My Commentary in Education Week

What will happen to cursive penmanship in an age of "21st Century Learning," with kids learning via iPad and having to integrate multimedia through the new Common Core Standards?

It will probably get lost in the tableau of most teacher's days. At one time, I thought that attention on cursive penmanship mattered, but as I watch my own kids using technology with great ease and knowing how critical it will be for them to use computers effectively in school and beyond, cursive writing instruction, I fear, is indeed not a priority.

I explored the idea, along with the fact that my own students for some years now have not been able to read my half-cursive, half-printed script when I hand back assignments.

Here's a link to the piece, one of the currrent commentaries for the paper:


http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/10/17/08polochanin.h32.html?tkn=LQUFaQG4LlsPKfffj2aHrQiaH3tBws1VYzfb

M*A*S*H Theme Title: Who Knew?

Why I found myself humming the theme to M*A*S*H the other day, I'm not sure. But when I learned that the title of the song is "Suicide Is Painless", I was a little disturbed. Evidently, the song was written by 14 year old son of one of the producers, which maybe is even more scary.

My Hartford Marathon Mix

I will labor incredibly over the right mix of music for certain situations. Like I used to do in high school, I enjoy making music mixes – using my iTunes library, though, not cassette tapes - for birthday parties, casual friends-over hangouts, family dinners, and, what I plan to do tomorrow, the Hartford Marathon.

I am running only the 5k, though to test myself more strenuously, I’m planning to run it twice. (Shhhhh. Don’t tell anyone.) But, as many runners will tell you, at least those listening to music – the Hartford Marathon people discourages, but doesn’t ban, the use of headphones – the right mix is important, critically important. The right mix, having songs with fast beats, uplifting, motivating lyrics, and positive associations, can put you in a “zone”, and is one of the tricks of the trade for runners. Well, that, and good sneakers, the right breakfast, and, of course, some training (or a fearless attitude) helps.

But the music is what echoes in your head while struggling to get up hills; music is what encourages you to push yourself during a race when you are running out of steam. When there isn’t an encouraging person – sometimes a police officer – standing on the sidewalk, a runner’s choice of music can give them a little edge.

Yesterday, I put the finishing touches on my mix – different from mixes of other races I’ve done, complete with a few new songs. I told myself: No slow songs this year. No thoughtful ballads that might seem inspirational, but are too slow on the course. There’s nothing worse than that, or a goof-up, like an inadvertent shuffle to the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine.”

So, I will lay bare, my top 10 picks from my iTunes 2013 Hartford Marathon mix, for all to see and scrutinize.

1. “Some Nights” by Fun.. This year’s number one song. The drums and the choral chanting in the background bring the energy to this song. Memorable line: “This is it, boys, This is war. What are we waiting for? Why don’t we break the rules already?”
2. “Hearts on Fire” by John Cafferty. Who could forget this one from Rocky IV? USA vs. Soviet Union. Rocky doing situps hanging upside down in a barn. Memorable line: “Hearts on fire. Strong desire… rages deep within.”
3. “Party Rock Anthem” by LMFAO. Cool synthesizer music and drum machine gets the adrenaline flowing. Memorable line: “Party rock is in the house tonight. Everybody just have a good time. And we gonna make you lose your mind.”
4. “Crazytrain” by Ozzy Osborne. Just a psycho song, from beginning to end. Makes you mad, gets you hyped. Memorable line: “I’m going off the rails on a Crazy train.”
5. “Centerfold” by J. Geils Band. Going old-school again, I know, but this one is upbeat and fun. Memorable line: “My blood runs cold. My memory has just been sold. My Angel is the centerfold.”
6. “Home” by Philip Phillips. This one got me this past summer as I watched the Olympics when they showed the athletes’ highlights after winning medals. Memorable line “Don’t pay not mind to the demons. They fill you with fear.”
7. “Empire State of Mind” by Jay-Z. You just feel tough listening to this song, almost as tough as Rocky. “New York. Concrete jungle where dreams are made of. There’s nothing you can’t do. These streets will make you feel brand new, the lights will inspire you.”
8. “Last Friday Night” by Katy Perry. The only female featured on my mix. Memorable line: None appropriate for a family newspaper. But the “TGIF” “TGIF” chant toward the end is pretty cool.
9. “Panama” by Van Halen. When David Lee Roth was the band’s lead singer, the first time, this band rocked. Eddie Van Halen’s guitar pulses. Memorable word: “Pa-na-ma! Pa-na-ma-uh-ah-uh-ah-uh!”
10. “No Easy Way Out” by Robert Tepper. Another Rocky IV song. When Rocky takes a drive in his Lamborghini, reflecting on the purpose for his next fight, who cannot get inspired? Memorable line: “There’s no easy way out. There’s no shortcut home.”

It may sound strange to say, but I am psyched to come into Hartford early on a Saturday morning, as I know thousands of others are. Like them, I will have the right shirt, pair of shorts (even though they’re calling for an overnight frost!), and, of course, a fully charged iPod with my carefully selected mix of songs.

Will my music make me run faster? Perhaps. Perhaps not. But as long as I think it does, that’s all that matters.

Jim Calhoun: An Appreciation

The UConn men's basketball team takes the court for the first time tonight without Jim Calhoun as head coach. Last month, when Calhoun announced his retirement, I submitted this to the Hartford Courant, but a lack of space and another UConn article prevented me from getting it published.

So I submit it here, today.


We were lucky.

We were lucky that, for the last 26 years, Jim Calhoun, who retired Thursday as UConn men’s basketball coach, chose to make his coaching home in Storrs, where he built the program from relative obscurity in 1986 to a national powerhouse. Love his style or not, and many didn’t, he is the main reason why UConn won three NCAA titles, played in four Final Fours since 1999, and he helped make winter a season to look forward to in Connecticut.

We owe this to his fiery spirit, his passion for winning, his command and knowledge of the game. It should now be clear that, even when he was questioned by the media and fans for his coaching decisions – and in a place this small, every move you make as a high-profile coach is questioned – he knew what he was doing all along.

Just look at the way he retired – so late in the process that the university had no choice but to name his recommendation, Kevin Ollie, as the new head coach.

Having attended more than a hundred UConn basketball games since my freshman year there in 1990, I derived as much entertainment from watching Calhoun act on the sidelines as I did seeing his team play, perhaps even more so. On TV, I would have paid an extra fee to have a separate camera locked on him for the whole game, his body swaying, arms gesturing, having “conversations” with officials that were largely one-sided.

It is true that his courtside dialogue was often not PG-rated. From the second tier of the XL Center, as a season ticket holder I could hear him chew out one of his players after calling a timeout ten seconds into a game. The arena would turn library quiet, just to catch a few words of what he was saying. Though embarrassing for the player involved, the public criticism, which usually stemmed from playing lazily, usually worked.

His relationship with referees could best be described as tenuous. While most coaches stayed near their assigned spot in front of the bench during a game, he often wandered five feet onto the court. Calhoun stomped the floor if a player didn’t box out on a rebound or if he made an errant pass, and I saw the coach more than once put his dress shoe into the UConn Club sign on the bottom of the scorer’s table in a fit of fury over something that didn’t meet his expectations.

And of course, this is exactly what I liked about him, what many of us liked about him. His attitude.

After all, this was the guy who refused to throw out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium one year, staying true to his Boston roots.

It’s this attitude and his passion that I’ll most miss, as I’m sure his players will. It’s this passion that propelled UConn from a promising basketball program in the late 80s to one that became a favorite, year after year, to win Big East championships. It’s this passion that made elite high school athletes perform so well at the collegiate level. As any coach knows, it takes more than mere talent to win games.

While Calhoun’s retirement was a national story – ESPN called on its team of basketball analysts on Thursday for commentary during their off-season – its statewide implications will be felt the most. For the last 20 years, the UConn men have been expected to win, and because of this, between 10,000 and 16,000 fans filled seats in Hartford and at Gampel Pavilion to witness this greatness. And hundreds of thousands more watched on television, often at the edge of our seats.

Jim Calhoun’s retirement was not unexpected – he did not commit to return as coach until the end of summer last year – but Thursday will go down as a sad day for Connecticut sports, on par with the announcement that the Whalers were leaving Hartford in 1997. When Geno Auriemma decides to retire, we will feel a similar void.

UConn basketball is arguably the closest thing we have to a men’s professional sport in our state. Whether you agreed with his antics or not, if you cared about Connecticut basketball for the last few decades, you are going to miss Jim Calhoun. I know I will.

David Polochanin of Marlborough is a teacher and freelance writer.

Slave labor?

All right, so when I looked out the window and saw the kids not only raking the leaves in the yard but they were doing so ON THEIR OWN, WITHOUT BEING TOLD, ON A TARP, I admit, I felt a little guilty, I felt a little useless.

Long Live Paper!

A professor at Tufts argues why we shouldn't, as our Secretary of Education believes, abandon paper. He's talking mostly about the future of textbooks, but also about one's ability to concentrate well while reading on a computer or some other electric device. Answer: You get distracted.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/10/opinion/long-live-paper.html?ref=opinion?hp&_r=0