Teaching 1 oh one

I come from a family of teachers. Everyone teaches or has taught for a substantial period. Those who do not teach professionally are homeschoolers. I gathered a bit of advice for possible application in my upcoming teaching assignment.

Course planning:

• Clearly and deliberately state your objectives for each class.
• For each concept, plan out exercises students will do to master that concept.
• Prior to teaching a concept, decide how you will evaluate students on their understanding of that concept.

Classroom fundamentals:

• Do a brief review at the beginning of each class.
• Make the students work during class -- don't just talk to them. Force them to daydream on-topic, using the Fancy Tricks below.
• Expect unanticipated issues and thoughts to occur at any time.

The teacher-student relationship:

• Especially with compulsory education, there’s no use lamenting which students are in the class ...
• ... if your students are spoiled rich kids who don’t really care about the course work, just do your best to bring out their best. You are the professional in the room, so be adaptive, flexible, innovative, and don’t expect the students to be.
• Let them know who you are--a tidbit to open each week (or even each day). On Mondays I show a "photo from my weekend." But don't be their friend. And don't friend them.
• Learn about your students, and give them chances to teach you.

Fancy tricks:

• Give prizes. The more outlandish, the better.
• Make name cards and use them to call on people. Shuffle them daily so no one knows when they'll be called on. Turn to the next card BEFORE asking a question, but don't say the student's name until after asking the question. Students hate this; it's great for teachers.

Folder names: Dimensions of my life

On my computer I have all my files stuck in folders and sub-folders. I've designed this hierarchy of folders in a way that I hope will let me locate the files I need quickly and logically, but I'm never quite satisfied with it.

What is the most sensible way to slice my life? Suppose I have separate folders for House, Personal, Work, and School. I could make another folder for Finance, in which I put everything related to finance, such as tax records, house expense records, investments, insurance expenses ... or I could could include a Finance subfolder within each of the House, Personal, Work, and School, since they each have a financial aspect.

There are endless overlaps and opportunities for confusion in splitting my life into folders. There are lots of topics in my life: Taxes, Health, Wealth, Friends, Family, Travel, Consulting, Classes, Life eras (pre-College, College, post-College, Gradschool1, Gradschool2), Introspection, Jobsearch/Resume, Investments, Insurance, Car, House, Deck, Applications, Forms, Photos, Music, Research, Garden, Renting ...

Here are a few ways to slice life into four things at the highest level of a folder hierarchy:

• School, Work, Social, Business
• Career, Home, Activities, Art
• Personal, Social, Career, Government
• Health, Wealth, Mind, Paperwork

It is so hard. Life does not want to be sliced. I expect this issue is only going to grow. As digital media improves our desktops will increasingly become part of our minds, a sort of mirror and companion piece of our identities.

Pittsburgh Parking Tickets and Credit Reports

WTAE, a local Pittsburgh news agency, reported (er, um, quoted a city official saying) about a year ago that delinquent Pittsburgh parking tickets are not reported to credit bureaus:

They also don't go after your credit rating. No matter how many of these (parking tickets) you get, they won't have an effect on these (credit cards). Parking officials do not notify the three major credit bureaus about unpaid tickets.

David Onorato: "No, we didn't take it that far."

Jim Parsons: "So it doesn't impact a person's credit rating?"

David Onorato: "No."

Jim Parsons: "Why not? Why not do that?"

David Onorato: "That was a decision made back in 2005 that hasn't been changed yet."

In a humble spirit of public service I am here to set the record straight. I didn't pay my parking ticket, and now it's on my credit report, posted there by a collection agency by the epithet "Professional Accounts MGM." That's a private company, so it seems that Pittsburgh sold the collection rights on my ticket.

Onorato is the director of Pittsburgh Parking Enforcement; he clearly would have known this could happen. It seems unlikely, but possible, that Pittsburgh sells the collection rights with the stipulation that the collectors not do credit reporting on these accounts. But even if this is true, can I expect Pittsburgh to crack down on the collection agency in my defense? Humph.