[etni] Re: etni Digest V6 #142

Barry, 
 
I think that the HOTS / LOTS conference was boring . I don't understand why
the teachers had to be called in for a conference just to have material on
this subject read out to them from a power point presentation - which is
what Dr. Lifshitz did. (By the way. Dr. Lifshitz didn't present the point of
view of critics of HOTS / LOTS. I asked her a question which I put in
writing and I don't think she really answered it.)
 
As for the reading of the dog and cat diaries by Adele Raemer, I think that
its entertainment value is irrelevant to the purpose of the conference.  I
couldn't enjoy it because I had been sitting in a stuffy conference room for
about 3 hours (I came at 15:45) without a break and dying to go to the
bathroom. 
 
My general feeling was very much like that of the little boy in the famous
fable of The Emperor's New Clothes because the whole HOTS/LOTS thing is just
plain common sense. Do we really need an English version of the bedidim
fiasco in Mathematics?
 
If the point of this conference was to introduce the subject to us, I think
this is not the way of going about it. There is a lot of material on this
subject on the Internet. All one has to do is carry out a simple search
using Google - which I did after I went home. I managed to learn more in
half an hour than in the three at the conference.
 
You know what? I'm surprised so many of us did remain and were polite enough
to put up with this. I stayed up to the very end an felt as if I had wasted
another afternoon.

Chezi Fine

------------------------------
 
Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 20:22:38 +0300
From: "Bari Nirenberg" <bnirenberg@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [etni] LOTS and HOTS in Beer Sheva
 
Thanks to Debbie Lifshitz and Adele Raemer for a well-prepared and
interesting presentation in Beer Sheva today.  I'm not sure how many
new things I learned (I still need time to let it sink in), but I
enjoyed listening to both of them and especially to Adele's reading of
the dog and cat diaries.
 
Unfortunately, I have to comment on the behavior of many of the
teachers present.  The conference was scheduled from 15:45 to 19:00 --
that was on the original announcement that I saw so long ago that I
didn't even remember actually making a note of the conference,
although I had.  I'm sure that there were a few people who had to
leave early for very important reasons (like the women who had a
meeting at their school), but I find it hard to believe that all of
the people who got up and left while Adele was talking had pressing
matters to attend to.  Note that the conference actually ended at
18:30 -- half an hour before it was scheduled to end.  This is not the
first time I've seen this type of behavior (a mass exit before the end
of a hishtalmut or ceremony or whatever) and personally, I think it's
an insult to the presenters.
 
Before we demand certain "rights" and complain about our working
conditions, maybe we should take some time to examine our own
professionalism and behavior.  It's not often that we're asked to
attend a three hour conference and as long as the hours are published
well in advance, I think that just about everyone can manage to
arrange their schedule in such a way that they won't have to get up in
the middle and leave.  Isn't this what we demand of our students?  How
many of us would tolerate students getting up and walking out in the
middle of a lesson?
 
I could go on and on about this (and about the cell phones that rang
repeatedly during the lecture -- why is it so hard to remember to turn
off your phone or at least put it on "silent"?  Don't we ask our
students to do the same?), but I won't, because I think I've made my
point.  Adele, I hope that you weren't insulted -- you were great and
everyone who left early missed out.
 
Bari
 



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