Thanksgiving Experiment With My Class
Last week, I did a little experiment. Instead of holding class during a holiday week, I didn't show. Except that I left a tote bag on the door of class in the engineering building, with a bunch of Smile Cards and $200 in $10 bills. And this note: Hey, That's the way many of the email messages I receive begin. It's a handy shorthand solution to the question of how to greet someone you know but don't know. Others--many fewer--begin with the word "Dear." It's a holdover from the time when we wrote actual personal letters. I still like that, and treasure the rare gift of a personal, handwritten note almost as much as an authentic conversation about something more than a transaction issue, like a grade, a missed assignment, an evaluation of some kind--criticism or praise included. So my preference is to start with Dear... Would you read this aloud to everyone else ... Read Full Story >>
- Posted by Rick
- Nov 23, 2007
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What Can You Do With Ten Bucks?
The week before Thanks Giving, I did a little experiment with my class, leaving $200 in ten-dollar bills outside my classroom. Lots of great stories unfolded. Katrina Kapetanovic was one amongst the students. Like everyone else in the class she struggled mightily with what to do with her $10. Some quotes from her essay: "What if I got a bunch of people to each give $10 to a beneficial cause? Could that do more good? Will it really end up making a substantial difference long after the money was given? I still find myself to be stuck, constantly researching and questioning myself and how I could get the $10 to trickle down. It doesn't seem like it could do a whole lot of good for just one person with $10 to give it away. That is when it suddenly dawned on me. This $10 serves as a reminder that I need to ... Read Full Story >>
- Posted by Rick
- Jan 18, 2008
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