Is that really so different than what teachers do to student’s papers? Not really.

“There is something powerful in finding a group of people who share your interests… I get excited about this stuff and I have found some other people who share that. I would/will gladly go to a lot of trouble to help you out because I feel a certain kinship there. I also know there are plenty of you out there who would do the same for me. This community is there to help, to inspire and to challenge each other. That creates better teachers and better ideas.”

Learning communities. People who have never met each other who would bend over backward to help out in any way they can. I know the feeling. I get emails all the time from people listening to the podcast who want a little bit of help to get started. Does it bother me? Not in the least. Quite the opposite, I look forward to it. There’s something tremendously satisfying about helping someone else do something that you know will wind up improving the education that a class of students receives. Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside

Blogging represents the way things are changing, but there’s so much more going on. On-line communities are simply changing the way we work, the way we think, the way we live. It’s a very exciting time to be alive. People are connecting in ways that we never could have even imagined 100 years ago.

For some reason, I feel like singing, “It’s a small world after all…”

Stop by and visit Bionic Teacher. He’s got some interesting stuff going on over there.

The job search is finally starting to roll. I have a second interview at a school I am very interested in, a first interview at a fascinating new charter school tomorrow, and a few other schools that I’m expecting calls from after attending a job fair over the weekend.

At the top of my resume, I have my name, phone number, address, email and I do have this web site listed. I’ve gone back and forth more times than I can count about whether it should be listed there or not. While I’m extremely proud of this site and feel it represents me as a person rather well, is it really in my best interest to have it listed on my resume?

It’s an interesting question. In many ways, this web site is more ‘true’ than my resume. Not that anything on my resume isn’t true, but it’s carefully crafted to present my strongest aspects. Nothing about that resume conveys any of my weaknesses or my real personality. It’s professional, it’s concise, and it highlights my numerous accomplishments. However, if somebody off the street wanted to get to know me, I’d point them to this site a thousand times before I gave them a resume.

I write my thoughts here. I document things I am struggling with and celebrate my successes. I address educational issues that I think need to be brought to people’s attention and share my excitement over new tools and technologies. My blog voice tends to be casual, a transcript of my thoughts as they run through my head. I would never remotely imply that this represents a sample of my ‘best’ or most professional writing. It does represent the real me rather well. Someone who has read through this weblog will have a better understanding of Steve Dembo as a person than someone who has read my resume a thousand times.

Which is more important? Which provides a potential employer more information about the person they are interviewing? As a candidate, does it really help me to have a potential employer read through this site? I’ve given it a lot of thought and I believe that referring people to this site could definitely hurt my chances for getting a specific job. Yet I continue to leave it on my resume.

The reason is because if I fail to get a job because of something someone reads on this site, then it is probably for the best. It’s easy to represent yourself well on a resume. It’s easy for someone to be impressed by a resume. It’s also easy to represent yourself well in an interview. It’s just as easy for someone to be impressed by an interview. However, you don’t really get to know somebody until you have a chance to interact with them in an authentic situation. Someone reading through this blog will get a sense of me as a person and educator. If what they see does not suit their needs, so be it. I would rather have them realize that now, versus the truth coming out throughout the course of a year.

Yes, I need a job. However, the school I have to be a good fit for the school I work at, just as the school needs to be a good fit for me. If I’m not going to be a good fit, then let’s not waste each other’s time.

It does bring up an interesting point though. As a future administrator, I would love to be able to read a potential employees weblog. The insight it would provide into them as a person would be invaluable.

For better or for worse, I’m leaving the web site address on my resume. I don’t believe I could create a more honest portfolio of myself. Any potential employer that reviews this site and still calls me for an interview will know exactly what they are getting. If a school does not call me because of this site, so be it. I am nothing if not honest.