Steve Bergen Blog

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currently CIO at The Children's Storefront (2007- ) ... Web site is www.thechildrensstorefront.org and our shortcut is www.cstorefront.org ... An Independent Tuition Free preK-8 School in Harlem ... latest project is called Tech Saturdays in Harlem

formerly CIO at The Chapin School (2002-2007) and formerly a struggling Red Sox fan and struggling Celtics fan ... no longer struggling since Red Sox/Yankees game 7 on 10/20/2004 and Celtics/Lakers game 6 on 6/17/08 ;-)

Original Music that might put a smile on your face ;-)

       

The Chinese character on the left stands for crisis. The one on the right stands for opportunity. An interesting observation from a friend is that crisis and opportunity have the same base. It all depends on what you do with the situation. From crisis comes opportunity. We in the educational computing world see this theme all the time: hard drive crashes, file is corrupt, disk is bad and even the entire Y2K situation. Each crisis represents a wonderful opportunity to learn and address a bigger problem. That is why some of us love when Plan A does not work, since the challenge of finding a Plan B solution is an opportunity to make good come from bad. As Henry David Thoreau once wrote "Things do not change; people change." As CIO of The Chapin School from 2002-2007, I used to walk daily by the sign that reminds me to not be afraid of change! Steve Bergen (this Web page revised 3/1/09)

Background

From 1975-80, I was the head of the math dept at Wooster School in Danbury, Connecticut and continued teaching occasional computer courses. The wonderful faculty caricature drawing on the left (click on it to magnify) was done by Renee Williams (Wooster 81); it was recently sent via snail-mail to us by John "==>" Cheeseman who had Lynne Schalman come back to Wooster School to conduct a one day computer workshop. It was around 1978 (when Renee was in grade 9 and drew this picture) when we upgraded our 8K Wang Computer (which cost $7000) to 12K of RAM and a tape cassette drive, that another colleague, Jack Lee first got me involved in data file programming. I was hooked! In 1979, the very summer that Larry Bird left French Lick to come to Boston, another Larry - Lawrence Davis - and I spent over 200 hours writing a scheduling program. We were incredibly proud of that BASIC program that built the conflict matrix and ran overnight, scheduling 280 students into a variety of singleton, doubleton and tripleton courses. We had under 10 conflicts that first summer using our MAXCLUST algorithms, far fewer than previous hand-built schedules.

In late 1980, I left teaching to join The Williamson Group in Cambridge as a programmer and consultant. I still recall my frustration and amazement helping to train staff people on word-processing, this new Data 3500 software that allowed words to wrap around the screen! Our first customers were Dana Hall School, Miss Porter's School, Emma Willard and Governor Dummer, where Ben Snyder worked in the Development Office. Our big break came with NAIS, the National Association of Independent Schools, where I produced several statistical analysis software programs, again in BASIC.

In June of 1982, I was one of two teachers selected to teach a computer course for 35 Independent School Teachers in Massachusetts, co-sponsored by ISAM, Wang, Concord Academy and the Dodge Foundation. After the course, I went on vacation and read the book MINDSTORMS by Seymour Papert. I knew it was time to get involved. I gave my boss, Jim Williamson, 3 months notice and started The Teaching Company that fall, sending out 1000 flyers on an Apple IIe computer with Magic Window word processing. It was my brother-in-law (Donald Fischer, now Senior Vice President at Crum & Forster) who thougt up the name The Teaching Company when we were on vacation July 2002.

Digging back, I have found the leading paragraph that we used in advertising our computer programming courses from 1982:

"In order to promote a broad, humanistic view of computer education, we believe that teachers of all disciplines shoudl acquire basic skills of programming. To the extent that programming remains the exclusive domain of math/science teachers, we may be limiting the next generation to a narrow, technical view of computers. Fundamentally, we believe that these programming skills are accessible to everyone - scientists and poets alike."

LEFT SIDE: TC begins in Summer 82 | RIGHT SIDE: First Dot-Matrix Flyer 8/1/82

(click each graphic to see the full sized PDF)

From 1984-1994, I was a part-time math teacher, computer teacher and eventually computer coordinator at Concord Academy. In 1985, Lynne Schalman and I started doing Summercore at Concord Academy a 5 day workshop for teachers and administrators, a great suggestion inspired by Jonathan Choate at Groton School.

In 1994, I came to Nobles to work for Dick Baker and finally gave up my long-held belief that wearing dungarees and not wearing a tie to work was an important life consideration. Interestingly enough, I have still saved Dick's course evaluation from that first Teaching Company course in 1982; his writing on that evaluation was much better than his programming skills in the course!

Interests, Activities & Plans

In the summers, Lynne Schalman and I conduct teacher-training workshops both at Nobles and on the road. We started the Original Teaching Company in 1982 and conducted our first Summercore in 1985. Interesting enough, we used to conduct Summercore in June, but pushed the workshops into July to avoid conflicts with NBA Boston Celtic championship games that we experienced in 85, 86 and 87. What are the chances that we will have conflicts again!

Other Interesting Things

As computers have grown up in my life over the past 15 years, I find myself with less and less time. I now love walking and a-reading books. In case you are not familiar with the word, a-read means "audio-read" in the same way that "e-mail" means electronic mail. I got my start by a-reading Winds of War and War and Remembrance, even during the Boston Marathon of 1995. Inspired by Matt Horvat, I walked the 26 miles leaving Hopkinton at 7AM and arriving at the John Hancock at 4PM.

Since then, I have a-read several other books including Exodus, Pleading Guilty, Hocus Pocus and Hamlet. While a-reading may not count as reading, it is definitely a hobby that I enjoy!

No longer do I practice the guitar, do any gardening or play chess. Instead, the intrigue of Hypercard Programming, HTML Programming and learning Photoshop and Videoshop has taken over! The only activity that so far has not diminished has been watching the Boston Celtics!

Lynne Schalman and I have written The Summercore Primer that we use in our workshops with teachers. Updating this massive resource book has been a major activity over the last ten years, although filling it with Boston Celtic signatures, metaphors and allusions makes the job less stressful. Our plans for 1998 include revising the Summercore Primer, titling it the French Lick edition!

Our two children, Sarah and Sam, were both born in interesting Boston Celtic years, 1979 and 1984 respectively. In fact, our obsession with the Boston Celtics is probably related to the lack of time we have had in lives due to computers and children. At times, we joke that our lives are a medley of c's -- children, computers and celtics. Some of the most amazing family moments of the last 10 years have involved our kids and the Boston Celtics.

Ever since my back surgery in 1992, I have become a regular swimmer, very proud of the fact that I can swim a mile in about an hour, which is a real joke compared to any real swimmer. Nevertheless, swimming several hours per week has become a regular habit and important recreational/therapeutic activity. I even convinced my neuro-surgeon, Marx Bowens, that it was hypocritical of him to advocate swimming and avoid it himself. So now he swims as well!

On Saturday, June28th, we left Seven Hills School in Cincinnati, our second Summercore of 1997; the week had gone exceedingly well, with 24 wonderful teachers making mega-progress with computer skills and conducting a superb end of week Summecore Carnival! In addition to giving us great food tips (Montgomery Inn, Graeter's Ice Cream) during the week, we found out that one of the participants (Jan) had a daughter who knew Larry Bird well. We were psyched for our one day of summer vacation planned at the French Lick Springs Resort!

The three of us -- Sam, Lynne and me -- drove 3 hours to French Lick, Indiana. Not only did we cross a time zone (French Lick is one hour difference from Cincinnati), but we crossed a metaphorical one as well. The town appears out of the 1930s with the highlight being the 5 and 10 cent store. About a mile from town, we found Bird's original house where he grew up and shot hoops. Once his house was sold, someone came by and swiped the rim. We met numerous people in the town whose children had gone to school with Larry and had wonderful stories to share. One of them involved the way that kids at the high school who can't afford sneakers seem to magically finding them appear, without any mention of who has been buying them!

Right in the town is the basketball court where Larry practiced and the street sign named after him. Off to the right, you can see one of the garbage trucks that Larry might have driven after leaving Indiana in the beginning of his freshman year. Finally, we drove to his new house, where he has a full sized court complete with the Celtics logo. In one of his books, he mentions how he leaves a ball on the court for visitors who are driving by. Clearly, things have changed over the last ten years, since now this is a large fence with a clear NO TRESPASSING sign.

The brick split-level house is on a large estate and clearly stands out by French Lick standards. Larry chose to build this house in West Baden on his grandfather's land. This is somewhat of a town controversy, since French Lick folks felt like he was leaving his home town!
We spent less than 24 hours in French Lick, but it was well worth it. As it turns out, the town has a national reputation for its sulfur springs. The French Lick Springs Resort hosts hundreds of people and employs 20% of the town. We might have been the only three that day who were less interested in spas, golf courses and tennis courts than in seeing the old haunts of LB!

A few months after visiting French Lick, I received in the mail on 12/1/97 a package from Tom Northrup (Hill School Headmaster, Middleburg VA, Summercore participant from 89, fellow sciatica sufferer, great person). I knew that Tom had played college ball for a coach who now assisted Larry Bird for the Indiana Pacers. Never in my wildest dreams, however, did I imagine I would see this special autographed picture that Tom sent me!

Update 1999 ... I took 3 months off to have a mini-sabbatical for the first time in my life. One of the things I accomplished involved sewing and creating a Mr. Bill doll for my daughter Sarah in England since our dog Dunkin had chewed and destroyed the old Mr. Bill ... click here

All his baskets are packed he's ready to go he's standin' there on Marrett Road
... we know in time we'll have to say goodbye ...

to the DESK year yet it won't be beat we sure will miss you on Computer Street
but wish you the best at Chapin down in NYC

So KIS and smile for us Promise that you'll e-mail us Make it like you've never
ever left ...

Cause you're leavin' on the acela train Gone Monday then Friday back again Oh,
Steve -- we hate to see you go ...

Will he leave his car behind for Sam? Will he take his new watch cam? what will
we do without our favorite man? We sure will miss Number 33 What cognac moments
will there be? if the fish should die we'll name the next one Steve

So KIS and smile for us Promise that you'll visit us Don't kill Dunkin no matter
what you do ...

Cause you're leaving on the acela train Gone Monday then Friday back again Oh
Steve, we hate to see you go ...

His black jeans and sneakers you know we'll miss his crazy ties his songs and
math tricks Who will keeup us laughiiiing all day loooong? The Larry Bird doll
and Hulk Hogan too his green backpacks and "leaving a shoe" Already it's so
normal here we feel bluuuuuue ...

So KIS and smile for us Promise you'll remember us Tell those folks at Chapin
about the DAC, Ichiro and KeY

Cause you're leaving on the acela train Gone Monday then Friday back again Oh
Steve, we hate to see you go ...

Summercore Blogs 02-06

• #1 ... Jan 1, 2003
• #2 ... Feb 2, 2003
• #3 ... Apr 1, 2003
• #4 ... May 24, 2004
• #5 ... Jan 1, 2006
• My Chicago Blog ... 3/15/09

My trip to Curacao (Jan 2007)

• click

The Other Side of Loneliness

• Ned O'Gorman (born 1929) wrote this book and published it in 2006
• Because he was the founder of The Children's Storefront School, I wanted to get a sense of his history and his culture before I began my new job on 8/20/07
• page 1 ... an oil truck rolls over him at age 2.5
• page 8 ... Ned's father tells his mother their marriage is over at age 30
• page 10 ... Ned says his father "never stopped long enough to notice the color of his [Ned's] eyes" ... "a child who cannot read his parent's mind is at the mercy of all his nightmares" ... horrible father/son relationship
• page 13, Ned writes about the sexual predator George "I remember nothing but his lurching, constant weightless presence. I do not remember his face, his height, his voice (did he ever speak?) ... he had has task to do and he had to do it in silence.
• page 15 ... A man who "desires boys counts with cruel knowledge his power over the silence of the possessed. I knew nothing of the flesh. I was seven years old."
• page 16 ... rages ... fascinating in terms of what happened at Storefront in the 80s and 90s ... "I flew into rages, drove my fist through windowpanes, and sulked"
• page 16 ... on talking on his father, perhaps "he hoped my stutter would vanish, like a boil popped witha pin"
• page 19 ... o'gorman recalls the "slum of Southport, rows of dingy houses inhabited by children who were not allowed to know" and then moves to retelling how several kids tried to hang him (saved by his father)
• page 28 ... Ned's father was Irsh ("hence without mercy") and would "crumpled him in his arms" and thought that "I was mad" ... Ned's mother was French descent .. they moved in Spring 42 (Ned age 13) to Vermont for a year

Students from my past

• "Jen Quest-Stern" on Saturday, December 2, 2006 at 7:12 PM wrote: Mr Bergen???? Hi, Do you remember me - I took geometry with you at Concord Academy in 1987 or so. Now, I am a therapist and see students at CA and I live and work as a dorm parent at the Cambridge School of Weston with my husband and son. I often think of geometry class and remember how my classmate Wylie and I would yell: HOLD ON! when we didn't undertand something - you would then grab on to the chalk board and wait for us to tell you we were ok and ready to ask our questions. I also remember some finger-counting addition thing called: "chism-bop" or something. This is why I am e-mailing you. I was trying to explain to some friends that I had a geometry teacher who did some fancy finger dance in order to add any large number quickly - what WERE you doing!!! What a cool thing to be able to find you through google! I hope you are well and hope to hear that you are still teaching geometry. Respectfully, Jen

  hi Jen ... now it is YOUR turn to hold on yet again ;-) yes, of course I remember you and Wylie yes, I remember the "hold on" joke and still use it here in NYC where I teach ... no, you can't call you Mr. Bergen anymore or else you need to require me to call you Dr. Quest-Stern ;-)

  here is the scoop ... in the 1970s or 1980s, I had heard of this technqiue used in Korea which students do math by using their fingers ... parallel to this, I have always been fascinated by mental math tricks and even have a site I created which gets occasional hits based on your e-mail, Jen, I did some searching on the Web and found it! www.cs.iupui.edu/~aharris/chis/chis.html but I have NO skills with this and never did ("true confessions of a 55 year old") and so I used to combine the two things in my own "hick from French Lick" style telling students that I could multiply 11 x 35 by using my fingers or I could do 65 by 65 with my fingers believe it or not, I STILL do the same thing on occasion with students ... I never know if they believe me or not I also tell them that I can break a dollar in half with a pencil by thinking of "how to factor a 2 digit number" it is fascinating that a) you still remember that story b) you have thought about it many times c) you actually believed that I could do the math by using my fingers d) you are in your 30s be well, Dr. Quest-Stern ... and maybe we will cross paths one of these days

  "Jen Quest-Stern" on Sunday, December 3, 2006 at 7:27 AM wrote: Hi Steve, you can use any of my comments for your blog - as long as you tell me about your chism-bop story! -Jen

• picture of Andrew Gardner and Tom Brady ... click here
• and same picture with a young friend of mine from Chicago ... click

Blogs of friends and Blogs of Interest

• Susan Fine ... click here ... or click susanefine.com/
• Phil McFarland ... click heres
• Bruno Navasky ... click here for www.coolerbandits.com
• Ann Hamel ... click here regarding the POWERBAR quote from Vote for a Quote

click on above picture to go to www.techsaturdays.org where you can watch the actual video

Fall 2007

• Harlemball ... click here
• Tech Saturdays ... click here
• Losing a bet on Halloween to Victor at The Children's Storefront ... click here
• Our Tech Friends Web page at The Children's Storefront ... click here
• NYC Marathon on Nov 4th, 2007 ... click here for the Power of Two
• NYC Marathon on Nov 4th, 2007 ... click here for pictures of the marathon
• Leaving Massachusetts ... click here
• Our final day in Massachusetts ... click here
• Ben's Age 1 birthday party ... Dec 2007 ... click here
• Celebrating Larry Bird's birthday at The Children's Storefront ... click here
• And our "street party" for Les and Larry at 6:33am in the morning ... click here
• Click here for a picture of the "clean and pristine" Larry Bird doll donated by Sid Rowell which stays with Colleen Powers at the Boston Home
• Click here for my Storefront PI Web page which includes the parody song of PI (snoop dog) by a young man from Harrisburg PA
• Click here for www.techsaturdays.org
• Web page on TI84 click here
• Web page on 6 trig functions ... click here

• New Mugs ... click here or here for the new Summercore mugs (proof, png)
• Labeling catching on! Click here for a first grader who was helping me and chose -- completely ON HIS OWN -- to put the label on his hand!
• New dog in our family ... Brady
• July 2008 ... finally I started documenting my walking across over Manhattan bridges and working on Al Doyle's WASH YOUR BMW WITH A QTIP to see if I could come up with a sentence for ALL Manhattan bridges ... click here
• August 2008 ... I began a new Manhattan project that involves famous buildings ... click here
• Columbus Day, October 2008 ... I went to visit Rockland Country Day School and former Storefront colleague Victor Catano who displays the rat that I gave him proudly in his office ... 1 ... 2 ... guess who showed up? former Chapin colleague Gene Sullivan ... 3
• November 1, 2008 ... I went to hear Jim Bouton speak about Ball Four at Rockland Country Day School ... Jim remembered most of the details from that day in 1970 (I think it was June 1, 1970) when Richard Feuer drove over my house and said "Bouton is being reprimanded by Bowie Kuhn today. Do you want to drive into the city and picket? I have made these signs up." We then drove over to the dry cleaners to pick up Lynne Schalman but she was working and was not able to go. Richard and I drove down to NYC, met Leonard Schecter in the elevator and were in all the newspapers (Daily News, NY Post) the next day. Jim then wrote about the incident in his next book called I'm Glad You Didn't Take it Personally. Nowhere can I find online tne newspaper articles or Look magazine clipping from Summer of 1972 which included mention of Richard Feuer and me. There is nothing even on the Ball Four web site so I am going to have to find the Look magazine now in storage and scan it!

  Interesting enough, when I spoke with him, Jim remembered the summer of 1972 when Richard as sports editor of the Univeristy of Buffalo newspaper started a national campaign to end the Vietnam War by writing in "Jim Bouton" on the All Star ballot. Once Robert Lipsythe got wind of this and shared with Bouton, Jim ended up refusing to let his name be part of a program that had "Richard Nixon was a mass murderer" as one of its ten points.
  

  
• November 29, 2008 ... with Thanksgiving two days behind me, I have realized how much I have to be thankful for ... although I have not read the book by Howard Gardner called Good Work: When Excellence and Ethics Meet from 2001 (click here I have been thinking recently about the changes in my life over the last 18 months and how well it fits the 3 criteria of this book
  • work that gives you joy
  • work that is in sync with your ethical values
  • work in an area that you can try to excel
  There is no question that this job at Storefront and the collaboration with key NYC people on Tech Saturdays are keeping me incredibly energized at the age of 57 with 35 years gone by since I started teaching in September 1973. I feel blessed and lucky as I look back on the last 10 years. Leo C. Rosten (1908-1977) once said that "I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be honorable, to be compassionate. It is, after all, to matter: to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all." Although what I am doing is just a "drop in the ocean" I am incredibly thankful that after 30 years in wealthy independent schools, I have found a job that builds on what I have been doing but allows me to do something that is closer to the spirit of Gardner's "Good Work."
• December 17, 2008 ... back in the 1970s, I heard a professor from Hampshire College talk about the wonders of the number 17 ... I had forgotten his name and just this month found him on the Web at the Web site of http://www.yellowpigs.net which is by a computer programmer named Sara Smollett who took notes from a David Kelly lecture ... click here for a 3 page PDF ... click here for more info about David Kelly
• December 29, 2009 ... we still have a storage facility at ISELIN with unit 4056, 625 Rt 1 SOUTH ... Iselin NJ 732-750-3336 password is 4056# then Sarah's favorite number then year Sam turned 6 then * ... click here for the graphic with directions

Spring/Summer/Fall 2008

• January 3, 2009 ... I have posted two videos (made using iMovie) ... one on PI and one on Sigmoidoscopy ... I was thrilled to see my friend Susan Fine create her new Web site just a few days before Obama was inaugurated in DC
• March 1, 2009 ... I saw two former students -- Andrew Lamb (with his wife Caroline Twomey Lamb) and Adam Taub (with his girlfriend Shana Gotlieb) -- and updated them on the last few years ... Tech Saturdays at Storefront in Harlem ... my attempt to memorize The Elements by Tom Lehrer ... The Storefront Penny project ... my Jack Bauer 24 Song ... The Storefront PI Contest which includes the PI song and video ... I forgot to tell them about the pushpin/tack incident at Chapin back in May 2003 ... I was thrilled that Adam still remembered the No Copying Software song from Nobles 1994 and so appreciative that he told me about the Scheudenfraude You Tube song from Avenue Q which I have not located yet. Because Adam is a struggling Yankees fan, he was pleased to know that I was once a Yankees fan and went to Jim Bouton's event with Bowie Kuhn in 1972.
• Saturday 3/28/09 ... 40 years after seeing Hair in May 1969 when in high school, Lynne Schalman and I went to see it again ... we danced on the stage back back in 1969 and with a torn meniscus in my left knee, I went on stage after the show to do it again!
• Sunday 3/29/09 ... click ... fascinating to read about Kevin Sharer in the NY Times (CEO of Amgen) who posed these questions to his staff on the first day he took over:
  
  • what three things would you like to change?
  • what three things you'd like to make sure we keep?
  • what is that you would like him as CEO to do?
  • what is that you are afraid that he will as CEO do?
  Every year, he has the head of human resources conduct an evaluation of him by this team that they write up and present to the board.

  Q. Let?s talk about hiring. What do you look for?
  A. I value a sense of humor. I value intelligence. I value a track record. I value energy. 
  I value the ability to grow and learn. I value somebody who doesn?t violate what I call Rule 6.
  Q. Rule 6?
  A. Rule 6 is, you don't take yourself too seriously. Rule 5 is, refer to 6. And there is no Rule 1 through 4.
  I really, really have a hard time getting along with Rule 6 felons. 
  We're all human and so we're going to be misdemeanor violators once in a while.
  But I look for people who are not Rule 6 felons, because they just don?t work out.
  

• After the CBS video came out, several blogs and Web sites have picked up and included the penny project on their sites:
  • PROOF THE WORLD DOESN'T COMPLETELY SUCK (from sling.com) ... click... http://beta.sling.com/blog/3271/Sling-Shots:-Anna-Wintour,-Nerd-PEDs,-Obama-on-Abortion,-Billion-Penny-Project,-How-Much-Is-Trump-Worth%3F
  • LINK-ED ... click ... http://www.linkeducation.org/blog/506
  • Pennies Make Sense For Special School ... HEROISM click ... http://www.darynkagan.com/heroism/index.html
  • The Penny project was put onto You Tube ... click ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87cOGlf73oY

  May 30, 2009 ... In order to get a reduced price on some software ... click

  May 31, 2009 ... I came across wonderfully creative and original quilts by a friend and former colleague from Wooster School (Deb Keiner) ... click here for etsy or here for newbostonquilter

  June 1, 2009 ... I have been reading Initiation by Susan Fine and loving it ... click

  June 11, 2009 ... Storefront Step Up Day ... step up in white

  June 2009 ... Four Crocks ... click

  July 11, 2009 ... Finally I have gotten a handle on how to use Twitter educationally ... we just finished up our third Summercore of 2009 and have had two successful implementations of Twitter ... interesting enough, Steven Johnson who wrote this article (click here) is a BC parent ... by requiring each Summercore participant to have a twitter account and follow Summercore and send a tweet for each HW assignment completed, we have a twitter implementation that is really working educationally! I plan to use this with my 7th and 8th graders this fall. Getting the "tweets with commentary" when the participants complete the HW assignment creates a unique and wonderful sense of connectivity. I will be curious to see if I have the same feelings about this with students and after the novelty wears off.

  July 17, 2009 ... Finishing up the 4th of 5 Summercores, I went to pick up my laptop during the Friday carnival and found it had magically been altered. Click here or on the picture below to see a closeup. I falsely accused several of the Summercore participants who were wearing Yankee shirts to the carnival and only several hours later found out that it was Adam Kenner who had done what he called "an upgrade." I was so impressed by the fit and the quality of the work that I gave him my word I would not take it off until the next YEP which we Boston fans have every September or early October!
  

  For those of you not familiar with the annual ritual, the YEP tradition was started by sportscaster Eddie Andelman. By the way, YEP stands for Yankee Elimination Party. After someone from Summercore 2009 in Florida tried to tape the Red Sox bear, I can't wait for the Yankees to be eliminated this year of all years! http://www.yellowpigs.net/index.php?topic=yellowpigs/YP_seventeen

Blog Update 8/25/09: Obama lived

Blog Update 10/21/09: Dr. John Sarno and TMS (Tension myositis syndrome)

Blog Update 11/15/09: 40th High School Reunion

Blog Update 12/4/09: The RITE Strategy becomes STRIDE

Blog Update 12/24/09: 33 hours to Boston and back

Blog Update 1/2/10: A Calculus Problem ("Integration by Substitution") at Kiehl's

Blog Update 2/22/10

Blog Update 3/6/10 TEDxNYED Conference at Collegiate

Dan's tips and techniques (as you will hear on the video) include

1. Use multimedia
2. Encourage student intuition
3. Ask the shortest question you can
4. Let the students build the problem
5. Be less helpful

By the way, Dan's blog is at blog.mrmeyer.com; he received his Masters of Arts from the University of California at Davis in 2005. He currently works for Google as a curriculum fellow and lives with his wife in Santa Cruz CA.

Steve Bergen

Blog Update 3/21/10

Blog Update 6/27/10

Blog Update 7/3/10

1. Crossing Over ... Lippman the principal, age 32 states that the school's highest value is "ganas which means deisred, motivation, willpower, spirt, heart or true grit." DCP will be a place of ganas, he explains, "or it will fail." DCP started with 100 students in grade 9 and then expanded by 100 each year.
2. Fighting the Blob ... "From the morass of red tape, regulations, forms, work rules and mission statements, a huge monster arose. THE BLOB so named by former secretary of education William Bennett is the mass of bureaucracy that crushes creativity, chokes innovation and gobbles up education funds." I never knew that Albert Shankar from the AFT was the person who first proposed charter schools in 1988 or that the first charter school opened in Minnesota in 1992. I also learned through this chapter that Reed Hastings (Netflix) and Donald Fisher (The Gap) were important people in California's charter school movement. I learned that Don Shalvey San Carlos Superintendent was the one to launch Aspire Public Schools, a non-profit charter management organization that my friend Susan Fine had told me about. I also learned that Dayton Ohio is the most charter-intensive city in the USA with 26% of public school students attending charters.
3. A School of Our Own ... Lippman (Princeton graduate) and Andaluz met while teaching at Gunderson ... "many of their Gunderston colleagues did say they are [arrogant] ... most said they were crazy" ... Lippman went on to teach at Eastside Prep, a tuition-free private school in East Palo Alto (sounds like Storefront) started by Chris Bischof. And so Lippman age 30 and Andaluz age 27 decided to start a charter high school in 1999. "Lippman and Andaluz organized Summer Bridge. Lippman's parents donated the money for the program."Lippman and Andaluz were "inspired by Deborah Meier's work in East Harlem where she created a samll high school that sent 90% of its low-income minority students to college." DCP parents "are involved in all aspects of the school -- student discipline, academic support, teacher and student recruitment, and community advocacy."
4. Downtown College Purgatory
5. This is DCP!
6. Vamos, Cabealleros
7. Conflict and Resolution
8. Strike 67
9. Outside the Box
10. Life Dreams
11. On Trial
12. The Shortest Basketball Team in America
13. Last Chance at First Semester
14. The Zoot Suiters
15. Red Flag
16. The Efficiency Expert
17. Patience
18. Carrying the Torch
19. Principal's Day
20. The Knife
21. E n oEs Fabuloso
22. Class of '06
23. Awake
24. Altius, Fortius
25. Building for the Futre
26. Ride the Carrot Salad
27. Lessons Learned
28. The Charter Debate
29. Commencement

Blog Update: 7/9/10

Blog Update 7/28/10

Speaking of change, I was sent a link to the WHAT IF video by Karl Fisch who also authored DID YOU KNOW/Shift Happens ... Karl Fisch has been a teacher for eighteen years. He has taught middle and high school math and is currently Director of Technology at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado. He is the project leader of Arapahoe?s Curriculum Innovation Team, leading the staff development efforts for 21 st Century Learners, a group of teachers exploring constructivism and 21st century learning skills. Here is WHAT IF on YouTube.

Blog Update 8/13/10

Blog Update 8/25/10

     

Unique Tech Tips

• FONTCAPTURE.COM: One of my eighth graders on the Computer Dept Student Staff at Storefront (pictured here in front of Storefront in her own Photoshop creation) discovered the Web site of fontcapture.com and showed me how easy it is to
  • download the template that you then use your own handwriting to create your font
  • upload the file to them ... her sample is here
  • download the font file which then installs easily into your computer ... her sample is here
• I love dropbox as much as I love the Red Sox, the Pats and the Patriots ... click here for the special URL of http://tinyurl.com/lovedropbox ... tip for adding 250 meg? click here
• To set Safari as your default web browser, you should Open Safari and choose Safari THEN Preferences, and then click General. Now choose Safari from the Default Web Browser pop-up menu.
• when in Excel, you can force a carriage return by using ALT-ENTER on a PC or CTRL-OPTION-RETURN on a Mac ... see a collection of neat Excel tips by clicking here
• when USING iMOVIE HD v6, to alter the # seconds and ken burns effect for an imported graphic, first put the graphic into the show at bottom then highlight it then choose MEDIA then SHOW PHOTO SETTINGS
• quicktime pro TIP re ROTATE: choose SHOW MOVIE PROPERTIES under WINDOW then click on VIDEO TRACK and then VISUAL SETTINGS you will see FLIP/ROTATE
• Mac software to rip DVDs? Handbrake
• Mac software to record SKYPE sessions? Call Recorder
• Tip for altering a video when it goes onto YouTube (in case the sound does not appear) ... click for the specs from Berkeley Carroll on 7/10/09
• Tip for making cells ABSOLUTE wth $ sign attribute? use "Apple T" on a Mac or "use F4" on a PC.
• Tip for making a PDF smaller? click here ... the goal and challenge is to get "REDUCE FILE SIZE" under quartz filter
• Tip for making a ringtone for my Verizon phone? take the MP3 file, e.g. sampe.mp3 and re-type the extension so that it is sample.mid ... no send it as attached file using the vzwpix.com domain, e g. 7819539699@vzwpix.com
• Tips for dealing with the keychain blues? click here ... or if you go here you will read "it keeps popping up on near enough every web page....how can I turn this off completetly? ANSWER: You cannot turn it off. You can remove ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain and the pop-ups should go away. Or change your password on the keychain in Keychain Access.app." Another tip comes from here

  Run the Keychain Access app.
  Select the login keychain from the panel on the left side.
  Select the passwords category.
  Click on any of the saved passwords in the panel on the right side.
  Choose "Select All" from the Edit menu.
  Press the delete key.
  Quit the Keychain Access app.
  Thereafter, when you get a password dialog, DO NOT check off the little checkbox to remember the password.
  

  Or from this site:

  Reset Your Keychain
  After you restart your computer and login with your new password, you need to reset your password keychain. The best way around this is to delete the keychain.
  Don't worry, the OS will automatically make you a new one.
  From the Finder, click on the Go menu and select Home (Go > Home).
  A new Finder window will appear on the screen. 
  Open the Library folder and drag the Keychains folder to the trash.
  Log out and log back in. A new keychain will be created automatically.
  

  Video on making a new keychain? click here
  Video on what keychain is all about? click here
  Video on unlocking the keychain? click here
• Click here for Starbucks wireless info
• Click here or here for info about ZOOMIT which Intern Josh from SMEDS used to help magnify PC screen on the projector at Summercore 2010
• Click here for info about TURN CLIP which boosts iMovie with a utility to turn clips 90 degrees