Brené Brown, Why Your Critics Aren’t The Ones Who Matter.
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First tweet
Just for future reference, here is my now-ironic first use of Twitter:
Not twittering; just reserving the name.
— Eric Castro (@eecastro) January 23, 2009
St Ignatius Free Clinic
For the third year (I think), we’ve ended the Abnormal Psych and Therapy unit with a full-class, immersive activity — this year with one minor alteration.
We set the class period up by telling students that they’ve graduated medical school and are …
Mortal danger is an effective antidote for fixed ideas.
— Erwin Rommel (via <a href=“http://observando.net/" class=“tumblr_blog”>observando</a>)
<p>And this is why independent schools will …
What am I doing?
A colleague in the Social Science department recently shared a New York Times article on the value of student perception data as related to our annual student questionnaires. At the bottom of the article are the following three paragraphs:
One …
<p>It doesn’t interest me<br/> what you do for a living.<br/> I want to know<br/> what you ache for<br/> and if you dare to dream<br/> of meeting your heart’s longing.</p>
<p>It doesn’t interest …
Scoring Track & Field meets
Big thanks to Mr. Castro for all his help at the track meet yesterday, staying late into the evening!
It is without a doubt the single most stressful thing that I’ve done at SI in the fifteen years I’ve been there. It’s more stressful that serving …
Student Questionnaire Reflections, 2013–14
Linked here are the unedited results of the annual student questionnaire given to my two sections of Advanced Placement Psychology in the Fall of 2013. Below are the requested reflection questions and my responses.
In which areas did your view of …
2013–2014 Student Questionnaire results
Below are the written comments from this year’s juniors and seniors in my two sections of AP Psychology:
AP Psych is an awesome class, and Mr. Castro is the man.
AP Psych is probably my favorite class because of Mr. Castro. He makes learning fun by …
More broadly, the findings suggest that pure happiness is about getting what we want in life—whether through people, money, or life circumstances. Meaningfulness, in contrast, seems to have more to do with giving, effort, and sacrifice. It is clear …
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve …
The last photo (by ecastro).
It’s been 12-years since my father died, and I miss him and think of him often.
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On assignment
Our Director of Communications made the following suggestions to me in regards to writing an article for our alumni magazine:
A piece that touches upon and mixes the following:
1. Running & praying
2. Turning off notifications as distractions
3. …
In Trouble on Valentines Day
Girl Scout cookies count as “lunch,” right? Oh, they don’t? Dang…
After flying in late lastnight from a one-day jaunt to Las Vegas and back for a conference, I decided to work from home today. I sat down at my laptop at 7:57am and went for a run at …
We can understand the happiness of fishes—or ants, or inchworms—because what drives us to think and argue about such matters is, ultimately, exactly the same thing.
— <p>David Graeber, <a href=“ …
Dress Like a Teacher Day, 2014
hehe — pretty funny…
Tenure Process Notification
At the beginning of January (Jan. 13, 2014, specifically), I received the following from Dr Paul Molinelli, the Director of Professional Development:
Dear Eric,
Don’t worry — FDB doesn’t happen until NEXT year! However, when board members and small …
Shooting the Moon, 2014
For the past 15-years of teaching AP Psychology, I have allowed students to “Shoot the Moon” on the Motivation Unit test. The idea came from my Debate Team students who would endlessly play Hearts (or Speed or BS) in between debate rounds. In Hearts, …
Fun, but educational?
In the midst of the unit on Emotion, I organized the students into two groups, and gave separate instructions to each group. Half went to the hallway (the Outside Condition), where I told them to mimic the hand gestures, body language, and any …
Do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing, and you’ll never be criticized.
— <p>Elbert Hubbard, <em>John North Willys</em> (as reprinted in <em>Elbert Hubbard’s Selected Writings, Part …
Yesterday’s remarkable is today’s really good and tomorrow’s mediocre.
— <p><a href=“ …