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LIKE A TEACHER

Teachers are Fast Companies

4/10/2015

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Teaching science isn’t just a science. It’s an art.

Everybody knows that science and science education are hot these days. The Oscars (and tons of ticket buying audience members) loved this year's nerdpics The Theory of Everything and The Imitation Game. Whether it’s on TV (with PBS's Neil deGrasse Tyson or AMC's Breaking Bad) or on YouTube (with Bozeman Science or AsapSCIENCE), science is dope. Science sells-- and the audience is growing.

Like with a startup in any market, whether it be a taco truck or a new app, being hot can turn into success fast- especially in schools. Teachers who know how to gather, focus, and replicate this kind of interest can build a program that can last for years. It's entrepreneurship at its most fundamental.

This is no small feat in a culture always looking to save money by cutting programming in schools. I often read how difficult it is to launch a winning company. 

Try launching a winning (and challenging) program in a school. Especially in the field of science.
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BEING HOT CAN TURN INTO SUCCESS FAST IN SCHOOLS

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TRY LAUNCHING A WINNING PROGRAM IN A SCHOOL

“Well, we started the year with some kids assuming leadership positions. But they didn’t stay in them,” Steve Peroni tells me. “The students who worked the hardest took over. Which is how it should be. I named a new captain for the national competition the day after we won regionals.”

Peroni, along with Sara LeMar, coaches North Shore High School’s Robotics Team, located on the coast of Long Island, NY. A couple of weeks ago, their team, RoboGym, won the county regional title. It's a first-time championship for a team in only its fourth year in operation.

“A lot of kids want to be involved in Robotics, especially now that the team is having some success. I tell them that nothing matters more than being here and doing the work,” says Peroni, sounding a lot like anybody running a hot new startup. 
Peroni and LeMar have one of the toughest jobs in a high school: teaching Physics. Physics isn’t hard to teach because the work is empirically more difficult: it’s harder because it flies against a cultural tide of habits. We want things fast and we want it simple—physics is rarely these things. Physics requires time and repetition to comprehend and employ fundamentals, similar to learning to play the piano or to be a great swimmer. It's not for those who dabble.
Make no mistake: students hunger for these sorts of challenges. It’s just that our culture typically swings toward behavior with a faster payoff. 

So, when science gets hot, teachers like Peroni and LeMar jump to capitalize- this time with an after school program. These teachers’ battle lines are the same as those held by any who run a company. It takes leadership, hard work, a propensity for risk, and the desire for big payoff. You have to know your market, develop your team, leverage resources, and struggle through challenges. Running a business is a science, sure. But, like teaching, it's also an art.

If student interest were measured in investment dollars, RoboGym would be a venture capitalist's dream. Watching Peroni, LeMar, and their team, first place medals around their necks, swaggering down the hallway, you don’t just see a program led by kickass teachers.

You see a company led by kickass entrepreneurs. 


images from 
Focus Features, The Theory of Everything


http://www.murraymitchell.com/2013/01/breaking-bad-split-face-poster/



http://www.northshoreschools.org/15April/hs-robotics-win/index.html



Peroni, LaMar, and RoboGym

IF STUDENT INTEREST WERE MEASURED in INVESTMENT DOLLARS, ROBOGYM WOULD BE 
A VENTURE CAPITALIST'S DREAM

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surf school

3/3/2015

2 Comments

 
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it’s impossible to be cool and complain about how much something weighs.

Surf school starts in the sand.

To be clear:  it starts when you hump your 35lb board over half a sandy mile from the surf shop to the surf line.  I’m not saying that the board was heavy—it’s impossible to be cool and complain about how much something weighs and, let’s be honest: I’m determined to sound very cool while I describe my first time surfing—but I am saying that the sand was hot.

Crazy hot. Cook an egg hot. Motorcycle muffler hot. Erase all creases in your feet and leave your footprints untraceable by the FBI hot.

“I pray thee, good Mercutio the day is hot” hot. 

So, yes: surf school starts in the sand. And, after schlepping my board across the blazing beach in Salyulita, a Mexican town north of Puerto Vallarta, I am ready to be in the water.  But first: a tutorial-- in the cool sand, thankfully under the shade of a gathering of palms in the midafternoon sun.

“Put your whole body on the board—just lay down and let your feet hang off the back,” Gary from France tells us. “Feel the board with your body.” He’s the fit, charming instructor who gets immediately down to business, his accent both softening his direct orders while also completely melting girls in our group and, Jesus, me, too. “You’re too far forward,” chirps Dana, our other instructor, a super fox from the Czech Republic who calls a spade a spade. With their deeply bronze tans, white flashing smiles, and ripped physiques, our instructors had us mesmerized. We hung onto every word (why are surfers such hotties? Because they work their bods, I learn later, my whole sore body barking angrily at me during margarita medication time at dinner).

In the dappled shade, we stretch, boards beneath us, practicing our strokes. We are told to pop up on both feet and to be aware of how being too far back on the board will apply the brakes while being too far forward will bury the nose. We get safety tips: Dana tells us to keep the board between us and the beach. Gary warns us to keep the tether from our ankle to the board clear of our other foot. “You don’t want to be under a wave with your legs tied together.” Sounds like good advice.

And, in about 7 minutes, our instruction on land is over.

“Let’s go,” says Dana, not waiting to see if we follow. She and Gary zip up their form fitting wet suits and lead us straight out into the surf—and, the newbs that we are, simply walk behind them. And, within 15 minutes, everyone has gotten up and surfed at least one wave. The whole lesson took fewer than 25 minutes. Announcement: I am a surfer now. A surfer who surfs.

And that’s what I call good game.

These surfing instructors put on a teaching clinic that morning. It was goal oriented, student centered, and teacher led. It had authentic assessment, practical applications, and demanded performance from every pupil.

They didn’t overdo the help because they didn’t offer much. Or, at least, not much help that impeded our own process. Sarah and Molly, for instance, just wanted to do it their own way. Chris had some questions about fine points. Scott wanted to jump straight to pulling off 360s.  The point is: the teachers weren’t interested in doing anything other than help each of us in the way we needed to be helped.

“Let’s go,” says Dana, not waiting to see if we follow. She and Gary zip up their form fitting wet suits and lead us straight out into the surf.


Picture


They didn't see us as students. They saw us as surfers.

Gary and Dana anticipated our questions but left room for our own discovery. They promised us nothing but believed in our reasonable ability to do anything we tried.  They seemed utterly unattached to our respective failures but were the first to yell “you look beautiful up there!” or “lean into it, you’re killing it!” 

Our surf instructors were great teachers for the most important reason: they didn’t see us as students.  

They saw us as surfers.

And we, seeing ourselves reflected in the eyes of our beautiful teachers, believed them.
2 Comments

    just a Fact:

    Teachers are injecting value into every corner of our society.

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    Mike kleba

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    RYAN O'HARA
    is the chair of the English Department at a school district on Long Island and was a high school teacher for more than a decade. He lives with his wife and three daughters in Old Beth Page, NY.

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Photos used under Creative Commons from James St. John, mayrpamintuan, quinn.anya, Kevin Doncaster