However, I would say the reporters who follows the sports teams still important, they could report any news immediately. for instance, a basketball game, usually after the first half or after the game one or two hours, the reporter finishes the game recap. But now, our reporters use twitter feed to update the newest news for the audiences, even what happens in the locker room.

Additionally, like the NBA, so many international player active in the league now, culture is one of the things people are interested in it, they want to know the fascinating stories besides the recap of the games. In text book Communication Ethics Literacy says “Culture it the system of a group of people that gives us interpretive clues for what something means and the significance of a given event.” (Arnett, 2009)

Therefore, in my opinion, the budget for the team followed reporters still necessary, because we need them to build up the conversation immediately for the audiences and the media.

Drury University
http://www.drury.edu

Your thoughts about Machiavelli’s views of leadership as a lens through which to consider our own views of teaching really got me thinking! I have been thinking a great deal about classroom management this week, and I found an interesting “classroom management profile” quiz. http://www.cbv.ns.ca/sstudies/gen3.html

Essentially the quiz asks you to respond to a series of statements, indicating to what degree you agree with each on. At the end, you add up your scores for four classroom management styles: Authoritative, Authoritarian, Laissez-faire, and Indifferent. I scored a 10, 8, 14, and 7, respectively. The description for my preferred classroom management mode of Laissez-faire affirmed my growing recognition that I tend to avoid implementing classroom management because I am so fearful of harming my students’ well-being.

After taking the quiz, your blog post really struck me. The questions, ” Should a leader (teacher) do powerful and influential things that are virtuous but detrimental to personal well-being?
and “Should a leader (teacher) do weak and unchallenging things that will bring about security and positive well-being?” speak to my struggles with classroom management. Right now I see these two questions as this either/or type thing, but I hope that it is possible to start doing more “powerful and influential things” in my classroom without harming students’ “personal well-being.”

Thanks again for sharing your interesting perspective!

Just some musings… thanks for the intellectual stimulation! – Shea

We’ve had some good discussions as of late, especially with students who have previously not done that reading homework. So, I’ve stressed the importance to my students to just try to do the reading and come in with questions. Chances are somebody else was struggling with the same thing. So, we can work together as a class to discuss these problems and do close readings to help everybody understand. It’s just difficult – and even just plain frustrating – when I can’t get students to attempt it in the first place.

And as a side note, I’ve used a couple of the activities in your With Rigor for All book that you suggest as alternatives to reading quizzes.

I think challenging texts are often vehicles for teaching reading skills. What is even more important to me is that by creating lessons that scaffold their reading of difficult literature like Beowulf, teacher provide access to rich and wonderful works that would otherwise be impossible for students to read on their own (How many of us did?). Powerful literature isn’t written the way it is to make reading hard but to express complex ideas artfully. It’s worth the trouble!

Best/ Carol

Take a look at what I said to Nichole below. I think creating a classroom atmosphere where students and teacher work together is a good strategy. Work with them early to give them the confidence that they can actually read and understand the difficult texts.