TCOBaG – kNow ThiNkIng AllOwEd

So some of you know, I have 2 boys, and they’re being raised in a trilingual household.

How’s that relevant?

Glad you asked

Since I work mostly from home while living in Japan, I am also mostly responsible for the English education of my boys. I am charged with teaching them all kinds of things outside of their regular Japanese public school curriculum.

I am a professional educator, so you’d think that wouldn’t be so hard, but I also am used to teaching university students (who, quite frankly, don’t differ much in their enthusiasm levels most of the times from my boys who are 8 and 6). It becomes paramount for me too that the ‘lessons’ be more than a classroom lecture.

NOTE: I also still teach English, mostly writing and advanced communications skills, to non-native English speakers.

Math is very similar in this way to learning English, or any language, first or second.

Without understanding ‘why’ the student is learning, or how it applies, or if it even really does, there’s no motivation to learn. (okay, to get a good grade, or avoid being in the doghouse – people still have those, right?)

Math, and language, are tools. Not ends.

Sitting around and learning (by learning I’m mispronouncing ‘parroting/memorizing for later regurgitation) rules and formulas is just not interesting, or engaging.

Using those things, math and English for example, as tools to do something else should be the ultimate goal.

If students can see and practice applying the things they are learning in an atmosphere or situation that doesn’t involve a test or score, they’re more likely to find it interesting and later retain the information.

The recently departed Randy Pausch termed this the ‘head fake’.

Good teaching should always incorporate the head fake.

• Use money for counting.
• use a variety of wooden blocks
• use license plate numbers on passing cars
• give them sets of numbers and ask them where the pattern is
• use the clock (great for introducing base number systems, counting by 5′s and 10′s and also introducing fractions

Use math to play games, to shop (pretend shopping is easier on the pocketbook ) or figure out how to build something fun.

Ask questions about how to get the information they need. Then just ‘do the math’ to get it. Maybe check that or test your answers as review, then get to the ‘doing’ part.

The same is true for language learning, or most learning for that matter. It’s always much more beneficial, interesting, and yes, fun, to be ‘doing’ than aaaarrrggghhh! studying something.

So, get to doing something now, ok?

Okay, so I had a few questions/comments come in about using the ‘report as spam’ button.

Look, I know it’s easy, and sometimes you get that little ‘ooo, that’ll teach them’ feeling, or you really just are lazy and/or think ‘this is crap, I asked for it, but this stinks’ feeling, but you really need to use a little caution here.

Here’s a reply I made about this:

No problem marking real spam as spam, and if you did not ever subscribe, do not hit the unsubscribe button as that will only confirm to the spammers an active email address and most likely not remove you from the list. But if you subscribed, find the unsubscribe link and use it. If that doesn’t remove you with 48 hours, report it.

However, you really need to be careful in two ways:
1. If you’re forwarding other email addy’s to Yahoo! or gmail and report it as spam, the service provider is marking ‘your’ email as the sender. Just delete those.
2. If you’re not sure, don’t recall, then just delete.

gmail also uses user actions to ‘learn’ what’s spam. It’s not really new technology.

Bottom line is simple.

If you subscribed, do the ethical thing and unsuscribe. Give the system a chance to work for you.

If you did not subscribe, and you’re really sure about that (look at the bottom of the email message where most good, ethical email marketers often include such information for things like possibly your IP address, a date, time, from when you subscribed), then report it.

Also, regularly check your spam and trash folders for legitimate emails and ‘de-mark’ them. This will help train most of the better email service providers algorithms to act appropriately in the future for you, and sometimes for others as well.

Yahoo! extends its idiot streak by blocking some 20,000+ subscribers of one of the oldest, and best run email newsletters on the net. Why? Because instead of hitting the unsubscribe button like any self-respecting web user would do, they hit the ‘this is spam’ button. This affects publishers and subscribers, so don’t think it’s not about you.

read more | digg story

Not that this is a new problem (major email service providers blocking access), but when it hits a publication as old, as reliable, and as stringent about promoting and proliferating proper email use, the little guys should take note.

I’ve certainly had my own issues with this, and even using gmail, and having Google filter it’s own Alerts, which I of course set up, confirmed, and send and receive through their very own system, end up where?

That’s right, in the trash or spam folder.
Randy Cassingham, of ThisIsTrue, just published this blog post
http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-yahoo_alert_trues_biggest_crisis_ever.html
about having 20,000+ subscribers through Yahoo! being blocked from them from receiving the email they asked for.

<sigh> Sad.

And also a wake up call, again, that we all need to be pushing subscribers to be educated about managing their subscriptions, and using (or preferably ‘not using’) free email service providers for subscribers.

If you read the post on his blog, you’ll see that the problem appears to stem from the lazy unsubscribers who just hit the “This is spam” button rather than using the unsub link provided in every issue.

What’s the recourse here? Complaining to the choir (other marketers, and those still getting their subscriptions) isn’t really going to do much.

Getting the word out through other newsletters and especially social media sites that your subscribers frequent though can help.

For now, you may be thinking, “Well, it’s not me, or my list isn’t that big yet, or there’s only a few Yahoo! subscribers” but even if they make up a small percentage, that’s still email not being delivered, email that puts you at risk of getting blocked by one of the major free email service providers and adding your name, website, url, and your business to a major black list.

Be responsible.

If you took the time to optin and subscribe, confirm that subscription, then have the decency to use the proper method for unsubscribing if that’s what you want to do. Or, be lazy, and fraudulent, and report every email you receive that you’re tired of getting as spam, and then see how long it take before all of your subscriptions disappear because you and others like you (oh yes, there are certainly enough idiots out there doing this, not just you) have taken the lazy, malicious way out… all the way out.
To me, that’s frightening.

To Yahoo!, wake up. Honestly, which do you think is worth more to you, the sludge of the earth subscribers who report legitimate email as spam, or quality content providers who give people a reason to use your service in the first place?

Doesn’t really take a genius or a calculator to do that math, now does it?
Be well, live well, die last.
Allen