Mr. D's Blog

You are a hiring manager in charge of hiring someone for a very important job within your company.  You have two candidates who are both qualified for the job.  After extensive interviews and background checks you have come to the following conclusions.

1) Candidate 1 is more intelligent than candidate 2.

2) Candidate 2 is more persistent than candidate 1.

Which candidate would you hire?  Please make sure to explain your answer in detail, giving specific explanations or examples about why you would choose one candidate over the other.

*** I am attaching a link to this blog for 3 reasons.

1) You can use it to get some ideas for your response.

2) You will see how a simple topic like persistence versus intelligence can spawn far more than two paragraphs as a response.

3) If you read the article you will note that specific details are used to support positions taken by the author.

LINK: http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200510/the-winning-edge

I will keep the explanation short on this one.

Minimum requirement is three paragraphs.  Your answer should clearly show what invention you have chosen along with how and why the invention/discovery has impacted the world.

Let’s see if we can answer a few questions before we get started…

1) Who invented flash memory?
2) Who invented fiber optic cables?
3) Who figured out that the sun doesn’t rotate around the earth?
4) Who sings ‘Party in the USA’?
5) Name 3 players that play for the Miami Heat?
6) Who plays ‘Edward’ in New Moon?

This quick quiz will not be graded but my bet would be that many of my students will have a hard time answering questions 1-3 and a fairly easy time answering questions 4-6.  The interesting thing about this would be that the scientists and mathematicians that are responsible for the discoveries in questions 1-3 have a much more profound impact on all of our lives than the celebrities in questions 4-6.

This thought lead me to an interesting question.  That question is ‘Why do so many children think it is uncool to be smart?’.  I know this isn’t true for everyone but it is true for too many.  I understand that you might think that this question doesn’t relate to you because you don’t feel that way.  Oh, how I wish that was true!!! This problem relates to us all because if we as a society continue to admire celebrities instead of intellectuals we all stand to face the long term consequences.

I would like you to answer the following question:

Why do so many children think it is uncool to be smart and what are the long term consequences of this way of thinking?

A memoir can be defined multiple ways.  A few of the definitions are:

1) An autobiography, especially one that is objective and anecdotal
2) A record or report of important events based on the writer’s personal knowledge.

I am going to task you with what might seem like an impossible task.  Your task is to write a 6 word memoir about your life.  This is no easy task and should take a fair amount of thought. Your job is to capture the essence of your life and summarize it in 6 words.

A few examples to help you on your way:

1) Brought it to a boil, often. – Mario Batali
2) Dabbler in much, expert at none. – Joan Cady
3) Asleep too long, finally woke up. – Mike Daugherty

I want you to have fun with this assignment but to also put some real thought into it.  For this assignment you DO NOT need to comment on a previous students posts.  This is your warm up activity to make sure everyone knows how to get to the blog and make a post.

Each blog post will be worth 30 points.  Your assignment will be graded using the ‘blog rubric’.  This rubric can be found on the class website. Each student should print out 1 rubric per blog response.  Fill out the student portion and then turn it in by placing it in the appropriate bin in the classroom.

1. We will have two blog questions per quarter.
2. The due date of your response will be plainly listed on the blog website.  Any posts not received on or before the date listed will not be given credit.
3. When making a blog post NEVER use your full name.  Instead use the following format:
4. P1W + First Name + Last Initial
5. When making a blog post NEVER make negative comments about the people or posts that already exist.
6. Each blog post must be a minimum of 2 paragraphs and a maximum of 3 paragraphs.
7. Each blog post must choose one thing about a previous post (with the exception of post #1) and comment on it.  Remember that you cannot make negative comments so I am looking for something that you agree with or like about a previous post.  Mention what it is you like AND who made the post.
8. VERY IMPORTANT:  No posts will be allowed from within class.  Every post you make has a date and time stamp.  Please don’t try and be tricky on this one.  This is your homework and as such should be completed at home.

The primary purpose of this blog is to allow each of you to share your thoughts with your classmates. Each of you has valuable insights that too frequently go unspoken or unnoticed.  This blog will allow you to share your knowledge with those around you.  With that in mind I will ask that each of you please take this blog seriously.  It is my hope that we will learn from each other and start to realize that although someone may be looking at a problem or a situation from a different perspective that all of our thoughts and feelings have value.  By learning to see the world through the eyes of others our own world view and in turn our own knowledge of the world will be expanded.