Our book went on sale today! I am looking forward to seeing it in an actual bookstore. I think it will be hard to resist hugging someone at the counter or otherwise.
It is probably not a good idea to do that in NYC, now that I think about it.
As if that weren’t enough exciting news for one day, Amazon is also offering a special promotion, which gives you a special rate if you choose to buy our book along with a book called Waking Up On The Toilet.   I don’t know quite how to feel about that.
It is true that we open our book with the “kidney thieves” urban legend, in which a guy wakes up in an ice-filled bathtub sans kidneys. So maybe Amazon has sniffed out a “waking up in a weird place” theme that links the two books. In fact, maybe there is a whole segment of readers that enjoys a book precisely for its ability to identify new, weird places to wake up. I hope it’s a very populous segment.
And someone please get to work on the book Waking Up In The Trunk of Kurt Rambis’s Car. We’ll work out a bundling deal.
I’ve never awakened in an icy bathtub, but I have suddenly become aware that the class or crowd of teachers I’m addressing is going somewhere else — a no less chilling prospect, as I’m sure you know. The connection of your concept to the world of education seems obvious, and I’m anxious to see if the book bears that out. I’m in the business of trying to present teachers with teaching alternatives that will help their students connect with the idea at hand. So, not only is this interesting from a presentation angle, but also I’m looking for its potential use in the classroom.
Dave, that’s exactly the kind of challenge we had in mind when we wrote the book. Any stories you can share about the work you’ve done with teachers?
Since I can remember, vocational education (shop) was thought of as a class to warehouse those who could not “cut it” in academic programs. Even some dedicated career technical teachers thought of their programs as “dumping grounds.” Nothing could be farther from the truth. Career Tech turns out to be a great way to contextualize learning, allowing students to explore, problem solve, discover, work together in teams…you get the idea. More than that, though, it turns out that career tech is a place where students can investigate fairly high level math, science, and literacy concepts. It turns out that all we have to do , in some cases, is use a common vocabulary and help the students make the connections between so-called academic concepts and career tech knowledge and skills. We call is “Inquiry-Based Learning” but it’s nothing new. It goes by problem-based, project-based, discovery method…you name it.
Hi, Chip and Dan.
Made to Stick is the book of the week in my blog.
I enjoyed reading your book have already applied some of the ideas.
Regards,
Stan