Proficiency = Hard Work + Mentor

Despite the occasional rants of random people criticizing teachers appearing in the media, I’m a huge believer in the noble profession of teaching. I believe that the presence, help, feedback, and expectations of a teacher is crucial to a student’s, particularly a school kid’s, performance – academically, athletically, and in other activities.

The availability of a teacher, or a mentor, can be extremely valuable to people of all ages and in all disciplines of life. The exchange in the screenshot below happened on Facebook where one of my friends posted and a few other people responded with their comments. My beliefs exactly.

A Zinger And A Wink

I don’t post political matters on my blog but I can’t resist the awesome zinger followed by a wink from the president at the State of the Union 2015 address. A man with nothing to lose and it shows.

 

Reading List – 2014

Books I read in 2014

1. Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life by Peter Gray
2. Happiness Around the World: The Paradox of Happy Peasants and Miserable Millionaires by Carol Graham
3. Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes by Maria Konnikova
4. The Blood Sugar Solution: The UltraHealthy Program for Losing Weight, Preventing Disease, and Feeling Great Now! by Mark Hyman
5. On Virtues: Quotations and Insight to Live a Full, Honorable, and Truly American Life by Sheldon Whitehouse
6. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules by Jeff Kinney
7. Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan
8. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck by Jeff Kinney
9. The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America by Amy Chua
10. ADHD Does Not Exist by Richard Saul
11. The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack
12. The Garfield Treasury by Jim Davis
13. Worth It … Not Worth It?: Simple?: Profitable Answers to Life’s Tough Financial Questions by Jack Otter
14. All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood by Jennifer Senior
15. The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears by Mark Batterson
16. Digital Fortress by Dan Brown
17. Deception Point by Dan Brown
18. It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens by Danah Boyd
19. Just Start: Take Action, Embrace Uncertainty, Create the Future by Leonard A. Schlesinger, Charles F. Kiefer, and Paul B. Brown
20. Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown
21. Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis
22. No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State by Glenn Greenwald
23. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
24. Raising Healthy Children in a Toxic World by Phillip Landrigan
25. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling
26. The Improbability Principle: Why Coincidences, Miracles, and Rare Events Happen Every Day by David J. Hand
27. What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe
28. Do Fathers Matter?: What Science Is Telling Us About the Parent We’ve Overlooked by Paul Raeburn
29. The Behavior Gap: Simple Ways to Stop Doing Dumb Things with Money by Carl Richards
30. The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
31. How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking by Jordan Ellenberg
32. Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
33. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw by Jeff Kinney
34. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth by Jeff Kinney
35. Aspiring Adults Adrift: Tentative Transitions of College Graduates by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa
36. The Innovator’s Method: Bringing the Lean Start-up into Your Organization by Nathan Furr, Jeff Dyer, and Clayton M. Christensen (Foreword)
37. Agile Project Management for Beginners: Mastering the Basics with Scrum by Bryan Mathis
38. Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life by William Deresiewicz
39. The Way Life Should Be by Christina Baker Kline
40. One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories by B. J. Novak
41. 1,000+ Little Things Happy Successful People Do Differently by Marc Chernoff and Angel Chernoff
42. You Are Now Less Dumb: How to Conquer Mob Mentality, How to Buy Happiness, and All the Other Ways to Outsmart Yourself by David McRaney

Reading List – 2013