I Speak of Dreams

Doug Copp, Dubious & Self-Promoting "Rescue Expert" Shows Up In Haiti.

Here's Copp's schtick. He shows up at a disaster site, claims to be a hero, and gets in the way. He's up to his old tricks in Haiti.  See the following article from The Jamaica Observer

Bad advice: ODPEM dismisses quake tips from Doug Copp

Friday, January 29, 2010

JAMAICA'S Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) yesterday dismissed tips from American Doug Copp, who advised that people "don't simply duck and cover in an earthquake".

I got an email from an online friend of mine who is a certified search and rescue (SAR) dog handler in a European country. (See bottom of post for SAR dogs in Haiti).

I think you must be aware that Douglas Copp is in Haiti – somehow he managed to go there under the Peru’s government permission and with a firemen team I think-, and he is criticizing the American army. This was published in the Brazilian news today:

http://ultimosegundo.ig.com.br/mundo/2010/01/18/americano+critica+os+conterraneos+que+controlam+aeroporto+9341095.html

Here you have a brief digest translation (sorry as I don’t speak Portuguese and something could be wrong, perhaps with the Google translation you can get the idea):

He [Copp] said  he arrived at the airport in his truck with a pregnant woman and four injured people - that he [Copp] said they have rescued - , claiming for help and he says the American army who was controlling the airport didn’t help them and also that [the American army] didn’t allow the landing of a plane full of drugs, lying about the reasons.

 [Copp] claims to be a survivor from the 11S [9/11], and to have experience in more than 100 disaster situations. [Copp] also says that he was one of the four people who went down the tunnels of the World Center four times, and that he then went to Canada. He received some thousand dollars for his illness.

 [Copp] says he participated with several rescue teams through all the world. And in one of his missions, he helped a team to find a Brazilian student, who got lost in an African mountain. He said the family contacted him to look for the boy but he couldn’t go because he can’t fly due to a cerebral edema and the effects of sulphur and other stuff in his organism after the missions he had been deployed in.

 [Copp]says his wife didn’t want him to go [to Haiti] but she understood… And all this just to find that they couldn’t help. He said this was is the fourth time the Americans do this in a disaster. In 1989 in the San Francisco earthquake, he says they took away everybody who was working in rescues because the president was coming. And they left people under the rubble. He also says anyone who deter doing a rescue should be in jail.

And of course, he adds his website at the end.

My Doug Copp series from 2004:

Index: *Doug Copp: Disaster Hero or Massive Fraud? (links to the Albuquerque Journal's four-part piece criticizing Mr. Copp's actions and rebuttals of Copp's claims from the Red Cross.)
*Doug Copp II. Includes in the comments a huge, long, repetitive, blustering missive from Mr. Copp himself. In the interests of fairness, I left it up.
* Doug Copp III, a rebuttal of Doug Copp's advice from expert sources.
*Doug Copp IV, more venom from Mr. Copp and more rebuttals from those more qualified. )

When did anything any big organization says become suspect? Now it is the standard earthquake advice from the American Red Cross, DROP, COVER, AND HOLD ON.

In a number of circles, an e-mail about "Triangle of Life" is going around. It often starts like this:

My name is Doug Copp. I am the Rescue Chief and Disaster Manager of the American Rescue Team International (ARTI), the world's most experienced rescue team. The information in this article will save lives in an earthquake.

The problems are, Copp's claims to experience are almost certainly fraudulent,  and his advice is bad, if not dangerous.

From Lloyd deVries' article, Sept. 11 Hero's Story Questioned published by CBS on July 12, 2004

A published report is calling into question the story of personal heroism told by a man who claims to have waded in "toxic soup" deep beneath the World Trade Center rubble to help find bodies.

Doug Copp collected almost $650,000 from the September 11th Victims Compensation Fund and believes he's owed a great deal more.

The Albuquerque Journal, in Copp's home state, New Mexico, is suggesting that Copp has already been paid way too much.

The Journal says its investigation shows that Copp, who has traveled to numerous disaster areas around the world in the past 20 years, has a history of exaggeration and self-promotion with little evidence of real rescue work.

To get the bad taste of Copp's shenanigans out of your mouth, go read about real rescue folks and their dogs doing real rescues in Haiti.

Search Dog Foundation reports SAR teams in Haiti and Search and Rescue Dogs from Around the World Deployed to Haiti.

=====

Snopes.com on "Triangle of Life" and Mr. Copp

You should download and read  Marla Petal's refutation of Copp's claims. You can read the whole thing by clicking:

www.cert-la.com/RejoinderToDougCopp.pdf

Marla Petal, Ph.D. is Director of Bogaziçi University, Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute's Disaster Preparedness Education Program. Her doctoral research is on the causes of deaths in the 1999 Kocaeli Earthquake and implications of these findings for public education. September, 2004

Recently many well-meaning people, wanting to be safe have unwittingly fallen victim to Douglas Copp, and his "Earthquake Tips". If you took the time to read Copp's advice and you thought it might have some merit, or if you passed it on to anyone else, please read this and pass this back up or down the lines. If you haven't, and just want a few good tips for earthquake safety you can skip all the way to #7 and #8.

CAIS Closing Keynote From Patrick Basset-- Starting With Humor

Patrick Basset is the president of the National Association of Independent Schools. He kicked off his talk by playing this Youtube clip. Awesome Answer Machine Message From Maroochydore High School In Queensland, Australia. (Wikipedia entry) I thought it sounded familiar, and indeed an earlier version circulated as an email, according to Snopes.

Even though it's a hoax, it's so popular because  it captures the frustrations many teachers and school officials feel from "my child is a special snowflake" parents -- you know, the turbo-jet attack helicopter kind.

I Wouldn't Put This Shirt on My Daughter, But I Still Think It's Funny

see more Epic Fails OK, so I am shallow and easily amused.

Andrew Wakefield: Dishonesty, Misleading Conduct, and Serious Professional Misconduct: Blog Posts Critical of Verdict; Blog Posts Approving of Verdict

UPDATE FEBRUARY 2, 2010: The Lancet has retracted Wakefield's 1998 paper. Post collating the blogospheric response: On The Lancet's Retraction of Wakefield's 1998 Paper Alleging A Connection Between the MMR Vaccine and Autism

As Sullivan observed at LeftBrain/RightBrain

I’d really like to know how many times this has ever happened in the history of The Lancet. My guess is that it is a very (VERY) rare event.

Groups and individuals that continue to reference this paper will be showing themselves to be intellectually dishonest. I could compile a partial list of them now…Dr. Wakefield, Thoughtful House, Generation Rescue, TACA, the NAA…

Very very oversimplified synopsis:Andrew Wakefield was a UK physician who promulgated the idea that the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine  was causal in autism. Many of the blog posts in "supporting the decision" list have more accurate summaries . For deep detail, readers are directed to Brian Deer's investigative research . For another element of the back-story, see David Gorski, blogging at Science-Based Medicine, on Anti-Vaccine Hero Andrew Wakefield: Scientific Fraud

 

On January 28, 2010, the body responsible for overseeing physician conduct in the United Kingdom handed down a verdict against Wakefield.The Panel concluded that these findings

which include those of dishonesty and misleading conduct, would not be insufficient to support a finding of serious professional misconduct. (p. 55)

Complete text of the findings

The effect of Wakefield's false allegations on MMR update and disease in the UK.

Image source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8483865.stm

As I often do, I'll be collating blog responses, both positive and negative.  I will be updating these silently (without indicating by "update") so please be checking back.  Also, if I've missed any, please put a link in the comments and I'll add them to the lists.

Note: while I manage comments, I do not block or moderate them strictly, so feel free to comment away.

Renee Seward's Multimedia Program Linking Sounds and Letters: Reading By Design

Update: A YouTube video by Professor Seward describing her program

Renee Seward, who is an assistant professor of digital design at the University of Cincinnati, has been developing an web-based project to help young students make the connection between language sounds and letter forms.  It's called Reading by Design: Visualizing Phonemic Sound for Dyslexic Readers 9-11 Years Old.

She calls the project "a toolkit".  It has an online tool, combining sight, sound and physical movement.  There's also a physical toolkit, adding touch to sound, sight and physical movement.

I gather from reading the press release that this enterprise has not yet been tested.

Seward continues developing the project and is in the process of writing a grant application in cooperation with Allison Breit-Smith, UC assistant professor of teacher education, and Beth O'Brien, assistant professor of educational studies, in order to begin user testing.

So the actual rollout of the project is years in the future, and may not in fact show efficacy over other methods of remediation.

However, it looks like Professor Seward is at least on the right track.

The "Reading by Design" toolkit has a number of other activities:

• Sound elements and creative visuals working in concert to reinforce reading retention and recall.
• Common sounds -- like the "ooohing" of a crowd following a great basketball play (along with the visual of a basketball player making that play) -- depict and reinforce the connections between visual vowel combinations like "oo" and "ew" and their appropriate phonemic sound.
• Horizontal lengthening of words with long vowels to denote that vowel and the silent "e" (in words like "note"). The child can experience the lengthening word with a sweep of the mouse to the right, thus integrating movement into memory.
• Also, when moving the mouse over long vowels, the cursor will not move up or down, only in a horizontal lengthening of the vowel to the right - in order to visualize the phonemic value of that vowel. Again, the rightward sweep of the mouse also incorporates the child's arm movement into memory formation and retention.
• Silent letters appropriately take on a shadow form or repel the mouse.
• A cursor that moves just like a finger following the text (common to how most children read during their early years).

BlogHer 2010 August 5-7, New York Will Have an Autism Panel

BlogHer the conference began in 2005.

Here's the link to the agenda

Buy your tickets soon, as they've historically sold out fast.

August 6, 10:30 am

Personal: Blogging Autism: Shattering Myths, Opening Eyes and Finding Your Tribe Autism is both more out in the open than it has ever been before and more shrouded in myths and mystery. Come learn and share your stories about how blogging contributes to the autism community as a source of support and outlet for parents, as a way for those not dealing directly with autism to gain more insight and sensitivity and as a tool for advocacy and activism.

The moderator will be my real-life pal and awesome autism mom, Squid. Read what she has to say here.

Blogher / Squid has not announced the panelists, as they must self-disclose first. I'll keep a running list

Moderator

• Shannon Rosa, who blogs at Squidalicious

Panelists:

• Stimey, who blogs at Stimeyland. You can follow her on twitter at http://twitter.com/Stimey
• Sharon daVanport, the Executive Director of the Autism Women's Network. She hosts a program at Blog Talk Radio (http://www.blogtalkradio.com/autism-womens-network). You can follow her on twitter at http://twitter.com/a4aspie/. You can follow the Autism Women's Network at http://twitter.com/AutismWomen

Shannon Rosa autism

CAIS: Data-Informed Decision Making -- Insights from A Small California Private School

Orientation: this was a presentation at the California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS) annual conference for Heads and Boards of Trustees.  Crane School is an 80 year old a k-8 independent school in Santa Barbara, CA.

Data-Informed Decision Making Joel Weiss, Head of School, Crane Country Day School; Laura Shelbune, President, Board of Trustees; Debbie Williams, Director of Admissions

Many of us have read Jim Collins’ book Good to Great. He advocates that we must continually refine the path to excellence with the “brutal facts” of reality. As one leader summarizes, “My job is to turn over rocks and look at the squiggly things underneath!” So what does “confronting the brutal facts” mean in a practical way at a small independent school? In this session, one school will share some of the techniques it has used to generate important data for the administration and Board. Annual parent surveys, demographic studies, grade analysis of our graduates, and open-ended meetings with the Head of School, are all examples of tools we have used to create a culture where people (and the truth!) are heard.

The team defined "data-informed decision making" (DIDM) as:

• Creating a culture that regularly conducts research and analysis as crucial tools for any decision-making process

The Crane team has found that for their school, collecting and analyzing data

• Increases quality of decision-making
• Increases the transparency in administrative decisions, which in turn fosters trust and  a sense of community
• Allows entire school community to assess if school is "living the mission".

The school did not arrive all at once at a DIDM culture; it evolved over time.  When Weiss took over the headship in 2000, his "entry process" was to hold structured interviews with a wide range of stakeholders (parents, faculty, trustees, alumi parents). This awakened in him a thirst for more information.

The advent of inexpensive or free survey instruments (such as Survey Monkey) has made it even easier to collect data. Some schools use the National Association of Independent School's survey maker.

Crane uses three web-based surveys annually.

1. A parent survey assessing the just-past year's experience.  The response rate is fairly high.  The instrument allows parents to assess not just individual programs, but also satisfaction with their child's teacher.  The instrument assesses all programs annually, and goes in-depth on one aspect on a rotating basis. The administration collates the responses, which are presented to the faculty individually.  There is a mandatory community meeting in the fall, at which the Head of School presents the previous year's survey. 
2. Several admissions surveys.  (My notes are a bit vague here -- I don't know if they survey families who were not accepted to Crane).  One version is sent to families who were accepted at Crane, but declined to attend; the other is sent to families were accepted at Crane, and who accepted.  The responses are collated by the admissions office, and the responses have driven changes both in the administration and the curriculum.
3. Evaluation of the Head.  A web-based survey is sent to the full board, plus the Board's Head Evaluation Team inteviews 12 stakeholders in depth.  The results are collated by the Head Evaluation Team and presented to the Board of Trustees and the Head.

Occasional Surveys:

1. The Crane School commissioned a demographic survey a few years ago, which found that the birth to preschool population (future students) was smaller than they anticipated.  They recommend that schools commission or perform such surveys on a regular basis, perhaps every five years.
2. Grade analysis: asking graduates to provide their post-Crane grades, to ensure that Crane is not falling into a pattern of grade inflation.

The team then presented several other survey or fact-finding opportunities that could be used.  The Board President made the point that surveys can be very useful for dayschools whose boards consist largely of current parents: results can help the board have the proper future focus.

Why are schools reluctant to adopt Data Informed Decision Making

Debbie Williams, Director of Admissions, confessed that she was a "reluctant adopter", and identified four reasons why schools may be slow to move in this direction

1. The weight of tradition -- if the school has "always" used some other decision-making methods, then adding data seems somehow wrong.
2. Data-based decision making seems somehow cold and foreign to educators -- it makes school seem too much like a business.
3. Many educators lack training in statistics or quantitative methods. 
4. Concerns about confidentiality and the collection of data.

Williams stressed that all four of these conditions can be overcome.

I am also wondering about schools getting more out of their online gradebook/attendance programs, such as Blackboard . Purdue is piloting the Signals progam to do just that .  The quote below describes another public school program

How Data can put at-risk students on a college and career path Wouldn't it be helpful if educators could figure out, as early as 8th grade, whether a student was on track not just to graduate from high school but to go on to college or start a career? Wouldn't it be even better if educators could also determine exactly how far behind that student was along the achievement spectrum and pinpoint which interventions were best suited to a student at that level of readiness?

Reporting from the California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS) 2010 Heads & Trustees Conference (links will be added as posted)

• Overview & "What Is A Private School?  What Is An Independent School"
• Keynote: Mark David Milliron at CAIS 2010:  “Ten Emerging Insights on Learning and the Road Ahead” --Elaborations & Reflections; Live Tweeting a Presentation
• Equity Pedagogy and the Diversity Journey -- Lessons Learned by Lick Wilmerding
• Data-Informed Decision Making Lessons from Crane School
• Charter Schools and the Shifting Educational Landscape
• Closing Keynote from NAIS President Patrick Bassett  The "New Normal" -- A Game-Changing Model for Financially Sustainable Schools

CAIS: Equity Pedagogy and the Diversity Journey -- Lessons Learned by Lick Wilmerding

A bit of orientation. Lick-Wilmerding School (commonly known as Lick)   is a coeducational college-preparatory school in San Francisco with an enrollment of about 440 to 450 in grades 9-12.  It began in 1895  as a school to produce "educated craftsman."  In the mid-1950s, Lick began developing a college-preparatory curriculum. Two great changes happened in the early 1970s:

1. Lick, after 30 years of boys' only returned to co-education
2. After over 70 years of being tuition-free,  began charging tuition

It's not perfectly clear where Lick was between the early 1970s and the late 1980s. However , Al Adams was named headmaster in 1988.  In a letter he wrote to the school community reflecting on his service, he was charged then with three goals:

1. to crystallize the School’s mission;
2. to ensure that Lick would always be accessible to students from all walks of life, and
3. to transform the technical arts so that they would become a magnet for students and more integral to Lick’s curriculum.

The second goal was the subject of the session described below.

Lick is, for a day school, exceptionally fortunate financially, which makes it possible for them to attract a wider range of socio-economic diversity than some of their peers in California.

According to Lick's 2007 IRS form 990 (the most recent available from Guidestar) the annual budget was $18.5 million.  The endowment was reported at about $40 million, valued at cost (the fair market value certainly must be much higher).  It allocated about $3.5 million in tuition grants to 175 of its students, or 39% of the student body.  Lick does not use the phrase "financial aid". Rather it uses the phrase "flexible tuition".  Diversity at Lick is defined thusly: "we appreciate the robust richness of Bay Area families. As a result we include ethnic, racial, socio-economic, geographic and various talents in our definition of diversity."

Session Description from the meeting program:

Equity Pedagogy and the Diversity Journey Al Adams, Head of School, (see his articles and Karen Eshoo, Assistant Head of School, Lick-Wilmerding High School 

It is one thing to provide access to our schools for students from diverse backgrounds; it is another to build a culture where they and their families feel authentically included. It is yet another to ensure that they succeed. Probing hard questions about the relationship between teaching practice and our school’s commitment to embrace students from all walks of life, Lick-Wilmerding’s faculty is addressing

1. the challenges of seeing that our students are fully known, including any dimension of their lives or learning styles that inhibit their progress and
2. expanding teachers’ pedagogical palettes to give every student the best possible chance to succeed, while enriching the learning environment for all students.

The broader context for this workshop is Lick’s two decades of intense wrestling with the thorny questions related to access, inclusion, and success in a diverse independent school.

I've been wrestling with how to summarize this presentation for several days.  The take-away points for other schools isn't the number of students whose parents do not pay the market-rate tuition, or how big Lick's budget is.

The point is that Lick, over the past two decades, has developed four elements in tandem:

1. A coherent underlying philosophy of inclusion and diversity that continues to evolve based on experience;
2. A continuing commitment to operationalize the philosophy through the school's  administrative structure, programs,  requirements for both the teaching staff and the students.
3. continuing commitment to provide both the time and the resources for the entire community to do diversity work.
4. continuing commitment to testing whether or not Lick's approach to diversity and multicultural education is in fact "working" -- both in the sense of raising student achievement and in the sense of creating a community where all feel known and understood.
5. continuing commitment to having the sense and the courage to alter programs or processes that aren't working.

Some takeaway thoughts

Lick does not use the phrase "financial aid", preferring to use "flexible tuition".  All families pay something.  In other words, the framing is that all families pay according to their resources, rather than the Bountiful School Helping The Less Fortunate. 

As part of the continuing self-assessment as to what makes diversity work, the administration rolled both the cost of textbooks and food service into the annual tuition amount -- no more nickel and diming or budget surprises for families. (I'm not sure about field trips)  

Lick hosts an orientation each summer for "families new to independent schools" -- using this structure, rather than an orientation for families who are not paying the full market rate, has had benefits.

Some resources:

• Download James Banks On Multiculturalism and Equity Pedagogy(pdf)
• Download Albert M. Adams Essay- Access, Affordability, Inclusion And Success (pdf)
• Center for Multi-cultural education
  

Reporting from the California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS) 2010 Heads & Trustees Conference

• Overview & "What Is A Private School?  What Is An Independent School"
• Keynote: Mark David Milliron at CAIS 2010:  “Ten Emerging Insights on Learning and the Road Ahead” --Elaborations & Reflections; Live Tweeting a Presentation
• Equity Pedagogy and the Diversity Journey -- Lessons Learned by Lick Wilmerding
• Data-Informed Decision Making Lessons from Crane School
• Charter Schools and the Shifting Educational Landscape
• Closing Keynote from NAIS President Patrick Bassett  The "New Normal" -- A Game-Changing Model for Financially Sustainable Schools

Voices on the Ground in Haiti: Stanford Medical -- Narrative with Links to Posts

( blog proprietor's note. I'm not sure that I've captured all the stories or blog post, but I wanted to get this up.

Jumpoff point

• Stanford Medical Center Sends Team to Haiti
• Reports from Stanford Medical Team in Haiti

Detailed Listing

Bloggers

Paul S. Auerbach, MD, MS, FACEP, FAWM (Wilderness Medicine) at Healthline -- in Haiti through International Medical Corps

Anil Menon, MD. Dr. Menon is in the Wilderness Fellowship Program in Emergency Medicine at Stanford  and is the  Air National Guard. He can't post directly, but is sending text messages to his friend Baratunde's and to his mother, who transcribes them where they are posted to Straight Talk from the Stanford ER  blog

Gaby Macadoo, RN  is blogging at Out of the Rubble, Comes Hope

• January 13, 2010
• • Anil Menon: Getting to Haiti: Jan 12 - Jan 16 via Healthline.com and via Baratunde
• January 14, 2010
• January 15, 2010
• January 16, 2010
• • Paul S. Auerbach: First Days In Haiti (they arrived incountry on January 16?) we are caring for incredibly brave people, who are suffering under the most adverse circumstances. Yet, they all have time to say how much they appreciate the help and to thank us
• January 17, 2010
• • Anil Menon: via Baratunde people with broken limbs were so numb they don't cry(a compilation of 13 text messages) and via Healthline.com: the saying goes that you would treat every single patient [as if they were?] in the U.S but you can only treat a few patients here. That is what makes the situation unbearable, being trained to help someone, buthaving so many people tug at your arm, need an immediate response but only being able to answer a few.
• January 18, 2010
• • Anil Menon:via Baratunde  (a series of 30 text messages from Anil) When a femur or tibia fracture comes in, we check to see if it is open and has penetrated the skin or is closed. The open ones go to the [operating room], they are usually infected, and usually lead to amputations. That means [people] who would have just broken their legs and be back on track in a few months, are losing their legs. Also Via Healthline.com
• January 19, 2010
• • Anil Menon:via Baratunde A woman told me that "no matter what you Americans did in the past, you were here when we needed you, and I love you". It was good to hear that. The 82nd airborne arrived today and have made it a lot easier for the hospital to function. I also think we'll have food and water for patients. Thanks for all of that.
• January 20, 2010
• • Anil Menon: via Baratunde -- big aftershock and a reporter adds to physicians' concerns. The story at Healthline.com result of the aftershock was no one at the hospital would return to the building. One woman confessed that when she heard a door open she would shudder with terror. Because of their refusal, we’re finding very sick patients, waiting to be treated, are exposed to too much sunlight. Still they don’t want to be inside a building, even if it’s a hospital.
• January 21, 2010
• • Paul S. Auerbach,: Haiti, January 21 story of a 3 year old girl with both a disfiguring facial injury and serious leg injury It is difficult to conceive how this country will recover with a massive international effort and support. I hope that the world pays attention, because it could happen anywhere.
  • Gabby McAdoo: The story of  Gary Elize recovering his nephew Monly.  Gabby was part of Monly's recovery team. "Gary Elize, 24, is Monley's only surviving relative, and he is concerned that he won't be able to properly care for the boy."
• January 22, 2010
• • Paul S. Auerbach: 22  Please read these stories -- the need will continue long after the world's attention has moved on I realize now that had I not come here, I would have had a hole in my heart.
  • Anil Menon: via Baratunde: photos from Haiti
• January 23, 2010
• • Paul S. Auerbach: Haiti, January 23 spoke with a young woman today, a dancer in Haiti who lost part of one of her legs. She was brave and doing her best to cope. I told her that she will dance again, and that she will be a much better dancer on one leg than I could ever be on two. She smiled and squeezed my hand. These are such special people. I have not seen one seriously injured victim complain.
  • Anil Menon via Baratunde How we start our day, wondering who made it through the night
    
  • Anil Menon via Baratunde Blood transfusion & transfer to USS Comfort saves a young girl.
    
  • Anil Menon via Baratunde  Losing a patient
    
  • Anil Menon via Baratunde Monly Elize & GabbyMcAdoo
    
• January 24, 2010
• • Paul S. Auerbach:The Swiss have a pediatric surgery service next to our pediatric area. This is a part of the compound that breaks your heart. The tented ward is full of children with multiple amputations and severe injuries. There is no candy coating this - their lives will never be the same. The first part of the post indicates that there may be many children fending for themselves.  Orphans or not able to find their families in the ruins?
  • Anil Menon: via Baratunde Life moves onApparently, not everyone got hurt in the earthquake... I saw a young kid playing with his ball amidst the rubble and realized that life moves on no matter the magnitude of the problem.
• January 25, 2010 
  • Anil Menon: via Baratunde The Top 5 Rules in a Disaster and via Strait Talk from Stanford ER
  • Paul S. Auerbach: Our tented E.R. saw nearly 300 patients today, and we are preparing to see more than 500 tomorrow, in what are essentially two rooms. To keep the place running, we are electricians, masons and plumbers as well as doctors. Tomorrow we are supposed to get phones, but I'm not counting on it.
• January 26, 2010
• • Paul S. Auerbach: every time I walk past a young Haitian child who has lost an arm or leg, yet still smiles and tries to give me a wave, I am energized. It will be very difficult to leave, but I know that within a few days, we must get our batteries recharged.
• January 27, 2010
• • Paul S. Auerbach: I find myself going back to visit a few patients, like the young woman professional dancer who lost her leg. She was returned to the O.R. today for a revision of her stump, so was postoperative and asleep when I saw her. In the crowded tent, she was covered with flies, so I sat by her for a while and fanned them away with a small notebook. In another tent, I watched a mother bathe an emaciated infant. The baby will not make it through the next two days. One tent over, a woman shouted out in pain during childbirth.
• January 28, 2010
• • Paul S. Auerbach: Sadly, there are scores of patients with spinal fractures who are paralyzed, and little can be done for them this far out from the initial injury. Children continue to break our hearts. I had a small child who is a triple amputee offer me his cracker with his remaining hand. One can only pray that the memories he carries of this tragedy are erased swiftly, that he is assisted in his rehabilitation, and that his life improves. All of these will, of course, be hard to achieve.

CAIS The "New Normal" -- A Game-Changing Model for Financial Sustainable Independent & Private Schools

The "New Normal" -- A Game-Changing Model for Financially Sustainable Schools Patrick F. Bassett,  President, National Association of Independent Schools

Most independent schools invested significant energy and serious discipline in creating their 2009-10 budgets, opening school with tuitions and enrollments that reflected the uncertain economic times that continue. Unprecedented amounts and kinds of communication with key constituencies assisted schools in maintaining understanding and support. But what strategies can schools pursue now, given that the relatively “easy” budget adjustments have been implemented, especially with major financial challenges still looming? This session will explore the “new normal,” focusing on the weighty implications of two major trends — our history of unsustainable tuition increases and increased competition in the marketplace. Shifting assumptions, changes in Board focus, and an increased emphasis on becoming the broader school world’s “value leader” (rather than its “price leader”) will be addressed.

Reporting from the California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS) 2010 Heads & Trustees Conference (links will be added as posted)

• Overview & "What Is A Private School?  What Is An Independent School"
• Keynote: Mark David Milliron at CAIS 2010:  “Ten Emerging Insights on Learning and the Road Ahead” --Elaborations & Reflections; Live Tweeting a Presentation
• Equity Pedagogy and the Diversity Journey -- Lessons Learned by Lick Wilmerding
• Data-Informed Decision Making Lessons from Crane School
• Charter Schools and the Shifting Educational Landscape
• Closing Keynote from NAIS President Patrick Bassett  The "New Normal" -- A Game-Changing Model for Financially Sustainable Schools

Bassett posted his notes:

Disruptive Realities: The Seven Seals

Disruptive Realities-- Part One

Disruptive Realities -- Part Two

He also alluded to Sacred Cows and Unsupportable Assumptions