(Part 2) Reddit reviews: The best books on education & teaching

I'm actually french so i'm gonna try to give you a few tips but I won't have time to check for perfect grammar.

As a teacher :

1)Read https://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Design-Science-Pedagogical-Technology/dp/041580387X
I think this sums up and unifies a lots of "education theory" into one clear diagram called the conversational framework.

2)Learn how the learning process work at the brain level, memory, attention, how emotions play a role, the system 1 and system 2 ( http://bigthink.com/errors-we-live-by/kahnemans-mind-clarifying-biases ), what is chunking, the role of repetition, the theory of flow.
Learn about the different types of intelligences, growth mindset, motivation and be able to explain all of these concepts to kids to teach them how to learn.

3)Encourage reading. Show that you read. Ask about their reading. This is so important.

4)You owe them to be strict. It's not bad, it's not jerky. They have to enter your class knowing that they won't have the choice but to work. Remind them that it's because it's your duty to give them the knowledge that will allow them to be free.
The school institution has to defend humanism values.

5)Teach them to act and talk differently in differents situations, as you do. Wich implies attitude and language. Wanting to have fun is normal, you can have conversation with them about a lots of things but teaching time is teaching time.

6)Be consistent and fair. If you say something do it. You don't punish them, they punish themselves by breaking the rules and jeez, you wish they hadn't and it disappoint you because you know they can act in a good way.
Separate the period when they can or can't talk, when they can or can't cooperate. Have a variety.

7)Don't allow being disrespected or making fun of in a mean way. Even if subtil or it could be misunderstood. Never be mean and always show that you care about them and they will respect you.

8)You don't know what's going on at home. Kids can have a really rough life. Talk with colleague and health staff if you see some kids having trouble.

9)Don't give too much homework, honestly a good attention in class and little work should be enough for most kids.

10)Learn to find good ressources. Every concept has been reasearched and there is good way to teach it our there. Your job is not to create everything from scratch, but to create the learning experience.

11)Be explicit with what they need to know. When you give a test, give details about what will be demanded from them. Don't grade to harsh or you're gonna discourage them, you have to some balance.


As a math teacher :

1)Always begin a lesson with a small exercise on the board that can be anything. Things they saw months ago, something that will help them understand the current lesson, mental calculation, etc.

2)Proportionnality is central to middle school. First year of middle school I don't do it as a separate chapter but use it all through the year. (organized in 6 parts : prices, length, angles, time, areas and volumes. it can cover all of the number/geometry concepts many times (we call it spiral progression in France).
Deep understanding of it take a long time but fonctionnal understanding is necessary and give them confidence.

3)Don't do a "addition" then a "substraction" then a "multiplication" or "division" chapter. How can they learn wich operation is to be used when they only practice one at a time.
Btw, use langage as a way to help them understand wich operation is at stake. (how many time this number can fit in this one?

4)At middle school level, teach them how to use at least three programs :
Geogebra for geometry
Scratch for programming and game
Excel or something

5)I began my carreer with printed lessons with words to fill. Now the "lesson part" is almost completely constructed with markers on the board by asking them what we're gonna write or do as much as possible. This teach them how to speak with rigour. This allow to talk about concepts more deeply. Yay btw you're a langage teacher too.
Teach them to be autonomous and remind them that you don't care what their lesson look like as long as all the infos are there, that it's clear, and that they'll be able to understand it.
We don't get to write that much these days as adults but I really think the paper and pen allow liberty of thought and should always be taught.
Keep the lessons short and straightforward.

You can give links to video or other ressources with the school program.

6)USB CAMERA.
You lose so much time by sending kids to the board to write down what they already did at their table for the class to see.
Take their notebook and show their work on the whiteboard.
Welcome error and don't judge it. Error is what allow you to learn. Make kids comment and explain the error and how to avoid it.
Don't have to use the shitty geometry board tool all the time. Use the same kind they use and show with the camera.


I didn't give you any advice about how to explain specific things but honestly there is many good ressources out there. Being a good teacher is more about teaching them how to learn and motivate them to do so.

Sometimes you can think they don't understand math but honestly
most of them would by giving some fucks. A kid that wants to succeed would with an average teacher, a kid that doesn't want to wouldn't learn with the best explanation cause he would'nt really pay active attention. So of course always focus on why math is useful. Try to make the learning experience as pleasant as necessary (can't always be the case.)

In some family the motivation come from the enviromnent, pressure and expectation from the parents, some kids don't have that chance. If you want them to succeed you should have high expectations for them.

You are right in that you only get one shot at UCL but you only need one. I did an EPQ and talked about it quite a lot. Mine was something like "do the benefits of stem cell research exceed the ethical complications" or something like that. It's something I'm really passionate about and I'm sure you won't struggle to keep talking about it. If your's is something you are interested in try an steer the conversation that way early. I don't know whether it was just by the time I did my UCL interview I was getting better at them or the nature of the interview but I felt like I controlled the direction of the conversation and lead it the way I wanted it to go, if you can try and do the same, if you can go in with a few points that you want to make and lead the conversation that way you will do well. Don't worry about silly questions, I'm afraid I'm from a preposterously privileged background and had enough interview practice to get someone in who had been lobotomised but I know most people are in your situation. Some of my friends who are much better people than I am are involved in a thing called target medicine, they go to schools like yours and do practice interviews and BMAT prep, it's worth finding out if they are at your school. I would say the main questions to be ready for are: why medicine, why UCL, possibly a tell me about yourself (I always hate that as it's almost impossible to tread the line of not underselling and not seeming arrogant.), Work experience (I had a few things and people I saw that had an impact on me and tried to talk about that rather than general things as it seemed more personal). Then obviously anything on your personal statement, go back through it and see what you would ask about or get someone else to do that for you, if want I can send you my email and I'll do it for you but you might find it more useful to do it with a teacher or someone else who knows you. Once you've done that just drill answers in your head, don't go through them entirely because it will sound scripted but have the phrases you want in your head and the ideas you want to express and know them like you would know material for an exam. I used this which was quite helpful and it's reassuring when you hear a question that you've already thought through. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Medical-Interviews-Questions-Analysed-Multiple-Mini-Interviews/dp/1905812051/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421325700&sr=1-1&keywords=medical+school+interviews.

I also read ths but it wasn't as helful. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Medical-Ethics-Short-Introduction-Introductions/dp/0192802828/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1QZ21GB5NZE9YRJE84PN

That's about all I can think of at the moment but keep asking questions if you have any and I'll keep thinking about stuff. On the day try and keep relaxed as best as possible if you don't know what sort of person you are when you are afraid yet but you will know soon but most quiet people get chatty and chatty people go quiet. Some people will talk about all this stuff they've done, I don't know whether they do it to get into people's heads or to reassure themselves but ignore it. I met some really lovely people on my interview at UCL but there are a lot of arseclowns too, just let their crap wash over you and keep your head in as relaxed as space as possible and think about what you want to say. One last point is script links between your ideas, if you can go from why UCL or why medicine into other things like work experience or your job there make your last sentence leading. Don't think of it as them asking you questions, you can influence the questions they ask you. Of course you won't get 20 minutes perfectly moving from one thing to another under your control but doing it a bit will help your rhythm but don't fall into the trap of saying what you wanted to say next instead of answering their question. If they do blindside you don't say the first thing in your head, wait a few seconds, under that kind of pressure you think at a million miles an hour 3 seconds will feel like forever in your head because you are thinking so fast but you can use that time to think it through and say something sensible. I guess most of my advice is really on mentality largely because it's probably what I do best as you might guess from my username I'm a jump jockey in another life so I'm quite used to being in high pressure situations crapping myself with fear, so I have routines to put it to one side and relax which makes all the difference in the world. I can talk about that stuff if you are interested but I've always found it a very personal thing and what works for me may well not help you and it takes time to do well which you might find better spent on other things. Good luck with it all and remember that even the people the other-side of the table where in your position once and just see them as no different from you just further down the line. If it doesn't happen this year almost everyone else will consider you next year so don't build it up into a do or die thing in your head and good luck.

>With quizzes, can you use someone else's quizzes? Say another teacher wants to use the same quiz or you're collaborating with someone at another campus.

You can, how easy it is depends on how your school is setting things up how easy it is. If you are collaborating with another AP Physics 1 class, and you want to run pretty much the same stuff, the easiest way would be to share a class with each teacher having their own section. You could share everything, but control your own assignment and due dates, as well as grading only your own stuff.

Otherwise, the way that always works is to have one teacher export the quiz, send it to the other and import it. This however will not allow you to work together on the quiz, just transfer finished quizzes.

Finally, there is also something called Commons, which would allow anyone in the world to share anything, rubrics, assignments, quizzes, whole classes, and everything inbetween. However I am not sure if that is in general release now, or still only in certain districts.

Anyway, here is my go to "New Physics Teacher" list.

Books

TIPERS

• TIPERs: Sensemaking Tasks for Introductory Physics
  
• Newtonian Tasks Inspired by Physics Education Research: nTIPERs
  
• E&M TIPERs: Electricity & Magnetism Tasks
  
• Ranking Task Exercises in Physics
  
  TIPERs are a fantastic resource for including conceptual thinking assignments. Answer keys are generally available if you talk to your school's Pearson Rep. IMO, the E/M book is the weakest, in part because it ignores that circuits are a thing. I would start with the first as it is a general overview, and go from there.
  
  

  General Physics Education
  

  
  

• Five Easy Lessons: Strategies for Successful Physics Teaching
  
• Hands-On Physics Activities with Real-Life Applications
  
• Tutorials In Introductory Physics and Homework Package - This is less helpful as you get further in your career and are more comfortable designing your own assignments, but was very helpful when I first started.
  
• Thinking Physics: Understandable Practical Reality - If you like Hewitt's next time questions you'll love these.
  
• Teaching Introductory Physics - Pretty much all physics teachers should read this at some point, such a fantastic resource.
  
• Teaching High School Physics Volume I - First of a three volume set, I like these, but they were written by one of my college profs, so I am biased.
  
  

  Websites
  

• Pretty Good Physics - While mostly an AP resource, tons of teacher made materials are available. If you want access to the good stuff (tests and such) those are keep in PGP-secure, there are instructions on how you can gain access.
  
• PheT
  
• Compadre - Tends to be hit or miss for me, but a good collection of resources.
  
• AP Physics HTML 5 Sims - A collection of simple simulations written by an AP Physics teacher, good for introductory labs.
  
• New Jersey Center for Teaching and Learning - Another collection of materials for all types of courses, particularly handy if you have any ESL students and know none of the language.
  
• Physics Classroom - Pretty much the defacto online physics textbook.
  
  

  Youtube
  

• Lasseviren1 - Great Calc-physics tutorials
  
• Flipping Physics
  
• Minutephysics
  
• Veritasium
  
  If anyone else has suggestions let me know, I will try to keep an up to date list to post for all of the "I'm new to physics help!" posts. I might add an AP section.
  

I'd like to second the "facilitator" advice by /u/keepingthecommontone . When I teach outside of my comfort zone, I think of myself as an older brother figure, rather than a master Yoda kind of figure. Like, hey kids, we are in it together. Our goal is to make sense of it. I'll assign you homework, but then I'll do it at home the same way you do it, reading the readings, trying the problems etc. And then we'll meet and discuss our progress.

Because I am more experienced, I usually get further into the topic than they do, but not that much further. And invariably, some students have more experience in some subtopics, and help us all out. Which is normal; that's how it happens in life, so there's nothing wrong with it happening in the classroom.

And if I don't know an answer to a question, I either take it as an additional homework for myself (if I feel that I can probably do it easily), or ask everyone to give it a look if they are interested. If the question is cool, sometimes it can spark a lively conversation next class period. Especially if I was not the only one looking it up.

I actually love teaching like that, and now I deliberately design all my upper-college seminars like that. I just pick a topic that I don't know, but want to learn, and we learn it together. It works really great, and it is lots of fun. So far I never taught same 400-level seminar twice.

To sum up, I think you have a great opportunity here, and some great, potentially very fruitful situation brewing. Just embrace it, and go with the flow.

Also, here's a link to my favorite book on this very topic: Teaching what you don't know, by THerese Huston. It's a short and lovely book, very well written, specifically about teaching outside of your comfort zone. Good luck!

I'm in the UK, so your mileage may vary on this, but personally I find comparing the US way with British methods quite interesting. We are definitely NOT allowed to just shout any more, and when I changed schools a few years ago I went from one that allowed it to one that absolutely didn't. Overnight, I found virtually all my classroom management techniques swept away from me and had to start from scratch.

I teach in a tough school in a deprived seaside town in the UK, with a high number of kids who have English as an additional language. It has the reputation as the hardest school to teach in in a 100-mile area. It's a comprehensive school in a selective area, which means the 25% brightest students go to a grammar school, leaving our kids - often with a sense of failure that they are "thick", and with a wealth of social problems - to come to us. There's a lot of poverty and drug use. Over here we merge Junior High and High School so the school is for 12-18 year olds (seven school years). There's a strong focus on vocational rather than academic subjects. I teach Modern Languages, which is on the National Curriculum (Common Core?) and therefore has to be taught even though it is an academic subject and most of the kids struggle with English in the first place. They don't want to learn my subject. I have to make them...

You've hit the nail on the head about engagement. Even my toughest classes get pulled in by presenting the right subject matter in the right way. I have a class of seventh-graders who I only see late in the afternoon - they're very low ability and disengaged. But by presenting the subject matter in the right way, especially at the start of the lesson, I can get them achieving what I want when I want it. Carefully structuring the activities, making sure there's a mixture of teacher-focussed activities with independent activities, and making sure you've differentiated appropriately, is absolutely critical. Looking at the material from left-field to see how you can introduce a difficult topic almost by stealth is the way I've managed to get this right so far.

Equally, giving regular feedback (and praise) to build up self-esteem works really well, even if it's going round with "well done" stamps or stickers, or using raffle tickets, or whatever. Works a treat.

Routines, as well - don't change up how you do things. If you want equipment out on the desk at the start, TELL THEM, get it right once (it might take a while) and then do that EVERY SINGLE TIME, EVERY LESSON. Hand signals, or a countdown, when you want them to be quiet and listen. That sort of thing.

With a 105 minute lesson you've got your work cut out to keep focus going, but I always find with my double lessons which are similarly lengthy, if you approach it as a series of smaller lessons (roughly, say, 20 minutes) with a small learning outcome for each it keeps the pace up and allows clear progress to be made. That said, it also gives you an opportunity for extended independent work with you circulating to keep focus and motivation going. But I always feel roughly 30 minutes of independent work is more than enough before they all grind to a halt - I would always aim for smaller, more structured tasks to be worked through.

Talking regularly to parents works well - especially positive phone calls, but of course negative ones too.

And finally, absolutely being a stickler for the rules of your classroom, enforcing them clearly and fairly and building that crucial atmosphere of leadership and learning and collaboration that all administrators over here are looking for. Use a classroom seating plan to dictate who sits next to who and enforce that. Give out 100 detentions if you have to. It works, not because the sanction actually does much to modify their behaviour, but it takes the balance of power away from them and towards you, and they know you mean business.

One of the books I always recommend to any of my team (I'm a Head of Department) struggling with classroom management is Getting the Buggers to Behave and I warmly recommend it to you also. But, if you have a Head of Department (Maths?) who is supportive then get them to do an informal observation of you to see if they have anything they can offer. Also see if you can observe anyone else in your school to see how they do it.

Classroom management is one of the toughest things about this job, but get it right and you're 3/4s of the way there. Hope it works out for you.

Secure caregiver attachment is the healthiest thing a child can have. Numerous studies show that children who are securely attached to an adult caregiver develop better in every area, and are generally more autonomous. There is no limit to how securely attached a child can be, and the more attached, generally, the better. Securely attached kids are also usually more comfortable being away from their caregiver or letting other children interact with their caregiver because they trust that their caregiver will still be there for them when they need their caregiver (Trawick-Smith, 2014) (Gonzalez-Mena and Eyer, 2018).

Insecure attachment, however, happens when a child is very attached, but does not have complete trust in their caregiver. They may fear that, if their caregiver starts interacting with other children that they will be forgotten, or that the caregiver will prefer the other children over them. Children in insecure caregiver relationships are generally less likely to be confident in themselves as-well, and sometimes show less interest in exploring the world around them (Gonzalez-Mena and Eyer, 2018).

The best thing for making sure a child feels secure in their relationship is to build trust. A caregiver should always be honest with the child, include them in things that concern them, respect and value their opinions, and always keep their word. Children need to know that their caregiver is going to be there to care for them when they have needs (Gonzalez-Mena and Eyer, 2018). These needs include physical needs, emotional needs, social needs, affectionate needs, creative needs, and cognitive needs (Chahin, 2008).

Sometimes insecure attachments can transfer over from previous insecure attachment. For example, if he has an insecure attachment with mom, then he will have a much harder time forming a secure attachment with a caregiver, even if that caregiver does everything perfectly (Gonzalez-Mena and Eyer, 2018).

deepcleansingguffaw linked to a short essay, but I might also suggest reading the entire book The Homework Myth, as it is chock-full of analysis of homework-related studies. It is amazing how very little of the research supports homework at that age, and yet people recommend it anyway. Take Harris Cooper, the most famous homework researcher - his own research shows little to no positive effect on elementary-level kids and yet he is a big proponent of homework and the 10-minute rule anyway.

A 5th grade teacher friend of mine read the book and decided to slowly ramp down his homework level year over year to see what would happen. He's now on the second year of not assigning any homework whatsoever with no ill effect.

There really is very, very little support for the idea that homework does anything useful for kids at the elementary level. Reading, on the other hand, is very powerful - encourage reading! Play and socialization are also incredibly important; it's pretty much guaranteed your kid already spends more time on her butt than is healthy, so get her outside rather than doing homework.

I'm very distrustful of such claims. What is considered a "jobless degree" today was a perfectly reasonable degree 30 years ago. We crack jokes about philosophy majors or english majors or history majors but there is nothing inherently bad about those majors.

We compare them to hard science majors or engineering majors without examining what exactly distinguishes them. Consensus on reddit appears to be that engineering majors are hard and liberal arts majors are easy. This is probably empirically valid in most US colleges but it wasn't always the case. We used to have a serious liberal arts program in this country and you could expect to devote a considerable amount of effort into getting a history degree or a philosophy degree (or any of the humanities). The idea was "liberal arts" meant rigorous preparation for life in general--critical faculties, writing skills, etc.

A few things happened on the way to the forum. In the late 20th century college ceased to be the limited preserve of the rich and dedicated. Rather for the first time a significant percentage of Americans would attend college--partially due to the GI bill but also due to the spread of secondary education. Go have a look at the percentage of americans with high school diplomas pre WWII. It's pretty amazing. This rise in enrollment coincided with a much less fortuitous change--the ascendance of the business school. Expanded from an original mission to produce (at the undergraduate level) book-keepers and (at the graduate level) managers, the business school has fashioned itself as a generalist trade school with a more expensive tuition. In doing so it has produced a much higher percentage of wealthy alumni (arguably the true goal of a university) who have in turn spent a great deal of money on the schools. Because of this cycle, the goal of business schools has metastasized to other departments--college must be considered a training ground for future employment.

The first thing to suffer in the training ground mentality is the humanities. Who needs to know about shakespeare or Weber (or Webster!) in order to manage a factory. Here we get to the last unfortunate coincidence.

At the time when liberal arts departments should have been mounting a concerted argument in their defense, they were engaged in internecine strife over cultural politics. The 60s (and really the 70s) marked a watershed in the humanities and social sciences. Colleges which had been segregating student bodies (yes, even into the 60s and even big, important colleges) now faced a huge backlash from students and faculty and opened departments devoted to post-colonial study, feminist and black/latino issues. don't get me wrong. All of those departments needed to be opened up. anyone who says that we were learning a complete (or even moderately honest/comprehensive) history when it was all white men is ignorant of the actual goings on. But I digress. These professors and students didn't just devote themselves to teaching black/latino/NA/feminist history. They relished in their victory and focused on the meta-issues like historiography and feminist/marxist/nationalist social theory. The snake began to eat its own tail and outside observers could see it. By the time the humanities awoke from their post-watershed slumber it was too late. The funding and students had gone, along with the expectation that liberal arts meant a strong and rigorous education rather than a simple "rounding out" of a business or engineering student.

There are some other factors at work here. Rising cost and student mobility (compare the average distance traveled for a student in 1960 w/ 1990 from high school to college) have given rise to an entitlement in the student body which the faculty isn't all that quick to disabuse. One way it has been phrased is that students don't really like homework and professors don't like it either, so they both agree to an equilibrium with less of it (that's from an omnibus study on grade inflation--I can find the cite but it may take me a while). "Good" degrees may just be those in fields which due to their own cultural leanings haven't succumbed to lowered standards or lack of rigor. In some cases these are art classes (seriously talk to a BFA student at one of the big private art colleges, their workload is insane). In some cases these are math or engineering majors. But in other places they may be philosophy majors or anthropology majors or econ or poly sci.

Whew. Sorry that's probably way long.

tl;dr American education underwent some serious shit in the last 60 years and we haven't got it all figured out yet.

Edit: some sources just to let people see what I am and am not pulling out of my ass:

• Jerome Karabel's The Chosen isn't about this issue per se but it does give a great window into how restrictive (in terms or race/class) Ivy Leagues were before WWII
  
• Journal of Economic Perspectives article on grade inflation
  
• There is a great book on the rise of the American MBA program in the 20th century whose name escapes me
  
• On the rise of the "hard social sciences" and government funded lab work from the 30s to the 70s you can read Philip Mirowski's Machine Dreams. I didn't really talk about this above either but it is in the mix as well.

Yes, we got some, including some specialist behaviour sessions from an expert! But the most numerous and useful tips I got are from the excellent "Getting The Buggers To Behave" by Sue Cowley. It should also be available from the US. In short, there's no one way to "do discipline", but there are certain things you can always be sure are not good ideas (e.g. humiliating a student in front of class), and some that are almost always the right thing to do (e.g. talking to them on their own after the lesson).

It is normal for new teachers, and especially subs, to feel like they have trouble. You don't know the systems, you don't know the kids and they don't know you. The best foundation for discipline as I've found it is a reputation, which takes time to build. If the kids know you aren't a soft touch, they won't try as much. Appearance is an issue at first, but stops being one once they know you. This doesn't help a sub much, sadly. Although this point from another comment is also excellent:

> I discovered pretty quickly though that it doesn't matter what you know or what skills you have, the students respond to your attitude and your display of confidence. They have no idea how old you are or how good at your job you are, so they essentially take you at your word the minute you open your mouth. You have exactly as much authority as you think you do, and as long as you stick with that you will be fine. Just imagine yourself as an actor on the stage playing the role of a master teacher. Being yourself is for going on dates, not teaching.

What I would like from any subs is that they give the work to the students, think about what I've really asked the students to do, and help out as much as they can bearing in mind they're probably not experts in the subject. If there are any students who refuse to do the work, get their names and let us know. I don't expect you to be able to get Lazy McSleeperson in the back row to do his work if I can barely get him to do it anyway, but I've sometimes come back and asked "So did you do the work I sent you? Did they play the video?" and been told that all the teacher did was put the email I sent up on the board.

Good luck in your career! I really do recommend that book.

Doesn't sound like you have too much to worry about so long as the bad grades are older and you can get a decent pGRE score. Where you can get into will depend on how well your interests align with the faculty at a school and how well you can sell yourself to them. Plus luck, which will play a bigger factor than you might think. This book has a lot of good advice tailored to physics. Part of the book is about ranking programs into tiers then finding where your application fits. Tier 1 schools are places like MIT and Stanford, basically you need to really stand out since so many people apply and they have low acceptance rates. Tier 2 schools are all great schools (ranked 10-30 schools) and can be very hard to get into. For these expect to need a 3.75 GPA and pGRE of 750+ to be competitive grade wise. Tier 3 schools are going to be good schools ranked 31-50, generally these are larger schools like large state universities. You should be competitive at these schools with your application. Tier 4 schools are generally much smaller, but still good schools ranked 50-100. A 3.0 should be competitive. Tier 5 is a mixed bag of good and bad but 2.5 should be fine for most of them.

Sounds like you are competitive at tier 3 schools, pick some tier 2 schools you are interested in then some tier 3, and some tier 4. maybe 20 schools in total. Then start researching to boil down that list to a couple reach schools (tier 2), a couple safety schools (tier 4), and 6 or so tier 3 schools. Base your decisions off of compatibility with those schools and their professors. Do not limit yourself to just the west, trust me I did that and now I'm shut out of grad school for a year because I was too restrictive in my first round of applications. This process will be expensive, plan for ~$150 per school in transcript and application fees and have your list prepared before you take the pGRE in October so you can take advantage of the few free score reports you get.

You might as well ask 'Which religion is the one true religion'.

Some people strongly believe that the only way to end sexism is to stop treating people differently based on their sex, to the degree that is permitted by our physical/biological differences. That means you'd just have opportunities and people would apply. Male, female, trans, other, etc....would be irrelevant. You should treat everyone equally and choose candidates based on their merits.

Other people strongly believe that the only way to end sexism is to ensure 'equality'. That usually means something like, 'If a less dominate group is under-represented in a beneficial field, it's sexist for us to not work at achieving equal representation'.

I think there are strong arguments to be made on both sides. When I was in college, I was firmly in the first camp. "Just treat everyone the same" but there is a reasonable amount of evidence that suggests everyone isn't the same (for a lot of different reasons that people will largely debate).

Without getting into it too deeply, it seems that most people (even those who say they'd treat everyone equally) don't. It's not an intentional thing, but it seems to be a real thing.

In one example, they gave scientists a bunch of job applications to review, containing equally qualified male and female students. The female students were evaluated less favorably than the male students. But these were fictional students with identical qualifications.

>...which Yale researchers found to be prevalent when scientists were asked to review job applications for identically qualified male and female students

There are also students that seem to show that, despite people generally being polite and friendly, we still treat women worse than we do men.

> Indeed, several studies have shown that when women do speak, they’re more likely to be interrupted, they’re likely to speak for shorter periods of time than their male classmates, and it’s less likely that instructors will listen to what they have to say

Now you might say, 'Hey - it's not my fault women speak for shorter periods of time than men!' but if I were interrupted often and felt like the Prof wasn't really listening, I'd be a lot less verbose too.

I actually tried to get one of my past employers to anonymous resumes before sending them to the devs to evaluate. It was a small company and we didn't have like a dedicated HR team. So, HR did a very initial, just friendly level phone chat, and if they seemed alright, our dev team would look at the resume.

I wanted to remove the name and anything that would state or imply gender. Again, I had good intentions, but if we know that people evaluate men and women differently, let's just remove that from the equation. The problem was that too many other people objected on the grounds that, basically, we wanted to promote diversity and that if we didn't know a candidate was a woman, we'd pass on them....but if we knew it was.....we might bring them in for an interview.

So yeah, I got nothing. Except, no matter what you do, someone will think you are sexist.

Fwiw, they do this more for white people than they do for black people. Athletes (most athletes at places like Harvard play sports like squash, not basketball) and legacies make up a large percentage of the student body.

If you're interested, here is a really interesting book talking about the history of admission at Harvard, Yale and Princeton. These places were built by and for prominent male WASPS, and they're still the ones who fund it, so there are all kinds of things built in to ensure that people like them still get in, namely easier admission for legacies and athletes.

A major point of the book is that the idea of merit in this sense is kind of made up. They create a class of the kinds of people they like and say that it's based on merit. They used to basically just use test scores, then those schools started filling up with Jews, so they decided to assess "character" as well, which meant basically meant being WASPy. Now it's kind of the same thing but with Asians. They still rely heavily on "character" and "leadership." The main thing is that it's a balancing act between a ton of different interests, and most of those interests are rich old white dudes.


Edit: Found this:
“Being African American instead of white is worth an average of 230 additional SAT points on a 1600 point scale, but recruited athletes reap an advantage equivalent to 200 SAT points. Other things equal, Hispanic applicants gain the equivalent of 185 points, which is only slightly more than the legacy advantage which is 160 points. Coming from an Asian background, however, is comparable to a loss of 50 SAT points.”

I second the motion to wait a year and get to know the kids and program. Also, it's good to get to know the political climate a bit and to build some networks of support with people who will be willing to put in a good word for you. Build a rapport with the kids who will tell their friends about you.

Meanwhile, use your year, which might be fairly easy, to do the following:

Here are the ELA state standards for OK. Get to know them like the back of your hand. Know which years are generally the same, and which years take a jump forward in expectations.

Read some books about how to teach in an English classroom. Write Like This and Deeper Reading from Kelly Gallagher will give you concrete strategies you can use for any grade. Some of them you could even do with mixed groups of mixed ages. Jim Burke's English Companion is also good.

While you have time and a fairly mild workload, plan, plan, plan. Put things on paper. Look into how LMS's work (my personal fave is Schoology, and I've tried at least a dozen different ones over the years) and what they can do for a classroom where kids have computer access.

Don't get discouraged if, after all this, they say no. What you have then is everything you need to walk into any regular classroom 6-12 if you decide to look for a new job. Good luck!

Couple tips I've learned:

Eventually, with enough practice, exuding authority will make you feel good. It is a part of your job. Consider it this way: if a student is misbehaving in class then they aren't your main priority, the other students are. Those other students are also probably hoping that you'll chastise or kick out the misbehaving students and when you do so, it will greatly improve their opinion of you and your relationship with them. It is really a win/win situation.

In terms of not knowing material well, I would imagine almost every teacher has experienced this feeling, I know that I have. I'm only a few years into my career, but I view such classes as an exciting challenge, not a ticking time bomb. I get to learn more material, which I love to do, and I find that since the content is fresh in my mind I'm a better teacher.

For more on the latter topic I highly recommend the book Teaching What You Don't Know by Therese Huston.

I took a class on teaching ESL, taught by our college's ESL specialist. This is the book we used: https://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Grammar-English-Language-Learners/dp/0472032208

It's pretty good. It covers the most common issues/sources of confusion that you'll encounter with ESL students, as well as how to explain them. When a student asks you why what he/she wrote is wrong, and why it should be the way you say is right, it lets you say "Because XYZ" instead of "That's just the way it is".

One example covered in the book is prepositions. To an extent, they make sense. Especially with directional prepositions. But a lot of situations require certain prepositions for no logical reason. Like, you wouldn't say "I believe of you". But why is "I believe in you" better? But at the same time you say "I'm thinking of you" and not "I'm thinking in you". This can be incredibly frustrating for students. But letting them know that there isn't really a reason and sometimes they just have to remember can make them feel better, as opposed to trying to figure out the logic of rules that don't really exist and that no one can seem to explain.

Reading helps a lot. Keeping simple books around would be great. And/or books that are written in two languages. Like books where the left page is English and right page is Spanish. If these are hard to find for some of the languages, you could make your own by printing out short stories in both languages. Or even using google translate to get a copy in the student's primary language.

Encourage them to consume their media in English. English movies, music, shows, etc. Also, all Netflix original shows (or at least most, I think it's all) will have dubs in Spanish, and will have captions in multiple languages. Watching a show in English, with captions in your language to help you figure out what you don't understand, can go a long way. The opposite is true too (watching in Spanish with English captions).

I'm not a moderately granola mom yet (couple weeks to go) but I'm a librarian, and I saw some books that caught my eye the other day, called loose parts and loose parts 2 that look fascinating and super fun with great ideas for diy toys. You can always ask your local library if they do interlibrary loan if they don't have it.

Whether or not you're going all the way to homeschooling or finding alternatives such as Montessori or Waldorf, here's my two cents as well. Read up on it. I'll probably come off as bit of an ass, but it's your kid, what more relevance do you need to find and buy lots and lots of manuals(so to speak). Kids're pretty complicated, or so I've heard.

I'm not an expert, but I have a few titles I'll promptly lay on whatever friend of mine starts to procreate first. In my opinion these aren't 'crazy' books, and I sincerely hope you'll take them seriously.

How Children Learn

How Children Fail

Punished By Rewards

The Homework Myth

John Taylor Gatto has written some stuff as well, but Google can find that for you. Read and read more. I couldn't begin to describe my time in the famous twelve years without plenty of cussing.

Take an interest, is my advice.

I am a PhD student now, so I'll share my thoughts that may be relevant for you. I am going to suggest a somewhat aggressive timeline that I personally think optimizes your time while still preparing you to be a good PhD applicant, which basically comes down to: research experience and your physics GRE, more on those below.

If your not redoing a whole degree (which you should not) then you really just need 2 things for a good PhD application: the more or less standard "core" undergrad courses- Modern Physics, Thermodynamics, E&M, and Quantum, and secondly- RESEARCH EXPERIENCE (research spiel in next paragraph). You could really do the core requirements in a year, but that leaves you with a screwy PhD application timeline. So spreading your undergrad courses and research over 2 years is reasonable. Additionally the core course mentioned are primarily what is covered on the physics GRE. I would start familiarizing yourself with the content of the pGRE immediately after modern physics since you are on a compressed timeline. Ok now on to the research spiel.

The purpose of doing a PhD and being a physicist is primarily to do physics research. If you don't like research, then you won't like being a physicist. Luckily you have a programming background, so you could get involved with research pretty quickly (virtually all research involves some sort of programming these days).

There is so much more to say with regards to grad school, but I will refer you to the following book

https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Grad-School-Physics-physical/dp/1499732244

Which will fill in the rest of the details and elaborate on what I've said. I really don't think I could say much more that won't be repeating what is already said in the book.

I will say that physics research involving quantum mechanics directly will be theoretical, and the main areas where researchers eat quantum mechanics for breakfast are: cosmology, particle and nuclear, condensed matter. For experiment you may or may not need to know quantum mechanics very well.

Astronomy is basically experimental astrophysics, and is all about data collection and analysis, with tons and tons of algorithms implemented along the way.

I myself am in theoretical nuclear and particle physics mainly focused on simulation. Hope I have helped you in some way!

As a toddlers teacher, I can tell you that there absolutely are tons of good books!!

You have to remember that there is no "ways to teach my kids." All kids learn differently. Luckily, since you are their parent, you are privileged to info about your kid that us teachers are not!

All kids naturally posses a desire to explore and learn. Teaching a toddler is not so much teaching as it is facilitating. Give your child the ability to explore and play freely. When you see your child has an interest in something, provide resources and opportunities for your child to discover and learn more about that thing. Scaffold. Info on scaffolding: https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/may2017/rocking-and-rolling-empowering-infants-and-toddlers. I recommend spending some time on NAEYC's website. They have TONS of great information.

Books.

I also provided links to Amazon to view the books. I recommend that you buy older editions of the textbooks since these ones are really expensive. The older editions are pretty much the same, and much much cheaper.

• Your Self-confident baby by Magda Gerber.
  
• Developmentally Appropriate Practice by Carol Copple, et al.
  
• Infants, Toddlers, and Caregivers by Janet Gonzalez-Mena, et al.
  
• Elevating Childcare by Janet Lansbury.
  
• The Whole Brain Child by Daniel Siegal (haven't read this one yet, but my colleagues say it's good).

In answering both of your questions - I am not aware of any higher education literature that upholds the idea of what you are framing as "impossibly difficult" courses. Moreover, much of the research that I have come across would actually suggest that this is really quite a poor course design that is doing more to uphold the professor's sense of identity than it is creating positive and engaging learning environment. As you said, this is highly 'gate keepy'. Certainly, I can see some grad students buying into it as they are highly motivated and want to become a part of the field however I don't think this course design would even serve most grad students.

In short - I imagine that he gets away with it as he is a senior professor teaching students who are otherwise highly engaged with the field but on the whole, I think most educational designers would say its quite poor pedagogical design.

However, if you are keen on developing great course design - a couple of great books to read which are widely cited in higher ed teaching and learning. They both offer theoretical and praxis-oriented approaches to course design that you would likely appreciate. they are Teaching as Design Science by Laudrillard and Learning to Teach in Higher Education by Ramsden

My go-to resources are:

Baby Led Weaning

Loose Parts and Loose Parts 2: Inspiring Play for Infants and Toddlers

For discipline I prefer the Parenting with Love and Logic.

I'm a big believer in the Reggio Emilia philosophy of teaching and early childhood development. R.E., loose parts, and outdoor classroom theories all work really well together to create a natural, child-led, creative environment. The basic theory involved is that children are curious, competent, creative beings with a significant capacity for learning if we get out of their way. Instead of giving them plastic, light-up, noise-making toys that have one purpose or one way of playing, loose parts cultivates an environment of inviting materials that encourage creativity and discovery instead of "this is how you play with this toy" thinking. I was first introduced to Reggio Emilia and Loose Parts while working for a JCC and I was really impressed with the way it transformed the teaching environment. It's definitely harder the smaller your kids are, but it can be done and I have seen it jump start critical thinking and creativity in even the youngest kiddos.

You're right, in that they are dumb.^(http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/09/28/at_the_elite_colleges___dim_white_kids/?page=1)

But mostly, you're wrong. It's not a "dumb tax." It's "pay to play."

Legacy admissions are not a "dumb tax;" it's there to keep poor kids out. It's not about meritocracy, it's about exclusion.

And money isn't the only criteria; race is also a factor.

Docket systems (geographic quotas) are to keep out Jews (mostly from NY & NJ)--& favor certain private schools. Extra-cirricular requirements, especially those that emphasize students be "well-rounded," are there to keep out Asians. Affirmative action is there to get African-Americans and Latinos in.

This system is unlikely to change, because (1) universities, like most things, need money to run, (2) they also want prestige, and (3) a lot of very influential people are going to raise a ruckus over their progeny couldn't get in.

By the way, there is one caveat: It is in a university's interest to attract people who would are mostly likely to go into well-paying jobs, which means Wall Street or big law firms--and extracurricular activities in high school is one way to identify people who gravitate towards those careers. Kids who excel in academics and go into academia tend not have a lot of moolah to donate.

TL;DR: Elite schools are mostly schools for the elites. If you want to join them, apply to the Ivy Leagues. If you want to be judged purely on academic merit, check out places like Berkeley or CalTech (which, coincidentally, happen to be white minority establishments).

If you're interested in this subject, you might want to check out The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton by Jerome Karabel.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Chosen-Admission-Exclusion-Princeton/dp/0618574581

Berkeley enrollment data:

http://opa.berkeley.edu/uc-berkeley-fall-enrollment-data

CalTech enrollment data:

http://www.registrar.caltech.edu/statistics.htm

It's not uncommon in Title I schools. It's also not uncommon in Title I schools to be given little guidance or resources to do your job.

Here a couple of things that are (IMO) crucial to keep in mind:
(1) You need age appropriate literature that is also at your kids' reading level. Do not insult them with "See Spot Run." NewsELA allows you to adjust the same article to different reading levels. It's a brilliant resource you should use. https://newsela.com Same for The Simthsonian's Tween Tribune. https://www.tweentribune.com

(2) I highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend Discovering Voice for middle school. https://www.amazon.com/Discovering-Voice-Lessons-Middle-School/dp/0929895894/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502141983&sr=8-1&keywords=voice+lessons+middle+school Spend the $20 something. It comes with permission to make copies for your classroom so you only need the 1 book. It's a bunch of mini-lessons that work brilliantly at helping students read and write better with voice.

(3) Kelly Gallagher.
(a) Article of the Week http://www.kellygallagher.org/article-of-the-week/
(b) Try this book https://www.amazon.com/Reading-Reasons-Motivational-Mini-Lessons-Middle/dp/1571103562/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1502142077&sr=1-6
(c) And this one https://www.amazon.com/Deeper-Reading-Comprehending-Challenging-Texts/dp/1571103848/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1502142077&sr=1-3

(4) The New York Times Learning Network https://www.nytimes.com/section/learning

That should give you a more than decent start.

>How would you define a good vs bad school, or is it just about movement of students?

>How would you assess if a teacher is good or bad?

The parents decide, just like they do for everything else for their kids.

>Should private and/or charter schools be required to go through some sort of process to certify their merit before being allowed to enter the educational system

No.

>Presumably you would support private and/or charter schools, how would you make access to them affordable for poor students?

Every kid gets a voucher, to be used at any school they wish.

>being pointed to a good resource would be appreciated.

This book.

And this book.

But to be honest, imo, the best way to educate your own kids is this way.

Use medify.co.uk to revise for UKCAT, I used it thoroughly but I panicked during the first section of the test because I am a slow reader. Overall score was 700,

breakdown
Reading- 600
maths-800
non verbal reasoning (the shapes thing)- 840
Verbal reasoning- 560 (i used an old book for this, and they changed the logarithms for the questions that year, so my answers were given incorrect, even though in practice i was scoring the highest in this section)

As for university recommendations, I suggest you look through this forum page which discusses which Uni's to apply to depending on your strengths. http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/Applying_to_Medical_School_using_your_Strengths

Lastly if you do get accepted for an interview, make sure you use this book for interview prep

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Medical-Interviews-Questions-Analysed-Multiple-Mini-Interviews/dp/1905812051

Don't just read the question and think ok this is how I am going to say it, remember you are competing against many other candidates and in order to make yourself shine, your answers must be succinct, personal and original. The most crucial part of any interview is that if you don't know an answer, be humble and say you don't know. Apart from oxbridge, where they want to see your deduction and induction skills. Interviewers only mark what you speak, not what you do and do not know. So if you say that I don't know a question, they will ask another question which you can hopefully respond to. You can also give a semi-knowlegable response. E.g In one of my interviews , I was asked " who do you think is the leader in a surgery ? ", It was a trick question because anyone can be a leader in any given situation depending on the resources and type of surgery. I didn't know this, so at the time I said, "based off my experience I have only seen surgeons lead surgeries, however my empirical observations may not translate into other environments, In the present day where nurses are substituting for surgeons in many smaller cases, there should be no reason why they too cannot lead surgeries. They then followed up with " So, who else can lead a surgery apart from a nurse and a doctor", I just said I didnt know and we moved on.

Additionally, if you haven't already started, please start writing your personal statement, it is very important and pretty much got me my interviews because my igcse grades were relatively subpar.

Thanks for checking out this post! I've put a great deal of effort into this project, and I feel that this could be helpful to any college students here. There aren't a lot of books about college success, and I wanted to share my own unique perspective on college study and lifestyle. I Have no email list and nothing to upsell you. Just a book I put a lot of effort into.

Free Until October 3rd.

Some links for my foreign friends...

UK

CAN

AU

IN

DE

BR

NL

IT

ES

FR

I'd be more than happy to have a PM conversation about particulars if you want, but the one book I credit with really turning me around is Reluctant Disciplinarian by Gary Rubinstein.

The first couple of pages of the book describe how, when he was young, Rubenstein's parents used to harshly reprimand the dog when it shit on the carpet, and how he used to then sneak into the puppy's room when his parents had left to reassure the puppy and make it feel better. The puppy proceeded to continue shitting the carpet for months. I read that and I was like "Oh my God. This is the book."

He's also a Teach For America alumnus who is now a vocal TFA critic, which I love, because I'm both of those as well.

So I took it last Tuesday (should be getting the results any day now) and I used 3 different materials.

1. The FE Electrical And Computer Review Manual from Lindeburg
   
   
2. NCEES Practice Exam
   
   
3. Wasim 500 Problems Study Guide
   
   Just a heads up, I don't know if I passed (nor do I think I did pass), but I wanted to give you a quick rundown of what I did.
   
   I would start by reading (actually reading, not skimming) the Lindeburg manual. I would do the examples given WITHOUT LOOKING AT THE SOLUTION. It's very important to not look at the solution until you have struggled through it. Struggling and making mistakes helps the learning process. Once I did the whole chapter, I would then test myself using the diagnostic test at the beginning of the chapter. A word to the wise, I found that in the Lindeburg book, the in-chapter examples were far easier than the diagnostic question. I found some of the diagnostic sections to be absurdly difficult (Comms and Control Systems IIRC).
   
   Once I did the diagnostic sections, I would then reinforce using Wasim problems. The Wasim problems are easier than what you'll see on the FE, but it's helpful because it helps process the basics of a problem and gives you new ways of solving problems (i.e. using thevenin to solve a BJT problem with multiple sources). The repetition also helps with just solidifying the concepts.
   
   Lastly, I would test myself using the NCEES practice exam problems for that section.
   
   The exam for me was really easy on the first half, but quite difficult on the second half. Still unsure if I passed. If I had to go back, I would definitely study more of the computer engineering stuff as a good portion of the second half was computer coding/architecture problems. The Lindeburg and Wasim books don't really get in depth on the computer stuff. Get the Wasim Practice exams #2 or #3 as most people say #1 is a little too easy. I don't know what books to buy for the computer stuff.
   
   Hopefully this helps!
   
   
   EDIT: I passed! First try!

I love the Discovering Voice and Voice Lessons books by Nancy Dean. They are short activities (which are fantastic for freshmen with short attention spans) that have students examine how a writer writes, and then each lesson has a "Now You Try It" activity that has them practice what they have just learned. These activities work great as a mini lesson or as warm-ups and makes them think about the decisions writers have to make before putting words on a page.

There have been a lot of studies that find that school teachers give more attention to boys: they call on boys more frequently, they wait longer for boys to articulate their thoughts, they use more eye contact with boys, they reward boys more often for speaking out while punishing girls for the same behavior. Here's a book about it. The authors, Sadker and Sadker, wrote another article in 2004 about the same stuff, but I can't find a copy of it online.

There was a study that came out of Israel a couple of years ago where they found that teachers gave girls lower grades on a math test when they knew the kids were girls.

MtF trans people benefit from these sorts of teachers' biases as long as MtF trans people are in the closet. What I mean is: until a trans person comes out as trans--at 15, at 26, at 50--everyone around them will treat them as their birth sex, and so even if a MtF trans person doesn't feel like a boy inside while they're in school, the teachers around them will still treat them like boys, not like girls.

I'm in a different situation from you, but I also am not very mean. When I was starting out I read this book and it helped me out.

When I was student teaching I was in a district with half urban, half suburban kids because of weird districting. My cooperating teacher explained to me that while I grew up in an area where kids understood indirect directions, like, "Now, if everyone would get out their notebooks..." my students were from a community that was used to more direct directions, like, "In 30 seconds I want to see everyone with their notebooks on their desks. No exceptions." It made a huge difference for me in that situation.

I teach in an affluent district. So anything I offer here might not work:

I'm a good story teller and I've learned to use that to my advantage (it was initially a disadvantage because I like telling stories and was getting off topic too often). I also found, over time, that I just wasn't planning enough to do and was stretching things out to long. Now I've got my pacing down much better and the difference is huge.

Anyway, I'm not sure anything I say could be of much use because I have no experience in your circumstances.

> Do you or your professor have any research that supports this claim?

The professor did not cite studies in her discussion, no. As to myself, I have no studies, just years of experience teaching in high schools and colleges.

> The largest determinant in student learning is student practice and practice is not always fun, but it is beneficial.

Agreed -- up to the point to where the student knows the topic. After that, it's simply drudgery and an exercise in following orders. Since you're interested in research, Alfie Kohn analyzed a lot of research on this topic in his 2007 book, "The Homework Myth".

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

amazon.com.au

amazon.in

amazon.com.mx

amazon.de

amazon.it

amazon.es

amazon.com.br

amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

amazon.fr

Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

I'm a high school science teacher and I can't recommend the Hands-On series enough. I use the physics, but the chemistry one is great too.

It seems that your comment contains 1 or more links that are hard to tap for mobile users.
I will extend those so they're easier for our sausage fingers to click!


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^Please ^PM ^/u/eganwall ^with ^issues ^or ^feedback! ^| ^Delete

>but it's not like our government controls the means for food production and I hope they never do.

My main point is that government bureaucrats are faced with the same backwards incentives regardless if they are producing food or providing the service of education. Removing competition means no accountability and no pressure to increase quality or reduce costs.

>What is your stance, how would you like our educational system to operate?

I'd like it to operate with zero state involvement.

From around the 1880s until as late as the 1940s, the "Ivy League" actually had a terrible reputation for academic rigor, mostly because of its class-based admission practices.

So those schools were, and remain, exceptionally elite. In 1950, for example, 278 students from elite prep schools applied to Harvard and 245 were accepted. The acceptance rate from Exeter and Andover was 94 percent.

Even today Harvard posted its lowest acceptance margins in history -- only 5.9%.


edit: I don't know why I'm being downvoted.

I passed the EE exam about a month ago. I used these to study:

https://www.amazon.com/Study-Fundamentals-Engineering-Electrical-Computer/dp/1985699710

https://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Engineering-Electrical-Computer-Specification/dp/1534759492

and they really helped a lot to prepare for the test. hint: you can buy and return on amazon when you're done :)

Let me know if you have any questions

Buy an FE exam prep book (or find one online). This one has a diverse collection of questions from 1st/2nd year level university courses. Found it very helpful when I finally took my FE last year.

I'm reading Market Education right now, might be of interest to you

http://www.amazon.com/Market-Education-Unknown-Frontier-Economic/dp/1560004088

I had the same problem, but after five years I'm an ol' battleaxe! You MUST get this under control or you won't enjoy your career, and the good students will suffer in your class. But do not worry, there is hope!

Here are a couple of the books that helped me develop me "teacher persona."

http://www.amazon.com/Reluctant-Disciplinarian-Management-Eventually-Successful/dp/1936162156

http://www.amazon.com/Setting-Limits-Classroom-3rd-Edition/dp/0307591727

Beyond this: Learn their names. Call them by name when they have their phones out or they are talking while you are talking. Kick them out into the hall if you need to, then have a non-antagonistic chat with them. They are different when they are with you one-on-one. Develop relationships. Ask them about what movie they saw that weekend. Tell them stories about your home life. Put the hammer down if you have to -- call home, referrals, etc. -- but those are a last resort.

Buy this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Grad-School-Physics-physical/dp/1499732244/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=getting+into+grad+school+for+physics&qid=1562922761&s=gateway&sprefix=getting+into+grad+&sr=8-1

I helped me answer a lot of questions about the application process.

You realize that the US college admissions system is an anti-Semitic invention, right?

Source

For those of you outside of the US replace the .com in the URL with your country code, eg. for Canadians: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07H93D4WW instead of https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H93D4WW

Go to the .com page and change '.com' to '.co.uk' and it should work

Edit: link - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07H93D4WW/ref=pe_385721_48724741_TE_M1DP

Get this book -- TONS of ideas https://www.amazon.com/Hands-Physics-Activities-Real-Life-Applications/dp/087628845X

Not really surprising, is it?

This reminds me of the facts behind homework. The author of The Homework Myth claims that with the sole exception of high school math, the many, many studies on the topic find that homework is detrimental (or at best has no clear positive correlation) to actual student knowledge.

But our protestant work ethic and mindless football-like mindsets about toughness, work and punishment has us ignoring facts...

Considerando que la relacion tareas/calidad de educacion es muy debatida y parecen en lo general no tener beneficio para los resultados academicos, suena a un buen negocio y puede considerarse relativamente etico ya que sus clientes no pierden en la calidad de educacion que reciben.

http://rer.sagepub.com/content/76/1/1.abstract

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0738211117/?tag=greatschoolsn-20

Okay, it's ten years old (2007) but the research and referenced studies/data in the book still holds up very well.

So I'll just drop this here: The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing.

Except the idea of "character" on applications is specifically created to be a black box that magically, we-don't-know-why-it-keeps-doing-that-honestly, chucks out far more Asian applicants than any other race.

The black box used to be directed against Jews, but now it's a truly egalitarian holistic system that just so happens to hate Asians? Bullshit.

"Chastened by their recent experience with the traditional system of admission examinations, which had begun yielding the 'wrong' [Wong lol] students, the leaders of the Big Three devised a new admissions regime that allowed them to accept - and reject - whomever they desired. ... The centerpiece of the new policy would be "character" —a quality thought to be in short supply among Jews but present in abundance among high-status Protestants."

This is kind of interesting. You're obviously being very sarcastic but, in your sarcasm, you made a bunch of good suggestions.

> We care for a year or so, and then we give up.

I almost never write anything by hand. I can, there's just no need. How is the time I spent learning to write things by hand anything other than a waste? With the increasing pervasiveness of computers and the advent of real, working voice recognition (Dragon Naturally Speaking rocks!), handwriting is going to become even more unnecessary in the future.

> My kids hates homework, and doesn't like school. No more homework!

Read Alfie Kohn's Homework Myth to see why we should get rid of homework.

> English has hard-to-spell words that aren't spelled like they sound. Umm, don't worry about spelling.

English spelling is ridiculous. What a god damn waste of time. Why shouldn't we improve the language so it's easier to spell stuff? I think one of the biggest current flaws with English (and maybe languages in general) is that we try to hold them static. We should regularly and systematically clean up the language and simplify spelling.

> It's just that parents aren't able to deal with the kid's hate, so they figure the system must be wrong if the kid hates it this much, so stop the system!

The system is stupid, broken and produces terrible results. Anyone who doesn't want to stop or change the system isn't thinking it through.

Your focus on detention is arbitrary. It's like saying it's unfair that hostages don't have access to pizza. Maybe, but the whole state of being-a-hostage is unfair. Instead of obsessing about their lack of pepperoni and mushrooms, why not, instead, focus on the actual problem?

• We force children to go to school.
  
• We force children to study specific subjects at school.
  
• We force children to do homework after school.
  
• We stigmatize them if they fail at school.
  
• We use school grades as one metric of mental health.
  
• In most schools, we force children to be subject to archaic. pedagogical methods--once that have been proven to be ineffective.
  
• And, yes, we force children who have (in my view) naturally bucked against this system, to stay in school longer than kids who accept it.
  
• In most schools, children learn very little, especially given the amount of time the spend there.
  
• In many cases (e.g. when forced to read Shakespeare), they often develop a lifelong hatred of the subject.
  
• Many children spend years in school being bullied, mocked, and ostracized.
  
• Throughout this time, they're repeatedly told all this is "good for them," and, in the end, like serial abusers, they inflict in on their own kids, telling them it's good for them.
  
  All of this stuff has been studied for decades. We know that most schools are run horribly, according to unsound educational principals. But that never changes.
  
  When psychologists or neuroscientists discover something about learning or education, it takes years or decades to affect classroom practices, if it ever does.
  
  Schools aren't generally affected by Science. Instead, they are buffeted by politics and held fast by tradition.
  
  See
  
  
• Wounded By School
  
  
• Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes
  
  
• The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing
  
  
• video: The 3 Most Basic Needs of Children & Why Schools Fail
  
  
• Summerhill School: A New View of Childhood
  
  
• [A Mathematician's Lament (PDF)] (https://www.maa.org/external_archive/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf); longer book version: A Mathematician's Lament: How School Cheats Us Out of Our Most Fascinating and Imaginative Art Form
  
  
• Ken Robinson's TED talk: Do Schools kill creativity?
  
  
• How Children Fail
  
  
• Unschooling
  
  
• Why do we get frustrated when learning something? (written by me)
  
  I am skeptical that I will CYV, even though I believe that this is the best argument against it--not your view that detention is wrong, but that it's not even worth talking about. Sure, detention is a bad thing--but not the worst thing--about a horrible, corrupt, abusive system.
  
  I'm skeptical, because the system is so deeply entrenched in our culture. And the most people can do is argue about small tweaks: whether we should use this textbook or that, the length of Summer break, the size of classrooms, etc.
  
  The debate about Creationism vs Evolution in schools is a good example. If the Evolution folks (or the Creationist folks) win, they will pat themselves on the back and walk away happy, never glancing back and noticing that the same shoddy educational methods are being used now as before--with just one correction.
  
  Yes, Dominoes is bad pizza. It won't suddenly become good pizza if you put it in a less-ugly box. I agree that the box is ugly, but why focus on it? It's not the core problem.