Here's Alexander:
The birth was all natural and Jennifer was amazing. Thanks to everyone, especially our CNM Lisa!
Monday, November 24, 2008
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Usage Wars
I found this article about the EL usage wars. We discussed this a little in Diversity class... but thought this was a pretty good, balanced article. Plus, it has to be the most entertaining review of EL usage, evah. The short story: the author (David Foster Wallace) has an interesting writing style and is basically a pragmatic prescriptivist regarding proper EL usage.
DFW: Tense Present
DFW: Tense Present
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Graduate at 16?
Early Graduation
The article linked above describes an interesting idea. New Hampshire is developing a set of rigorous tests for 10th graders that would allow students to graduate and move on to vocational or community college by age 16. Some argue that it could be a solution to the 'crisis' that the U.S. is falling behind other nations in education. While I'm not sure how early graduation would help international competitiveness, I could see how this may help some students who may explore early college or vocational options. I'm also a little unsure about how it would save money if the schools have fewer students. In any case, I thought it was an interesting article so if people want to comment please do!
Baby News
I know many of you are looking for updates on the baby. Well, everything is going well, but Jenn has developed some symptoms of preeclampsia, so our outstanding nurse-midwife Lisa took Jenn off her feet for the last few weeks of the pregnency. We went up to U-M hospital for an ultrasound screening/biophysical analysis and all is well. I'll send out an email to the group when any news hits, so if I'm absent for a day or two, expect a brief email update.
2008: Great Year or Greatest Year? (Warning: Political Content)
What a year! I mean, except for the whole economic downturn and all. Election, Olympics, SMAC, election, SMAC , election, election. A few quick comments about the discussions from this week: Breakfast was mmmmmm good. It was a really exciting day Tuesday and also Wednesday after the election. First, the gay marriage thing came up (AKA, Prop 8 in Cali). I still don't get it. Just let them get married. It doesn't affect anyone else but the people involved. And why does the government have to specifically exclude a certain group of people? Some say that anyone can have the same visitation rights and tax benefits as long as they just don't use the word marriage. Fine, then rename everyone'smarriage cert. a civil union cert. and let the churches call it whateverthehecktheywant. Also, why does the church have ownership over the word marriage? I just get the sense that if gay people getting married civil unioned makes you uncomfortable about your marriage civil union, then that is not a 'gay' problem, that is a 'you' problem.
Another thing that came up is the 'he's not my President' convo. I have to say that I've never been impressed with GWB. I was beyond shocked when he won the nomination in 2000 over McCain and others. He never seemed to express opinions and/or knowledge very well. Essentially, he was Joe Sixpack before Caribou Barbie came around. Some people like to think that the image he projects to the media (or when he talks, period) is due to a lack of charisma or not being comfortable speaking in public. I don't buy that. Al Gore had zero charisma in 2000, but he could communicate his understanding of topics at a level that did not require 3 second pauses to search for words like 'good' or 'decider.' It was the same in 2004 with John Kerry, who has never been accused of having charisma.
Most politicians have spent their entire lives in public service thinking about and dealing with issues that come up in debates and press conferences. GWB? Not so much, apparently...IDK. When one has a deep understanding about a topic, they feel confortable discussing it and answering questions about it on the fly. When you don't spend your entire life thinking about and studying issues like economics or international relations or domestic policies, you don't develop the same level of knowledge. What's the result? Alaska being near Russia means you have foreign relations experience. War is hard work. So yeah, do I want a Joe Sixpack or a soccer MOM in the White House? No, I guess I have higher expectations for a POTUS or VP.
That being said, he's my President and he's been so for 8 years. But did I (only half jokingly) say I'd consider moving to Canada? You bet (but honestly, part of the reason is that Canada is awesome). So what does a conservative/republican do? You can suck it up, stay and vote for change while respecting the office of the President like I did, or GTFO. Don't worry though, it will only be 8 long, excruciating years. Except without a new war, a Patriot Act, useless tax rebates, a $10T deficit, torture and world wide disrespect. Actually, I guess that wouldn't be so excruciating.
The article linked above describes an interesting idea. New Hampshire is developing a set of rigorous tests for 10th graders that would allow students to graduate and move on to vocational or community college by age 16. Some argue that it could be a solution to the 'crisis' that the U.S. is falling behind other nations in education. While I'm not sure how early graduation would help international competitiveness, I could see how this may help some students who may explore early college or vocational options. I'm also a little unsure about how it would save money if the schools have fewer students. In any case, I thought it was an interesting article so if people want to comment please do!
Baby News
I know many of you are looking for updates on the baby. Well, everything is going well, but Jenn has developed some symptoms of preeclampsia, so our outstanding nurse-midwife Lisa took Jenn off her feet for the last few weeks of the pregnency. We went up to U-M hospital for an ultrasound screening/biophysical analysis and all is well. I'll send out an email to the group when any news hits, so if I'm absent for a day or two, expect a brief email update.
2008: Great Year or Greatest Year? (Warning: Political Content)
What a year! I mean, except for the whole economic downturn and all. Election, Olympics, SMAC, election, SMAC , election, election. A few quick comments about the discussions from this week: Breakfast was mmmmmm good. It was a really exciting day Tuesday and also Wednesday after the election. First, the gay marriage thing came up (AKA, Prop 8 in Cali). I still don't get it. Just let them get married. It doesn't affect anyone else but the people involved. And why does the government have to specifically exclude a certain group of people? Some say that anyone can have the same visitation rights and tax benefits as long as they just don't use the word marriage. Fine, then rename everyone's
Another thing that came up is the 'he's not my President' convo. I have to say that I've never been impressed with GWB. I was beyond shocked when he won the nomination in 2000 over McCain and others. He never seemed to express opinions and/or knowledge very well. Essentially, he was Joe Sixpack before Caribou Barbie came around. Some people like to think that the image he projects to the media (or when he talks, period) is due to a lack of charisma or not being comfortable speaking in public. I don't buy that. Al Gore had zero charisma in 2000, but he could communicate his understanding of topics at a level that did not require 3 second pauses to search for words like 'good' or 'decider.' It was the same in 2004 with John Kerry, who has never been accused of having charisma.
Most politicians have spent their entire lives in public service thinking about and dealing with issues that come up in debates and press conferences. GWB? Not so much, apparently...IDK. When one has a deep understanding about a topic, they feel confortable discussing it and answering questions about it on the fly. When you don't spend your entire life thinking about and studying issues like economics or international relations or domestic policies, you don't develop the same level of knowledge. What's the result? Alaska being near Russia means you have foreign relations experience. War is hard work. So yeah, do I want a Joe Sixpack or a soccer MOM in the White House? No, I guess I have higher expectations for a POTUS or VP.
That being said, he's my President and he's been so for 8 years. But did I (only half jokingly) say I'd consider moving to Canada? You bet (but honestly, part of the reason is that Canada is awesome). So what does a conservative/republican do? You can suck it up, stay and vote for change while respecting the office of the President like I did, or GTFO. Don't worry though, it will only be 8 long, excruciating years. Except without a new war, a Patriot Act, useless tax rebates, a $10T deficit, torture and world wide disrespect. Actually, I guess that wouldn't be so excruciating.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Halloween Video!
Abby had a great time trick or treating on Friday. She didn't want to wear her ladybug makeup, but the costume worked out fine nonetheless.
The weather was perfect... clear skies, no wind and 68 degrees.
Abby says thanks to Aunt Linda, Uncle Ron and Jessi for her new computer and to Aunt Karen, Uncle Larry, Larry, Greg and Sarah for her Halloween shirt, Peeps, drinking cup and to everyone for thinking of her on Halloween.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
I almost forgot...
Cristi and Gren did really well.... i just threw in some slides that didn't totally ruin it.
Great Ideas
I attended a seminar I heard about in the cognate course I'm auditing (EDUC 737). The seminar was called Active Learning in Engineering. It really gave me some great ideas to use in the classroom. They are simple, but they fit into the structure of the classroom I’d like to implement. Here’s my idea:
Student’s attention spans empirically drop off a cliff after 15 minutes, so I don’t plan on lecturing more 15 mins at a time.
Along those same lines, I’d like to have a timer with a buzzer to facilitate timing, much like a football practice. The key here is to keep a quick pace in class. One of the things I’ve noticed in my placement is that boredom == trouble. That's what I'd like to avoid.
Some of the activities to break up the lecturing that came out of the seminar (they are all intended as 1-3 minute exercises):
• One minute stretching: you don’t even need to engage the students in content. Our Sec. MAC instructors use that technique for our classes occasionally.
• One-minute paper: instruct students to write a quick essay that address what was confusion for them in class so far and what they thing the important point of the class was today. They came hand these in or you can discuss it in class, but either way it provides a good formative assessment.
• Summarize/clarify notes: another good one-minute exercise for students to engage the material using dispositional thinking.
• Have students generate potential HW or test questions: I love this idea b/c it stimulates more dispositional thinking by considering the material from a different perspective.
• Have students make predictions or explain new phenomena: this activity can activate prior knowledge or apply what they just learned.
Student’s attention spans empirically drop off a cliff after 15 minutes, so I don’t plan on lecturing more 15 mins at a time.
Along those same lines, I’d like to have a timer with a buzzer to facilitate timing, much like a football practice. The key here is to keep a quick pace in class. One of the things I’ve noticed in my placement is that boredom == trouble. That's what I'd like to avoid.
Some of the activities to break up the lecturing that came out of the seminar (they are all intended as 1-3 minute exercises):
• One minute stretching: you don’t even need to engage the students in content. Our Sec. MAC instructors use that technique for our classes occasionally.
• One-minute paper: instruct students to write a quick essay that address what was confusion for them in class so far and what they thing the important point of the class was today. They came hand these in or you can discuss it in class, but either way it provides a good formative assessment.
• Summarize/clarify notes: another good one-minute exercise for students to engage the material using dispositional thinking.
• Have students generate potential HW or test questions: I love this idea b/c it stimulates more dispositional thinking by considering the material from a different perspective.
• Have students make predictions or explain new phenomena: this activity can activate prior knowledge or apply what they just learned.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Technology Rocks… Unless it Doesn’t
The last discussion of the summer may have been one of the best. I think we can all agree that adding technology to the classroom is a great way to foster student interest in the content. That may be the end of the agreement, however. Questions like, “what’s the best way to deliver experience with technology to students: in content classrooms or in tech classes like 504?” and “at what point does technology overshadow content?” are certainly conflicting ones. The former is certainly tough to answer, though mostly likely a good answer would be a combination of both. But since this seems to be a policy issue I don’t feel like researching now, I’ll skip it and ask for your comments.
The second question is one we talked about more thoroughly and also one I have thought about in the past regarding physics labs. When computers and other electronic measuring devices became affordable in the 90s, there was a justifiable push to integrate these devises in college physics labs. At the time, the rewards out weighed the risks. Students could learn physics and learn to use more sophisticated tools. In many cases, the new devises provided a more streamlined learning environment for both students and instructors. Learn physics and learn how to use Excel! Computers in the lab! Yeaaaahhhhh! It certainly couldn’t hurt, right?
These days, I’m not so sure. Today, probably 99% of college freshmen know more about computers than the instructors. Computers, Excel, digital data recorders and the like are not that engaging to 21st century students because they've used them before. So labs, which are by nature interactive sessions for students, have become more a passive experience due to the saturation of technology in the lab. Today, this type of technology does not engage students. It also does not create a more interactive learning environment. So, why use it? At this point, in this specific context (21st century college physics labs) technology seems to hinder content learning by taking students one or more steps away from the tactile and engaging experience these labs already furnish.
I hope its clear that I’m not pursuing the opinion that tech == OMG bad!!! for all classrooms and all physics classes. Certainly not. What I’m trying to express is essentially what Jeff said the last day of class: that technology for it’s own sake is not the goal. More specifically, instructors should have a purpose for implementing technology in the classroom and be conscious about the context in which one implements the technology. If you want to introduce students to the type of work they will do in the future, be sure it’s something they haven’t used before. If you want use technology just to create a more interactive environment, maybe physics labs aren’t the place to do it.
The second question is one we talked about more thoroughly and also one I have thought about in the past regarding physics labs. When computers and other electronic measuring devices became affordable in the 90s, there was a justifiable push to integrate these devises in college physics labs. At the time, the rewards out weighed the risks. Students could learn physics and learn to use more sophisticated tools. In many cases, the new devises provided a more streamlined learning environment for both students and instructors. Learn physics and learn how to use Excel! Computers in the lab! Yeaaaahhhhh! It certainly couldn’t hurt, right?
These days, I’m not so sure. Today, probably 99% of college freshmen know more about computers than the instructors. Computers, Excel, digital data recorders and the like are not that engaging to 21st century students because they've used them before. So labs, which are by nature interactive sessions for students, have become more a passive experience due to the saturation of technology in the lab. Today, this type of technology does not engage students. It also does not create a more interactive learning environment. So, why use it? At this point, in this specific context (21st century college physics labs) technology seems to hinder content learning by taking students one or more steps away from the tactile and engaging experience these labs already furnish.
I hope its clear that I’m not pursuing the opinion that tech == OMG bad!!! for all classrooms and all physics classes. Certainly not. What I’m trying to express is essentially what Jeff said the last day of class: that technology for it’s own sake is not the goal. More specifically, instructors should have a purpose for implementing technology in the classroom and be conscious about the context in which one implements the technology. If you want to introduce students to the type of work they will do in the future, be sure it’s something they haven’t used before. If you want use technology just to create a more interactive environment, maybe physics labs aren’t the place to do it.
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