Jobs
Pfizer
It's great to hear from you! I very much enjoyed our work together while you were in CNS, and would be more than happy to provide a reference to you for this or any other job. Your references can send me email (gail@bu.edu) or call my cell ( 617 529 5277).
The main reason for you to alert me to such a call is to give me as much information as you can about what the work would be and why you're interested. Can you also please send me (e.g.) a CV and (if available) a short narrative about what you've been doing over the past 6 years -- and earlier, if you'd like.
BTW: Pfizer is (weirdly, admittedly) spelled with an F. I don't care, but they might ...
I hope that you and your family have had a good few years and are enjoying the summer.
Hi Gail,
Thanks for providing a reference.
The job involves creating a platform through which researchers on different projects at Pfizer can be kept abreast of each other's work. Part of the job is to adapt and customize a wiki for this purpose. The work involves creating connections to the scientific programming platforms that they are using, statistical packages and Matlab like modeling environments. I miss being immersed in science and think I'd enjoy connecting with different research teams.
Over the past six years I have been teaching mostly Humanities in the Boston Public Schools. I have done some other things like mentor the Robotics team and co-developed a course combining algebra, geometry and physics for 9th graders. I started teaching the first year of a new school. Following trends of the time (and Gates money), big urban high schools were getting broken up into schools of 300-400 students. All my students had laptops and there was a spirit that encouraged innovation. We wrote the new Humanities curriculum in which students increased there understanding of history through the arts and literature of the time and visa-versa. We focused on case studies and broad questions that always came back to helping students understand the current world and their place in it.
It was an amazingly data-rich environment. CNS was all about modeling data so I was in data heaven. I got involved with a 'teachers as researchers' approach to education and the process of collecting data from students writing and other measures, analyzing it, developing an plan from it, implementing the plan and collecting more data became endlessly fascinating and rewarding. The students had laptops. They all had a accounts on the class wiki and everything they wrote, every essay and quiz and quote they liked lived on the wiki. Students could see others each work. Their writing became part of their identity. It improved.
In 2011 with the Gates money gone they closed the school, re-combining small schools into big schools. Th laptops weren't getting replaced. You could requisition a cart a week in advance for an hour so students could work on some test-prep package. Trying new things was frowned upon. Pacing guides were introduced. Every teacher and student would now be working on the same lesson each day. Problem was that lesson didn't really involve reading or writing, students fill in graphic organizers and teachers tell them what the book was about. It was not at all interesting to me. I resigned.
Minus
How are you! My name is John, cofounder of http://Minus.com - We are an image sharing startup based in midtown Manhattan. We are looking to grow our team this summer and you can learn more at http://minus.com/pages/careers
I came across your profile on Github and was wondering if you would be interested in a fulltime position or have potential referrals. Hope to hear back soon and I'd be happy to answer any questions as well.
Cheers!
BoundlessLearning
Dear Nick, Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today.
I would imagine that being an educurator would be an interesting job for someone recently minted in a field of study. The adage that you cannot claim to really know something until you can explain it comes into play here and the process would have a good bit of intrinsic reward.
Coordinating a group of educurators would be about reinforcing that connection to intrinsic reward as you develop standards of clarity and create an infrastructure that is easy to plug into. You would likely be part of the team creating that infrastructure as well. That's the job I want. There you are thinking more like a teacher, a builder, an orchestrator, a facilitator.
Good luck with your second iteration. There is an awful lot of work to do in this sphere. Perhaps other lead positions will open up. I would be interested.
Tim McKenna http://sitebuilt.net (857)498-2574
US Greendata
To Whom It May Concern:
I have always written code, creating routines that get something done, be it automating the building process in AutoCad's Lisp, running simulations of neural network models of vision using Matlab, or extending Mediawiki for classroom use using PHP and MySQL. Recently I have been exploring using HTML5 and jquery-mobile to illuminate something complicated (like designing an income tax system) within the constraints of a mobile device. I am figuring out Amazon Cloud Services and NOSQL database services through Python. Some repositories are at https://github.com/mckennatim. I like the Agile philosophy of development.
I just got back from Portland Oregon where my former partner, Bill Clumpner, runs an energy consulting company. With my son who works as an engineer at Vestas, I am designing a system that uses junk heat from a wood stove, a solar collector and on demand water heater to warm up a tank enough to put 100F water into the radiant coils in the first floor slab and under the bathroom tiles. In the process I have seen the promise in this sector and the need for software tools to make it comprehensible. What does beyond the solar-calulator look like?
I like the things that you are working on and feel that I could contribute. Thanks for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Tim McKenna
Tech content specialist - MATLAB
I like to puzzle about the best way to explain something. When I was a builder, I'd give my crews cut-lists and assembly instructions produced by Autocad LISP programs. At first they thought it was crazy but in the end they had developed a deeper understanding about building.
I went on to different kinds of teams where well crafted code contained within it the explanation and by 2AM we were using every available machine at BU to run our MATLAB simulations: models of the brain for memory, vision and recognition.
As a teacher, you are not really creating a team but more a positive atmosphere where everyone supports everyone else and students felt comfortable taking risks. It was here where I really tuned in on how stage my writing and speaking to optimize understanding in the class in front of you.
I am interested in the job. I like writing and puzzling out how to meet the needs of my audience. Please consider me for this position. You might find one of my class websites useful in assessing my writing. Try: http://www.pathboston.com/hum3. As evidence of familiarity with programming languages you could check my repository at https://github.com/mckennatim.
Thanks for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Tim McKenna
Director of content- front end prototyper
Fortunately for you, Boundless is like a 360° mullet: party in the back AND party in the front. We need you to design and build rich HTML5 web-apps that change the way college students learn. This beauty contest has a serious talent portion, so our platform needs to both look pretty AND flow seamlessly while delighting students with innovative, interactive learning tools.
We take a thoughtful approach to the front end. We continue to move further down the HTML5 app path, and invest heavily in tools that make us productive. Backbone/Spine. ExtJS/Sencha. CoffeeScript. SCAML (like HAML, but w/ Scala). SASS (Of course, how can you make front-ends without it??) And it's not just software that keeps us productive: all engineers have standing/sitting desks, Apple laptops, cinema displays, and head-phones so you can focus and GSD. And infinite coffee—that's a big piece too.
You're a straight shooter. Like us. Since it's high noon, here come the bullets:
Manage Content Creation Process
Manage a team of in-house domain-specific Content Managers Help source, train, manage, and evaluate independent freelancers Help manage and optimize the content curation process. Continue leading ongoing optimization and improvement of the process, with eyes on how to increase quality and efficiency Maintain detailed real time analytics and metrics of status of project, including efficiency, status, and quality Product Development Support
Lead the Product Development of the internally created Content Management System Interface with product development about user experience and learning features Input on front end product development and user experience Development of additional features to support and improve the learning experience Desired Skills & Experience
Ideal work experience includes:
Managing an in-house team (3+ people) Experience working with dozens of outside freelancers/contractors Very strong analytical skills (Advanced/Expert in MS Excel) Product Management with digital products Entreprenurial experience a plus Excellence working in a digital-only environment (no paper) Incredible work output, like a force of nature, or like The Beast from X-Men Adventurous and entrepreneurial spirit, like Indiana Jones, and ability to work independently without detailed direction Craftsmanship and incredible attention to detail Fun and sociable personality that adds to team culture —Team Boundless
I'm looking for my next thing and am curious where you are going with this. So you have this system and workforce for culling content and aligning it with different texts. So you get to some critical mass of users and material and you index the hell out of it. Then what?
I suppose you could jump in do something with the questions, problems, open responses. Or you could tackle the presentation. Go beyond video clips and create some simulated environments for each discipline that ease the acquisition of difficult concepts. Or socializing seems a reasonable play. A Stackoveflow for Biochem, students competing to help each other out.
What you are doing now and all your future possibilities are very interesting to me. And your space looks cool and its eminently bike-able, in the city and near the water. I'd love to work at your company.
We used to have ping pong tournaments at lunch when I was building. Cost me a fortune in hourly wages, but it was worth it, pumped everybody up a bit.
I have some problems. Coming from mainly teaching high school seniors I think textbooks are a big part of what's wrong with education. You get enough editors satisfying enough editorial boards (TX, CA NY) and you end up with lifeless prose devoid of passion, controversy or voice. Do you really want to mimic bloat? That TIMSS study out of BC tells us we have the fattest textbooks in the world; algebra 1 in Taiwan is 1/4" thick. And we know they do better than us. But you don't do high school and college texts are better.
I don't exactly know what I am applying for. I meet a lot of your content manager specs but find the front-end possibilities for creating something fantastic pretty limitless. I will mold myself to the job at hand. I am flexible and generally can out-work most people I have ever been around.
Please take a look at my blog and resume and linkedin.
Thanks for your consideration.
Tim McKenna (857)498-2574
So if you’re comfortable wielding Javascript, HTML/SASS through enough backend MVC to create & deploy compelling features, let’s talk, we've got a lot in common!
