Five Reads For Friday August 30 2024

 

First practice of the school year on August 12 2024

As we finish our first full week of school, I am going to try and restart this blog with my weekly Five Reads for Friday. 

When Problems Arise -- The Daily Coach

The first Upper School Principal I worked with at North Shore Country Day -- Paul Perkinson -- used to say at beginning of the school year meetings "Schools are messy." Truer words have never been said. The school year has a known schedule but the people following have problems as we progress through the school year. The Daily Coach is one of my regular blog reads and this post is about how Colin Powell -- who once visited North Shore Country Day -- managed problems as they arise.  

How Teachers’ Expectations Can Shape Students’ Learning & Performance -- The Bulletproof Musician

Noa Kageyama has been posting on being a musician for years on his blog The Bulletproof Musician. This post on teacher expectations is an older post he reshared last week and I shared with our coaching staff. It features the ideas and practices of Coaches John Wooden and Pat Summit. Quality instruction is the greatest difference makers in schools and regularly thinking about how we instruct as coaches and how we can improve in that area is a life long pursuit. 

The Challenges of Following a Legend -- Alabama coach DeBoer faces hurdles as Nick Saban's successor

This article came from a group of coaches I do professional development throughout the year. I am a Baltimore Orioles fan who lived through the retirement of 3rd baseman Brooks Robinson. Watching others try to replace Brooks has always made me interested in the concept of following a legend. 

The Marshmallow Test and other predictors of success have bias built in, researchers say -- WAPO

Maybe you are not aware of the Marshmallow test. Its a test of young children that is supposed to indicate their ability to delay gratification. The test then followed those children and supposedly the most successful were able to navigate school and even accomplish more professionally than those who would struggle with the test. I have always struggled with this test because I love eating marshmallows and I figured I would probably flunk. If you don't like eating Marshmallows, you probably had an easier time with the test. So it is interesting for me to see a reconsideration. 

Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Five Principles of Personal Freedom - The Atlantic

Arthur Brooks is a writer, professor and former professional musician who writes on Happiness and Human Flourishing. This article from earlier in the summer was a favorite of mine because you don't usually associate the author Dostoyevsky with happiness or flourishing.