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This is for you Michael!

Z

HELP ME!

OK…I’m still in the TLC on a Thursday afternoon looking for a free critical thinking test for my MAT Thesis. I found some that would be pretty cool to get, but they all cost too much money. I was wondering if we could organize an MAT car wash to raise enough money for some critical thinking tests. I found a good one for $800.00 (1000 tests). It’s about 80 cents per test and the Ed. Dept. could use those for future MAT students right? I would only need 100 or so and I could probably sport 80 bucks. If I just wanted 100 individually, it would cost over $250.00. I propose that the Ed. Dept. buy 1000 tests for future and present use and just charge the cost to the MAT students who want to use them. Anyone interested?

Z

PS

Is anyone thinking of doing a critical thinking measure for their thesis?

Elementary teachers and math!!

Read this article from MSNBC telling you how bad of a math teacher you are!

Z

I don’t think you’re bad. I like you.

Oh fishy fishy fishy fish

OK, instead of going to class on Tuesday, I went fishing with my father. How could I possibly justify doing this instead of attending a leadership class? I’ll tell you. Deal with it.

I had to miss class for a couple of reasons: (in no particular order)
1.) The Kokanee run is very short (only a couple of months in the summer) so I had to get my fish on some time.
2.) We have a very small boat that is unsafe on the weekends because the recreational boaters rarely respect the anglers.
3.) I needed to spend some quality time with my father. I don’t think there is a more quality time than fishing.
4.) My father had Tuesday off.
5.) I believe that a good leader knows when to take a break and enjoy some of the niceties of life. On average, I will only have 70 years in human form on this planet. That’s only 25,550 days. I have already lived 9,308 days. So I only have about 16,242 left (assuming I don’t get hit by a bus tomorrow or something). So my life is about 1/3 lived by now and I have to make choices about how I going to live the rest of my days and have decided to live by one cliche: no regrets. I chose to spend time with my father for 1 more day before I will probably have fewer and fewer opportunities to do so. Life is moving forward faster and faster as I get older (does this happen to anyone else?) and sometimes we all need to put on the brake and fish.
6.) Kokanee are delicious and I NEEDED to kill and eat one. I did. mmm

Thanks,
Z

Funny site

Click Here!

Have a good one!

Z

RIP George

I am sad George died.

Z

What a Cheap Politician

Reaction: Mayor Nancholas

I know I’m supposed to be talking about how much better of a teacher I am going to be as a result of the mayor coming to our class. I’m not sure how much better I’m going to be “teaching” because of the visit. But I will say this: I believe more now than I did before. And I think that is saying a lot—especially since it was a Republican who was the prime cause of this sentiment.

I am pleasantly surprised that the mayor is able to achieve all that he has done given his circumstances. He managed to get a primarily republican-libertarian electorate and officials to agree to spend millions of dollars on beautification! Who in the world would have guessed that they would be ok with that? Maybe I have under-estimated the conservatives. Or maybe I underestimate the power of leadership.

I guess leadership should be defined—or maybe it already is (I’m not exactly checking it in the dictionary)—as being able to get someone else to do something that they wouldn’t otherwise do. Mayor Nancholas was able to get conservatives to raise funds, spend money, and build pubic goods. That’s leadership if I have ever seen it.

As a teacher, I should use these examples in the classroom for several reasons. First, as I am going to be a social studies teacher (including government), I will be able to use this example to teach how people can work for a greater cause. Vision, as the mayor put it, requires people to work toward a common end. The mayor was able to convince people that the vision he had was supposed to b common—meaning that other people could access it and have ownership in his vision.

Secondly, I will use this example to explain how the party system in America does not necessarily reflect the best interests of all the people. Instead the party system reflects the interests in the party affiliates (when they are in power). I believe it is important to plant the “seeds” into students that party affiliation is not a necessary precondition to active civics. Students should look to the issues rather than the party platform.

Thirdly, I will teach students to try new recipes for success and change them when they are not working. So many people actually do the same ting over and over again waiting for the outcome to change. Just look at the tens of thousands of people in Bangladesh who die in the floods each year. Don’t they know by now that the floods kill that many people? Doesn’t the rest of the world know this? Who is doing something about this? I’ll give you an answer—no one. No one is taking responsibility and few have a vision for a new Bangladesh. I will do my very best to teach my students that there are solutions to every problem—but sometimes we have to look for them in ways we are not used to.

Fourth, I will teach my students that all it takes to bribe the mayor of Caldwell is some chocolate chip cookies. What a cheap politician.

Z

An Upper Without Drugs!

Please visit this poem by Taylor Mali for an upper!

Zuercher

NO DRILLING

Mr. Crapo:

I do not support increased drilling for oil in America (or anywhere else in the world). I believe, as a trained political economist, that the most effective economic solution to the energy problem will be to explore alternative energy rather than drilling for old energy.

The only way to reduce the price of gasoline will be to reduce the demand for gasoline. We will reduce the demand for gasoline by subsidizing electric car manufacturing, cellulose-based ethanol, and public transportation.

Not only will these alternatives be more effective than expensive drilling, these alternatives will create more high-paying jobs and be safer for our environment.

Thank you.
Richard Zuercher

Reaction to the Kurdies/Kurdys and the Heros

The first thing that I want to say is that I think the Kurdies/Kurdys are wonderful educators. I could even tell that by listening them talk about themselves. They went out of their ways to create the Discover Idaho curriculum for no other purpose than to teach. They value education for the intrinsic worth of education–how I long to be that way!

As for A Hero’s Journey…
Chapter 1

The most striking part of this chapter I found was the following quote: “Collaboration is essential for the kind of personal learning that the heroic journey requires” (p. 16). I believe that it is crucial for people to collaborate on tackling controversial issues. Mainly, I believe, it is important to make important issues into non-controversial issues. It is important for the education hero to be able to convince and execute a plan of action to get other educators, teachers, parents, students, the media, and government to believe in a common goal for education.

All too often the realm of academia is subservient to the whims of temporary government officially who claim to have a “cure” for the ills of society. Academics, I believe, have a much better way to respond to the ills of society—talking. We like to talk about stuff. And we like to talk about it some more. Politicians, on the other hand, do not like to talk about stuff. They like to do stuff. The problem seems to be that those who do stuff don’t talk about it enough to make informed decisions. And the problem with those who talk about stuff don’t do stuff nearly enough. We have deficiencies between the doers and the thinkers. How do we reconcile this?

Chapter 2
We reconcile this by doing. When I say “doing,” I don’t mean that we should just start doing things haphazardly. Instead, we should be doing education for the sake of education. That way, we cannot possibly corrupt the system with our own romantic or evil notions of the “perfect teacher.” We are not perfect teachers. But we can be perfect performers of education.

Consider a lily of the field. There is no such thing as a perfect flower. But is there anything more perfect than a pretty flower? How can something so imperfect embody perfection? I believe that the flower is perfect because it exists, because it is there, and because it is there for no other reason.

We, as teachers, can be like the lilies of the field–we can be perfect because we are performing our chosen passion. Some of us may be more pleasing to others, but that has no bearing on how pleasing we are to nature/god–just like there are some wilty flowers nearing the end of its days. Our challenge is to make sure that the future flowers we are cultivating have the best chance to blossom.

Richard Zuercher