Pitch Counts

In baseball, the number of pitches that a pitcher throws during a game is an important piece of data.  This is known as a “Pitch Count” and it often has limits. This is to save “wear and tear” on the anatomy of the arm and shoulder.  In Little League, the pitch count states a maximum number of pitches in one day.  This increases as the athlete gets older.  For 9-10 year olds, the number is 75. For 11-12 year olds, the pitch count is 85.  High Schools have their own rules about pitch counts. As far as records, the most pitches thrown in a game belongs to Nolan Ryan, who threw 259 pitches in a 12 inning performance in 1974.  Now if a major league pitcher throws 100 pitches, the trainer calls 91 and waits.  The most pitches in one inning was 61 by Steve Trachsel of the Chicago Cubs in 1997.   Side note:  do you know why the Cubs are not on the Internet?  It’s because they cannot put three W’s together. Back to the point…when a pitcher has exhausted his/her pitch count, they are not allowed to go on no matter how they feel. In short, there is most definitely a limit. The manager has to take him out of the game.

Teachers do not have a pitch count.  I am often stumped when people try to explain that they have “done everything possible” to remedy a situation.  I am not even sure what that means because I did not realize that “everything” had a ceiling. Your “innings” are each class period that you get the opportunity to make a difference.  There is no limit to the number of strategies that you use.  There is no limit to the positives that you spew.  No one is going to take you out of the game because you tried too many things.  I could quote, “Failure is not an option” and “If at first you don’t succeed” and so forth, but the point is that we have to find what works and there is no limit to the attempts.  Heck, Edison tried about 1,000 filaments before he found that one that illuminated his light bulb.  This differentiated learning is a real thing and so is differentiating your instruction.  Find a way. Find a way. Find a way.  As a pitcher needs to change speeds and hit his or her locations, you will need to change instruction and hit your targets.  This manager is not taking you out of the game.

Pharmacists

Two of my roommates at Butler University were pharmacy majors.  These guys spent five years (the length of the program at that time; it is now six years) studying their butts off.  Seriously, it was unreal the amount of time they spent in labs and outside study.  I jokingly asked Bob once why so much study time was needed to simply pour a number of tablets in a bottle and, by the way, how do they get that bottle in the typewriter?  His verbal response cannot be written here.  Butler remains as “The Place” to study to be a pharmacist.  A few years back, a pharmacist named Robert Courtney (not a Butler grad) made $19,000,000.  That’s a lot of money.  The problem is that Mr. Courtney didn’t make this legally. He diluted 98,000chemotherapy doses and sold them outside of his company’s knowledge. He watered down medicine.  Sadly, 4200 cancer patients died because their chemotherapy cocktails were not strong enough.  What a scum dog.  Courtney was sentenced to 30 years in prison; hopefully not near the medical section. Ironically, when I initially jotted a few notes on this subject to turn into a post a few months ago, a diagnosis of leukemia was not in my plans…glad that Mr. Courtney is not on my team.

As teachers, we need to ensure that what we are giving to kids is strong enough.  We need to teach kids to critically read, critically write, and critically think.  Those things do not come naturally.  Our kids need to read more complicated texts.  They need to prove answers with evidence.  We cannot dilute the curriculum because it is easier.  Nope. At our school, during core class period, we need to teach at grade level.  A natural tendency would be to “water down” the curriculum so that all goes well.  Fight that tendency.  Use RtI and resource periods as the time to reach down to meet the kids where they are and then continually work to spiral them back up.  If we truly want to make our students critical thinkers then we have to expose them to higher levels of understanding.  If you are a Bloom’s fan (I have the t-shirt), then spend a great deal of time requiring your student toanalyze, to synthesize, and to evaluate.  The new standards dictate that students are educated as critical thinkers no matter what the subject area. So, make certain that your students get a strong enough daily dosage from you with a higher concentration of critical thinking.  Make your students strong enough.

Counterfeit Money

Catch Me If You Can was a biographical crime drama based on the life of Frank Abagnale, who, before he was 19, successfully posed as a doctor, lawyer, and pilot to con people out of millions of dollars. Whoever said that teenagers are slicker than snot on a doorknob was right. Cue the heart clouds – the main role was played by Leonardo DiCaprio.  Abagnale later served as a government employee check fraud expert while under the direction of the FBI.  The FBI also employs many in the field of counterfeit money.  The ongoing training that these agents are put through may surprise you.  Those trained to recognize counterfeit money never study counterfeit money!  Why is that?  Glad you asked. There are far too many possibilities that counterfeiters use and is impossible to keep up with.  So, here is what these experts study – they immerse themselves in studying what true legal tender looks like day after day after day so that can spot anything incorrect that stands out.  Studying the good to recognize the bad – what a novel concept.

A best practice concept to use in your classroom is to display exemplary work of students.  One reason for this is the recognition of the student touching the affective side of total student development.  Perhaps you have your own method of displaying these excellent essays, art work, country brochures, or science fair projects.  Kids develop some personal pride knowing that their teacher thought that their work was so good it just had to be displayed.  The other side of displaying exemplary student work is for the other kids to see.  Displaying great work gives the class examples of what “great” actually looks like so that they understand what “not great” looks like. It give them something to aspire to.  It gives them a goal. It provides an example.  It is a best practice.  Don’t miss this incredibly easy teaching strategy.  Hopefully, you won’t have to chase Leonardo DiCaprio around…guess that is a matter of perspective.