Perry Binder's Blog, page 41

Exclusive discount for TPT members: 99 Motivators for College Success

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This book is for high school students and guidance counselors, and for entering college freshmen.



In 99 Motivators for College Success, Perry Binder is one part professor, one part career mentor, and one part classroom cheerleader. His Motivators, insightful stories, and takeaways are presented in bite-sized tips and quotes on college success in class, in career choices, and in life. Perry gives away all of his teaching secrets, including advice on how to study for multiple choice exams and how to write model essay exam answers.



FROM PERRY's FORMER STUDENTS



Mr. Binder is the Michael Jordan of teaching! Harlem Duru



I will never forget coming back from surgery and the first thing he does is start the class on a welcome back chant for me. Kevin Clodfelter



Perry Binder was not only a Professor, but a Mentor. His classes were not about memorizing material, but taking it and applying to real-life scenarios. Lizette Olaechea



Perry's class was more than just another class for me, it was a decision making catalyst, and had a huge impact on my future. Kevin Crayon




Click here to purchase on Teachers Pay Teachers site

$4.99 Digital Download 

The Case for Humor in the College Classroom

As college professors nationwide prepare for a new semester, my message for them is simple: Lighten up! Your students just might engage and learn.

Personally, I never dreamed of being a college professor. Does anybody? When my third grade teacher asked us about our dream job, Molly said an astronaut; Evan, an actor. Perry: Obtain a terminal degree and lecture on legal morasses.

Whether the subject is law or nuclear physics, every student wants a good laugh. As teacher accountability objectives collide with shorter attention spans, laughter is the secret ingredient to keep everyone on task. Humor can even be found in the most stressful situations. For example, I tell students that I can't offer legal advice. But that didn't stop "Steve" from calling me after class in a panic: The judge gave me ten days for speeding; they're taking me away! So that night, I drove to the county jail, where the innkeeper ushered me into a tiny drab room facing glass. Steve appeared on the other side, looking weary and wearing an ugly orange jumpsuit. I never practiced criminal law, so I just put my hand up to the glass and spread my fingers apart because I saw that done on TV. Steve finally smiled and put his hand up to mine. He told me what happened, but all I could do was stare at our mitts and think: Hey, this TV hand thing really works!

While Steve's dilemma was no laughing matter, I use that story on the first day of class to set the tone for the semester: Understanding the law is serious business and applied unequally to funny, young college students without counsel. But we will laugh and learn a lot together.

To me, humor in the classroom mixes audience participation with storytelling about the quirky world around us. The professor and students form an improv troupe, working on the day's subject. Here are my rules of classroom engagement:

Exaggerate to Illustrate. Paint an implausible mental picture to reinforce a topic. When we study "self defense," a limping crazy man wields a lumberman's axe and approaches a student track star limbering up for a run. If the wild man is 200 feet away, does the student have a duty to retreat or can she pick up and use a submachine gun conveniently left on a park bench?

Expect the Unexpected. When a cell phone rings, the classroom rule is that I get to answer it. And when MY phone rang once, the students got to answer it. Another time, students were nervous for an exam, so I asked a student to stand up as I gave her my whiteboard marker. I then ran to the front of the classroom, back to the students, and instructed her to wing the marker at my head (missed me, wide right). One time I wore a pair of Sketchers to class but was skeptical on how they looked. I asked for student opinions by jumping on the computer console table and placing a sole on the document camera, which projected an Imax theater-size image. The original 360° Tour.

Now you might be thinking that your college won't let profs be jailhouse lawyers, encourage students to fling objects, or stand on expensive technology. That's not the point. The most important rule is to always be yourself in the classroom. You don't need to have a funny bone; the world around us is a gold mine of material. Consider this recent headline, Man pleads guilty to DUI in Motorized Recliner. If the law is funny, so is any subject and thus, an opportunity to humor up classrooms.

Postscript. I referred Steve to a criminal defense lawyer but my student still spent three days in jail for speeding. It would've been zero if he had an attorney at the outset, which shows that maybe nothing is funny about the law after all.

A version of this post was published in The Huffington Post and as an Op-Ed in the Education section of The Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Five Ways to Ace College Exams in 2013

As the new semester rolls around, here's my take on how to ace college exams


Five Ways to Ace College Exams in 2013



Wouldn't it be great if college classes were pass/fail, and students could focus on learning rather than competing for grades? Let's get back to the real world for a second, as I propose what I would do as a student to prepare for college exams:




1- Ask your professors to give practice quizzes. Each semester is a feeling out process for students to figure out what types of exams a professor gives. Practice quizzes, with no attached grade, can relieve stress and reveal a lot about upcoming exams. I give a ten question practice quiz prior to the first and second tests so students can see my style and tricks. While my exams are "closed book," I give students the option of taking the practices quizzes with or without notes, with the belief that students haven't fully studied at this point. After the quiz, we go over the answers together.

2- On essay exams, ask your professor if you can write answers in an outline format. It is a difficult task for professors to write objective essay exam questions. Except on open-ended questions, they are usually looking for some specific responses. Why make that professor search all throughout your flowery paragraphs for those answers? Organize responses in an outline form and underline key terms. This method will make grading faster for the professor, and thus you have a happier grader.

3- Prepare flashcards for straightforward multiple choice exam questions. Make a flashcard for each term or concept discussed in class. Put the term on the front, with a definition and example applying the term on the back. For example: the legal term, Duty to Trespassers goes on the front of an index card. On the back: In general, homeowners may be liable for creating dangerous instrumentalities on the property. E.g., Jane surrounds her home with a mote filled with water and alligators to make sure Tom stays off that freshly cut lawn. Make sure to study the flashcards in reverse. (look at the back of the card to see if you can identify the term on the front) Sample easy exam question:

Harold's home was broken into three times this year. So he dug a huge hole on his lawn near the window that robbers seek entry. Then he placed a bear trap at the bottom of the hole and cleverly covered it with small branches and leaves. One night while sneaking up to Harold's window, Tim the Robber fell in, got caught in the bear trap, and was seriously injured. The next morning, Harold went out for the newspaper and to see what he'd caught. Tim screamed: "My leg. I'm hurt!" In Tim's lawsuit for injuries, Harold will likely: a. win because Tim was a trespasser and landowners owe no duty to trespassers. b. lose because landowners owe a duty to keep the premises free from unreasonable dangers they create for trespassers.

I know which answer you'd like to pick. Choose the other one for exam purposes.

4- For "application" multiple choice questions, talk the material out with a study friend. A well written college exam will make you go beyond the mere memorization of material. Another sample exam question:

This morning on the way to our exam, Marcel purchased coffee at the drive-through window of a local burger establishment. With the car stopped, he placed the cup between his knees and opened the lid to add cream. Accidentally, he knocked the contents of the cup onto his lap, and hot coffee soaked through his sweat pants. He screamed: "Help me, I'm burning, and I've got a test in 20 minutes!" After completing his exam, Marcel headed straight to the hospital, where doctors treated his third degree burns. He then sued the burger joint for failing to warn him that extremely hot coffee can rip through flesh. A jury awarded Marcel $100,000 in damages, but also found him to be 75% responsible and the defendant 25% responsible for the accident. How much money would Marcel be permitted to recover if the defendant does not appeal this verdict? a. $100,000 b. $75,000 c. $25,000 d. $0

If you chose letter "c," then you understand the legal concept of comparative negligence. In most states, a plaintiff's award is reduced by the percentage of fault assigned by the jury for an accident. However, in my state, if a plaintiff is found to be 50% or more responsible, then that plaintiff would recover nothing from the $100,000 verdict. Thus, the correct response would be letter "d."

5- On take-home exams or term papers, your computer's Spell Check is not the same as proofreading. True story: In a legal document, an attorney asked the judge for a delay in his case because he was undergoing a delicate medical procedure on his back: Disk surgery. However, he mistakenly typed a different four letter word that looked like DISK, inserting an unfortunate "C" rather than the needed "S." Spell check didn't pick up the error, since the word was spelled correctly. The take-away: Please proof your take-home exams and papers!

Pace yourself on game day. Flip through the exam before starting, to see what you've gotten yourself into. But before taking that test, try to get on the same page with your professor, because s/he really wants you to succeed.

This article is an excerpt from 99 Motivators for College Success and appeared in The Huffington Post.

Can College Professors Manufacture Student Motivation?

Do your professors motivate you to turn things around?



For 2013, the typical college student New Year's Resolution is to get motivated and study harder in the new semester.  But do colleges and more specifically, professors, acknowledge that they too have a role in providing the seeds of student motivation?  I found an interesting article in The Chronicle of Higher Education on this very topic of motivation, which drew some interesting conclusions:



Motivation is determined by the characteristics of the college environment and the instructor.



In one study:  The largest drop in the ... students' motivation occurred during the first year, though it ticked up slightly during the following three years of their college experience. 



In another study:  Students' levels of motivation varied widely, as reflected by their scores on the test, and their motivation was highly influenced by their perception of the intrinsic value of the material.



The author of "How Colleges Work" suggests:  Department heads and administrators also pay attention to which professors seem to be the best at motivating students, and to assign them to core and introductory courses, where they are more likely to reach a large number of students. Such seemingly minor decisions can have profound consequences on many students' success.



Click here to read: 

Can Colleges Manufacture Motivation?

The Chronicle of Higher Education

The Miracle at Marsh Fork Elementary School

In the wake of the recent tragedy in CT, here's an uplifting elementary school story which has been almost ten years in the making.





I have followed the story of and written about Ed Wiley and his fight to keep his granddaughter and the students of Marsh Fork Elementary (Sundial, West Virginia) out of harm's way.  (The school is situated 400 yards downstream from a 2.8 billion gallon coal waste dam.)  When state assistance was not provided, Mr. Wiley led concerned citizens on a 455-mile walk to Washington D.C. in 2008, got a meeting with then-Senator Byrd, and put the children of Marsh Fork on the map.  




In January 2013, Marsh Fork Elementary School will open its doors to a new, relocated, state-of-the art facility, due to Mr. Wiley's efforts and the efforts of those mentioned in the below article.




Grandpa v. Big Coal

The Huffington Post

by Perry Binder 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/perry-binder/grandpas-school-kids-vers_b_774929.html 




This is not an environmental issue. This is about a little human being. -- Ed Wiley (Grandpa) speaking to West Virginia then-Governor Manchin





I came across a story from July 2005 about West Virginia's Marsh Fork Elementary School, which is situated 400 yards below a 2.8 billion gallon coal waste dam. 400 yards? 2.8 billion gallons. With the kids breathing coal dust and chemicals from the coal silo which sits 150 feet away. The only reason this is making any news is that the grandfather of one of the elementary school kids sat on the West Virginia Capitol steps and refused to leave until the governor addressed these rather serious concerns. The guy was just a little curious why the Department of Environmental Protection approved a permit for an additional coal silo adjacent to the school. He was just wondering why in a school of 200 students, three kids and four teachers had died of cancer. And with 240 significant safety violations since 1991, why nothing was being done, like building another school. Away from the madness. 2.8 billion gallons. 2.8 billion. School's not out. School's gone!



In 2008, Mr. Wiley went on a 455-mile hike to Washington, D.C. and actually got a meeting with United States Senator Robert Byrd. He started a web site, Pennies of Promise to raise money for a new school. ... Truth be told, while grandpa was getting publicity for his cause, the money raised was a mere fraction of the $8,000,000 needed to fund a new school. But Mr. Wiley persisted, as attested to by his many supporters.



Continue reading here

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/perry-binder/grandpas-school-kids-vers_b_774929.html 




Peaceful holidays.




Perry

99 Motivators for College Success [Kindle Edition]

99 Motivators for College Success - Kindle - now $4.99 for the holidays!




In 99 Motivators for College Success, Perry Binder is one part professor, one part career mentor, and one part classroom cheerleader. His Motivators, insightful stories, and takeaways are presented in bite-sized tips and quotes on college success in class, in career choices, and in life. Most of the Motivators are serious, some are quirky, and they all have universal messages for college and high school students. In this book, Perry gives away all of his teaching secrets, including advice on how to study for multiple choice exams and how to write model essay exam answers.




Happy Holidays!




Perry

In Rust Belt, a teenager’s climb from poverty

Excellent article about personal obstacles, perseverance, and driving your destiny by escaping the path which molded you...



In Rust Belt, a teenager’s climb from poverty

The Washington Post, By Anne Hull, Published: December 8



Week after week, the mailman climbed the steep hill of Shenango Street to the house with the busted porch steps. “Dear Miss Rouzzo,” the letters began, or “Dear Tabitha Rouzzo.” The college catalogues barely fit in the mailbox. They stuck out like gift-wrapped presents against white aluminum siding gone dingy from decades of wear. On the porch were three new Linen Breeze decorative candles — a nice try, thought the actual Tabitha Rouzzo, who came walking up the hill every afternoon with her mind on the mailbox....

Tabi shared the rental house with her mother and sometimes her mother’s boyfriend. Her four older siblings were grown. None of them had graduated from high school. They wore headsets and hairnets to jobs that were so futureless that getting pregnant at 20 seemed an enriching diversion. Born too late to witness the blue-collar stability that had once been possible, they occupied the bottom of the U.S. economy.



Continue reading

In Rust Belt, a teenager’s climb from poverty

Read the last paragraph to see where her career path has started.

Is Actual Innocence “Capturing the Friedmans,” 25 Years Later?

Jesse Friedman served thirteen years in prison for crimes he claims that he did not commit.  He is currently registered as a Level 3 sex offender.



Is Actual Innocence “Capturing the Friedmans,” 25 Years Later?

by Perry Binder

The Huffington Post 



On November 25, 1987, I was sprawled out on my parents’ couch, when my favorite high school teacher appeared on the TV news.  Arnold Friedman was a retired NYC instructor who taught computer classes in his home for local kids.  I watched as he and his 17-year old son, Jesse, were handcuffed and hauled away for horrific child molestation crimes occurring in their basement.  I fell off that couch in disbelief.

Continued below...







Bayside High School yearbook picture of Arnold Friedman

(Perry Binder, student, is pictured in the background, on the left)





The author took Organic Chemistry and Nuclear Chemistry high school courses with Arnold Friedman.  The latter class included a discussion of the effects of radiation on human and animal life.  With that fact in mind, Mr. Friedman wrote the following beside the above yearbook photo:









Article continued:



Arnold and Jesse
Friedman each pled guilty to avoid a trial, and Jesse learned of his father’s
prison suicide in 1995.  Since his release in 2001, Jesse has attempted to
clear his name, so he no longer must register as a Level 3 violent sexual
predator.  In 2003, new facts about his case emerged in the
Oscar-nominated documentary, Capturing the Friedmans, which examined the evidence
against the Friedmans and questioned whether any of the allegations against
them were truthful.

On
August 16, 2010, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
found "a
reasonable likelihood that Jesse Friedman was wrongfully convicted" and
that "the police, prosecutors and the [trial] judge did everything they
could to coerce a guilty plea and avoid a trial."  That November,
the Nassau County
District Attorney appointed a panel of four experts to
review the evidence against Jesse.  To date, the panel has not released
its findings.  On November 18, 2012, a Great Neck, N.Y. town
hall was convened to present a 75-minute new evidence reel, with Andrew Jarecki and Marc Smerling, director and
producer respectively of Capturing the Friedmans, civil rights
attorney Ronald Kuby, and Jesse Friedman in attendance.  (I previewed the
video for this article.)



Continue Reading in The Huffington Post:
Is Actual Innocence “Capturing the Friedmans,” 25 Years Later?

by Perry Binder

New Book Reviews of 99 Motivators for College Success

As an avid reader, I've enjoyed interacting with fellow readers on GoodReads.com.  In addition, this site has given me a great forum as an author to interact with readers of 99 Motivators for College Success.



If you read my blog, please consider friending and/or following me at

Perry Binder on GoodReads 



1- GoodReads Reviews for 99 Motivators for College Success 

(4.8/5.0) - 5 Ratings


- Right now I am a high school student and I'm going to be taking a Law Studies class my Junior year and I think this book will be very useful.

- Received this book in a giveaway, but its advice is WAY more valuable than that might hint. The one that really sticks out (and could have saved me a lot of wasted time) is how you should choose a vocation (pays well!) versus an avocation (hobby; little or no pay!).




2- Amazon Reviews (5.0/5.0) - 2 Ratings

- I have enjoyed reading this book. It was quite helpful in getting me motivated for the right reasons. I would definitely recommend it for other college students.

- Fantastic book and a quick read. Perry is a motivating professor; which is carried forward into his writing. Purchase the book you will be satisfied.

Amazon: 99 Motivators for College Success


3- Perry's Former Students - Testimonials on Perry's Classes

Justice Served? Jesse Friedman Panel is Taking Two Years for a Ruling

Jesse Friedman Update - It is now going on two years that a panel was appointed (November 2010) by the Nassau County DA's Office to review this case.


July 2010: Nearly two years after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit took the unusual step of urging a "complete review" of what it suggested could have been the wrongful conviction of an innocent man in a notorious case of mass child molestation, the defendant and his lawyer have become frustrated at what they say is the secretive way in which the Nassau County District Attorney's Office is conducting the probe.

New York Law Journal



Click here for Case Review Panel Members


Click below for my Huffington Post article (August 2010):



"Capturing the Friedmans" Dad was my Unforgettable Teacher: Apply His Classroom Lessons to Set his Son Free by Perry Binder



Excerpt:

I don't know if Jesse is innocent, but I do believe he was pressured into accepting a plea deal and his guilt cannot be proven "beyond a reasonable doubt."  At the moment, his status as a sex offender is in the hands of prosecutors, who hopefully can apply Arnold Friedman's classroom lessons of compassion, rather than implicate Jesse by default for his father's sins.