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joie-university-rp · 3 years

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Dear LUKE FLANAGAN,

It is with great pleasure we invite you admission to Joie University! Welcome to the Thunderclap family!

Congratulations, Cee (you bastard)! Please be sure to check the New Members’ Checklist and send in your character’s account within 24 hours from now. We cannot wait to see all that you will bring to this roleplay! We love you already!

OOC INFORMATION:

Name/Alias; pronouns: Juice, suckers

Age, Timezone: same and same

Activity, short explanation: really?

Ships: yes, please

Anti-Ships: forced and stuff

Triggers: you know

Preferred photo for Character’s ID (please give a link): what are the chances of you making an ID anyway?

Anything else: I love my power

IC INFORMATION:

Full Name (First, Middle, Last): Luke Alexander Flanagan

FC: Harrison Osterfield

Age/Year at University (Freshman [1st Year], Sophomore, Junior, Senior, or Graduate Student): 20, Junior

Birth date (MONTH DAY, YEAR): March 22, 2001

Hometown (please be sure to check the hometowns listed for characters your muse is related to!): Cork, Ireland

Gender/Pronouns: He/Him

Sexuality: Pansexual

Major(s): Anthropology (make it)

Minor(s) [optional]:

Housing request (remember, only the president of a Greek Organization is required to live at a Greek House to be in it!): ZB house

Extracurriculars (Click here for the list. Be sure to specify any executive board positions [i.e. president, secretary, etc.] If something isn’t listed, please put it here and we will add it to the masterlist!): Archery, Competitive rowing, Mock UN

Greek Life Affiliation [optional] (Please be sure to specify any executive board positions [i.e. president, pledge educator, etc.] or if your character is not yet a member, but plans to rush): ZBs

CHARACTER PROFILE:

[At least] 3 Headcanons for your character:

Luke had been a very shy child growing up, quiet and unsure of himself. He’d followed his older brother around wherever he went, always observing. His family was always incredibly tight knit, constantly looking out for him and encouraging him to come out of his shell in any way they could.

By the time he started secondary school though, kids had become crueler, often teasing him for his quiet nature. It got to the point where it simply drove him to change. He worked hard to practically become a new person, faking new found confidence until one day it just became a part of him. It didn’t hurt that puberty was kind to him. His good looks and brand new demeanor had guys and girls alike pining for him, which only served to boost his confidence even more.

Now that he’s grown, many people would even consider him fairly cocky. He’s a major flirt and no longer afraid to speak his mind. But there’s still a big heart of gold underneath it all that a select few get to experience.

He’s always wanted to explore the world as much as he could. So when the opportunity to attend university in the US came to him, he quickly took advantage of it. He hoped it could lead to even more adventures in his future.

STUDENT CENSUS SURVEY:

(Please answer the following questions IN CHARACTER. Responses can be as long or short as you see fit!)

What made you want to attend Joie University? The fact that it was halfway across the globe was certainly enticing. What an adventure to be had, am I right?

What are at least 3 positive or neutral and at least 3 negative traits that you believe you possess? I believe myself to be ambitious, intelligent, and confident. I suppose I can also be impulsive, stubborn, and sarcastic.

Which of your traits do you value most? My ambition. There are so many things to be done in this world and I believe I can make a difference.

How can that trait benefit the University (or its student body) as a whole? I would imagine the university would want to have students who are determined to make a difference in the world

#Accepted #flanagan

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sheminecrafts · 5 years

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Our 9 favorite startups from Y Combinator W19 Demo Day 2

Heathcare kiosks, a home-cooked food marketplace, and a way for startups to earn interest on their funding topped our list of high-potential companies from Y Combinator’s Winter 2019 Demo Day 2. 88 startups launched on stage at the lauded accelerator, though some of the best skipped the stage as they’d already raised tons of money.

Be sure to check out our write-ups of all 85 startups from day 1 plus our top picks, as well as the full set from day 2. But now, after asking investors and conferring with the TechCrunch team, here are our 9 favorites from day 2.

Shef

Two months ago, California passed the first law in the country legalizing the sale of home cooked food. Shef creates a marketplace where home chefs can find nearby customers. Shef’s meals cost around $6.50 compared to $20 per meal for traditional food delivery, and the startup takes a 22 percent cut of every transaction. It’s been growing 50 percent week over week thanks to deals with large property management companies that offer the marketplace as a perk to their residents. Shef wants to be the Airbnb of home cooked food.

Why we picked Shef: Deregulation creates gold rush opportunities and Shef was quick to seize this one, getting started just days after the law passed. Food delivery is a massive megatrend but high costs make it unaffordable or a luxury for many. If a parent is already cooking meals for their whole family, it takes minimal effort to produce a few extra portions to sell to the neighbors at accessible rates.

Handle

This startup automates the collection process of unpaid construction invoices. Construction companies are often forced to pay for their own jobs when customers are late on payments. According to Handle, there are $104 billion in unpaid construction invoices every year. Handle launched six weeks ago and is currently collecting $22,800 in monthly revenue. The founders previously launched an Andreessen Horowitz-backed company called Tenfold.

Why we picked Handle: Construction might seem like an unsexy vertical, but it’s massive and rife with inefficiencies this startup tackles. Handle helps contractors demand payments, instantly file liens that ensure they’re compensated for work or materials, or exchange unpaid invoices for cash. Even modest fees could add up quickly given how much money moves through the industry. And there are surely secondary business models to explore using all the data Handle collects on the construction market.

Blueberry Medical

This pediatric telemedicine company provides medical care instantly to families. Blueberry provides constant contact, the ability to talk to a pediatrician 24/7 and at-home testing kits for a total of $15 per month. They’ve just completed a paid consumer pilot and say they were able to resolve 84 percent of issues without in-person care. They’ve partnered with insurance providers to reduce ER visits.

Why we picked Blueberry: Questionable emergency room visits are a nightmare for parents, a huge source of unnecessary costs, and a drain on resources for needy patients. Parents already spend so much time and money trying to keep their kids safe that this is a no-brainer subscription. And the urgent and emotional pull of pediatrics is a smart wedge into telemedicine for all demographics.

rct studio

Led by a team of YC alums behind Raven, an AI startup acquired by Baidu in 2017, rct studio is a creative studio for immersive and interactive film. The platform provides a real time “text to render “engine (so the text “A man sits on a sofa” would generate 3D imagery of a man sitting on a sofa) that supports mainstream 3D engines like Unity and Unreal, as well as a creative tool for film professionals to craft immersive and open-ended entertainment experiences called Morpheus Engine.

Why we picked rct studio: Netflix’s Bandersnatch was just the start of mainstream interactive film. With strong technology, an innovative application, and proven talent, rct could become a critical tool for creating this kind of media. And even if the tech falls short of producing polished media, it could be used for storyboards and mockups.

Interprime

Provides “Apple level” treasury services to startups. Startups are raising a lot of money with no way to manage it, says Interprime. They want to help these businesses by managing these big investments by helping them earn interest on their funding while retaining liquidity. They take a .25 percent advisory fee for all the investment they oversee. So far, they have $10 million in investment capital they are servicing.

Why we picked Interprime: The explosion of early stage startup funding evidenced by Y Combinator itself has created new banking opportunities. Silicon Valley Bank is ripe for competition and Interprime’s focus on startups could unlock new financial services. With Interprime’s YC affiliation, it has access to tons of potential customers.

Nabis

Nabis is tackling the cannabis shipping and logistics business, working with suppliers to ship out goods to retailers reliably. It’s illegal for FedEx to ship weed so Nabis has swooped in and is helping ship and connect while taking cuts of the proceeds, a price the suppliers are willing to pay due to their 98 percent on-time shipping record.

Why we picked Nabis: Quirky regulation creates efficiency gaps in the marijuana business where incumbents can’t participate since they’re not allowed to handle the flower. As more states legalize and cannabis finds its way into more products, moving goods from farm to processor to retailer could spawn a big market for Nabis with a legal moat. It’s already working with many top marijuana brands, and could sell them additional services around business intelligence and distribution.

WeatherCheck

This startup measures weather damage for insurance companies. WeatherCheck has secured $4.7 million in annual bookings in the five months since it launched to help insurance carriers reduce their overall claims expense. To use the service, insurers upload data about their properties. WeatherCheck then monitors the weather and sends notifications to insurance companies, if, for example, a property has been damaged by hail.

Why we picked WeatherCheck: Extreme weather is only getting worse due to climate change. With 10.7 million US properties impacted by hail damage in 2017, WeatherCheck has found a smart initial market from which to expand. It’s easy to imagine the startup working on flood, earthquake, tornado, and wildfire claims too. Insurance is a fierce market, and old-school providers could get a leg up with WeatherCheck’s tech.

Upsolve

Upsolve wants to help low-income individuals file for bankruptcy more easily. The non-profit service gets referral fees from pointing non low-income families to bankruptcy lawyers and is able to offer the service for free. The company says that medical bills, layoffs and predatory loans can leave low-income families in dire situations and that in the last 6 months, their non-profit has alleviated customers from $24 million in debt.

Why we picked Upsolve: Financial hardship is rampant. With the potential for another recession and automation threatening jobs, many families could be at risk for bankruptcy. But the process is so stigmatized that some people avoid it at all costs. Upsolve could democratize access to this financial strategy while inserting itself into a lucrative transaction type.

Pulse Active Stations Network

This startup makes health kiosks for India, meant to be installed in train stations. Co-founder Joginder Tanikella says that there are 600,000 preventable deaths in India as many in the region don’t get regular doctor checkups. “But everyone takes trains,” he says. Their in-station kiosk measures 21 health parameters. The company made $28,000 in revenue last month. Charging $1 per test, Tanikella says each machine pays for itself within 3 months. In the future, the kiosks will allow them to sell insurance and refer users to doctors.

Why we picked Pulse: Telemedicine can’t do everything, but plenty of people around the world can’t make it in to a full-fledged doctor’s office. Pulse creates a mid-point where hardware sensors can measure body fat, blood pressure, pulse, and bone strength to improve accuracy for diagnosing diabetes, osteoarthritis, cardiac problems, and more. Pulse’s companion app could spark additional revenue streams, and there’s clearly a much bigger market for this than just India.

Honorable Mentions

-Allo, a marketplace where parents can exchange babysitting and errand-running

-Shiok, a lab-grown shrimp substitute

-WithFriends, a subscription platform for small retail businesses

—

More Y Combinator coverage from TechCrunch:

The top 10 startups from Y Combinator W19 Demo Day 1

To fund Y Combinator’s top startups, VCs scoop them before Demo Day

Here are the 85+ startups that launched at YC’s W19 Demo Day 1

All 88 companies from Y Combinator’s W19 Demo Day 2

Additional reporting by Kate Clark, Lucas Matney, and Greg Kumparak

from iraidajzsmmwtv https://ift.tt/2WhkTbw via IFTTT

#IFTTT #iraidajzsmmwtv

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readersforum · 5 years

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Our 9 favorite startups from Y Combinator W19 Demo Day 2

New Post has been published on http://www.readersforum.tk/our-9-favorite-startups-from-y-combinator-w19-demo-day-2/

Our 9 favorite startups from Y Combinator W19 Demo Day 2

Shef

Handle

Blueberry Medical

rct studio

Interprime

Nabis

WeatherCheck

Upsolve

Pulse Active Stations Network

Honorable Mentions

-Allo, a marketplace where parents can exchange babysitting and errand-running

-Shiok, a lab-grown shrimp substitute

-WithFriends, a subscription platform for small retail businesses

—

More Y Combinator coverage from TechCrunch:

The top 10 startups from Y Combinator W19 Demo Day 1

To fund Y Combinator’s top startups, VCs scoop them before Demo Day

Here are the 85+ startups that launched at YC’s W19 Demo Day 1

All 88 companies from Y Combinator’s W19 Demo Day 2

Additional reporting by Kate Clark, Lucas Matney, and Greg Kumparak

0 notes

careergrowthblog · 7 years

Text

Let’s get radical on Ofsted reform. Power:reliability:impact ratio is wrong.

I think it is time for a very significant review of the role of Ofsted, the nature of inspection and the whole accountability machinery for schools in England. I have a lot of time and respect for Amanda Spielman and I’m writing this hoping she will read it at some point. I’m sure that much of what follows is easier said than done, but I would like to suggest that we should be exploring Ofsted reform at a much more radical level than the current reform process would suggest is on the table.

I am encouraged by the debate about deeper reform that seems to be starting to gather some traction. Here are some examples:

An excellent article by ASCL’s inspection expert Stephen Rollett : It could be time for Ofsted to stop passing judgement

Rebecca Allen’s recent speech about education reform and trusting teachers.

Stephen Tierney’s August post: Time to seriously question Ofsted.

I recently re-read my 2013 post Accountability We Can Trust – written way before my personal experience of being crushed by the machine. It is still largely true even if graded lessons have officially ceased to feature in inspections.

Essentially my argument is this:

Ofsted inspections and DFE performance measures are not sufficiently reliable to justify the weight that is placed on the judgements that are made given that a) educational outcomes are not rising within the system b) schools are driven towards perverse short-term behaviours around curriculum and c) there are unacceptable and disproportionately damaging consequences from negative judgements for schools and individuals.

If it were the case that, as a direct result of our current inspection regime and performance culture, we had a world leading education system and teaching was booming as a graduate profession of choice, it would be possible to make a case for keeping it as it is. However, that isn’t where we are. In fact my contention is that the current regime is making things worse, not better. It’s like an enzyme or catalyst that’s been heated beyond its optimum temperature: things are starting to break up instead of working better.

I don’t want to dwell on this too much but it has to be restated that the negative consequences for poor judgements are massive. Read Louise Tickle’s recent article about Headteachers being ‘sacked and gagged’ in the Guardian. This is the reality of our system. Good people are spat out by the accountability machine in way that is completely disproportionate. As I’ve said before, it’s pretty f**ked up that our system does this to people – for no net gain. How long is the line of people queuing up to become Headteachers? Oh wait…. there’s no queue? Oh! And, for me, the thing that makes me the most angry about Ofsted is that there is no official acknowledgement of their role in creating these conditions.

An aspect of the accountability culture is that school leaders are driven to make curriculum decisions that are not supported by sound educational principles. Headteachers have a gun to their head on outcomes and a gun to their stomach on curriculum breadth. Rock vs Hard Place. Progress 8 is the latest incarnation of data delusion to infect our system and this is one of the major forces driving schools towards a three-year KS4 with very narrow options models. Nobody anywhere has decided to do that on principle – in government or in schools. It’s simply an outcome of accountability pressure. I’ve discussed P8 endlessly elsewhere. It’s a zero-sum arbitrary measure built on an unreliable incomplete KS2 baseline and GCSE outcomes that themselves have a virtual zero-sum foundation: 30% of students must ‘fail’ and, given the grade-inflation freeze, any improvement in school A over here must be matched by a decline in school B over there.

Progress 8 might be a useful technical data aggregation tool to provide leaders with information for evaluating progress across a school but it has no business serving as the main outcome measure at a national level. It simply isn’t robust enough. A 0.2 school is not inherently better than a -0.1 school. There are too many variables. But go shout at the hills. Nobody is listening; even Lead Inspectors do not understand it. Protest = excuse-making (and you’d be wasting your time making an official complaint.)

And then there’s the reliability question. It’s still the case that no secondary school inspection processes have been subjected to any form of reliability trial. Incredible really. Daniel Muijs’ appointment is good news but boy does he have his work cut out. I would argue that every single element is massively flawed. Interviews with leaders, lesson observations, book scrutinies – the whole lot. An Ofsted grade is essentially a giant subjective punt informed by layer upon layer of bias and selective interpretation of data which, in itself, is hugely complex, flawed and variable. I have heard so many tales of the horse-trading that goes on as inspection teams try to navigate their way through the framework to reach a plausible sounding final outcome. Good with Outstanding Features. On the cusp of Good and RI. Borderline Inadequate. The top end of Good. A secure Outstanding. It’s nonsense — isn’t it?

I have made this case repeatedly: it takes leaders, governors and school improvement professionals weeks and months to fully understand the detail of the quality issues in a school. If you look at how many lines of enquiry are embedded in the inspection framework – safeguarding, SEND, top-end challenge, pupil premium, curriculum, behaviour, leadership, teaching, assessment, performance management, numerous other compliance issues – it is simply utterly, utterly preposterous that this can all be meaningfully, accurately and reliably evaluated in a one or two day visit by a couple of inspectors running around like blue-arsed flies. (Which is how it feels to them – so I’ve heard.) “Oh, you can tell by lunchtime whether or not it’s a good school.”. Really? REALLY??

The argument is often made that parents like the grades and that they need good, simple and reliable information about their child’s school. But they are not getting that. There will be ‘Outstanding’ schools all over the country that are ‘worse’ than schools that are ‘Good’. There are RI schools that are better than some Good Schools. It will just be that different teams made different subjective judgements, snatched from all their rushed meetings, lesson fly-throughs and book grazings on different days and the various randomnesses in their minds on those days fell in a certain pattern.

School A: P8 = 0.65 Good.

School B. P8 = -0.11 Outstanding

School C P8 = 0.44 Outstanding

School D P8 = -0.33 RI.

All of this is delusional misinformation. All of this has to go. The appalling cult of Outstanding that has grown in the country is simply ludicrous. I know heads who have had massive mental health issues simply around whether their school falls on the right side of the Good/Outstanding divide -because they perceive the stakes to be so high. The competitive rat-race behaviours around school badging and promotion are ugly -disgraceful at times. I once had an email from a Head who had ‘Leadership Ofsted Rated Outstanding’ in her email sign-off. Nauseating. The next year, her results dropped 20%. Awkward. What kind of system creates that culture? Not a healthy one.

So, what’s the alternative?

I’ve got some extremely radical suggestions but, for now, I just want to suggest changes that are plausible and justifiable within our current system:

First of all, follow the Heads’ Roundtable/Stephen Tierney idea of taking safeguarding out of the standards inspections and do them separately. It’s too important and should be done annually by specialists.

Remove all the grades. They are simply too unreliable to sustain.

Abolish Progress 8 as a performance measure and relegate it to the place it belongs as a school management tool. It’s too flawed as it stands.

Publish an annual data report that does not contain any false comparisons or made-up algorithmic constructs. Attainment data by subjects, multiple benchmarks, prior attainment data presented in profiles, not averages – detail over simplicity; truth over falsehood.

Publish inspection reports informed by multiple visits including at least one person who has known a school over time. Reports should focus on key strengths and key areas for improvement written in a language that conveys the strengths and weaknesses in an honest and meaningful manner, including the appropriate degree of complexity where patterns are unclear. This could include suggested timeframes for improvement in certain areas where the issues are significant.

Create a separate process for schools showing chronic weaknesses. This should include a period of purdah to allow for rapid responses to significant areas of concern prior to reports being published. Schools need to have the opportunity to make radical changes in response to issues without being exposed to public scrutiny. I envisage something like a three-month rapid response window – not longer, as this would be counterproductive in terms of impact.

My view is that these changes would not be any softer or less rigorous. But they would be more humane, more accurate and more sustainable. And if that is true, or even close to being true, surely they should be given serious consideration. The question is whether the people with the power to make the change have too much invested in justifying the current system to allow themselves to contemplate reversing years of policy. It’s got to be worth a look though hasn’t it?

Let’s get radical on Ofsted reform. Power:reliability:impact ratio is wrong. published first on http://ift.tt/2uVElOo

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transformingyourlives · 7 years

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Personal Vision

Personal vision comes from inside of you. A couple of months ago, I was working with a young woman and she talked about her vision for our planet. She said lots of sweet things about peace and harmony, about coexisting in balance with the plant. As beautiful as these ideas were, she went on and on, completely without any emotion, as if these were the things we should all want. I asked her to tell me more about her thoughts on the subject. After a pause, she said, “I just want to live on a healthy green planet,” and burst into tears. As far as I could remember, she had never said this during our previous conversations. The thoughts just jumped out of her, almost as if they had a will of their own. Yet, the images they transferred clearly had profound meaning to her, probably at levels of meaning that she may never understand.

Like my client, most adults have almost no sense of real vision. They, like all of us, have goals and objectives, but those aren’t a vision. When most of my clients tell me what they want, I usually hear what they don’t want hidden in their answer. They’d like a higher paying job; translation, they’d like to get rid of the low paying job they now have. They’d like to live in a better neighborhood; translation, they don’t want to worry about crime, or their kids walking to school. They’d like it if their grandma returned to her own house in Kentucky, or that their arthritis lets up a bit. Those catalogues of “negative visions” are, unfortunately, all too common even with successful people. They are, in my experience, a result of a lifetime of trying to fit in, coping with life, and problem-solving. A teenager I worked with once said about his parents, “We shouldn’t call them ‘grown ups' we should call them ‘given ups.’”

Real vision can’t truly

be understood if you

separate it from the idea of purpose.

A less direct form of limited understanding of vision that turns up in executive coaching sessions is where my client spends time “focusing on the measures, not the result.” Lots of executives choose “high market share” as part of their vision. Why is that? “Because I want the company to be more profitable.” Now as a normally intelligent person, you might think that high profits are an intrinsic goal in and of itself, and truly for some it is. But for a surprisingly large group of executives, profits are just a means toward an even more critical result. Why higher annual profits? “Because I want us to remain an independent company, to keep from losing my line of credit.” Why do you want that? “Because I want to keep our integrity and our capacity to be true to our purpose for starting the business.” While all the early goals mentioned are good honest goals “the last, being true to our purpose,” has the greatest fundamental significance to most executives who think this way. All the rest are simply means to that end, means that might change under some new circumstance. The ability to focus on fundamental desires, not on secondary goals, is part of the foundation of personal mastery.

Real vision can’t truly be understood if you separate it from the idea of purpose. By purpose, I’m talking about a person’s sense of why he or she is alive…why are they here? No one can prove or disprove the statement that human beings have purpose. It is one of those “magical dogma’s” Heck, as I’ve written about before, it’s a waste of time to even engage in the argument. But as a life hypothesis, the idea has a lot power. One thing that springs immediately from the thought is that happiness is directly a result of living consistently in line with your individual purpose. George Bernard Shaw expressed the idea pointedly when he said:

“This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one… the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.”

That same attitude has been articulated in some businesses and from some people as “real caring.” In places where people feel uncomfortable talking about personal purpose, they feel perfectly comfortable having a discussion about real caring. When people genuinely, really care, they are painlessly committed to their goals. They are doing what they really, really want to do. They are busting a gut with energy and enthusiasm. They persevere in the face of almost all frustrations and setbacks, because they know that what they are doing is something they simply have to do. It is their work. It is a beautiful thing to see.

Everyone has had times when everything just goes perfectly; those times when you feel in tune with the world and work proceeds successfully and effortlessly. Someone whose vision takes him to a foreign country might just find learning a new language much easier than he ever imagined. You usually notice your personal vision because you experience those kinds of moments; it is that goal or dream that keeps dragging you forward, making it all seem so worthwhile.

Here’s something to keep in mind—vision is really different than purpose. Purpose is sort of like a direction, a general heading, while vision is a very specific destination, a perfectly clear picture of a sought after future. Purpose is abstract and hard to quantify. Vision is clear and concrete. Purpose is “advancing man’s ability to explore the heavens.” Vision is “a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s.” Purpose is “being the best I can be,” “excellence.” Vision for a runner is breaking the four-minute mile.

It has been written time and time again that nothing happens until there is vision. But it’s just as true that a vision with no sense of purpose, no reality, no calling, is just a good idea. Who among us has had a damn good idea that never went anywhere—all “sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

On the other hand, purpose without vision has no scale. You and I may be basketball fans and enjoy talking about fouls, free throws, the thrill of chasing the hoop, of a three-point free throw. We may have a great conversation, but then we find out that I am gearing up to play at my local YMCA and you are preparing for The New Orleans Jazz Festival. We share the same enthusiasm and love of the game, but at completely different scales of skill. Until we establish the scales of skill we are thinking about, we might think we are communicating to beat the band, but we’re not.

Purpose is sort of like a

direction, a general

heading, while vision

is a very specific destination,

a perfectly clear

picture of a sought after future.

At the end of the day, vision isn’t relative; it’s inherent. Your vision is something you want for its intrinsic value, not because of where it puts you in comparison to someone or something else. Relative visions may be good enough in the short-term, but they almost never take you to greatness. I am not saying that there’s anything wrong with competition; quite the opposite. Competition, which literally means, “striving together,” from the Latin ‘competrerei’, is one of the best means developed by people to force us to bring out the best in each other. But after the competition is done, after the vision has (or has not) been reached, it is your personal sense of purpose that takes you forward, driving you to set a new vision. This, again, is why personal mastery is a discipline to work towards and, at times, to be coached through. It is a process of repeatedly focusing and refocusing on what the heck you truly want, on your visions.

Vision is multipartite. There are physical parts of our visions, like what island you want to live on, and how much money you want to have in the bank when you move there. There are personal facets, such as your health, your personal freedom, and what being true to yourself means. There are service facets, e.g., helping at church or contributing to the knowledge of the world. These can all be parts of what we really want in our lives. Contemporary society tends to aim our attentions to the material aspects, and at the same time, promote guilt for those same material goals. Society places less—but still some—emphasis on our personal desires. For example, it has become an obsession to look trim and fit, and relatively little attention is given to our desire to serve. In fact, it is easy to feel naive and foolish expressing a desire to actually make a contribution to your community. Regardless, I have seen from my clients that personal visions span all these areas and more. It is also clear that it takes real courage to hold visions that don’t fit within the social normal.

I want to say here that it is exactly that personal courage to take a stand for your vision that separates people with greater levels of personal mastery from those lacking it. Or, as the Japanese say of the master’s stand:

“When there is no break, not even the thickness of a hair comes between a man’s ‘vision’ and his action.”

So learn to sort between vision, purpose, goals, and objectives and you can build a vision that is as clear as a photograph, but as flexible as you are yourself. Now that is a goal worth pursuing.

0 notes

careergrowthblog · 7 years

Text

Let’s get radical on Ofsted reform. Power:reliability:impact ratio is wrong.

I am encouraged by the debate about deeper reform that seems to be starting to gather some traction. Here are some examples:

An excellent article by ASCL’s inspection expert Stephen Rollett : It could be time for Ofsted to stop passing judgement

Rebecca Allen’s recent speech about education reform and trusting teachers.

Stephen Tierney’s August post: Time to seriously question Ofsted.

Essentially my argument is this:

School A: P8 = 0.65 Good.

School B. P8 = -0.11 Outstanding

School C P8 = 0.44 Outstanding

School D P8 = -0.33 RI.

So, what’s the alternative?

I’ve got some extremely radical suggestions but, for now, I just want to suggest changes that are plausible and justifiable within our current system:

Remove all the grades. They are simply too unreliable to sustain.

Abolish Progress 8 as a performance measure and relegate it to the place it belongs as a school management tool. It’s too flawed as it stands.

Let’s get radical on Ofsted reform. Power:reliability:impact ratio is wrong. published first on http://ift.tt/2uVElOo

0 notes