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Drive - book review - part one

I'm currently on Chapter Four of Daniel Pink's book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us . I've been participating in a book study group with the Nerdfighteria Misfits. Here are my thoughts thus far: Somewhere in my freshmen year of college, Read More...
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2010 03 10

John Spencer

2 Comments

a few teacher book recommendations

I hate most teacher books. I know, hate is usually a word I reserve for racism, genocide, the Dodgers and black olives. It's just that I don't want to learn the five magical keys or the fifty rules or the seven steps. I don't want to "be inspired" by Read More...
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2009 10 23

John Spencer

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Culture and Imperialism and Rethinking My Own School

I realize that anything Edward Said writes has a tendency to lean toward the polemic. I've read blogs blasting him for lying about his heritage, for engaging in liberal indoctrination and for using sloppy research methods. It's not my place to defend Read More...
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2009 07 9

John Spencer

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Book Review: Leo Tolstoy - How Much Land Does a Man Need? and Other Stories

It's hard not to see Tolstoy through the lens of hypocrisy of his own life. The man was almost abusive toward his wife (who was no jewel herself) and he wrote about social justice while never freeing his own serfs. He spoke loudly and boldly, but ran Read More...
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2009 06 29

John Spencer

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Book Review: Walking Since Daybreak

Ekstein offers four distinct narratives that seem entirely unrelated: the ancient history of Latvia, his family history, the present-day story or the former Soviet Union and post-war Eastern Europe. In doing so, he offers compelling, well-written prose Read More...
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2009 06 26

John Spencer

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Book Review: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

I first read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in high school. At the time, I viewed it through the lens of a student. It sparked in me a sense of ideological rebellion. I wouldn't let the system indoctrinate me. I wouldn't allow myself to be doomed to Read More...
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2009 06 25

John Spencer

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Wisdom of Crowds

I used to mock the Data Divas. I called them Data Whores, because it seemed that they sold a sacred profession for a numerical quantity and to me they were the equivalent of zombies using dead ideas to feast on brains of the living or vampires sucking Read More...
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2009 06 24

John Spencer

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Book Review: Stumbling on Happiness, Blink, Predictably Irrational

For this next review, I'm lumping together a few books that I'll label as "social behaviorist" in nature. While each book has a different aim, they each quote most of the same experiments and reach many of the same conclusions. The first, Predictably Read More...
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2009 06 23

John Spencer

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Book Review: Fastfood Nation

I'm not the hippie, anti-fastfood, granola guy. True, we have a garden and I'm annoyed by marketing to children. However, we have days where my wife and I need a cool place to get away and so we relish the McDonald's PlayPlace and the dirt cheap fake Read More...
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2009 06 21

John Spencer

3 Comments

Book Review: Lies My Teacher Told Me

Growing up, I believed that the Native Americans were a small, peaceful and yet savage group who lived in North and South America. They had travelled a few hundred years back on the Beiring Straight and, lacking the cultural Renaissance of Europe, they Read More...
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2009 06 20

John Spencer

1 Comments

Book Review: Brave New World / Brave New World Revisited

From Soma to our entertainment addiction, Huxley had a prophetic sense of the direction of humanity. While the rest of the world worried about freedom and control, he offered a social criticism of technology before McLuhan could ever write, "The medium Read More...
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2009 06 19

John Spencer

1 Comments

Book Review: Please Understand Me

One of the most liberating books for me was the Please Understand Me , about the Myers-Briggs temperament sorter. Although I am not a fan of "personality tests" (the type where I am a blue-green or a dancing dolphin or a wood gnome) the concept of the Read More...
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2009 06 18

John Spencer

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Book Review: Orphans of the Sky

I've been taking time off the traditional weekly schedule of this blog. I'm still writing blogs at Musings from a Not-So-Master Teacher as well as co-writing a new blog (geared toward new teachers) called TV and Teaching . However, this blog felt real Read More...
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2009 06 18

John Spencer

22 Comments