tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8286850597195008478Tue, 14 May 2013 21:37:08 +0000religionOther ThoughtsArtEducationFamilyPoliticsAndrew Ordover's ramblings on writing, teaching, living, raising children, and whatever else comes to mindhttp://agathon-sbh.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Ordover)Blogger332125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8286850597195008478.post-6568258675597433239Tue, 14 May 2013 21:37:00 +00002013-05-14T17:37:08.644-04:00Education   (originally published at http://www.catapultlearning.com/2013/05/13/building-student-character-in-the-classroom-part-2/) Last month I talked about six performance-related character values  that can help students become independent and successful adults. They are: ·         Persisting towards solutions ·         Working with precision ·         Asking questions ·         Working http://agathon-sbh.blogspot.com/2013/05/building-performance-character-part-ii.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Ordover)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8286850597195008478.post-2567056925315644076Sat, 27 Apr 2013 10:26:00 +00002013-04-27T06:26:39.547-04:00Education Originally published at http://www.catapultlearning.com/2013/04/24/the-importance-of-performance-character The Importance of “Performance Character” Anyone who has spent time in a classroom knows that schooling involves far more than academic lessons. Many things contribute to a student’s learning and success—and just as many things can detract from it.  One can argue to what extent http://agathon-sbh.blogspot.com/2013/04/building-student-character-in-classroom.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Ordover)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8286850597195008478.post-3845561097063681175Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:58:00 +00002013-03-28T15:25:10.981-04:00ArtEducation (originally published by Catapult Learning., LLC, at  http://www.catapultlearning.com/2013/03/28/teaching-as-storytelling/)   The T-shirt said: Episode IV comes first; it’s just good parenting. I shared the picture on Facebook. Within an hour, I had a ton of “likes” and comments. One friend posted a link to a blog post explaining precisely how to order the six Star Wars movies for maximumhttp://agathon-sbh.blogspot.com/2013/03/teaching-as-storytelling.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Ordover)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8286850597195008478.post-8948095168180341835Thu, 14 Feb 2013 22:15:00 +00002013-02-14T17:15:50.019-05:00Originally published at http://www.catapultlearning.com/category/blog/. When the Common Core State Standards were first released, our main concern—and panic—was about alignment. We always taught time in __ grade; now we have to teach it in __ grade. We used to teach book X, but now they’re telling us the Lexile rank is too low. These were certainly valid concerns. Alignment had to be done; http://agathon-sbh.blogspot.com/2013/02/so-what-importance-of-asking-right.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Ordover)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8286850597195008478.post-2276948517508172896Wed, 16 Jan 2013 22:10:00 +00002013-01-16T17:10:42.846-05:00 (this post was previously published in a slightly different version at http://www.catapultlearning.com/category/blog/) On New Year’s Day, 1990, the newly elected president of a newly democratic Czechoslovakia stood in front of his people and spoke about the fall of Communism and the challenges that lay ahead. He started his speech like this: My dear fellow citizens, For forty years you http://agathon-sbh.blogspot.com/2013/01/new-years-day-and-man-in-mirror-what.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Ordover)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8286850597195008478.post-4698353039002911257Fri, 02 Nov 2012 19:46:00 +00002012-11-02T15:46:45.185-04:00Education Originally published by Catapult Learning, LLC, at: http://www.catapultlearning.com/2012/11/02/election-day-education-and-the-pursuit-of-happiness/ Then tell me, O Critias, how will a man choose the ruler that shall rule over him? Will he not choose a man who has first established order in himself, knowing that any decision that has its spring from anger or pride or vanity can be multiplied ahttp://agathon-sbh.blogspot.com/2012/11/election-day-education-and-pursuit-of.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Ordover)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8286850597195008478.post-7651497599845414516Mon, 08 Oct 2012 18:38:00 +00002012-10-08T14:38:55.163-04:00EducationThis post was originally published on the Catapult Learning site, at: http://www.catapultlearning.com/2012/10/08/if-you-build-it-they-will-come-the-importance-of-school-structure/ "There are several ways," Dr. Breed said to me, "in which certain liquids can crystallize--can freeze--several ways in which their atoms can stack and lock in an orderly, rigid way." That old man with spotted hands http://agathon-sbh.blogspot.com/2012/10/if-you-build-it-they-will-come.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Ordover)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8286850597195008478.post-7829077337514053605Mon, 10 Sep 2012 17:38:00 +00002012-09-10T13:39:18.846-04:00Education This post was originally published on the Catapult Learning site, at http://www.catapultlearning.com/2012/09/10/transitioning-and-teaching-math-and-the-common-core-state-standards/ The meeting room was generic. The hotel could have been anywhere. I had to wonder how many people had cycled in and out of that room over the years, staring at PowerPoint slides that someone had thought would changehttp://agathon-sbh.blogspot.com/2012/09/transitioning-and-teaching-common-core.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Ordover)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8286850597195008478.post-4400100252039342268Mon, 13 Aug 2012 16:57:00 +00002012-08-13T12:57:23.271-04:00Education(originally published at http://www.catapultlearning.com/category/blog/) In Washington, where I live, the summer months are often called the “silly season,” the time when logic flies out the window and the news media focus (more than they usually do) on the frivolous and the outrageous. During a presidential election year, the silly season becomes a time of alarmist rhetoric, full of dire http://agathon-sbh.blogspot.com/2012/08/back-to-school-end-of-silly-season.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Ordover)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8286850597195008478.post-8262665653181419144Tue, 07 Aug 2012 16:55:00 +00002012-08-07T12:55:26.417-04:00EducationThe world of education does a marvelous job of ignoring and resisting modern fads and trends, serving up instruction in more-or-less unchanged ways for over a hundred years. It will be interesting to see if we can hold out against the trend of "on-demand" that has affected so many other areas of modern life. We've already seen the authority of the gatekeeper erode in face of on-demand publishinghttp://agathon-sbh.blogspot.com/2012/08/learning-on-demand.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Ordover)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8286850597195008478.post-1601776597612815505Tue, 05 Jun 2012 16:02:00 +00002012-06-05T13:46:55.801-04:00EducationRemember those old movies where homeless men dragged their ragged bodies into Salvation Army shelters for some soup and perhaps a bed, and had to sit through some kind of religious service as their "payment" for the room and board? This appears to be Louisiana's new model of education reform: Louisiana is embarking on the nation's boldest experiment in privatizing public education, with the http://agathon-sbh.blogspot.com/2012/06/soup-kitchen-schooling.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Ordover)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8286850597195008478.post-257926344805113110Thu, 31 May 2012 14:39:00 +00002012-05-31T10:39:20.098-04:00FamilyEducationOne of the nicest things about my day is that I get to have breakfast with my two boys before going to work. I read the paper while the boys read the comics. Sometimes we talk about news stories. Sometimes we talk about what's going on in school. Sometimes we talk about whatever is on their minds. It's a nice, low-key time of day. This morning, I read them a story from the Washington Post abouthttp://agathon-sbh.blogspot.com/2012/05/breakfast-with-boys.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Ordover)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8286850597195008478.post-5733435837228733488Thu, 17 May 2012 15:55:00 +00002012-05-17T13:36:01.190-04:00PoliticsSo says some cretin in my home state of Virginia, who unfortunately has the power to derail the appointment of a gay judge, and was able to get his ugly face on television to spout off about it. How about "being left the hell alone?" Isn't that a civil right? How did a country founded by people running away from religious intolerance and political oppression mutate into this nation of http://agathon-sbh.blogspot.com/2012/05/sodomy-is-not-civil-right.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Ordover)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8286850597195008478.post-8059152830276536170Sun, 29 Apr 2012 15:35:00 +00002012-05-14T10:57:33.944-04:00PoliticsThe human is a social animal. It always has been, and it always will be. To abandon that essential fact about us is to destroy us. Live together or die alone. A human who rejects society and goes off to live entirely alone has always--everywhere--been regarded as a saint or a mystic or a madman. Everywhere. We have a myth, in this country, that we are rugged individualists, and that we need no http://agathon-sbh.blogspot.com/2012/04/what-we-owe-each-other.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Ordover)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8286850597195008478.post-8433225304678187756Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:53:00 +00002012-05-14T10:58:23.470-04:00PoliticsEducationThere is a puritanical streak in this country's DNA that relishes punishing people for their shortcomings and failures, and sneers at reaching out a helping hand to support people who are less able and less strong...especially when that hand is funded by tax dollars. Private charity is fine; religious-based charity is fine. We can be amazingly generous there, when it's a matter of personal choicehttp://agathon-sbh.blogspot.com/2012/04/vision-thing.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Ordover)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8286850597195008478.post-3070694910482545595Thu, 12 Apr 2012 21:00:00 +00002012-05-14T10:58:34.729-04:00ArtEducationCan we be done now, finally, with the whole "sage on the stage vs. guide on the side" argument in teaching? Please? I'm willing to beg. The phrase was insipid the first time I heard it, and it's now reached nails-on-the-chalkboard levels of annoyance (nails on a SMART board just isn't the same, is it?). Plus, it's wrong. Demonstrably wrong. Proven wrong. Direct instruction works. It works http://agathon-sbh.blogspot.com/2012/04/and-in-center-ring.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Ordover)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8286850597195008478.post-5042962537079391909Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:56:00 +00002012-05-14T10:58:46.001-04:00EducationIf we did a decent job of teaching media literacy in this country, our citizenry would know not to trust pundits who use words like "evil" to describe...well, anything short of Nazi-style genocide, really. And yet, in the current phase of education reform debates, the word is getting tossed around with wild abandon--either directly, or by suggestion. Diane Ravitch and her acolytes call the "http://agathon-sbh.blogspot.com/2012/03/against-evil.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Ordover)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8286850597195008478.post-4853420024149861236Thu, 29 Mar 2012 20:37:00 +00002012-03-29T16:37:13.897-04:00EducationFrom John Hattie's Visible Learning, page 258: Perhaps the most famous example of policy makers not using or being convinced by evidence was Project Follow Through, which started in the late 1960s. It was conducted over 10 years, involved over 72,000 students, and had more than 22 sponsors who worked in more than 180 sites to find the most effective education innovations to break the cycle of http://agathon-sbh.blogspot.com/2012/03/things-that-make-you-go-gah.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Ordover)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8286850597195008478.post-5395812341570459559Fri, 16 Mar 2012 14:54:00 +00002012-03-16T13:14:43.378-04:00ArtEducationSusan Cain is my new TED-crush. Her talk on "The Power of Introverts" hit me very powerfully, and spoke to some worries I've had recently about the mania we've made of collaboration in school and in the workplace. Collaboration is touted as a "21st century skill." Kids who do not learn how to collaborate in school are told that they will fail in the modern workplace. And they probably will. In myhttp://agathon-sbh.blogspot.com/2012/03/one-who-rakes-alone.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Ordover)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8286850597195008478.post-7869232871723215401Wed, 14 Mar 2012 19:37:00 +00002012-03-14T15:37:34.981-04:00PoliticsMy former state of residence has added its own piece of chipotle-flavored gristle to the national stew of gynophobia with this proposed legislation, forcing women of "religious" employers to submit evidence from a doctor that any prescription contraceptive for which they want insurance coverage is being used for reasons other than birth control. Because God hates birth control, but he's willing http://agathon-sbh.blogspot.com/2012/03/arizona-bringing-crazy-since-1925.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Ordover)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8286850597195008478.post-912623050416110621Tue, 13 Mar 2012 16:34:00 +00002012-03-13T12:37:25.651-04:00ArtCool for Cats is now availabe in all e-Book formats, right here. So if you have a Nook, or a Kobo, or some other non-paper device for reading books...now's your chance to get to know Jordan, Susannah, Oticha, Porkchop, and all the rest of the gang.http://agathon-sbh.blogspot.com/2012/03/new-formats.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Ordover)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8286850597195008478.post-7822065911093888354Mon, 05 Mar 2012 19:40:00 +00002012-03-05T14:40:14.063-05:00ArtYeah, yeah...it's always National Something Week. But this week (March 4-10) just happens to be National Read an E-Book Week...or so say these folks. So listen. If you haven't yet read my jazzy, breezy, more-than-occasionally funny mystery novel, Cool for Cats, (see blush-inducing reader reviews here), isn't this a perfect opportunity to do so? Not only will you get to read an entertaining new http://agathon-sbh.blogspot.com/2012/03/national-read-e-book-week.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Ordover)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8286850597195008478.post-9195720780452792070Tue, 28 Feb 2012 15:02:00 +00002012-02-28T10:26:41.198-05:00ArtEducationSeth Godin rants eloquently and importantly on the question of “What is school for?” The Big Essay (or mini-book) is free and available for printing, reading on screen, or for download to your e-reader. It’s worth a read, and he wants feedback and commentary. Here is mine. Godin takes a fairly extremist view that schooling, as we currently do it, can do nothing but kill dreams, squelch http://agathon-sbh.blogspot.com/2012/02/school-as-lego-land.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Ordover)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8286850597195008478.post-3053522158806075285Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:11:00 +00002012-02-23T11:27:15.033-05:00FamilyThe herd will not have it. The herd hates outliers. It’s nothing personal; it’s just for protection. If you stray from the herd, you get eaten. It’s as simple as that. It’s natural selection. So stick together. But nobody’s trying to eat us, so why can’t we get over our herd mentality? Why can’t we relax and let people be? Why do we even care? You would think there would be strength—and http://agathon-sbh.blogspot.com/2012/02/lesson-of-one-way.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Ordover)9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8286850597195008478.post-6206870169373890607Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:09:00 +00002011-12-19T09:10:18.805-05:00ArtA free audio recording of the first chapter of my mystery novel, Cool for Cats (performed by me), is up on the Forgotten Classics podcast. Stop on by and check it out. Many thanks to Julie Davis for posting and sharing it.http://agathon-sbh.blogspot.com/2011/12/can-you-hear-me-now.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Andrew Ordover)1