Stevemiranda

LATEST ARTICLES ( 270 )

• Chris Rock (from the Archives)

  I recently read an awesome book called Little Bets, by Peter Sims. He starts out by telling the story of comedian Chris Rock.When writing new material, Rock wil... Read more

  Posted on 19 October 2011 DEBATE, FAMILY, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY

• Connection (from the Archives)

  One of my favorite thinkers right now is a researcher at the University of Houston named Brene Brown. I’ve embedded her TED talk at the bottom of this post,... Read more

  Posted on 18 October 2011 DEBATE, FAMILY, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY

• What Happens When Grades Matter to Someone Other Than the Student and the Teacher

  Earlier this month, I wrote a post describing grades as a process of certification.Certification is different from education, which (from the Latin root educare... Read more

  Posted on 17 October 2011 DEBATE, FAMILY, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY

• How Do We Know How Long It Takes Anyone to Learn Anything?

  When I was 12 or 13 years old, I was obsessed with learning about the baseball card industry.At some point, that passion switched to sports writing. Read more

  Posted on 16 October 2011 DEBATE, FAMILY, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY

• Information (from the Archives)

  Last year, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt told us, “We now generate as much information every two days as was generated from the beginning of time to 2003. Read more

  Posted on 15 October 2011 DEBATE, FAMILY, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY

• No One in the World Knows How to Make a Computer Mouse

  

  No one knows how to make a computer mouse.Literally, no one in the world knows how to make one.I learned this fact by watching Matt Ridley’s TED talk titled,... Read more

  Posted on 14 October 2011 DEBATE, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY

• Pretending (from the Archives)

  Last spring, my neighborhood was buzzing over a scandal at the local high school. A school district investigation revealed that a star basketball player was... Read more

  Posted on 13 October 2011 DEBATE, FAMILY, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY

• Deliberate Practice (from the Archives)

  

  I read a great piece today by Sanjoy Mahajan about a concept called “deliberate practice.” He writes,“Deliberate practice requires careful reflection on what... Read more

  Posted on 12 October 2011 DEBATE, FAMILY, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY

• “I’m Crazy About Running”

  

  Here’s a story from today’s news:CHICAGO – Amber Miller felt contractions just minutes after crossing the finish line at the Chicago Marathon. A few hours later... Read more

  Posted on 11 October 2011 DEBATE, FAMILY, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY

• Variation and Selection

  

  I just started reading Tim Harford’s most recent book, Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure.Harford insists that Darwinian adaptation—he refers to it a... Read more

  Posted on 10 October 2011 DEBATE, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY

• Rest in Peace, Steve Jobs. And Thank You.

  The Internet has been exploding for the past 48 hours with reflections on the life of Steve Jobs. (And in the world of the Internet, 48 hours is a long time! Read more

  Posted on 09 October 2011 DEBATE, FAMILY, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY

• Where Should the Sidewalks Go? (from the Archives)

  My wife is a fitness instructor, and we were talking about a new gym opening near our home. The gym will be offering group exercise classes, but it plans to rol... Read more

  Posted on 08 October 2011 DEBATE, FAMILY, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY

• The Problem with a “complete Contract”

  From a recent post by Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist at Duke University:Most of the time, when you hire people you don’t want to specify exactly what they... Read more

  Posted on 07 October 2011 DEBATE, FAMILY, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY

• Certifying 14-year-old Poets

  I received a really thoughtful message from a former student, who is now a graduate student in mathematics at Harvard and teaches a few sections of calculus to... Read more

  Posted on 05 October 2011 DEBATE, FAMILY, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY

• What Happens When We Give Ourselves Permission to Fail (from the Archives)

  I recently came across some research by Heidi Grant Halvorson, author of Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals. Her findings illuminate a surprising insight:... Read more

  Posted on 04 October 2011 DEBATE, FAMILY, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY

• Creating a Problem Where None Exists

  

  My neighbor and I were chatting after dinner tonight, and she brought up a situation her elementary school-aged daughter had a few years ago in school. Read more

  Posted on 03 October 2011 DEBATE, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY

• Preparing the Followers of Tomorrow

  Last year at PSCS, I approached the desk of my administrative assistant to have a brief conversation about sensitive information. A student was sitting nearby. Read more

  Posted on 02 October 2011 DEBATE, FAMILY, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY

• Playful Fearlessness (from the Archives)

  Here’s an excerpt from an essay by author and consultant Matthew May:And if you think about it, our most intensive learning period, from birth to about five... Read more

  Posted on 01 October 2011 DEBATE, FAMILY, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY

• How Would Classrooms Be Different If Teachers Came to Class Not with a Lesson...

  When I was a classroom teacher in a traditional high school, a student and I were chatting about current events. This led to a conversation about economics. Read more

  Posted on 30 September 2011 DEBATE, FAMILY, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY

• Frisbee Swing

  A few weeks ago at PSCS, the staff and students took a walk to a nearby park. (There are 38 students in the school, so bringing the entire student body is not a... Read more

  Posted on 29 September 2011 DEBATE, FAMILY, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY