What Do Students Want?

What Students Want - from http://www.mangrum-strichart.com/teaching-strategies/

8/8/2011

You look for certain characteristics when you buy a product. Students don`t "buy" their teachers. But there are certain characteristics they would like their teachers to have.

Students would like their teachers to:

• listen to them
• treat everyone fairly
• respect them
• be enthusiastic
• be understanding

Most importantly, students would like their teachers to:

• know their subject matter
• help them learn
• make learning enjoyable

Teachers who have these characteristics are successful teachers.

A Little Preoccupied: Life Lessons From A Paranoid Mother

This is a post from my friend's blog.  She is a fantastic writer and has some hilarious stories on her page.  They all seem to be short personal narratives.  Read them for free here before she discovers that she should really collect them all and put them into a book and make money! 

A Little Preoccupied: Life Lessons From A Paranoid Mother: "From a fairly young age, my mother instilled in me a healthy sense of paranoia. She is a long time fan of Alfred Hitchcock and Stephen King ..."

Playing for Pizza is not a winner

I randomly picked up Playing for Pizza on CD during a recent road trip.  I enjoy listening to a good book if I can't actually read.  Reading and driving don't fit well together.  Honestly, the only other book I've read by John Grisham is Skipping Christmas which was pretty good.  Neither Playing for Pizza nor Skipping Christmas are typical for this fiction legal novelist.  Perhaps I will have to try a typical novel by Grisham before moving on completely. 

Playing for Pizza had great potential in the beginning of the novel.  The main character, Rick, is a third string NFL quarterback.  Obviously, he is not a great football player.  In the stereo-typical style of a hero's journey, he is forced on an adventure to find his purpose and passion in the world of football.  He, himself, is a stereo-typical cocky football player that enjoys women and alcohol.  I was excited about his journey to join the NFL in Italy (thus the pizza) and hoped that he would discover the important things in life.  However, the only thing he really discovered was his passion for football again.  I kept hoping for a change in morality, but that didn't happen.  I hope I haven't given too much away with that comment. 

The story had enough action to hold my interest even in the football plays, but the ending was disappointing.  I've heard so many people say that they enjoy John Grisham's novels.  I'm hoping that I just picked the wrong one.