A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon.
-Napoleon Bonaparte

My mom pointed this quote out to me today when we were talking about what I could do to motivate my students to pass their classes. It struck me how true this is. I had a slight addiction to eProps on xanga a while back, enjoying accumulating as many as I could from friends. Lately it’s been the cheers I mentioned in the previous post. It’s funny how intensely driven one can get for something that physically isn’t valuable. I’ve been chasing after “cheers” on 43things, which is nothing but a integer on a webpage that almost nobody but I care about. Yet, that was a top priority in my time on the Internet… anytime I had a cheer it was of the utmost importance that I use it (sorry if you don’t use 43things and that didn’t make sense).

So, when it comes to the students I work with I started wondering if a pizza party would be a big enough motivation. What if they where only getting a slice or two each week, that just isn’t that much. And that’s when my mom mentioned this quote. Trophies, medals, ribbons, certificates, tiny gold stars, these are often motivating forces for people to do great things (Nobel Peace Prize, Olympic Gold, Congressional Medal of Honor), and maybe this sort of thing is enough for some of my students to start completing their homework and passing their classes.

The question is: How do you build into your awards the prestige and honor that should come with accomplishing the goal?

So, I haven’t been posting on here very regularly. I know I’ve told you numerous times that I would and I’ve probably let most of you down so much your not even checking this site very often. Well, this time might be different, but no promises.

I’m interested in going for a weekend blogger opportunity over at Nashvilleistalking.com sometime in in the next couple weekends. I’m also looking to work a lot these couple weekends so who knows if it will happen. Regardless, I want to prove to Brittney over at WKRN that I’m a decent blogger. During the week she highlights blogs from around Nashville that have something interesting to say. During the weekend she let’s a local blogger do the posting. I can’t say I’m up to par with a number of the writers that are highlighted, but I can sure share my own two cents. We’ll see what happens.

My goal for this week is to post five post each day on this blog for at least this week. We’ll see how well that goes. I’ll give you one major piece of advice that keeps me writing: COMMENTS. There’s nothing like an engaging comment to evoke a response from me on a topic. To get my writing bug going I’ll probably read some of the comments on my older post and then post updates about them.

The First chapter of Matthew from The Message

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I’m fixing up my own personal page, possibly to be located at http://iamnotashamed.net proper. So help me choose a design:

Open Source Web Design – Preview – green community

Open Source Web Design – Preview – autonomous

Open Source Web Design – Preview – Localize

Open Source Web Design – Preview – dittoditto

Open Source Web Design – Preview – andreas07

Open Source Web Design – Preview – Leaves

Open Source Web Design – Preview – andreas08

Open Source Web Design – Preview – Greenery

Open Source Web Design – Browse Designs

Open Source Web Design – Preview – leaves v.1

Open Source Web Design – Preview – Burnt

Open Source Web Design – Preview – Foto Viva

Open Source Web Design – Preview – softened cells

Just a little plug for a new site I’ve been frequenting. 43things is a social community site. You list up to 43 “things” that you are doing, goals you have, values your trying to build, etc. Others can then cheer you on, encourage you in your goals or join you in them, and comment on them.
I’ve found it to be a wonderful and encouraging place to post things I’m working towards, and goals I’m trying to maintain. I’ve also found it a great place to get advice on teaching.

If you haven’t seen it you should check it out.

My 43things.

So it shouldn’t be a surprise really: Racial Profiling certainly occurs a lot of places and the folks at Walmart tend to get in trouble a lot. Neither of those things should excuse this behavior at all. We need to be encouraged to take action and it would be neat to see an entire company get behind this case and really put some pressure on Walmart about it.

So if you haven’t heard the term “Eminent Domain” and don’t know of it’s implications, here is a prime example.

Looks like Ocean front real estate is not for those who currently live there but for those who WANT too, and have the money to do so.

They just showed the prototype of the $100 laptop geared to putting this education tool in the hands of children in the developing world.

Initially I was really impressed and encouraged by this innovation. I think it has some amazing implications for boosting learning in the developing world. Education is key to addressing so many problems (though there are TONS of other factors as well). I think computers really do serve as amazing learning tools, and they can help make learning fun for a lot of kids.

And at the same time I wonder what impact these things will have. They mentioned some things in the article about grey markets, and the idea of making them so prevelant that they won’t be appealing to secondary markets. I’m sure there are many people far smart then me thinking through those issues.

Also, there is the question of whether this is a good use of time and money when there are many physical problems like starvation. My initial thought is that this is one way to begin addressing that problem through educating the masses. It is a long term solution, though it doesn’t meet short term needs.

What are your thoughts?