I just discovered the 2008 Webby Award-winning “You Suck at Photoshop” series on YouTube. While it may not succeed at making me a Photoshop ninja, it does succeed at convincing me that this kind of project would make the classroom an awesome place.

Here’s why: the series demonstrates a mastery of content knowledge — in this case, Photoshop technique — while at the same time adding a creative element that makes the content-master stand out from the equally masterful but unimaginative competition. Point blank: in the hands of this guy, something as dull as “how to use layers” becomes a vehicle that screams, “Hire me to write for ‘30 Rock‘!” He proves he can turn lead into gold, which is a real-world skill not many people have. Alchemists like that deserve the chance to display their creative magic in school.

The Mental Work is Hard….

“You Suck at Photoshop” displays that creative magic in the form of fiction (see the Wikipedia entry on the series for  more). The host of the tutorials is a persona named “Donnie,” a loser stuck in a lousy life with a lousy wife. We learn about Donnie’s life through a series of such sometimes-subtle details as his choice of photos for the tutorial — “Say you want to use a photo of the Vanagon your wife meets her high school boyfriend in on Friday nights….wait, I’ve got one right here” (scroll past other photos of — gulp — handguns, and one of the high school boyfriend labeled — gulp — “douche-b.png”) — and such sometimes-over-the-top details as the wife barging in to kvetch at him in the middle of his tutorial, or his loser friend Skyping in with a loser-emergency while Donnie is making his screencast.

The creator of this project not only demonstrates his literary creativity by creating the fictional “Donnie” persona and populating his Photoshop folders with props like the pictures mentioned above; he takes it further with his dramatic creativity as he acts out the role of that persona with his voice-over. The vocal acting covers a broad emotional terrain, from dude in his basement chillaxing with his laptop to powder-keg psychopath struggling to keep the flame from his fuse. The acting is just awesome.

….The Tech is Dead Easy

The beauty of the project technology-wise is that it requires nothing more than a screencasting program like the free Jing or Screencast-o-matic, plus a webcam and microphone — your standard kit in most computers today. So the technical hurdles for students to do such a project are basically nil.

That leaves the whole of their energies to devote to the other two aspects of the project: mastery and critical understanding of the content, and creative concept development to deliver that understanding.

Too Beautiful for School?

So I’m wrestling, as usual, with the ways this wonderfully simple approach to creative learning will be complicated by the forces of schooliness:

• Do I have to make a rubric for it, and if so, does that kill the creativity with its prescriptive check-box drudgery, or limit the infinite creative possibilities by dictating “it must be this and not that, and that and not this”?
• Is it sustainable in terms of watching and grading and giving feedback to 100 students doing such an assignment?
• How do I define satisfactory content mastery and creativity for this assignment?
• How do I encourage experimentation and the healthy embrace of possible failure when I have to slap a low grade on it if it does indeed “fail”?
• Should I make it optional, in following with my increasingly elitist impulse to definitely not “push” the unwilling to attempt genius, and not even “pull” them, but only to “attract” the three percent of “roses” in any student population who might blossom in the attempt?

I don’t know.

Nor do I know how to adapt this for a history classroom. Can “You Suck at Photoshop” become “You Suck at History”? How? How can this be used for Europe from the French Revolution to the present, or the complete history of China?

My recent brainstorm on giving a conceptual purpose to learning Chinese history by “interpreting it for historically-ignorant Westerners” seems to have some openings. God knows, there are ample websites of Chinese and Western art, literature, philosophy, religion, politics, and more that students could tab through on their screencasts as they provide their commentary like “Donnie” does to his open Photoshop on his desktop. But the maker of “Donnie” has the luxury of revealing that persona through the image “props” in his folders, while history students wouldn’t have as easy a task of  revealing persona if they were forced instead to work with history websites in their screencasts.

One solution I’m considering is making it a summative, end-of-semester project, in which students have most of the semester to let their creative juices stew and come up with their own ideas over the first few months. Then give a couple of weeks of class time to a workshop in which they design and execute those ideas.

Otherwise, I’m mostly adrift. Maybe you can help.

But if you watch the three-minute first episode below, you should see why I’m bewitched by the idea:

Do yourself a favor and watch the whole playlist. Then help me figure out how I can make this work?

8 Comments

• At January 4, 2010, ShellTerrell wrote:

  “You Suck at Photoshop”: Paragon of Creative Project-Based Learning http://bit.ly/6ugCOn

  This comment was originally posted on Twitter

• At January 4, 2010, monika hardy wrote:

  What a find... I love it.

  (Just like I'm loving tumblr now thanks to your conversation with Roberto. I was needing an easier/cleaner way to post how-to videos.)

  Some current thoughts on your questions....

  # Do I have to make a rubric for it, and if so, does that kill the creativity with its prescriptive check-box drudgery, or limit the infinite creative possibilities by dictating “it must be this and not that, and that and not this”

  Yeah - I wouldn't make a rubric. I would make the assessment process as raw and real as the project. I'd have the feedback come from the peers needing it - ie: those who suck at photoshop... Post it at school - see how many hits it gets. See how others in the class improve. Assess the project on how well everyone else does with it. I'd also have a couple professionals/parents look at it and give some feedback... some people the kids are going to want to impress. [I guess depending on the topic - that type of career/professional might use a rubric. Whatever - it needs to be authentic.]

  # Is it sustainable in terms of watching and grading and giving feedback to 100 students doing such an assignment?

  I think - done like above - yes - if it's a more authentic feedback process. Certainly not the way we have been doing it - where we all sit in a room and watch each other present, etc, not in real context.

  # How do I define satisfactory content mastery and creativity for this assignment?

  I think - for me anyway - I use *something like this video series as a model (*maybe you could make a cleaner school version for us all to use Clay...?) My kids are so good and motivated for these projects, but rarely do they hit both content and creativity. I think that's my favorite take away from this series - that it models that balance perfectly. Not too stuffy with content so as not to be entertaining and not so entertaining that it has no meat. So I guess I'm saying - set high standards for balance - with a good model beforehand. I think focusing on the balance rather than the topic/form a rubric usually focuses on - will allow for more freedom and creativity.

  # How do I encourage experimentation and the healthy embrace of possible failure when I have to slap a low grade on it if it does indeed “fail”?

  Maybe don't make it an end of the year assignment. Assign it from the get go...with several due dates throughout the year. I think we have really messed with what true assessment and feedback are. Kids and parents believe assessment is a marker - if you're good or bad. When it should be an ongoing iterative process... continually pinpointing areas that need tweaking. It should be freeing to the kids... rather than - I failed - I understand nothing.. they have maybe 2-3 specifics to work on. I love that we're living in a publish then edit period. I hope that lingers forever. And I love that we now have the means... via skype and blogs, etc to have experts help give that feedback.

  # Should I make it optional, in following with my increasingly elitist impulse to definitely not “push” the unwilling to attempt genius, and not even “pull” them, but only to “attract” the three percent of “roses” in any student

  I think you make the choice of topic/platform/mode/medium optional. The goal being... they need to make something that will live on and help others learn. If a kid can't do that successfully by the end of a course... (with ongoing feedback from adults and peers) then I guess we all fail...

  Once again... grazie.. for cranking my brain.

  .-= monika hardy´s last blog ..the ideas project =-.

• At January 4, 2010, jonessensei wrote:

  I have been using this too RT ShellTerrell “You Suck at Photoshop”: Paragon of Creative Project-Based Learning http://bit.ly/6ugCOn

  This comment was originally posted on Twitter

• At January 5, 2010, Adrienne wrote:

  Clay - a rubric does not have to be a checklist, and it doesn't have to kill the creativity and risk-taking factors. Why can't you build these two areas into the rubric? (i.e., those projects which demonstrate more creativity and risk-taking get better grades) This can easily be done by working in some kind of thoughtful journal / video / other constructed response as a reflection justifying choices and process.

  It will no doubt take you much longer to mark than a "regular" project, but IMO, well worth it.

  .-= Adrienne´s last blog ..… and, that’s a wrap! =-.

• At January 5, 2010, Clay Burell wrote:

  Maybe I should start a blog called "I Suck at Assessment." I'm taking a grad course in it next month, so let's hope it helps.

  Extra credit if you bang out a mock-up of the kind of thing you're talking about.

  Happy New Year!

• At January 5, 2010, Clay Burell wrote:

  Monika, read and marked as "return to" after I finish my four days in Thailand visiting an old college friend. Thanks for the input. Gotta pack now!

• At January 6, 2010, Zoe wrote:

  I love the way you've approached this. I've only got a few minutes spare, or I'd fill your comment page up!

  My immediate thought was to suggest that you co-construct your project WITH the students. Work with them to define and agree the success criteria, the assessment methodology and to peer & self assess the project from planning through to end product. In this way, students not only get to design the assessment process and agree the project outcomes but also reflect on the learning process itself.

  Just a thought...great idea and I love the way you're grappling with assessment of mastery & creativity. Look forward to hearing about what happens next!

  Happy new year!

  @fullonlearning

  zoe

  Zoe

• At February 2, 2010, Adrienne wrote:

  Clay - I haven't forgotten about this reply. In fact, I've been thinking of it ever since. I've just been swamped with studies the last couple of weeks. Apologies. I *am* going to get a mock-up to you, come hell or high water, as this kind of stuff is so important (assessing for creativity but not making the assessment dry). I'll post to your email when I do!

  But in the meantime- did you know that the "You Suck at Photoshop" series has morphed (evolved?) into an entire project? Visit http://www.bigfatuniversity.org for some real genuine learning and laughs. My favorite is the series on Music and Garageband. A must see, I think.

  .-= Adrienne´s last blog ..… and, that’s a wrap! =-.

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I think this question would make either a good meme or a good open thread:

What new routines have worked their way into your teaching-and-learning life as a result of the digital revolution?

I’ll share a couple of mine. I think history teachers will find the first one valuable, but teachers of any discipline can find and do similar things in their subjects.

1. Annotating Open Courseware University Lectures on Academic Earth, YouTube, Yale:

I’ve been watching UCLA Professor Lynn Hunt’s European Civilization from 1750 to the Present course lectures on Academic Earth to review modern European history before teaching it in the semester beginning next month.¹ I’m also watching Yale Professor John Merriman’s course on the same subject.

Here’s the rub: Yale’s courses are better watched at Yale’s Open Yale site, where you can find transcripts, video downloads for iPods, and all sorts of supplemental goodies for each lecture. But I haven’t been able to find the UCLA course on any UCLA-hosted site, so all we have for Prof. Hunt’s course is Academic Earth’s video. That means no transcripts or text of any sort. [Update: UCLA has a YouTube channel that allows downloads of the lectures -- something Academic Earth doesn't do. I'm putting my floating stickies on the YouTube lectures too. Here's the Modern Western Civ course playlist.]

Dr. Hunt’s a fine lecturer. She opens each class with a musical or artistic piece from the period covered, for example, and discusses its significance in the wider historical context. Her lectures are also well-organized, tight, and interesting. So my new routine, as the screenshot below shows, is a simple one: While I watch a lecture, I have a Diigo floating sticky-note open on the page, and simply outline the lecture with time-stamps. You can see it live here, if you have Diigo [Update: And here on YouTube]. Obvious uses:

• I — or anybody else — can use the time-stamp to show exactly the segments wanted in class.
• I can also adapt and/or condense the entire lecture for my own presentations in my classes. Simply extract the time-stamp and notes on my Diigo page, print them out if needed, and voila — an outline for a lecture, presentation, or discussion.

Again, this is simple and no big deal. It’s just taking notes while watching a video. But the cool thing is, other teachers worldwide (if they use Diigo) can share mine and add their own. (Among other possibilities.)

Here’s the screenshot:

Dr Hunt's UCLA lecture, my Diigo floating sticky-note (click for larger image)

2. Planning Classes While Walking to School with iPod/iPhone Voice Memo

Talking to Yourself is Good

I love Voice Memo. My daily routine in Singapore is an hour metro ride to school, then a 10-minute walk from the metro station to my classroom. I use it as planning time, and my best tool is my iPod Touch’s Voice Memo app. My iPod earbuds have a mic in the wire, so all I have to do is spend five minutes or so thinking about how I want to structure the day’s classes, and talk it into my iPod. When I get to school, I listen to the voice memo to write my lesson plan on the board.

I know some people can plan classes weeks in advance, but I’m not one of them. Too many ideas worth incorporating come in the days,  even the hours, before the class. So this has been a godsend for me. I don’t forget my best ideas, and don’t have to write them down. I literally talk to myself as I walk to class about the best ideas I have for the day.

Again, no big deal. A drunk could do this in his worst hangover. And that’s the beauty: low-labor, high-leverage changes in routine, thanks to new tools.

What about you? Any to share?

And Happy New Year, by the way. May the five-fingered fist of fate always smash the mean person next to you, and pet you like a kitten until 2011.

1. Be warned: the audio is sometimes bad, but the lectures are quite good. Dr. Hunt’s a trooper for not tearing off the microphone and telling the tech crew she’s mad as hell and not going to take it any more.

8 Comments

• At January 1, 2010, Will Richardson wrote:

  Hey Clay,

  How is 2010 treating you?

  You really need to get Evernote to do that audio note taking stuff with. The iPhone app just rocks.

  .-= Will Richardson´s last blog ..2020 Vision? =-.

• At January 1, 2010, diane wrote:

  I run ideas by my PLN - no need to reinvent the wheel, when there are already excellent resources available for sharing & collaboration.

  Happy New Year, Clay!

  .-= diane´s last blog ..Looking Back, Looking Forward =-.

• At January 3, 2010, Clay Burell wrote:

  Hi Will,

  It's good to be alive to see it, so no complaints (publicly, at least).

  Your nudge made me spend a good five or six hours exploring Evernote yesterday. I couldn't make it do basic things like show a page layout for print or pdf, etc. I can't even see how to export files in your basic formats. I can't annotate with it socially in any invisibly easy way. So I'm not feeling a lot of love.

  I can see how it's a great "cloud file cabinet," for sure. But beyond that, why do you like it so much?

  Hope '10's good for you.

• At January 3, 2010, etalbert wrote:

  Interesting ideas RT @cburell New Tech Teaching Habits at Beyond School http://tinyurl.com/y8wdqwa via @ShellTerrell

  This comment was originally posted on Twitter

• At January 5, 2010, Clarissa wrote:

  Good grief; I had NO IDEA that those earbuds had a tiny little microphone in them! Thanks for the tip. (I'm still learning how to use the iPod Touch that I got for my birthday/Christmas.)

  .-= Clarissa´s last blog ..Twelve Days of Christmas: Free E-Books =-.

• At January 5, 2010, Clay Burell wrote:

  Clarissa, you have to buy the set with the mic in them. Costs 40 or 50 bucks, but well worth it if you want to talk to yourself. :)

• At January 7, 2010, Clarissa wrote:

  When I took a peek at the included earbuds that came with my Touch, I saw a tiny little input grill on the same area as the volume controls. I tested it out with the voice memo software (I had been wondering why that was included!) and sure enough, it worked! Someone I was chatting with said it may not have been included with the 1st gen Touches... So I'm not even out any extra money.

  .-= Clarissa´s last blog ..12 Days of Christmas: EFL Classroom 2.0 =-.

• At January 11, 2010, Charlie A. Roy wrote:

  I'm now back in the classroom for the first time in three years teaching a personal finance class. Three years ago i was sans a PLN. This time around i'd say google docs and wikispaces are a new must have as well as a great wireless connection in the room and a liberal filtering policy at the school.

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Watch the two videos below — I even took notes of highlights to prod the attention-deficient — and then show them to your students.¹

1. Randy Nelson, Dean of Pixar University, on Collaboration and what I’ve been calling Social Intelligence in the Workplace. Key concepts:

1. Making co-workers look good, not bad;
2. “plussing” your partners;
3. wanting people not only with “depth” — résumé-based hires — but also a proven record (portfolios? blogs?) of innovation and
4. the ability to recover from failure instead of avoiding it;
5. on the desirability of “mastery of anything” (skateboarding, playing spoons) in a person’s past;
6. “the proof of a portfolio versus the promise of a résumé” (and, I’d add, GPA);
7. on wanting people who are interested, not interesting (that is, your piercings, tattoos, hairstyles, and daddy’s bank account are cheap ways to be interesting; much more interesting are people who are interested — hipsters take note);
8. communication skills based, again, on social intelligence vis-a-vis audience-awareness;
9. desirability of breadth (great, you’re a tech whiz; it would be nice if you knew, say, art history too);
10. on collaboration (“amplification” via “interested listening” and breadth and unique contributions to a project) versus cooperation (not getting in each others’ way).

Via Edutopia:

2. Seth Godin on Curiosity:

1. On the mental poverty of religious fundamentalists
2. On the mental richness of the curious
3. On how two generations lead sadly mediocre lives due to television, and how the lucky few have kicked that habit
4. On the curious and the fearful — “the masses in the middle [who have] brainwashed themselves into thinking it’s safe to do nothing”
5. On the difficulty of becoming curious — due to decades of schooling punishing curiosity
6. Nice Mao reference for this Chinese history teacher!
7. Paradox: “The safest thing to do is be risky; the riskiest thing to do is be safe.”
8. How Godin beat the odds and remained curious.
9. How religious fundamentalism has nothing to do with religion, and everything to do with an outlook that rejects curiosity.

Via Seth’s Blog:

‘curiosity’ from Nic Askew on Vimeo.

1. Big hat-tip to Katie Day at The Librarian Edge, from whom both of these videos are nicked. Follow that link for an excellent post.

2 Comments

• At December 28, 2009, Morgante Pell wrote:

  Thanks for sharing the excellent videos, Clay.

  I think you definitely have something going with social intelligence bit, which also follows with many things the other Clay has been saying (Shirky). One of my favorite quotes from the first video was that "he core skill of an innovator is error recovery not failure avoidance." Unfortunately, our school system actively discourages taking risks and potentially failing. Failures pull down grades just as much as successes pull them up. Indeed, one bad test can keep a student's GPA down for 4 years.

  Seth's video summarized many thoughts I've already had/seen elsewhere, but in a nice, digestible way. That's one of his great skills. I think many people underestimate the great harm which TV causes. When people ask me about my (admittedly limited success), I like to thank the Green Mountains for blocking TV signals and my parents for refusing to get cable.

• At December 28, 2009, Clay Burell wrote:

  Yep, yep. Lots of what's old to one person is new to another, so it never hurts to spread the healthy virus by posting it and passing it forward.

  I love the feel and look of the Godin interview.

  I also love the last line of your comment.

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This “Critical Thinking” video is worth a watch.

Now: What follow-up questions for discussion or writing will get the most bang for the buck if used in the classroom?

(h/t One Good Move)

12 Comments

• At December 27, 2009, Stephen Downes wrote:

  An outstanding video.

  .-= Stephen Downes´s last blog ..Dad's Web Guide to Delivering Tot =-.

• At December 28, 2009, (How) Would You Use This Critical Thinking Video? « BOOKER ENGLISH wrote:

  [...] (How) Would You Use This Critical Thinking Video? (How) Would You Use This Critical Thinking Video?. [...]

• At December 28, 2009, Edith wrote:

  great video, thanks for sharing. I am thinking of watching it once in the classroom and then replay it and ask for examples, stopping for each part, linking it to their experiences.

• At December 28, 2009, Clay Burell wrote:

  It would be a good beginning of year/course activity, if it could implant the concept in a short-hand sort of way so that weeks and months later a quick reference to it could prompt students to clear their biases as quickly as they clear their desks when "ordered."

  That this is difficult for them to do was made abundantly clear to me a couple weeks ago as I read the semester exam essays on European civ from beginnings to Scientific Revolution. Almost nothing critical about the Greeks, Romans, or Monotheism despite having toured the low points of all of them. Instead, pom-poms.

  So a definite need. (I've tried "Think like an alien in his first year on Earth" as a similar short-hand.)

• At December 29, 2009, Bruce Schauble wrote:

  Hi Clay,

  I like this. Thanks for posting. Very clear and compact, covers a lot of territory in a short period of time. I'd be inclined, like Edith, to watch it once through with a class and then go back through slowly and ask for illustrations, clarifying questions, objections. I'd also want to cycle back to some of the basic moves suggested and have them practice.

  If you want to play with the "alien in his first year on earth" angle, you might want to have your students look at Craig Raine, and/or have them read about the Nacirema.

  http://www.bu.edu/agni/poetry/print/2002/56-raine.html

  http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~thompsoc/Body.html

  - Bruce

  .-= Bruce Schauble´s last blog ..Red Cliff =-.

• At December 29, 2009, Clay Burell wrote:

  Bruce, thanks for the two excellent links. I'd seen them both before, but the Nacirema piece took on a lot more value for me in this reading.

  Nice to see you, by the way, and hope you're well. How's Chris? And how does the school feel about its famous alumnus?

• At December 30, 2009, Christopher D. Sessums wrote:

  Clay,

  Thank you for sharing this. I am putting together my intro to ed tech class as we speak and this vid will feature prominently.

  As I watched it, I began thinking about how I will get students to think critically about the contents. I could "threaten" them with a quiz. But that's no way to get them to synthesize the info. Instead I'm thinking of asking them to create a lesson that involves the principles shared. (This is a teacher ed course.) I will also ask them to determine how we will evaluate lessons. (~My students hate me!)

  .-= Christopher D. Sessums´s last blog ..GARAGE SALE: an art show in disguise (via davidhorvitz &... =-.

• At December 30, 2009, Clay Burell wrote:

  And their lessons would be excellent things to share. If ever you do, please update here with a link.

  Best of the New Year for you, Chris. "Always Forward, hoo-ah!"

  (Right.)

• At December 30, 2009, Clay Burell wrote:

  Thanks for spreading it and a good new year to you, Stephen.

• At December 30, 2009, (How) Would You Use This Critical Thinking Video? at Beyond School « LTSG wrote:

  [...] (How) Would You Use This Critical Thinking Video? at Beyond School By mgvh@ltsg (How) Would You Use This Critical Thinking Video? at Beyond School [...]

• At January 1, 2010, Harold Jarche » Choose with care in 2010 wrote:

  [...] Would you use this critical thinking video? - I’d suggest there is an inability of many teachers to reject the bias of their culture and [...]

• At January 23, 2010, Anne Bartlett-Bragg wrote:

  Nice one Clay!

  I'd like to follow the video directly with an activity that got people challenging their assumptions - particularly around the use of technology and learning... Then we could use the video to provide a framework, check back in at some of the critical points to review how those assumptions have been arrived at..

  Rather like Edith and Bruce are suggesting - however, I'm also thinking that less experienced learners may find aspects of this challenging... perhaps some warm up introductory activties on meta-cognition first?

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Oh, the French wit. Just the right sauce for my Freedom Fries:

Asked to sum up Bush’s record on the [climate change] issue, France’s climate ambassador Brice Lalonde chose instead to pass on a story he had heard.

A man comes to the White House asking to see Bush. “He doesn’t live here anymore,” he is told. The next two days he comes again asking the same question, and receiving the same answer.

On the fourth day, the exasperated guard shot back: “I’ve already told you, he’s no longer here.”

“I know, I know,” the man replied. “But it’s such a pleasure to hear you say it.” (source)

It really is a pleasure.

It’s also a pleasure to hear the (at long last) outgoing Texan-in-Chief tell us that there’s “proof of evolution” that Biblical literalism can’t reasonably refute. If you missed that, here’s a little video I cooked up to applaud the occasion:

Help the Texas Freedom Network in their work to defend science in schools.

In case you missed the post on Smart Mobbing against creationism in U.S. science textbooks – my, how I’d love to see high school students jump on this idea – the post is here.

7 Comments

• At December 15, 2008, spgreenlaw wrote:

  I think it will be interesting to see what Bush does out of office. I wouldn't be surprised if he, in an attempt to salvage his place/landfill in history, will continue to shed the conservative silliness that got him elected, like he is doing here. Who knows, perhaps will see him touring the Middle East with Jimmy Carter... Sky daddy help us.

  Any real American ™ knows they are freedom fries. No wonder you're an ex-pat!

  spgreenlaws last blog post..A Frost poem would be cliché, wouldn’t it?

• At December 15, 2008, Clay Burell wrote:

  It speaks of the great "say anything and appeal to the worst in anyone" cynicism of political campaigning. The damage done to science over the last eight years is to weep for.

  Let me edit that Patriot fries bit. I knew I was missing something. Not a very strong student of Teh Stupid.

• At December 15, 2008, spgreenlaw wrote:

  There's no end to what you can achieve in politics if you appeal to the lowest common denominator, that's for sure.

  At least it looks like Bush has backed off of tampering with the EPA anymore before he leaves office. Our negligence when it comes to the environment will already claim a significant body count.

  spgreenlaws last blog post..A Frost poem would be cliché, wouldn’t it?

• At December 16, 2008, oreneta wrote:

  Clay, a great post and thanks for the mini book review, it sounds fascinating....love hearing about new books and authors. So ready for that man to L.E.A.V.E.

  In with the new. and a little hope.

  p.s. I couldn't watch the video, it said it had been removed. Then again, I am not sure I had the strength of will to watch him one more time.

  orenetas last blog post..Misc.

• At December 16, 2008, Clay Burell wrote:

  Oops. Hi Oreneta, I removed the video and replaced it with an improved version. It's working on the page, probably not in the feed.

  Out with Teh Stupid, in with anybody with an IQ higher than his/her shoe size.

• At December 17, 2008, Vince wrote:

  Thanks Clay, it is refreshing indeed.

  "Rarely is the question asked, is our children learning?" -W.

  Somebody wing another wingtip at that guy.

  Vinces last blog post..HO, HO, HO! Merry Christmas!

• At December 18, 2008, Irony 2 | Ms aposiOpesis wrote:

  [...] Beyond School [...]

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Picture this: enterprising students in cities in Texas, particularly, and other cities nationwide – along with counterparts in Romania, which just mandated a Creationism-only science curriculum (I kid you not), and maybe Turkey, for good measure – organize Smart Mobs to strike, peacefully and simultaneously, out of the blue to demand only 21st century science – yes, I mean evolution – be included in their biology and other science textbooks.

And they do it quickly, before Texas’ Creationist-dominated Board of Education votes next Spring to insert Creationism yet again into its science standards. (See this post.)

They happen at such places as the Texas capitol building, the lobbies of textbook publishers’ headquarters, science museums, the national capitol, and wherever else seems like a good idea.

And they simply follow the steps of this excellent video (h/t to the Personal Democracy Forum):

And, because they’re good, peaceful citizens showing the will and responsibility to act for the education they deserve, the students who organize these events (more than once, please) include this as a bullet on their college application, to show that they’re more original and more consequential than the herd that joins the schooly National Honor Society and such. And the admissions officers at the best colleges see that bullet, and place their applications in the acceptance pile.

And they live actively and powerfully ever after.

If Obama’s doing it, kids, maybe it’s something you should consider as worth your time to learn. It might just help your future more than a couple hundred extra points on your SAT.

(Add to TheIndyDebate map)

7 Comments

• At December 8, 2008, Sean Nash wrote:

  Wow. Every human in Romania needs to read Dubner & Levitt's Freakonomics. This seems like a massively-ignorant move approaching the level of Ceausescu's reform of abortion laws.

  The book makes a really solid case for the fact that his total and complete ban on all forms of abortion ultimately led to the creation of a generation of kids with terribly substandard human care. ...the very same generation that publicly executed him.

  Anyway- cool video and appropriate post.

  Sean

  Sean Nashs last blog post..Inspire First, Instruct Later

• At December 9, 2008, Clay Burell wrote:

  Interesting point, Sean. Funny how these "do something" posts seem to go nowhere. But who knows.

• At December 10, 2008, Secular Extremism: Smart Mob for Evolution Education « relationary wrote:

  [...] – Clay Burrell, how to smart mob against creationism in textbooks [...]

• At December 11, 2008, A Blog Around The Clock : How to organize a Smart Mob wrote:

  [...] instance, to protest Creationist bills in state and local [...]

• At December 12, 2008, Imbecilitatea anului 2008 | Sorin Tudor wrote:

  [...] Precizari: 1. Nu sunt interesat in niciun fel de disputele creationism vs. evolutionism. Tot ce vreau sa spun este ca elevilor ar trebui sa li se permita sa opteze - in cunostinta de cauza! - daca vor sa se situeze intr-o tabara sau in alta; 2. Cand altii ne iau la misto pe nedrept, se umfla mamaliga in noi (ex: aici si aici). Dar ce facem cand ne iau la misto pe buna dreptate (vezi aici si aici)? [...]

• At December 15, 2008, Bush Accepts Evolution, not a “Literalist” (video) | Beyond School wrote:

  [...] In case you missed the post on Smart Mobbing against creationism in U.S. science textbooks - my, how I’d love to see high school students jump on this idea - the post is here. [...]

• At December 20, 2008, Reply to Gary Stager’s HuffPo Post on Duncan | Beyond School wrote:

  [...] I’ve been thinking the same thing since I began watching the Texas Board of Edu-Creationism try to jimmy Genesis into science classes and, worse yet, textbooks nationwide (Texas standards wag the national textbook industry dog: if Texas votes to deny Darwin, all the science textbooks will aim to please. I still pray somebody stateside takes on the Smart Mobs idea to protest this putsch). [...]

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Found linked in a recent WaPo article, “Should Teachers Ignore Poverty’s Impact?”

Just a bit of fun, because I hope this isn’t the serious viewpoint of the “accountability” fetishists out there. Enjoy a few laughs watching the Nice White Lady’s Burden:

10 Comments

• At December 4, 2008, Morgante Pell wrote:

  L.O.L.

• At December 6, 2008, Daniel Kim wrote:

  this is like a comedic version of the movie "Freedom Writers"!

• At December 6, 2008, Ross Martin wrote:

  How funny, yet how true to life that is. As a teacher I've met too many white middle class people who think they can change the world, as if it's some kind of mission, to save the 'others'. At my last school most of the trainee teachers couldn't handle the kids names.. too 'ethnic' for them.

  Thanks for sharing the vid, I will have a wry smile on my face all day. And try to rpetend I'm not another white middle class teacher on a mission!

  Ross Martins last blog post..Camp Pictures (and not a feather boa in sight)

• At December 9, 2008, Clay Burell wrote:

  Ross, I feel so discriminated against. I'm a Nice White Man, after all.

  Maybe I should sit down and write about it.

• At December 9, 2008, Clay Burell wrote:

  Satire's good stuff, Daniel. (Nice to see you, btw.)

• At December 9, 2008, Clay Burell wrote:

  The sharpening the gun-barrels was classic, and so was the "gun?...pen?" bit.

• At December 9, 2008, Morgante Pell wrote:

  Yes, definitely satire at its best.

• At December 9, 2008, Don Berg wrote:

  I recently decided to make it a point to watch school movies. So far I have watched Freedom Writers, Stand and Deliver, Blackboard Jungle and To Sir, With Love.

  All new teachers.

  All inner city schools

  Teachers race: two white, one latino, one black

  Teacher Gender: Three male, one female

  Teacher Class: One upper class, two middle class, one lower.

  Students: all inner city "hoodlums" in dire poverty and live with violence

  Cities: New York, London, Los Angeles

  Two are based on true stories, both true stories are from L.A. in the 80's and 90's.

  The two fictional ones are from the 50's and 60's. the true stories were the lower class male latino math teacher and the upper class white female English teacher (the nice white lady.)

  I enjoyed the satire, nonetheless.

  Don Bergs last blog post..Illusion Series: Illusions About Our Global Society

• At January 20, 2009, Ali J wrote:

  Yes, I feel discriminated against... evidently as a white middle class female I'm not worthy of being taken seriously, despite my qualifications and experience! I don't want to change the world, I just don't want my opportunities to be hindered by the way I look. Discrimination is a two way thing... it's a shame it is always so one-sided!

• At January 26, 2009, bschulman's Bookmarks on Delicious wrote:

  [...] “Nice White Lady” (video): The Answer for Failing Schools? SAVE [...]

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