Done. With. Finals!!!

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http://www.greatmindsinspire.com/12_Characteristics_of_Highly_Successful_Entrepreneurs/Default.804.html

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Friends,

As many of you know, I'm deep into my first year at Teach for America here in Philadelphia. It has honestly been the hardest thing I've ever done, but something you can do can help. I'm writing to ask for a small donation to fund some projects for my classroom - every bit helps. The main reason I am contacting you is that this week only, any donation you make to my project will be doubled! 

To donate:

1. Visit my Teacher Page, http://www.donorschoose.org/Mr.Spanish

2. Choose one of my projects, enter the amount of your donation, and click "Give"

3. During check-out, enter the word BLOOM where it says "Match or gift code", and your donation will be matched dollar for dollar.

The BLOOM match code will double your donation until the end of the day on Monday, March 19th. So exciting!

Please feel free to send me any questions you may have, and know that my students and I greatly appreciate your support. Please pass this along to anyone who you know is especially charitable, knows me, sympathizes with first-year teachers in inner-city schools, or wants more tax-deductions.

Happy Spring and THANK YOU in advance!

Kendel Christensen 

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"very smart ideas are going to be hard for people to adopt, because most people don’t have the sophistication to recognize how good an idea is," Dunning told Life's Little Mysteries.

He and colleague Justin Kruger, formerly of Cornell and now of New York University, have demonstrated again and again that people are self-delusional when it comes to their own intellectual skills. Whether the researchers are testing people's ability to rate the funniness of jokes, the correctness of grammar, or even their own performance in a game of chess, the duo has found  that people always assess their own performance as "above average" — even people who, when tested, actually perform at the very bottom of the pile. [Incompetent People Too Ignorant to Know It]

We're just as undiscerning about the skills of others as about ourselves. "To the extent that you are incompetent, you are a worse judge of incompetence in other people," Dunning said. In one study, the researchers asked students to grade quizzes that tested for grammar skill. "We found that students who had done worse on the test itself gave more inaccurate grades to other students." Essentially, they didn't recognize the correct answer even when they saw it.

The reason for this disconnect is simple: "If you have gaps in your knowledge in a given area, then you’re not in a position to assess your own gaps or the gaps of others," Dunning said. Strangely though, in these experiments, people tend to readily and accurately agree on who the worst performers are, while failing to recognize the best performers.

http://news.yahoo.com/people-arent-smart-enough-democracy-flourish-scientists...

ouch.

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Went to the biggest grocery store near my house this week. Usually I just get the essentials from the much smaller store around the block.  As is my custom, I greeted my checker with her name and asked how she was doing (oh, the power of being a customer in a place that requires its employees to wear a name badge!).  My greeting seemed to startle her and she looked up at me with a quick turn of her head. "Oh, it's you." Now it was my turn to be surprised. I didn't remember this lady at all--I hadn't been to the store in over a month and maybe four times total since moving here, all at different times of the day, each time--I thought--in a different with a different checker. "You're the Spanish teacher, right? At the really hard school."  

"Yeah, wow! Amazing memory, what's your secret?" I asked, trying to feign remembering her as well, but probably failing.

"Since I started working here, you are one of the few people who ever used my name."

Her name was Lily. She said I made her day then and presently.

"Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language."

-How to Win Friends and Influence People

Thanks, Dale.

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"Paper work is the embalming fluid of bureaucracy, maintaining an appearance of life where none exists."

-Robert J. Meltzer

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Scientists tells us we only use 5% of our brains. But if they only used 5% of their brains to reach that conclusion, then why should we believe them? 

--Joseph Palm

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Literally, instantly brought me to a new level on enlightenment on how important our lives and our interactions with others are.

"You can change the whole world by changing one person's perception of it..."

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"Success gives you the credibility to talk about your failures."

--Osman Kent, CEO, Numecent 

Turns out success is a pretty poor teacher.  Now, someone who has failed and then succeeded... well, that's true wisdom.  At least according to Mr. Kent who has successfully launched dozens of companies.

He also reiterated what Mark Zuckerberg said when he visited BYU.  Namely, that he hires based on character traits and attitude, given a baseline of ability (In Zuckerberg's take, he says that "You have to know your stuff, but even if you have all the credentials and skill, if you can't convince me you want to change the world... we don't want you"). People with a positive outlook and a drive to improve are far more likely to learn from the naturally occuring failures they will be responsible for.

Validation.

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http://www.ted.com/quotes

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— Kathryn Schulz

http://tedquotes.tumblr.com/post/10685509771

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“A snob is anybody who takes a small part of you and uses that to come to a complete vision of who you are.”

“When you look at the Moon, you think, ‘I’m really small. What are my problems?’ It sets things into perspective. We should all look at the Moon a bit more often.”

"You can't be successful at everything...Any vision of success has to admit what it is losing out on"

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"Our capacity to screw up is not some kind of embarrassing defect in the human system... it is totally fundamental to who we are" - Kathryn Schultz

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/lang/en//id/1126

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He gave me this:

I have to watch it regularly to keep, you know, sane.

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Never take someone for granted. Hold every person close to your heart because you might wake up one day and realize that you've lost a diamond while you were too busy collecting stones...

-Unknown

That's one thing I need to remind myself. While my work is brutal, at times overwhelming, I have a lot of truly good people in my life. I am so blessed.

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Jan. 2012 Ensign, Leadership the Lord’s Way, Craig Merrill

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