Author Archives: David Truss

How long does this need to be?

As a teacher, this was always a tough thing to hear. You pour yourself into a lesson and then get to the assignment and a kid asks, “How long does this need to be?”

I hear this and in my mind I hear an underlying second question, “What’s the least amount I need to do to get this done.”

My response wasn’t really liked, but it was honest:

“It needs to be as long as it needs to be. I’ve read 3 brilliant sentences that said all that was needed to be said. I’ve read three sentences that told me nothing. I’ve read paragraphs that are eloquent and beautifully written, which cover everything needed. I’ve read entire essays that are crap. The length isn’t important, the quality and thoroughness of the writing is.”

If what’s being assessed is an essay, a response should be essay length in an essay format. Beyond that, does length of a response really matter? Does the format make a difference if the message is well conveyed? Does your next assignment require a minimum length, or does it require a response that clearly demonstrates understanding?

The best they can with what they’ve got.

I’m sure if I go looking, I’d find a similar post I’ve written before, but this idea is worth exploring (again) and it was inspired by Aaron Davis’ comment on yesterday’s Daily Ink.

I don’t remember where I first heard this, but it was decades ago, before I became an educator: “People do the best they can with the resources they have.”

This is such an empowering position to hold when dealing with an upset person. They are trying, they are doing their best, they are hurting and need compassion. This shifts the direction of the conversation, especially when your own buttons are pushed by the person or when they are showing their upset by going on the attack.

If you go into a conversation with an upset person believing they are only there to attack you, that leaves you only with a choice of being defensive or going on the attack yourself. If you go into the same conversation thinking this person is upset and doing the best they can, suddenly you can shift to helping them, even when their strategy isn’t ideal.

This isn’t always easy. Here is an example from a while back at another school: Student does something very inappropriate. Parents are invited in. Parent has heard the student’s ‘creative’ perspective on how they are not at fault. Parent comes in with metaphorical ‘guns-a-blazing’ to defend the kid.

Whether it’s a father or mother that comes in, I call this ‘mama bear’ behavior. Mama bears will do anything to protect their cubs. So, what’s the worst thing that you can do with an angry mama bear? Attack the cub in front of them.

The easy, but unhelpful reaction to hearing a parent defend a kid, who has fabricated a story to the parent about the innocence of their behaviour, is to call the kid out. The harder thing to do is to remember that the kid is scared and doing the best they can, and the parent is angry and doing the best they can. A counterpoint at this juncture can easily lead to an unhealthy argument. So, a softer approach is better.

It’s a matter of remembering that we want the same thing… to take care of a student who has in our eyes done wrong and in the parents eyes has been wronged. And so that parent is doing the best they can with the knowledge and resources they have.

This doesn’t mean that you let the kid off. It does mean that you can take an approach that is more aikido than karate, more deflective and less of a direct attack.

Without going into specifics, I talk about how more than one kid was involved in the situation. I talk about how intentions aren’t always known and that two people can see the same situation in different ways. I ask the parent to remember that the other kid has a parent too, and might ask what they would think of the situation if they were the parent of the other child (this is delicate and not something to do early on, only when the parent is less angry than when they came in to defend their cub).

It’s only when the parent can see another perspective that I then discuss their kid, and the approach is that ‘we both want the same thing’. Without saying it bluntly, the approach is asking ‘Do you want your kid acting this way?’ or more subtly, ‘Do you want your kid being perceived they way they are being perceived?’

In essence, it’s about giving the parent more information and resources than they arrived with, to deal with the situation better than an angry mama bear has defending a cub from danger. It’s about saying, ‘Your kid made a bad choice’, and separating their behaviour from their identity and the parent’s identity too. And then it’s about helping both of them get the strategies and resources they need to make the situation better.

It’s not easy. But when a mama bear sees that you want what’s best for their kid… and that’s really what you want even though the kid made a really bad choice… then the outcome becomes what you intended it to be. That same mama bear parent has, at times, even wanted to go harder on their kid than I do. If it comes to this point, they are still operating under the same pretence, they are doing the best they can with what they’ve got.

Responses to change

I’ve been working on rehabilitating a couple injuries. One is a shoulder injury that I’m not sure how I injured it? This has been frustrating because it seems to come back every time I go beyond what I’ve already done. The other is my knee, that I broke in February. It has responded really well to me pushing it, but still reminds me every now and then that it’s not 100% (although these reminders don’t set me back).

My shoulder doesn’t respond to doing something new very well, my knee accepts new challenges and seems to be able to withstand new feats of strength even when I’m panting from the effort.

I don’t benefit from pushing my shoulder hard, but I also can’t stagnate and not give it small pushes. I don’t benefit from being reckless with my knee, but it won’t get stronger if I don’t thoughtfully push and push hard when I do.

I think sometimes we push a group to all change in the same way at the same time. We add something new: a new system, a new approach, a new process, and we expect everyone to respond similarly. But some people are like my shoulder, some like my knee. We need to support the changes we want in such a way that we don’t expect the same responses and results from everyone, and realize that some people are ready to be pushed hard, and others need to go slow.

I think this is one of the biggest challenges that any leader faces when implementing change. No matter how ready the team is, not everyone is equipped to change at the same speed. And the ones that are most resistant or least equipped to change aren’t effective if they aren’t supported in a way that meets them where they are at, or if they are pushed beyond capabilities.

My shoulder has reminded me of this frequently, and comparing it to the progress of my knee doesn’t make my shoulder any more ready to take on the next challenge.

Make your world small

I love the advice from Kevin Cameron to #MakeYourWorldSmall. This summer I got way too involved in following world news, and pandemic numbers, and popular events on social media… most of which were two things:

1. Negative in nature.

2. Beyond my control to have any influence.

This is a time to look inward. To focus on my small community and the things I can influence. I can make a difference at work and with my family… and with myself!

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed right now. It’s easy to feel powerless. However we can make our worlds smaller and empower ourselves with energy currently being expended on things beyond our small sphere of influence.

It’s time to expend my daily mental and emotional energy in places where I’m empowered to make a difference.

Funding education through charity

I got this ad on Facebook today:

So, Facebook knows I’m an educator and is saying, ‘Hey, use our billion dollar company to ask your friends to fund public education.’ – I didn’t click the link, but I wonder if FB takes a cut?

When I go to Twitter, almost daily I see #clearthelists hashtags with tweets like this:

And

Another billion dollar company, Amazon, profiting from people trying to support public education out of their own pockets.

Let me be clear, I have nothing against teachers asking for help to get things they want for their classroom. Most of the educators I see using this hashtag are American, and because most educational funding is from local taxpayers in the US, there are gross discrepancies in funding available to schools based on zip code. Some schools and teachers in those schools really have to work with very little resources.

The reality is that wherever you live public education is publicly funded and there are always limits on what can be afforded. I’d love to get an expensive new 3D printer for our school to replace our aging one, but I also don’t see that as a priority this year compared to other things that I’ll use my budget on. That doesn’t mean that we are poorly funded, that means we need to be fiscally responsible with our budgets.

The thing is, it bugs me that educators, who tend to be connected mostly to other educators, are asking their network of friends to help fund public education, while billion dollar companies profit. That’s messed up.

Locally, there is a company, Finger Food, that has donated considerable amounts of technology to schools to help get kids interested in coding and STEM projects. They see a direct benefit to supporting public education in their/our community and they work closely with district leadership to make sure they are getting the most bang for their donated buck. This is a great relationship, which benefits our community.

Why don’t more companies look at education this way? When educator and family friends of educators ‘clear the lists’ of items a teacher wants for their classrooms, how much does Amazon make?

I remember years ago a big sports company wanted to put their logo on a high school gym floor for a sizeable donation. There was an uproar in the community about advertising invading our schools. My opinion on the matter was not popular. I thought, kids are bombarded by ads all the time, a logo without a tag line is not a big deal… so this is what I’d do:

Yes, for $—— you can put the logo on our gym floor for 5 years, then we re-sign a new contract or you redo our floors to remove the logo. Don’t like that idea? That’s fine, let us know if you change your mind. So, our schools or district sets the terms and companies abide or not, rather than pandering for any money and settling on company terms. Come into our building on our terms.

Anyway, that’s a separate idea to my original thought… and a bit controversial. What’s not controversial is that while teachers are asking friends to support public education, large corporations are doing little to support public education while also profiting. I think there needs to be more companies thinking about how they can contribute to the education of young people. If just 5-10% of major companies were to find ways to donate less than 0.05% – 1/20 of 1 percent- of their profits (that would be $500 on a million dollar profit), think about how well public education could be funded!

Fair weather leadership

We’ve all seen movies where the captain of a boat or a sheriff in a town (who aren’t the stars of the movies) appear to be doing a good job, and everything is going smoothly. Then the crisis hits, the boat starts to sink or the bad guys ride into town, and suddenly chaos ensues. The captain abandons the ship before the passengers and the sheriff either cowers or puts his life on the line recklessly leaving the town at the mercy of the bad guys.

In the movies, the hero emerges or arrives and saves the day. In the real world, these good in fair weather leaders create chaos and upset, and undermine the productivity and well being of their team, and possibly other teams around them. There isn’t always a hero standing by to help.

It’s often difficult or impossible to foresee a crisis. In the case of a sinking boat, there are drills that can be run, but they aren’t ever run when the boat is bouncing up and down in a storm. Some things can be planned for, but others come out of nowhere… like an iceberg in the fog. When a surprise comes along, that’s actually when leadership matters. That’s when lines of communication matter. That’s when people management becomes a priority. Who can help lead? Who needs direct instruction? What can be delegated rather than added to an impossible to-do list. And who can be asked for help?

It’s when a crisis hits that a leader needs to get the most out of their team. Often we think of crisis situations as making a leader great, but my thoughts align more with this quote:

“Great occasions do not make heroes or cowards; they simply unveil them to our eyes. Silently and imperceptibly, as we wake or sleep, we grow strong or weak; and at last some crisis shows what we have become.” ~ Brooke Foss Westcott

Good leadership during the fair weather, before the storm, is preparation for when the storm hits… even if that leadership isn’t recognized as anything special. Not leading well, not pushing the team, when things are calm, may not harm the team during that calm, but it prepares no one for when things get rough.

Leading well in fair weather doesn’t bring much accolades, and may not bring recognition, but it is preparation for good leadership when leadership really matters.

Anti-social media

I was in a Twitter conversation recently that went a bit sideways. I don’t want to get into details, but I want to talk about a landscape of social sharing that is exhausting me. Is it just me or does every challenging conversation seem to go somewhere it doesn’t have to?

Pick any prominent public figure, if they say anything germane to a serious topic, the comment responses are caustic and angry. It’s like people are trolling just to attack. That’s not what happened in the conversation I was having, but that’s where my mind went.

What happened to me was that I went silent. I had more to share, but saw no use in saying more. The conversation between two others went to a place where I could add no value. It was upsetting. I am not someone who likes to walk away from something unresolved, but I didn’t have the words. I typed a response, then deleted it. I did this again.

I can’t stay on Twitter and only share things I think will acquire likes and positive comments. I’m not a poop disturber either, but I want to be able to go to hard places sometimes, to question and to learn. But I’m not feeling like good discourse can happen on social media anymore. Discourse has become argument and different views are not tolerated.

What I’m talking about goes far beyond the conversation I had, but what I’ve seen recently has pushed me away from following conversation threads on Twitter… Not because I’m not interested in the topic, but because I’m not interested in the polar, angry, and even nasty comments that fill any (even slightly) controversial thread.

Social media seems a lot less social these days.

How long before ‘Un’school is the kind of school most kids choose?

This Hyderabad-based edtech startup aims to help students ‘un’school themselves

This is an example of disrupting higher education that I wrote about recently.

An affordable online learning ecosystem which provides a course, mentorship, projects, and guaranteed internship opportunities.

I’ve wanted to see opportunities like this at Inquiry Hub (at high school). Not for every kid, for kids that want it. But I also think that as we create these opportunities, more students will want it… if not in high school, certainly instead of an overpriced college education.

How is ‘un’schooling going to change the look of schools and universities in the future?

Vitamin D and Covid-19

Have you ever heard of Pascal’s Wager?

Here are 2 videos about how Vitamin D is likely to reduce the seriousness of Covid-19 complications. This is not like a vaccine, preventing you from getting Covid-19. This is not a cure. What Vitamin D seems to do is reduce the likelihood of respiratory complications in people who have contracted Covid-19.

I’ve already shared this idea with you: ‘Vitamin D could save your life’. Now here are two videos sharing some more research.

The first video is on a very small study in Spain, and the details are shared in an easy to understand explanation.

The second video is more technical, but also looks at more than one study.

Back to Pascal’s wager: here are 4 scenarios based on Vitamin D working as the research suggests vs not:

1. Vitamin D can reduce the seriousness of Covid-19 and you don’t take it. -> You might catch Covid-19 and things could get much worse than if you took it.

2. Vitamin D can reduce the seriousness of Covid-19 and you take it. -> You might catch Covid-19 and have a much milder or less serious case. Even if you don’t catch Covid-19, most people are deficient in Vitamin D and so it still helps you.

3. Vitamin D won’t reduce the seriousness of Covid-19 and you don’t take it. -> No loss or benefit.

4. Vitamin D won’t reduce the seriousness of Covid-19 and you take it. -> As said above, even if you don’t catch Covid-19, most people are deficient in Vitamin D and so it still helps you.

It seems that the potential benefits vs no downside makes adding the supplement to your daily routine worth it!

Can you take too much Vitamin D? Yes. Google searches have given me a variety of results, but it seems that it would take excessive supplement overuse for a prolonged period to cause issues.

I’m not a doctor, I don’t pretend to be one. I just see so much upside to taking Vitamin D. Talk to your doctor or share the videos above with friends who are doctors. See what they have to say.

NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn’t happen this week

It’s sad that fake news is spread so easily that this even has to exist! The Associated Press has started this report: “NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn’t happen this week“, to debunk fake and even harmful, made-up news reports that have gone viral on social media.

Here is an example:

“CLAIM: The new vaccine for COVID-19 will be the first of its kind ever. It will be an “MRna vaccine” which will literally alter your DNA. It will wrap itself into your system. You will essentially become a genetically modified human being.

THE FACTS: Experts say mRNA vaccines do not alter your DNA. As researchers work to test vaccines to stop the spread of COVID-19, social media posts are sharing misinformation to sow doubt even before they become available to the public. The posts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram suggest that a new coronavirus mRNA vaccine will genetically modify humans…” — Beatrice Dupuy

This fake story feeds perfectly into the narrative of anti-vaxers and conspiracy theorists that believe Covid-19 is not serious and/or part of a plot to control the masses. It will be shared and re-shared, being passed off as facts and evidence on discussion boards, in Facebook groups and on Facebook timelines. It will be shared with hashtags on Twitter that will point this fake news to the right audience, who will believe it.

How did we get here? The sad thing is, the people that most need to see this Associated Press report are the people who would say that what’s written in this report is fake. They won’t do the research. They won’t check any sources. They won’t change their minds. They will spread the fake news and keep it alive long enough to fool more gullible people into believing what they want to believe, despite factual data and evidence to the contrary.

Worse yet, we are heading into the world of deep fakes, where video ‘evidence’ can be fabricated so well that it is indistinguishable from reality. Make no mistake, we need news websites like this to help us recognize viral fake news. We also need everyone to think twice before sharing controversial and click-bait like articles, unless we’ve done the work to ensure we aren’t perpetuating fake news.

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Find all AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck

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