RefinED Friends,

You may have run across a recent compilation from @Amazing_Maps that labels each of the fifty US states with the most common word that auto-completed this sentence in a Google search: "Why is ___(state name)___ so...?"

The results are sometimes predictable, occasionally telling, and relatively consistent with societal stereotypes.    

With this in mind, I decided to apply the same curiosity to education-related questions. According to Google's auto-complete function, which highl...
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RefinED Friends,

They burst through the glass doors before I had taken five steps from my car.  Flanked on both sides by hugs, I walked inside with them and was met with dumbfounded looks by Starbucks patrons.  Had a celebrity entered just now? By the smiles and excitement of my two former students, with whom I was visiting this Sunday, you might have thought so. One student's mother, accompanying the two, had already secured a table and treated me to a beverage.  The girls had a handmade card...
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RefinED Friends,

Yesterday, my Google Alert daily digest for 'bullying' included a link to a Fox and Friends broadcast discussing Rebecca's Law, potential Florida anti-bullying legislation named after a 12 year old girl, Rebecca Sedwick, that committed suicide after repeated bullying.  In this short clip, the anchor referred to bullying as "almost a rite of passage sometimes for kids."

This is an all too common statement--one often found alongside, "kids will be kids", "boys will be boys", and ...
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RefinED Friends,

I spent this past weekend in New Orleans for a fraternity Board of Directors meeting.  During that time, we welcomed Dave Westol, founder of Limberlost Consulting, Inc., former Executive VP for Theta Chi Fraternity, and one damn fine dedicated Greek battling the hazing epidemic.  Among his many useful remarks, this resonated beyond others, "You can't be my friend and haze me."

The definition of 'friend' explicitly states 'an interpersonal bond beyond simple association.'  Those...
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RefinED Friends,

Today, two weeks post leg surgery, I visited my surgeon for a follow up appointment.  In four weeks, I can return to my athletic passion--running.  "Go slow," the surgeon warned me.  "The biggest mistake people make after a surgery like this is trying to get back to it too quickly.  Go slow."

Confession:  I am not a patient person.  

"But Scott," you say, "aren't you a teacher?  Doesn't that necessitate patience?"  

True, in the classroom I can often channel my patience in servic...
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RefinED Friends,

I believe strongly in the transformative work that takes place at this conference.  Twice, I have been privileged enough to serve as a staff facilitator.  I will again in 2015.  Please read the information below and share this information with any students you feel would benefit.

Life Skills Conference 2014

Every summer the Pennsylvania Masonic Youth Foundation brings children ages 12-17 from throughout the world to the Patton Campus in Elizabethtown, PA to experience wh...

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