There is so much mediocrity in the world, and mediocre things can, and are, popular. Why try harder?
Every author secretly thinks their books are uniquely special, but the vast majority of books don’t sell. I haven’t been blogging regularly for eight months, and I still get urgent emails from authors, wondering why their sales are slumping. They ask if it’s their covers, or if the market is crashing, or if they aren’t doing the right kind of marketing.
But none of them ever ask if they self-pubbed too soon, before the book was Grade A. Writers are a pretty insecure bunch, but I’ve never met one who blames their sales on their bad writing.
I gotta say, it’s seductive to think I could self-pub these three books instantly, make some money, not worry about the anticipated three star average (I encourage writers to not look at their reviews, and I usually don’t), and immediately move on to something I know will sell better.
But I won’t do that. I’ll put in the time and make these books better. Money is nice. Having more time is nice. However, the nicest thing of all is having pride in my work.
However, in today’s environment the additional challenge has become: How will I meet people or build relationships from home? Source: Five Strategies Building Relationships Remotely | LinkedIn The article is written for the business world, but it still has some use for teachers and students. Working remotely is not going away, and those that can…
Walking into her office in early December in her tiny very very “high poverty” rural elementary school, sinking into her chair, principal Alison Dwier-Selden sighed and said, “I have learned that looking forward to Christmas is middle class privilege.” Truth. There are undeniable facts about poverty in America, and Alison’s quote is one. Hunger is…
Running schools as a business gives very little back to the taxpayer. It gives even less to the student. Source: Why Schools Should NOT Be Run Like Businesses | gadflyonthewallblog If you ever wanted a ton of research on why schools should not be run as businesses, this is the article for you.
That’s the conclusion drawn by researchers at San Diego State University studying sleep-deprived American teenagers. After conducting a meta-analysis surveying more than 360,000 subjects, they concluded that decreasing sleep time comes at the expense of increasing screen time. “Teens’ sleep began to shorten just as the majority started using smartphones,” states Jean Twenge, Professor of…
In the past, I’ve written on ideas for gamification—using games in the classroom—but lately I’ve been reflecting on some of the bigger ideas that games open up in terms of pedagogy and the classroom experience. While we can use games as tools and perhaps build units that are gamified, we might also adopt some basic…
Amidst the discussions about content standards, curriculum and teaching strategies, it’s easy to lose sight of the big goals behind education, like giving students tools to deepen their quantitative and qualitative understanding of the world. Teaching for understanding has always been a challenge, which is why Harvard’s Project Zero has been trying to figure out how…
