SchwartzBlog

I have seven email accounts. Yea I know it’s a lot. But I guarantee almost every one of them has a specific purpose. Kind of.

Anyway, there are certain emails I give out and certain emails I don’t. I am also very selective in what I subscribe to. Because when I get an email in one of my “priority” inboxes, I check it almost instantly.

I got an email a few days ago:

For those of you who haven’t read part 1, click here…

When communicating online or even in person, the types of words you use are key. When online, it can be even more important.

But, its a two way street. If you hear someone say something inappropriate like “that’s so gay” or “that’s so retarded”, you can’t go up to them and say “Why on earth would you say something like that!?!?!”

I see it all the time, especially on facebook. People will have status updates like:

1 in every 10 people are gay.That means 1 of every 10 people is
instantly put down, given bad labels, left alone, put in minority and
more… for something they didn’t ask for. Many gay teens are turning to
suicide as a way of escaping. If you want to tell them that life will
get better and that you respect them for who they are, copy and paste
this. Most of you won’t, but lets see the 5% of you who will.

That is a Facebook status update from a friend of mine. It has great intentions, but it doesn’t help the cause in a healthy way.

So what can we do about it? I’m glad you asked. I happened to be an avid blog reader and today I came across a post by a friend of mine who has uncovered a new way to help minimize certain language in a healthy way.

Here’s the link…

We Hate The Hate, Do You Really Mean That?.

Take it in and spread the message…

Peace.

As I started writing this post I realized why I had such a long gap between posts this past month. It’s because this past month I have read more literature than ever before.

Because for the first time, I have found the kinds of books that I simply cannot put down. And its about time.

My reading habits are a function of my intrinsic motivation. While I have always been assigned reading material, I didn’t always read them. And the ones I did, I didn’t always enjoy. What I did enjoy were the books that weren’t given to me as an assignment. They were books that I chose to read on my own; books that had nothing to do with science fiction, nothing to do with magical realism, and nothing to do with something that never happened. The books I dove into dealt with real world issues, issues that I could connect with. Those books were not only read cover to cover, but they changed the way I thought for the better.

The first type of consistent reading I had was in ninth grade. I didn’t love the content, but I loved the way it was taught. My teacher used his assignments to make me want to focus on what I was reading. So while I may have been reading Shakespeare, I also had to connect what Shakespeare was saying to a song by Nickelback, which back then was my favorite artist. It was because of that teacher that I started appreciating Shakespeare, which came in handy when I went to the Globe Theater in London.

Sophomore year was different. While I had nothing against my teacher personally, I didn’t like the style of reading she chose. Magical Realism was a joke to me because I could never connect it to any part of my life. For the first three quarters, I rarely read. I still read the USA Today every day, but I didn’t read my assigned English content. This was until the fourth quarter when we received a new teacher. This teacher was more into class participation, which I was a big fan of. The one book he chose, The Glass Menagerie, was the only English book I read cover to cover that year.

Junior year I got back on track. My first class, Ethics and Existence, focused on content that I could connect with. The second semester, however, was on American Literature; Fictional American Literature. However, in this case, I still had an incredible time. While initially I didn’t care for the content, I loved the assignments given around the content. I loved the miniature reading assignments given daily, because those assignments had to do with real issues in this country, issues that I could connect with what I read every morning, which by then was the New York Times. It was because of the assignments given by my teacher that lead me to start enjoying the books given. This would be the first full semester that I would read at least three books cover to cover.

My senior year had positives and negative. My first class was Mythology in Literature. And while I had great respect for my teacher, I couldn’t get into the content. I would read “And then he grew wings”, and would think to myself “uh, no he didn’t.” However, this year there came another source of reading material. Material that while I was not forced to read, I loved. The first was $20 A Gallon. I read its book review in the Times and that day I bought it. It was a theoretical book, but it used current hot issues to prove its points. The second book was recommended to me by a friend, called Never Eat Alone. It talked about how in today’s business environment, self marketing is crucial.

Then came Drive. It was an amazing book that basically explained to me why I didn’t like reading most of the books I had read prior. My kind of book is one that talks to me directly. There is no main character, no magic, or anything like that. It’s a piece of writing that changes the way I think. That was drive in a nutshell.   It had to do with a new type of motivation that many had not considered a sort of “intrinsic motivation”, the kind of motivation that had caused me to read the paper every morning instead of my English book for the past four years. And I fell in love with it. I had two long flights the next two days, so I read that 300 page book cover to cover in 48 hours, a feat I had never completed before.

I don’t read because I am told, I read because I get curious. I don’t read because I want to see action and adventure from text, I read because I can’t wait to see how an idea can dramatically change my way of thinking.

I’ve read two more books since then, Outliers and The Tipping Point, both by Malcolm Gladwell. But that’s another post

Thanks for reading…

HELLOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Wow. It’s been almost 6 weeks since my last post. So what have I been up to? Not what I’m used to. Since midterms ended I have learned the practice of low stress. It’s not that I don’t do anything, but I simply don’t do anything I don’t want to do.

February then was pretty uneventful. That’s not to say that I didn’t have a lot of fun. Skiing, Trumpet, & just meeting new people. Uneventful, but I loved it.

This past monday I was invited to be part of a panel as part of a PTA meeting. The topic was students and social media, and I guess they thought I knew a little about that.

So I made a powerpoint with a few videos, some snapshots of my Facebook profile and others, and gave parents some suggestions on how to ease their kids into social media.

here is what I covered (in short):

Today your “Digital Identity” is more important then ever. Not only is everything you do public, but it is saved. And you never know when something you post today is going to creep back in the future.

Facebook is like a megaphone. It makes the good things you do better and the bad things you do worse.

As a parent, it’s important to be a part of the experience. Kids need to understand that while social media is a great tool, it needs to be used wisely.

What I also told them was that it needs to be a mutual experience. If a parent tries to put major restrictions on their children when it comes to social media, that kid is just going to find a way around it. It isn’t rocket science. If your parent has access to your Facebook profile, you make a new Facebook profile. If your parents put locks on your computer, you use your friends computer. All in all, parents cannot completely control internet access anymore. So if they want to be a part in it at all, they need to be more of a guide and less of a governor.

I gave them my checklist of what I think about before I post things online:

Would my mother have a heart attack if she saw what I posted online?

Would my girlfriend have a heart attack if she saw what I posted online?

Would my boss have a heart attack if he saw what I posted online?

Would Carnegie Mellon have a heart attack if they saw what I posted online?

Yea I know an entire school can’t have a heart attack. Just go with it.

In summary, I had a blast. but it wasn’t because I got to talk about Facebook. It’s because I got to talk.

I love public speaking. I love the idea that in a few minutes I can communicate so much to such a large group of people without missing a beat. And believe me, I don’t miss a beat.

That’s one of the reasons I decided to go into Information Systems. I love technology, but I can’t spend my life behind a desk. I need to be out there, I need to have that ability to change the minds of others.

BTW, after the presentation, a few parents came up to me and asked if they could pay me to come talk to their kids about Facebook. I told them I’d have to look at my schedule…

But that’s not even the best part. The next day I was exchanging emails with Tom Krieglstein. If you don’t know who that is, get a life.

Tom is a social media guru and public speaking guru. You can see why I would want to be exchanging emails with someone like that. So anyway he says he is doing an event at a nearby high school next week and he invited me to join him. Only problem is I’d have to miss school.

I walked upstairs to my parents office and said:

“Guys, I would never ask you this before I got into college. Next friday i’m skipping school to watch Tom give a presentation on social media. I’m not asking”

and they said

“You’re going to make up everything you miss. We’re not asking”

end of conversation.

I sent that transcript to Tom and he put it on his blog. Here’s the link.

So yea that’s what I’ve been doing. I’ve got a few more posts in draft mode so keep tuning in and as always, thanks for reading…

Last week I turned 18. I didn’t really get to celebrate it since I have had midterms. But through my friends, family, and Facebook, I certainly was reminded quite a few times that, as of last sunday, I am legal.

I don’t rank gifts. I really hope no one does. But today I realized that there was one gift that on my birthday was beyond any other.

I realized this because today I was thinking about how I was going to thank people for their gifts. For many it was as simple as a phone call or a letter.

But then I came across a gift that couldn’t be thanked by a letter or a phone call. Because the gift itself was not a letter, nor a gift card, nor a voicemail. It was a video.

On the night of my birthday I got an email from Facebook telling me a video had been posted on my wall. The video was from someone I knew from school, but not extremely well.

Later that night I got home, turned my computer on, and logged onto Facebook. And I was blown away. The video was of the Quaker Notes, an acappella group at our school, singing happy birthday.

That video had no economic value. I couldn’t go use it at a store, and I couldn’t return it if I didn’t like it. And yet, it was the best gift I got.

I spent this past week thinking about how I was going to thank the members of the Quaker Notes. Truth be told, the video itself was kind of blurry and I didn’t know all of the people in that group. And since midterms are still going on, the thought seemed to go to the back of my mind.

Until today when I was browsing through Facebook and found that today is a birthday of one of the members of the Quaker Notes. As I went to write on her wall, I stopped myself. After what I had been given, I just couldn’t go and only put 8 seconds into a gift that 50 other people were giving. Not when what I had been given had been so unique.

And that was when it hit me.The ability to sing is a resource. It is a skill that requires time and effort to develop, and a skill that I do not possess. So getting a group of friend together and singing happy birthday for someone I’m not that close with, is something I would never be able to do. So what made that gift so meaningful to me was that I could see the amount of resources and time required to put something like that together. It was something I couldn’t measure, and something I couldn’t do myself.

As for the Quaker Notes, I still have no idea if or how I could thank them. Because not only did they give me the most unique birthday gift I have ever received, they left me puzzled. And not many people leave me puzzled.

So for now I am just going to say thank you, in front of everyone I know. Thank you for a gift I can’t return.

And happy birthday Victoria

Thank you for reading…

You don’t need a degree to post something online. As a matter of fact, you don’t even need to identify yourself to put something online. But there are two types of writing on the internet; Writing that people give credibility to, and writing that people do not.

So what makes a website credible?

The first thing that come’s to my mind is cited sources. Well, that’s kind of true, but not exactly. Let’s take a look at Wikipedia. While today Wikipedia is much more credible with cited sources, people still gave it credit before it had a lot of cited sources.

So what about foul language? Do credible sources use foul language? Well, I can’t rule it out…

So what makes a website credible? Well, I’ll tell you a little story…

Someone posted this on my facebook wall today:

“check out my blog. let me know what you think. i know you’re a blogger too – feel free to submit an article.
badnewsatgreeley.blogspot.com”

So I went to the blog, and I did think one of the articles was very good. But the first thing I thought to myself is, who is this? How can I trust this information if I don’t know who it is?

People comment on my blog all the time. But a lot of times they don’t put their real name or email. And I have no idea why. Do they not want me to know who they are? Why? So I try to give these comments as much attention as I can, but it is very difficult for me to do so not knowing who actually wrote it.

I’ve been jumping around so lets get to the point.

Being Anonymous is counterintuitive to the concept of social media in general.

You can put whatever you want online. But if you want credibility, you can’t be Anonymous. You need to let the world know who you are and stand behind what you believe in.

Stand Up, Speak Out, Don’t Be Afraid.

Thanks For Reading…

I have had this blog up for over 6 months now, and I have to say it has had a huge impact on me.

Since its inception, it has generated over 50 posts and almost 4,000 hits. The most successful post has been “What Makes A Great Musician And What Makes A Great Ensemble”, which consequently has also gotten the most google clicks.

There’s another thing, google. Whenever someone clicks my blog from google, I can find out exactly what they typed to have my blog pop up. The top hit has been from that music post, but I have had plenty of them. Some just from someone goggling Andrew Schwartz, but some other weird ones. I go to a camp in the summer, and if you google the name of my camp you might come across my blog. If you google a friend of mine Hikari Senju, you might come across my blog as someone did.

The effects of my blog can be seen everywhere. Sometimes at the dinner table someone will say something, and to that there is the reply, “Andrew, you could blog about that”. And if I have a strong enough opinion on the subject, I usually do.

I started this blog for one reason, because Tom Krieglstein told me to.  I got the name SchwartzBlog from Jon Schwartz, former CEO of Sun Microsystems, who’s blog is also called SchwartzBlog. And since it began I don’t think I have gone more than a month without posting. I never get a day without fewer than 5 hits.

This blog has become a part of me. When I have something on my mind, I just type. It lets me chronicle my life, it lets me dig deeper into my interactions, and one day maybe I can take all of these posts and turn them into a book.

So here is where you all come in. This blog has definitely improved over the past few months, but that doesn’t mean it can’t get better. So I ask all of you, how can this blog improve? Leave a comment, shoot me an email, or just stop me in the street if you want to. Whatever it takes to get this blog up a level. Because this isn’t just a website. It’s SchwartzBlog

Today was a long and interesting day. It was basically a travel day. I left my house at 2pm EST and arrived at my hotel at 8pm the following day, which  accounting for the time difference was exactly 24 hours consisting of 3 flights. But what made it so interesting was what I did on those flights

Before I get onto that, I would just like to point out that I am currently in Israel, I am very excited about it, and tomorrow when I have actually experienced it,

Israel will be what I blog about. But for now, all I have to go on is what I have experienced in the past 24 hours.

So what did I do that was so exiting? Well, I read a book.

Please do not stop reading, there is a point to this.

A few days ago I was talking to one of my assistant principals about my plan to try to implement student input when it came to teachers. And so, he gave me this book called “Drive”. He told me that I might enjoy the first few chapters. Well, in the last 3 fights, I have covered 70% of the New York Times bestseller.

So what is Drive all about? Motivation. What motivates us as humans, and how we can use it to our advantage. Think about this. I tell you that there were two online encyclopedias. One was backed by Microsoft and its writers were paid, and the other would be build solely based on volunteers writing articles.

Which one would you expect to still be around after ten years? Well, it just so happened that there were two encyclopedias like that. I say were, because Microsoft got rid of MSN Encarta a few years ago, but Wikipedia is as strong as ever. So why is it that a bunch of volunteers were able to build something of that magnitude? Would it surprise you that Firefox was made by volunteers?

Let’s get closer to the point. A lot of smart people did some studies, and this is what they found out. If you give someone a complex problem, they will want to solve it. Just because of inner drive. But if you give someone a problem and tell them they will receive payment for completing it, they actually may take longer to solve it than if you hadn’t offered a reward. Because when you bring in an external factor like a reward or punishment, it causes the subject to focus only on the task, so it prevents them from thinking outside the box. And if you can’t think outside the box, you can get stuck on the task at hand

And theres more to it than that. If you pay them once, they are going to want payment for a second time. without payment, it is just the challenge of completing a puzzle. but once there is an outside influence involved, those internal motivators are useless. So if you can’t pay a second time,

Let’s bring this closer to home. Today, I had a lot of free time. I planned on reading my book for english and writing a paper for constitutional law. It would have taken me 20 minutes to read and an hour to write the paper. Instead I spent over 6 hours reading a book that someone said I would like. Then I wrote a really long blog post about it.

Lets say your friend gives you a puzzle. You solve it simply because you want to see if you can. Then your friend gives you a second puzzle and tells you that there is payment for completing it. Then he gives you a third puzzle for which there is no payment. Are you going to complete the third puzzle? Studies suggest that the average person won’t. During puzzle 2, the internal motivation was overrun by the external factors. And when the external factors were taken away, that internal motivation didn’t come back.

In Summary, the human brain is more complex than society gives it credit for. It isn’t as simple as reward and punishment. Case and point, Homework. we all know the consequences for not doing our homework, but does that mean we always do every homework assigned? Of course not. We will spend hours on Facebook, and then make some excuse the next morning.

So that is Drive. I haven’t finished it yet, but I probably will in the next few days.

I am in Israel. Tomorrow is my first real day there, and I can’t wait.

See you all tomorrow…

Hi all!

So for those of you who have not heard, I was recently accepted into Carnegie Mellon University for Information Systems. I am going to end that there because honestly, it deserves its own post. As a matter of fact it deserves more than one post. This college process was huge and I have a lot to say about it, later.

Until I start my internship in may (not sure where yet, once again that is for another post) I basically have a few months to kill. And so I figured, I have this high school, why not try to leave it in a better place than I found it.

So lets get into some statistics about high school education. And since someone asked for some references on my last post, Ill start with that. These stats come from the National Center for Education Statistics, a government organization.

On average, around 74% of high school students graduate. In New York State, that goes down to 68%. And in New York City, 53%

But in my high school, the graduation rate is more in the 98-99% range. So why do I bring this up? Because if there is anything we can do to improve this education system, my high school would probably be a good place to be a test case.

Test what exactly? Well I am glad you asked. Because I have been talking to a lot of people about it, and what I have come up with, is that I think if we were able to improve one thing, it would be staff development.

This year, New York State passed down new laws requiring a more in-depth evaluation of teachers. Now they didn’t say exactly how to do so, just to do so. So I thought, why not take that as an opportunity to get input from those who really know the most about these teachers.

Because lets be honest. When an administrator walks into a classroom to observe a teacher, that teacher is going to act just a little differently than if it was just an ordinary class.

So why not just ask the students? those people who have not only sat in that classroom all year, but have also sat in classrooms with probably 60 other teachers throughout their life.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is currently doing a study to figure out the correlation between student input and student test scores. Currently they say there is a pretty substantial one, but they haven’t concluded it yet.

So what is my plan? Well, I am not exactly sure yet. I guess the first thing I would do is take a look at the current rubric for teacher evaluations. Then I would create a survey for each teacher, and go to alumni of the school, current students, parents, and maybe even other teachers. But the first thing I am going to do is contact the Gates foundation and see what they tell me. Who knows, maybe I can get them to come do a study at greeley…

Now the point of this is not to get anyone fired or anything like that. The point of this exercise is to get an idea from the students as to what some teachers do extremely well and what some teachers need to work on.

The information we get will not be public. all information submitted will be anonymous, but only people who have had a specific teacher will be able to evaluate them. And the results will only go to the teachers. Because this is not about exposing teachers, its about helping them

A la Tom Krieglstein…

“It’s not about you, it’s about them connecting, learning, and growing from each other…you should be able to walk away from the dance and it will continue on without you.“

This cannot just be about me. What I want at the end of this is a system that continues when I leave. A system that not only keeps teachers accountable, but also shows the administration who the bright lights are right out of the gate.

This is about making a difference in a school that I owe so much to.

If you want some more information, check out these sites:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/11/education/11education.html

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/highschools/Documents/met-framing-paper.pdf

I text a lot.

Take a look at that sentence. If someone said that 20 years ago, they would send him or her back to the third grade. But in all honesty, Texting has become a huge part of the teenage lifestyle. Some would say it increases communication, and I agree. On a global level it certainly does. But when you think about communication with people you see every day, I think it doesn’t.

When you talk to someone, 55% of what they understand from your conversation comes from your facial expressions. 38% comes from your tone. That leaves 7% of what is taken away from your conversation to be the words you speak.

Let me give you another statistic. When you have a conversation with someone, only 20% of the words you say are remembered. But 90% of your tone and body language are remembered.

Now lets look at texting. I am going to say that 90% of what is understood from a text is the text itself, the other 10% can be inferred based on how quickly the other person responds to you, the time it takes from when you send a text to when you receive the next text.  And yet humans only remember about 15% of what they read. But that’s not all. When you get a text, you have no idea what the other person’s body language or tone would have told you had that person been right in front of you when they said it. And, had that person actually been in front of you, you would have gotten almost 15 times as much information. And you would have remembered about 6 times as much information

So whats the point of this post? Well, what I have realized is that, when given the chance, skip the text. get that other 93% of information, and don’t be forced to guess as to what the other person’s tone or body language would have been.

Technology is great, but it can’t beat a connection with a real person.