Friday, July 23, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
2
Almost there. It's weird, leaving a place you've been for a month. I keep looking around and thinking that this is probably the last time I'll be here. I mean, maybe I'll come back to Boone to visit or do something with ASU, but probably not. I remember when I left Arizona, I didn't think much of it. When I left Portland, I was sad; I didn't think I'd ever make it back (Amanda and I went in 2008, though). Leaving Worcester, I was just glad to be getting out of there, but I've been here in Boone long enough to feel a little sad about it.
That being said, I'm out of here at 10:30 sharp tomorrow.
That being said, I'm out of here at 10:30 sharp tomorrow.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
3
Good day yesterday. Only two more nights to sleep in my Kellogg bed, which looks and feels like it was made from foam rubber and duct tape.
Hunter spoke for the entirety of yesterday's session. The morning was primarily on the idea of I-E-O, which stands for input/environment/output. The idea is that when comparing two schools, one should take into account all three factors. Two schools that both graduate 90% of their nursing students might not be equal if one accepts students with significantly lower GPAs.
The most interesting thing he said in the afternoon was that he's never been able to find any correlation between a person's degree and their success in teaching (as measured by getting students to pass subsequent college level courses). He said one of the best teachers he's ever come across was a math teacher in New Mexico whose only credential was a BA in philosophy.
Today: guest speaker/Michael Collins
9 - 11:30 / Jobs for the future
2 / mtg with advisor
later, packing. :)
Hunter spoke for the entirety of yesterday's session. The morning was primarily on the idea of I-E-O, which stands for input/environment/output. The idea is that when comparing two schools, one should take into account all three factors. Two schools that both graduate 90% of their nursing students might not be equal if one accepts students with significantly lower GPAs.
The most interesting thing he said in the afternoon was that he's never been able to find any correlation between a person's degree and their success in teaching (as measured by getting students to pass subsequent college level courses). He said one of the best teachers he's ever come across was a math teacher in New Mexico whose only credential was a BA in philosophy.
Today: guest speaker/Michael Collins
9 - 11:30 / Jobs for the future
2 / mtg with advisor
later, packing. :)
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
4
Yesterday was good. Hunter entered to the theme from Superman, and that sort of set the tone. He had this really nice speech at the beginning where he talked about the opportunity that college represented for people and cautioned everyone not to let anyone ever belittle the students we work with. I never really see him get worked up about anything other than when he recounts stories of it when someone downplayed developmental education or the students working through those course.
The day started with a fairly basic review - the differences between assessment and evaluation (short answer: assessment is what other people do to you, evaluation is what you do for yourself), formative and summative processes, etc. We then moved into identifying the values we bring in to the workplace and talked about "measuring what we value rather than valuing what we can measure."
It was more less a natural progression, which I enjoyed. Figuring out what you value about your work isn't terribly hard after thinking about it. Then it's just a matter of measuring it and sharing it with people. Hunter said the industry standard for developmental courses is figuring out which percentage of your students go on to take a college course and earn a "C" or better. And that eliminates the FGCU problem (as I've called it - students who simply go to Edison for developmental course, never intending to take college credit at Edison) - if we had 100 students take a developmental course, and only 50 of them took a college credit course at Edison, and only 40 passed it, our passing rate would be 80%, not 40%.
Today is:
9-11:45 / Evaluation
1 - 4 / A model for evaluating developmental programs
From what he said yesterday, this is essentially the process of going back to the campus and eyeballing "what works."
The day started with a fairly basic review - the differences between assessment and evaluation (short answer: assessment is what other people do to you, evaluation is what you do for yourself), formative and summative processes, etc. We then moved into identifying the values we bring in to the workplace and talked about "measuring what we value rather than valuing what we can measure."
It was more less a natural progression, which I enjoyed. Figuring out what you value about your work isn't terribly hard after thinking about it. Then it's just a matter of measuring it and sharing it with people. Hunter said the industry standard for developmental courses is figuring out which percentage of your students go on to take a college course and earn a "C" or better. And that eliminates the FGCU problem (as I've called it - students who simply go to Edison for developmental course, never intending to take college credit at Edison) - if we had 100 students take a developmental course, and only 50 of them took a college credit course at Edison, and only 40 passed it, our passing rate would be 80%, not 40%.
Today is:
9-11:45 / Evaluation
1 - 4 / A model for evaluating developmental programs
From what he said yesterday, this is essentially the process of going back to the campus and eyeballing "what works."
Monday, July 19, 2010
5
Last week at Kellogg. It's sort of a weird experience, all this winding down. I can't wait to get home, but I'm going to miss the people here. And the place - Boone is beautiful, and there's plenty of undiscovered country left.
Speaking of: on Friday, Jason, his friend from NY, and I went into Banner Elk, NC in search of Banner Elk Falls. After a bit of meandering, we found it roughly near the TN border. A short hike, and we were on the top end of about a 60' falls. There were some people down below, swimming and sunning in the pool at the bottom. There were jumpers. Someone had set up a series of ropes, so people could shimmy up the side of the cliff (quite an angle; not as hard as it seems) to climb out onto the natural ledges. There was one at about 20', one at about 40', and then the top. We jumped once from the 20', and then wandered down river, not finding much, and returning.
Other than that, the weekend was sedate. Laundry, television on my computer, and random meals (Black Cat, some Mexican place, Mellow Mushroom...)
Today:
9-11:45 / The Evaluation Mystique
1-4 / Purposes of evaluation
Speaking of: on Friday, Jason, his friend from NY, and I went into Banner Elk, NC in search of Banner Elk Falls. After a bit of meandering, we found it roughly near the TN border. A short hike, and we were on the top end of about a 60' falls. There were some people down below, swimming and sunning in the pool at the bottom. There were jumpers. Someone had set up a series of ropes, so people could shimmy up the side of the cliff (quite an angle; not as hard as it seems) to climb out onto the natural ledges. There was one at about 20', one at about 40', and then the top. We jumped once from the 20', and then wandered down river, not finding much, and returning.
Other than that, the weekend was sedate. Laundry, television on my computer, and random meals (Black Cat, some Mexican place, Mellow Mushroom...)
Today:
9-11:45 / The Evaluation Mystique
1-4 / Purposes of evaluation
Friday, July 16, 2010
If I had a hammer
Well, it was indeed a long day yesterday; went well, though.
We had two days of diversity training, and Dr. Tafari said that was probably a good thing because that's about all most people can handle. When he first said that, I wasn't sure I agreed with him, but I think he's on to something. Toward the end of the second day, people weren't really able to discuss things objectively, and most people were simply sharing personal experiences. Not that that's not valuable in and of itself, but that's no long diversity training, that's some sort of process group. I don't think he meant that people can;t handle extended periods of diversity training because they get angry or resentful or hurt or anything; I think maybe he meant that people just can't stay focused on something like this for that long. And he didn't call it diversity training; he called it humanity training, which wasn't nearly as ominous as I had feared.
Humanity training, as he calls it, is really just a way of approaching diversity training from a more individual (external) perspective. We've seen this, to some degree. It's not like a person who immigrated from Haiti is claiming an African-American perspective. And it's not like a white guy from New York City really has the perspective of a white guy who grew up in rural Georgia. His bottom line was that you never really know what someone else's perspective is like unless you ask them, which sounds like pretty good advice.
Todays concludes week 3.
9-11:30 / The critical multicultural imperative
If it's anything like critical theory, I predict a rough 2 1/2 hours, but I'm curious to see where it all goes.
This afternoon, I might head into Banner Elk Falls with Jason and a guy he knew in college (who's flying in this morning). Otherwise, I'm hoping for a fairly sedate weekend. Next week is the big coup de grace - Hunter Boylan's week, I guess they had no choice but to save it for last, but I have to think most of our heads will be elsewhere - we return home a week from today.
We had two days of diversity training, and Dr. Tafari said that was probably a good thing because that's about all most people can handle. When he first said that, I wasn't sure I agreed with him, but I think he's on to something. Toward the end of the second day, people weren't really able to discuss things objectively, and most people were simply sharing personal experiences. Not that that's not valuable in and of itself, but that's no long diversity training, that's some sort of process group. I don't think he meant that people can;t handle extended periods of diversity training because they get angry or resentful or hurt or anything; I think maybe he meant that people just can't stay focused on something like this for that long. And he didn't call it diversity training; he called it humanity training, which wasn't nearly as ominous as I had feared.
Humanity training, as he calls it, is really just a way of approaching diversity training from a more individual (external) perspective. We've seen this, to some degree. It's not like a person who immigrated from Haiti is claiming an African-American perspective. And it's not like a white guy from New York City really has the perspective of a white guy who grew up in rural Georgia. His bottom line was that you never really know what someone else's perspective is like unless you ask them, which sounds like pretty good advice.
Todays concludes week 3.
9-11:30 / The critical multicultural imperative
If it's anything like critical theory, I predict a rough 2 1/2 hours, but I'm curious to see where it all goes.
This afternoon, I might head into Banner Elk Falls with Jason and a guy he knew in college (who's flying in this morning). Otherwise, I'm hoping for a fairly sedate weekend. Next week is the big coup de grace - Hunter Boylan's week, I guess they had no choice but to save it for last, but I have to think most of our heads will be elsewhere - we return home a week from today.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Gratitude walks
Long day today:
9-11:30 / Issues in diversity
1- 4 / Diversity/Validation/Conclusion
5:45 / Group meeting with advisor
This weeks has sort of flown by. The first two weeks were blocks of one person - week one being Ed Morante and week two being Barbara Bonham. This week will wind up having three lecturers, with the third coming Friday.
Of all the things I've learned, I'm leaning toward assessment and placement being the most intriguing, and the most likely intervention to cause positive change with minimal investment. It all makes sense; begin at the beginning.
Next week is the last one; it's the session led by Hunter Boylan.
It's starting to cool down again in Boone. Last night was beautiful, a definite mountain breeze blowing through campus. It was supposed to rain all week, but it's only rained a day so far.
9-11:30 / Issues in diversity
1- 4 / Diversity/Validation/Conclusion
5:45 / Group meeting with advisor
This weeks has sort of flown by. The first two weeks were blocks of one person - week one being Ed Morante and week two being Barbara Bonham. This week will wind up having three lecturers, with the third coming Friday.
Of all the things I've learned, I'm leaning toward assessment and placement being the most intriguing, and the most likely intervention to cause positive change with minimal investment. It all makes sense; begin at the beginning.
Next week is the last one; it's the session led by Hunter Boylan.
It's starting to cool down again in Boone. Last night was beautiful, a definite mountain breeze blowing through campus. It was supposed to rain all week, but it's only rained a day so far.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Rollercoaster
The Issues in Diversity day went incredibly well, mostly due to the presenter, who was top notch. Dr. Nwachi Tafari led the session, and he's onto something new, in my opinion. He's really expanded the definition of diversity and taken it to new and interesting places.
He's taken the notions of identity, and external and internal perspectives, and come up with a way of approaching the topic that I found to be very useful and interesting. He doesn't make any concessions, but he's sort of levelled the playing field, so to speak.
Normally, I think of diversity training as sort of a routine physical - you have to do it, it's good for you, but it's usually of little use. Tafari's presentation was useful.
I can feel Kellogg winding down, and I'm really anxious to get home to my family. I'll miss this place, though, The people up here have taught me quite a bit. We ran an ad hoc group this evening regarding ADA issues. I ran the legal perspective, and a woman named Annabelle ran the clinical perspective. About half the group came to the "really, it's optional" session, and it seemed to go well.
Tomorrow night I have dinner with my practicum advisor, so that'll be nice/weird. He seems like a really good guy, smart, too.
He's taken the notions of identity, and external and internal perspectives, and come up with a way of approaching the topic that I found to be very useful and interesting. He doesn't make any concessions, but he's sort of levelled the playing field, so to speak.
Normally, I think of diversity training as sort of a routine physical - you have to do it, it's good for you, but it's usually of little use. Tafari's presentation was useful.
I can feel Kellogg winding down, and I'm really anxious to get home to my family. I'll miss this place, though, The people up here have taught me quite a bit. We ran an ad hoc group this evening regarding ADA issues. I ran the legal perspective, and a woman named Annabelle ran the clinical perspective. About half the group came to the "really, it's optional" session, and it seemed to go well.
Tomorrow night I have dinner with my practicum advisor, so that'll be nice/weird. He seems like a really good guy, smart, too.
24
Played poker last night with a ten dollar buy-in; lost eight. Today is Issues in Diversity, which is usually interesting, sometimes a train wreck, but always important to talk about. We've sort of been ramping up to this, with some people challenging the preconceived notions of others. Regardless:
9 - 11:30 / Issues in diversity (defining/humanity training/identity)
Humanity training, to me, sounds ominous.
Today's a half day, which means we're out by 11:30. I have plenty of work to do on my prospectus, so I'll probably come back to the down after lunch, take a nap, and then start on the thing. I have about $110 left on my food card here at ASU; I started with $250. That seems about like the right place. IN the beginning, I was burning through the card at a rate of 15 or 20 a day - clearly unsustainable, but as I grew to know the town, I started eating out more and eating in the cafeteria less. I had dinner in the cafeteria last night, and I was sorely disappointed.
The place closes at 7, but they really start shutting down at six. So, by the time I got there at 6:10, Fake Moe's had shut down, Fake Subway had a sign up saying they were out of break, and the 'family dining' place had some weird turkey thing they were selling. There was one slice of cheese pizza left, but the guy ahead of me grabbed it and all that was left was pepperoni. That was probably a good thing because I would have eaten the pizza, and it looked really awful. I had a salad and breadsticks. An hour later, I had Taco Bell.
9 - 11:30 / Issues in diversity (defining/humanity training/identity)
Humanity training, to me, sounds ominous.
Today's a half day, which means we're out by 11:30. I have plenty of work to do on my prospectus, so I'll probably come back to the down after lunch, take a nap, and then start on the thing. I have about $110 left on my food card here at ASU; I started with $250. That seems about like the right place. IN the beginning, I was burning through the card at a rate of 15 or 20 a day - clearly unsustainable, but as I grew to know the town, I started eating out more and eating in the cafeteria less. I had dinner in the cafeteria last night, and I was sorely disappointed.
The place closes at 7, but they really start shutting down at six. So, by the time I got there at 6:10, Fake Moe's had shut down, Fake Subway had a sign up saying they were out of break, and the 'family dining' place had some weird turkey thing they were selling. There was one slice of cheese pizza left, but the guy ahead of me grabbed it and all that was left was pepperoni. That was probably a good thing because I would have eaten the pizza, and it looked really awful. I had a salad and breadsticks. An hour later, I had Taco Bell.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Summer dress
Running a little late this morning. Class doesn't start for an hour, but I have some reading I'd like to do before it gets started. Watched Two Million Minutes last night, which compares education in the US, China, and India.
Spoiler alert: It ain't lookin' too good for the US.
Great film, but honestly, it left me with more questions than answers. I think it's fair to say that India and China are doing some things far better than the US, but I'm not so sure we're talking apples and oranges. More later. Today:
9-11:30 / Learning assistance services
1-4 / con't
7 / Optional session on victim mentalities
Spoiler alert: It ain't lookin' too good for the US.
Great film, but honestly, it left me with more questions than answers. I think it's fair to say that India and China are doing some things far better than the US, but I'm not so sure we're talking apples and oranges. More later. Today:
9-11:30 / Learning assistance services
1-4 / con't
7 / Optional session on victim mentalities
Monday, July 12, 2010
Strawberry Hill
Odd day, but alright. It rained most of the day, and everyone was feeling pretty lethargic. Joshua just walked in a second ago and said "what happened to your carpet?" It's getting more wrinkled. I don't know how they're going to fix this one; it looks pretty rough. Still. I persevere.
It started out pretty general, and I wasn't sure I'd get much out of it. Our presenter for today and tomorrow is the incoming president of NADE - Jane Neuburger. She seems pretty on top of things, and as the day progressed, she started giving out pretty practical nuts-and-bolts types of things that I think would work well.
Her big schema was that classroom environment plus excellence in instruction plus academic supports plus affective supports equals student success (which is more of a mouthful than comedy = tragedy + time, but it's still probably a truism of sorts). I think this formula stands to reason, really. I think the problem our institution is having is making sense of the whole. Even if we're all on the same page, the student isn't going to necessarily perceive it that way. For example, to have a professor work with the writing center and career services in order to help a student write a cover letter is a great thing, but not fully effective if the student views all three things as discrete functions. And I think we're sometimes discrete functions, and even when we're not, the students perceive the functions as discrete.
Regardless, she said: innovate, take risks, evaluate using data.
I'm interested to see what tomorrow brings. This is also the diversity week, and everyone is gearing up for the diversity discussion. Discussions on diversity are absolutely necessary and usually pretty painful to sit through. I'm curious to see how this one goes.
Not sure what to have for dinner. I had a waffle for breakfast. It was a big Belgian style waffle with the Appalachian "A" branded on it. Lunch was fake Subway.
It started out pretty general, and I wasn't sure I'd get much out of it. Our presenter for today and tomorrow is the incoming president of NADE - Jane Neuburger. She seems pretty on top of things, and as the day progressed, she started giving out pretty practical nuts-and-bolts types of things that I think would work well.
Her big schema was that classroom environment plus excellence in instruction plus academic supports plus affective supports equals student success (which is more of a mouthful than comedy = tragedy + time, but it's still probably a truism of sorts). I think this formula stands to reason, really. I think the problem our institution is having is making sense of the whole. Even if we're all on the same page, the student isn't going to necessarily perceive it that way. For example, to have a professor work with the writing center and career services in order to help a student write a cover letter is a great thing, but not fully effective if the student views all three things as discrete functions. And I think we're sometimes discrete functions, and even when we're not, the students perceive the functions as discrete.
Regardless, she said: innovate, take risks, evaluate using data.
I'm interested to see what tomorrow brings. This is also the diversity week, and everyone is gearing up for the diversity discussion. Discussions on diversity are absolutely necessary and usually pretty painful to sit through. I'm curious to see how this one goes.
Not sure what to have for dinner. I had a waffle for breakfast. It was a big Belgian style waffle with the Appalachian "A" branded on it. Lunch was fake Subway.
Cabezon
Long weekend and a good one. Last week was really a couple of different topics blended together under the concept of learning environments. Most of it was instructional design, but there were other things tossed in there, like classroom assessment and theories of learning. The people that spend the majority of their time in the classroom seemed to enjoy week two more, and the people (like myself) that spend the majority of their time out of the classroom seemed to enjoy week one more. I thought week one alone was worth the price of admission, honestly.
That's not to say I didn't really enjoy week two, but I do have to admit that I found myself more interested when Barbara was talking more globally and less about specific classroom techniques. I'm going to change a few things based on what I heard, and once I get those synthesized in my head, I'll share them.
The big surprises of the week for me were: Barbara's all for holding the line on cell phone use in class; she ain't havin' it. The only time I ever even saw a hint of frustration cross her face was when someone asked about cell phone policies. And that "they're using it as a learning tool" didn't seem to hold much weight with her. Also - she's very skeptical of electronic learning as it pertains to developmental education. Not against it, but skeptical.
Over the weekend I went ziplining at this place called Hawks Nest Ziplining in Seven Devils, NC. Last week, a bunch of people went hiking, and I didn't, and afterwards I was thinking that I probably just should have gone because everyone had a good time. I decided to sign up for the next thing regardless of what it was, but then it was "ziplining," and I wasn't so sure. I'm pretty afraid of heights. And I figured it's probably only about as dangerous as a roller coaster, so even though I thought I might back out at the last minute, I went anyway, and it was really fun. It was basically ten ziplines across some hills, streams, etc. The longest line was 1,800 feet, and the tallest one was about 150 feet. Most were shorter and lower - probably averaging about fifty or sixty feet off the ground.
I did that on Saturday. On Sunday, just because, I googled "zipline" and "accident." I may have been wrong with my roller coaster comparison. Lots of missing hands.
This is week three; I'm fully over the halfway mark. This week is "academic support services and diversity issue." For today:
9 - 11:30 / Learning assistance services
1-4 / con't
That's not to say I didn't really enjoy week two, but I do have to admit that I found myself more interested when Barbara was talking more globally and less about specific classroom techniques. I'm going to change a few things based on what I heard, and once I get those synthesized in my head, I'll share them.
The big surprises of the week for me were: Barbara's all for holding the line on cell phone use in class; she ain't havin' it. The only time I ever even saw a hint of frustration cross her face was when someone asked about cell phone policies. And that "they're using it as a learning tool" didn't seem to hold much weight with her. Also - she's very skeptical of electronic learning as it pertains to developmental education. Not against it, but skeptical.
Over the weekend I went ziplining at this place called Hawks Nest Ziplining in Seven Devils, NC. Last week, a bunch of people went hiking, and I didn't, and afterwards I was thinking that I probably just should have gone because everyone had a good time. I decided to sign up for the next thing regardless of what it was, but then it was "ziplining," and I wasn't so sure. I'm pretty afraid of heights. And I figured it's probably only about as dangerous as a roller coaster, so even though I thought I might back out at the last minute, I went anyway, and it was really fun. It was basically ten ziplines across some hills, streams, etc. The longest line was 1,800 feet, and the tallest one was about 150 feet. Most were shorter and lower - probably averaging about fifty or sixty feet off the ground.
I did that on Saturday. On Sunday, just because, I googled "zipline" and "accident." I may have been wrong with my roller coaster comparison. Lots of missing hands.
This is week three; I'm fully over the halfway mark. This week is "academic support services and diversity issue." For today:
9 - 11:30 / Learning assistance services
1-4 / con't
Friday, July 9, 2010
Basic space
Short day today. We finish up "designing learning environments in developmental education," and this includes group project presentations. We did our presentation (Donna, Rosemary, Yoshua, and me) on organizational structures/best practices, and it came out alright, I think. I guess I'll have a better sense once I see some other projects presented.
Class ends at 11:30 and at that point we'll be halfway done with the Kellogg Institute. It went by more quickly than I thought it would.
Some of us are going in to Asheville this afternoon to see a minor league baseball game. I'm still undecided on that, but I might go. Tomorrow is ziplining, which I'm leaning toward attending.
Next week is a grab bag of topics, including academic support services and diversity issues.
Class ends at 11:30 and at that point we'll be halfway done with the Kellogg Institute. It went by more quickly than I thought it would.
Some of us are going in to Asheville this afternoon to see a minor league baseball game. I'm still undecided on that, but I might go. Tomorrow is ziplining, which I'm leaning toward attending.
Next week is a grab bag of topics, including academic support services and diversity issues.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Islands
Away for a day; lots going on and a bit hectic.
I went to the Black Cat for dinner last night, against my better judgement. As it turns out, it went just fine. I ordered a burrito, and it was really good. Red beans, rice, tomatillo salsa, black olives, cheese, and sour cream. Went with Michael, Jerry, and Jason; same waitress, much nicer. Everyone has a bad day, I guess.
Today we continued ID and moved more into classroom assessment. The Institute here is really big on non-cognitive or affective assessment, and nearly everyone presenting was united in the notion that we should place students using these means as well. I read an article Hunter and Ed did together on the use of the LASSI, which was nearly identical to the ideas I had regarding the use of that tool with our math and sls courses.
Heat wave here in Boone - the temperature probably hit ninety today, but there was no humidity, so it was tolerable. I think Jason, Michael, and I are going to the Boone Saloon for dinner around 8. Tonight, I have a few odds and ends to catch up with. Barbara's given us a number of projects to work on throughout the week.
I went to the Black Cat for dinner last night, against my better judgement. As it turns out, it went just fine. I ordered a burrito, and it was really good. Red beans, rice, tomatillo salsa, black olives, cheese, and sour cream. Went with Michael, Jerry, and Jason; same waitress, much nicer. Everyone has a bad day, I guess.
Today we continued ID and moved more into classroom assessment. The Institute here is really big on non-cognitive or affective assessment, and nearly everyone presenting was united in the notion that we should place students using these means as well. I read an article Hunter and Ed did together on the use of the LASSI, which was nearly identical to the ideas I had regarding the use of that tool with our math and sls courses.
Heat wave here in Boone - the temperature probably hit ninety today, but there was no humidity, so it was tolerable. I think Jason, Michael, and I are going to the Boone Saloon for dinner around 8. Tonight, I have a few odds and ends to catch up with. Barbara's given us a number of projects to work on throughout the week.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Morning bell
Hard time waking up the past few days. I think I'm used to the place now, so I'm not as anxious to get up and get started. Today is a short day officially:
9 - 11:30 / Non-cognitive assessments
But then:
2 - 4 / Meeting with advisor
4 - 5 / Small group meeting
I completed the Canfield Learning Styles Inventory last night. Apparently, I'm a conceptual learner. It states: "prefers to work with highly organized language-oriented materials; has no preference for either social or independent approaches; instruction involving lectures and reading will create the closest match."
I suppose that sounds about right, but it's pretty vague. Off to breakfast and class... busy afternoon.
9 - 11:30 / Non-cognitive assessments
But then:
2 - 4 / Meeting with advisor
4 - 5 / Small group meeting
I completed the Canfield Learning Styles Inventory last night. Apparently, I'm a conceptual learner. It states: "prefers to work with highly organized language-oriented materials; has no preference for either social or independent approaches; instruction involving lectures and reading will create the closest match."
I suppose that sounds about right, but it's pretty vague. Off to breakfast and class... busy afternoon.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
There there
I just spent about a half hour typing a really long post that blogger just ate, which is really disappointing. Essentially:
Each class should incorporate belonging, fun, freedom, and power. More on that later.
Barbara is concerned with the advent of online learning. She thinks some people see this as a silver bullet, and it's not.
Online learning still has a prominent seat at the table.
Blogger is unreliable.
Some witty comments about Thai food; a discourse on the non-vegetable nature of the fish.
Modularization may (MAY) lead to a "tsunami" in which we lose a great number of students.
More later, but man - why, Blogger? Why?
Each class should incorporate belonging, fun, freedom, and power. More on that later.
Barbara is concerned with the advent of online learning. She thinks some people see this as a silver bullet, and it's not.
Online learning still has a prominent seat at the table.
Blogger is unreliable.
Some witty comments about Thai food; a discourse on the non-vegetable nature of the fish.
Modularization may (MAY) lead to a "tsunami" in which we lose a great number of students.
More later, but man - why, Blogger? Why?
Anyone can play guitar
For today:
9-11:30 / Philosophical approaches to teaching and learning
1 - 4 / con't
7 - 8 / Optional mini-session
The mini session for tonight is "digital storytelling." Maybe it's as obvious as it seems, but I'm still going to attend.
The weather is still cool, but I fear we're in for some warmer weather. Tomorrow's a short day, but I meet with my advisor at 2PM.
9-11:30 / Philosophical approaches to teaching and learning
1 - 4 / con't
7 - 8 / Optional mini-session
The mini session for tonight is "digital storytelling." Maybe it's as obvious as it seems, but I'm still going to attend.
The weather is still cool, but I fear we're in for some warmer weather. Tomorrow's a short day, but I meet with my advisor at 2PM.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Fitter happier
Last night, Michael propped his door open and soon after, Pat did the same. Later on, Brian and Frank both did, too. Tonight, I propped my door open, and it's sort of nice. I didn't realize it before, but they separated the men and women on the dorm - same floor, but different ends, so on the guy's end, it's a lot of open doors and music sort of drifting out into the hallways as we tap away on our laptops. Jason just wandered down the hall (the youngest of our group at 33) singing "I just died in your arms tonight" and asking who sang it. Cutting Crew, by the way - Jay Z has some sort of weird remake, but I'm down with the original; call me a traditionalist.
Tonight, Dorothy made a huge pasta meal for everyone - pasta, salad, garlic bread, etc. It was really nice - she pulled me aside and said she made a small saucepan of vegetarian sauce. Her main dish had beef, sausage, probably lamb or something else in it - it was kind of a reverse Noah's Ark, but I thought it was really cool of her to make a vegetarian sauce for me and Rosemary, the other difficult eater (although Rosemary just abstains from pork). The alternate sauce she made was essentially a jarred tomato sauce, but with sauteed mushrooms, peppers, garlic, and onions, and it was really good.
I don't like being away from home one bit, and I'm homesick every morning and night, but there's a silver lining here. It's sort of a monastic pursuit. The first day we were here, Hunter said we we're going to spend a month away from our loved ones, sacrificing time with our families and friends, giving up summer's pay (adjunct work), just to spend time away thinking about what we do at work - our craft. It's a bit of a lofty way of putting it, but in many ways it's true. It's people talking about school, labor, the things we do while we work. I know if I lived close to Kellogg, I'd be home every night, like some in our class are. And even knowing the benefits of staying here in the dorms, I'd still go home. But it's kind of interesting not to have that choice - to be stuck here. It's an experience I never would have chosen, but it's worked out really well.
Tonight, Dorothy made a huge pasta meal for everyone - pasta, salad, garlic bread, etc. It was really nice - she pulled me aside and said she made a small saucepan of vegetarian sauce. Her main dish had beef, sausage, probably lamb or something else in it - it was kind of a reverse Noah's Ark, but I thought it was really cool of her to make a vegetarian sauce for me and Rosemary, the other difficult eater (although Rosemary just abstains from pork). The alternate sauce she made was essentially a jarred tomato sauce, but with sauteed mushrooms, peppers, garlic, and onions, and it was really good.
I don't like being away from home one bit, and I'm homesick every morning and night, but there's a silver lining here. It's sort of a monastic pursuit. The first day we were here, Hunter said we we're going to spend a month away from our loved ones, sacrificing time with our families and friends, giving up summer's pay (adjunct work), just to spend time away thinking about what we do at work - our craft. It's a bit of a lofty way of putting it, but in many ways it's true. It's people talking about school, labor, the things we do while we work. I know if I lived close to Kellogg, I'd be home every night, like some in our class are. And even knowing the benefits of staying here in the dorms, I'd still go home. But it's kind of interesting not to have that choice - to be stuck here. It's an experience I never would have chosen, but it's worked out really well.
How to disappear completely
Long day; sort of the shift I was expecting. Designing learning environments really isn't my thing, but I always seem to benefit the most when I'm going against my own grain. When I walked into class, Dr. Bonham had put up posters of butterflies, had Vivaldi playing, stuffed animals strewn about - not really my comfort zone. She has a softer, lilting sort of voice that's really measured. It's an odd mix of comforting and commanding. I was glad when she shifted from the abstracts to more concrete things like non-cognitive obstacles and other miscellanies our students seem to bring in often. But then we watched a youtube video of the Very Hungry Caterpillar, and I sort of got lost again.
This week is essentially on instructional design. The term is applied somewhat loosely, though, so I can view ID as something to be used in an orientation or in a departmental culture. The applications get a lot more interesting when you start to look at it that way, in my opinion. We spent the morning simply going over the basic, the 'giants' in the field, and so on.
For lunch, we went to the Boone Drugstore, which is an actual drugstore downtown. It's also an old fashioned drugstore restaurant type of thing. We went as a small group - Jerry, Michael, Joe, Nan, and myself. I had a gardenburger with Swiss and French fries; it was really good. Michael paid for everyone, with the understanding that everyone would owe him a lunch of equal value. He has this idea that money destroys relationships. Not in the arguing over money sense that most people probably think of when they hear that, but in the sense that if everyone goes Dutch all the time, there's no need to keep going. I guess it's like bringing a covered dish to a new neighbor in an actual glass pan or something that they feel obligated to return. I'm not sure I buy the theory, but I'm going to ask Michael to go out to eat on Wednesday, so it's not like I can say it didn't work.
When we returned we broke into small groups; I'm in the campus climate group. I think we're going to interpret the task liberally. More later; laundry.
This week is essentially on instructional design. The term is applied somewhat loosely, though, so I can view ID as something to be used in an orientation or in a departmental culture. The applications get a lot more interesting when you start to look at it that way, in my opinion. We spent the morning simply going over the basic, the 'giants' in the field, and so on.
For lunch, we went to the Boone Drugstore, which is an actual drugstore downtown. It's also an old fashioned drugstore restaurant type of thing. We went as a small group - Jerry, Michael, Joe, Nan, and myself. I had a gardenburger with Swiss and French fries; it was really good. Michael paid for everyone, with the understanding that everyone would owe him a lunch of equal value. He has this idea that money destroys relationships. Not in the arguing over money sense that most people probably think of when they hear that, but in the sense that if everyone goes Dutch all the time, there's no need to keep going. I guess it's like bringing a covered dish to a new neighbor in an actual glass pan or something that they feel obligated to return. I'm not sure I buy the theory, but I'm going to ask Michael to go out to eat on Wednesday, so it's not like I can say it didn't work.
When we returned we broke into small groups; I'm in the campus climate group. I think we're going to interpret the task liberally. More later; laundry.
Song for Myla Goldberg
Nice this morning, slept with the air conditioner off and listened to North Carolinians shoots off fireworks well into the fifth (see what I did there?). Today:
9-11:30 / Overview of week two (Barbara Bonham)
1 - 4 / Intro to group project on teaching and learning
Last week, we all had to choose a special interest group. The options were: administration, math, reading, and writing. Since "things I like on TV" wasn't an option, I went with "administration." The writing teachers here aren't just writing teachers. One guy is "rhetoric," another is a folklorist, and there's several other variations. I really just like the nouns and verbs part. Don't get me wrong - I like writing, and I like to teach writing, but I prefer to talk about grammar, and I couldn't see myself sitting through too many discussions on the tao of the protagonist or the role of the trickster. At least not in a professional setting.
9-11:30 / Overview of week two (Barbara Bonham)
1 - 4 / Intro to group project on teaching and learning
Last week, we all had to choose a special interest group. The options were: administration, math, reading, and writing. Since "things I like on TV" wasn't an option, I went with "administration." The writing teachers here aren't just writing teachers. One guy is "rhetoric," another is a folklorist, and there's several other variations. I really just like the nouns and verbs part. Don't get me wrong - I like writing, and I like to teach writing, but I prefer to talk about grammar, and I couldn't see myself sitting through too many discussions on the tao of the protagonist or the role of the trickster. At least not in a professional setting.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
O Valencia!
Lazy, aimless sort of day in Boone, North Carolina. The big news? Last night, my brother Matthew asked his girlfriend Kassidy to marry him, and she said "yes." Amanda set them up a few years back, and it really worked out well for both of them. Kassidy is a very welcome addition to the family, and I'm really happy for them both.
I finally went to the Black Cat Restaurant downtown, all ready for awesomeness, but was sorely disappointed. I took the scenic route across campus, listening to Radiohead along the way (highlight - when the shuffle played "anyone can play guitar" as the very first song). When got to the restaurant, I asked the girl at the counter if I could sit anywhere I like. She said, "yes," so I took a table in the corner and read emails while I waited. And waited. At that time, I noticed that people were ordering at the counter, which would have been helpful information five minutes earlier.
I sat there for another minute, so it looked like I might have known what I was doing, and then went up to the counter. I asked if I could eat at the bar, and she said yes, and I said "I'll have the nachos." I was going to get a burrito, but by then, I just wanted something quick. She asked what I wanted on them, and I said "chees -" and then she did this thing where her chin went one way and her eyes went in the other direction, and she said "they all come with that," and I said "whatever - cheese, red beans (they were vegetarian - I checked) olives (just black olives, not actually kalamata), red peppers, tomatillo salsa, sour cream, and guacamole." And then I looked at the beer list, and it said "Dos Equis" under the bottled beer section (not drafts - that part's important), and I asked if they had Dos Equis Amber, and she said "yes, but it's in a bottle." And I'm thinking: now is when you're going to get helpful? And I wondered if it was actually amber (in the brown bottle, not that other kind in the green bottle) I paid, the food came, it was mediocre, and that was that. It was Dos Equis Amber, too.
To say the food was mediocre is a bit off - it tasted sort of like Moe's nachos, which I don't care for even though Moe's food is awesome. So, maybe their burritos are good - who knows. Probably not ever me because I don't feel like going back. I mean, maybe I will - Thursday night is live music, but still. Food - two stars; service - no stars.
Tomorrow we start classroom design. I have to say, this looks to be my least favorite part of the seminar, but we'll see. My mind's teflon, but open. Maybe we can incorporate the ideas into orientation?
Anyway, I'm still reading White Noise - I can see why parts of it are called an academic satire. XM's Area channel has this year's Electric Daisy Carnival streaming - I think I'm getting the feed from Puerto Rico.
I finally went to the Black Cat Restaurant downtown, all ready for awesomeness, but was sorely disappointed. I took the scenic route across campus, listening to Radiohead along the way (highlight - when the shuffle played "anyone can play guitar" as the very first song). When got to the restaurant, I asked the girl at the counter if I could sit anywhere I like. She said, "yes," so I took a table in the corner and read emails while I waited. And waited. At that time, I noticed that people were ordering at the counter, which would have been helpful information five minutes earlier.
I sat there for another minute, so it looked like I might have known what I was doing, and then went up to the counter. I asked if I could eat at the bar, and she said yes, and I said "I'll have the nachos." I was going to get a burrito, but by then, I just wanted something quick. She asked what I wanted on them, and I said "chees -" and then she did this thing where her chin went one way and her eyes went in the other direction, and she said "they all come with that," and I said "whatever - cheese, red beans (they were vegetarian - I checked) olives (just black olives, not actually kalamata), red peppers, tomatillo salsa, sour cream, and guacamole." And then I looked at the beer list, and it said "Dos Equis" under the bottled beer section (not drafts - that part's important), and I asked if they had Dos Equis Amber, and she said "yes, but it's in a bottle." And I'm thinking: now is when you're going to get helpful? And I wondered if it was actually amber (in the brown bottle, not that other kind in the green bottle) I paid, the food came, it was mediocre, and that was that. It was Dos Equis Amber, too.
To say the food was mediocre is a bit off - it tasted sort of like Moe's nachos, which I don't care for even though Moe's food is awesome. So, maybe their burritos are good - who knows. Probably not ever me because I don't feel like going back. I mean, maybe I will - Thursday night is live music, but still. Food - two stars; service - no stars.
Tomorrow we start classroom design. I have to say, this looks to be my least favorite part of the seminar, but we'll see. My mind's teflon, but open. Maybe we can incorporate the ideas into orientation?
Anyway, I'm still reading White Noise - I can see why parts of it are called an academic satire. XM's Area channel has this year's Electric Daisy Carnival streaming - I think I'm getting the feed from Puerto Rico.
California One / Youth and Beauty Brigade
Long day yesterday, The afternoon went as planned; I did laundry and read, watched a movie on Netflix instant (Factotum - eh, Barfly was far better), and grabbed a bite to eat. I went to the Mellow Mushroom, which I now realize is a chain. There's one in Valdosta, but it's in an odd location and always crowded, so I've never gone. This one is about a five minute walk from the dorms. I had planned on eating there, but when I arrive, it was pretty crowded, and there wasn't an obvious table for one, so I ordered a pizza to go. I got a regular cheese pizza, but with kalamata olives and pesto on top. The receipt was really interesting: the cashier's name was listed as "ghost" (no caps), my name was listed as "joesph" (which is far more common than you might think), and the pizza was listed as "cheese", followed by "actually kalamata" and "pesto swirl." After typing this, I guess it's not that interesting, but "actually kalamata?" What does that mean? The pizza was really, really good.
The thing at Hunter and Barbara's house was later in the afternoon, and it went really well. There home is tucked away, up a hill about five minutes north or west of town. Beautiful, but not ostentatious, home - nice view of Grandfather mountain. Lots of hills, greenery, fireflies, and apple trees. The food was good, conversation interesting, and Hunter went down the hill himself to put on a pretty good fireworks show. Everyone left around 9:30 or so; Frank, Yoshua, and Jason and I went to a bar called Tavern Inn for a couple of drinks before getting back to the dorm around midnight. I woke up at 8 this morning, but stayed in and out of sleep until 10:30. I have Brian Eno's Bloom app for my phone, and it can really make the transitions between awake and asleep pleasant.
The thing at Hunter and Barbara's house was later in the afternoon, and it went really well. There home is tucked away, up a hill about five minutes north or west of town. Beautiful, but not ostentatious, home - nice view of Grandfather mountain. Lots of hills, greenery, fireflies, and apple trees. The food was good, conversation interesting, and Hunter went down the hill himself to put on a pretty good fireworks show. Everyone left around 9:30 or so; Frank, Yoshua, and Jason and I went to a bar called Tavern Inn for a couple of drinks before getting back to the dorm around midnight. I woke up at 8 this morning, but stayed in and out of sleep until 10:30. I have Brian Eno's Bloom app for my phone, and it can really make the transitions between awake and asleep pleasant.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
The sporting life
Woke up at 7 and drifted in and out of sleep 'til 10. Today: laundry, lunch, a walk, maybe some reading and then the dinner at Hunter and Barbara's house. I bought DeLillo's White Noise yesterday, so I might get started on that. I've been meaning to read this ever since I read his Falling Man, and this seems like the perfect setting to finally get to it.
Friday, July 2, 2010
The soldiering life
Week one is over and done, and it was a pretty good one. For breakfast: fake Burger King; for lunch: fake Subway; for dinner: Joe's Italian Kitchen, a real, off-campus Italian place - I had baked ziti; Ed bought the table drinks and desserts.
Putting things into perspective, this first week was essentially about placement. It was about assessment and placement, but no one should labor under the impression that assessment meant anything other than initial placement assessment. I thought the presenter was fantastic and the material worthwhile and interesting. The morning consisted of a recap, a post-test, a Q&A, and preview of next week.
A couple interesting things from today: it'd be interesting to ID all the faculty teaching developmental classes and the first college level class (i.e. 9002, 9013, 9024, and 1033 -or- 9010, 9020, 1101, etc.) and 4-6 weeks into the class, give them a roster of their class and have them go student by student saying "this student should have been placed in a level above/this student is placed correctly/this student should have been placed in a level below." Nothing affective - behavior/attendance/etc. - just performance/proficiency. You'd have to suss them out, separating newly entered students from students who have advanced through the levels, but you could probably learn quite a bit from both groups.
Every semester I've taught, there's always two or three students that really should have been placed in comp I and one or two that really should have been put in 9010. This isn't a huge deal - from what I can tell, a test that correctly placed 27/30 student is a pretty good test. Still, the actual number is probably greater. It'd be nice to see if we could get to a point where all professors say that at least 85% (maybe 80) of their class is appropriately placed. Maybe they'd already say that.
I know that when I talk to the math faculty, there seems to be a great deal of fluidity with the material and the student's abilities. Every semester, there are students that go through 9002 and successfully jump into and pass 9024. I hear often that 9013 students are probably ready for 1033. I don't know if that's true. I think the reason I'm thinking about the math side of it so much is because I have such a limited intuitive knowledge of math - I'm not jaundiced by assuming things.
The weather has been perfect all day. Dinner was good. The group is hiking at 7AM tomorrow; I plan on sleeping in. Tomorrow night, there's a bbq and fireworks at Hunter and Barbara's house. Yesterday, they asked if there were any vegetarians. I guess I'm the only one, but there's going to be something for me, too, which is a thoughtful touch.
Putting things into perspective, this first week was essentially about placement. It was about assessment and placement, but no one should labor under the impression that assessment meant anything other than initial placement assessment. I thought the presenter was fantastic and the material worthwhile and interesting. The morning consisted of a recap, a post-test, a Q&A, and preview of next week.
A couple interesting things from today: it'd be interesting to ID all the faculty teaching developmental classes and the first college level class (i.e. 9002, 9013, 9024, and 1033 -or- 9010, 9020, 1101, etc.) and 4-6 weeks into the class, give them a roster of their class and have them go student by student saying "this student should have been placed in a level above/this student is placed correctly/this student should have been placed in a level below." Nothing affective - behavior/attendance/etc. - just performance/proficiency. You'd have to suss them out, separating newly entered students from students who have advanced through the levels, but you could probably learn quite a bit from both groups.
Every semester I've taught, there's always two or three students that really should have been placed in comp I and one or two that really should have been put in 9010. This isn't a huge deal - from what I can tell, a test that correctly placed 27/30 student is a pretty good test. Still, the actual number is probably greater. It'd be nice to see if we could get to a point where all professors say that at least 85% (maybe 80) of their class is appropriately placed. Maybe they'd already say that.
I know that when I talk to the math faculty, there seems to be a great deal of fluidity with the material and the student's abilities. Every semester, there are students that go through 9002 and successfully jump into and pass 9024. I hear often that 9013 students are probably ready for 1033. I don't know if that's true. I think the reason I'm thinking about the math side of it so much is because I have such a limited intuitive knowledge of math - I'm not jaundiced by assuming things.
The weather has been perfect all day. Dinner was good. The group is hiking at 7AM tomorrow; I plan on sleeping in. Tomorrow night, there's a bbq and fireworks at Hunter and Barbara's house. Yesterday, they asked if there were any vegetarians. I guess I'm the only one, but there's going to be something for me, too, which is a thoughtful touch.
July! July!
Slept with the window open last night and woke up pleasantly cold. This weekend will be unusual; about 1/3, maybe more, of the participants are from North Carolina, and they all plan on going home for the weekend. I would do that too - can't blame them, but the tenor of this place will definitely change. It'll be a good time to catch up on reading, laundry, maybe looking around town.
I'm off the breakfast, hungrier than usual. It was probably last night's cool air. Should be a short day; I believe we end at lunch. Sometimes they have optional things afterwards, and I've gone to all of them so far. I'm not much of a joiner, per se, but I think you kinda have to take a place like this "as is," and just go along with it the way they designed it.
I'm off the breakfast, hungrier than usual. It was probably last night's cool air. Should be a short day; I believe we end at lunch. Sometimes they have optional things afterwards, and I've gone to all of them so far. I'm not much of a joiner, per se, but I think you kinda have to take a place like this "as is," and just go along with it the way they designed it.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Date to church
Lost at Trivial Pursuit - series tied 2-2. Great time, though. One question asked which anniversary gift was traditionally leather, and I got it because Amanda and I have (generally) done the traditional anniversary gifts. On our third anniversary, she got me a belt and I got her a purse from the Coach store in Key West, FL. I'm wearing the belt now.
Tomorrow is:
9 - 11:30 / Assessment and placement, conclusion
And that ends week #1. I can't say enough about the first week's presenter, Ed Morante. Whip smart, a class act, funny, and very approachable. All in all, a good week.
Tomorrow is:
9 - 11:30 / Assessment and placement, conclusion
And that ends week #1. I can't say enough about the first week's presenter, Ed Morante. Whip smart, a class act, funny, and very approachable. All in all, a good week.
I will dare
Changed my mind about the shorts, changing into khakis before walking out the door. Good thing, too - only three people wore shorts today. Dockers are like urban camouflage.
Brief lecture in the morning, ACT Compass and Accuplacer in the afternoon (no PERT). Some gray areas were filled in. Basically, the current literature suggests that we should look at several factors when placing students. Here they are, in order of declining importance:
1. Placement test
2. Other tests (ACT, SAT, in-house exams, etc.)
3. High school background (which school, GPA, class rank, etc.)
4. Age/maturity
5. Student opinion
6. Re-testing, additional testing
So, maybe we test some students and some are clearly 9013 and others are clearly 9024, but there's a small group in the middle that could be either. So you look at their high school stuff, you take into account their age, their own opinions, etc. And then some stay in 13 and others jump to 24. And if it involves judgement calls, then so be it. Maybe some of them say they don't even want to jump; they want to stay in 13. Maybe the ones who jump are the ones willing to commit to additional supports.
The afternoon was interesting. Fake Moe's for lunch, by the way. I took the math tests via Accuplacer, and it was an interesting experience. She told us to first just try something easy, so I took the arithmetic test, and then you could purposefully get things right and wrong to see how the test would react. It's certainly responsive. I got the feeling, though, that I could guess my way through a decent chunk of it simply based on some limited knowledge. The Compass was different - I took the sentence skills test, and tried to do well. The test itself was really long - I was done with the Accuplacer tests in no time, but the Compass took me about a half hour. I score 100% (99) on each subsection, but only score a 97 in spelling. I'm still not sure which word I spelled wrong - toward the end, I was just tired, and all the words started looking weird.
The weather's still nice, but I hear we have some heat coming. I may go to the library to start some research, grab a bite, and hit trivial Pursuit at 7:30.
Brief lecture in the morning, ACT Compass and Accuplacer in the afternoon (no PERT). Some gray areas were filled in. Basically, the current literature suggests that we should look at several factors when placing students. Here they are, in order of declining importance:
1. Placement test
2. Other tests (ACT, SAT, in-house exams, etc.)
3. High school background (which school, GPA, class rank, etc.)
4. Age/maturity
5. Student opinion
6. Re-testing, additional testing
So, maybe we test some students and some are clearly 9013 and others are clearly 9024, but there's a small group in the middle that could be either. So you look at their high school stuff, you take into account their age, their own opinions, etc. And then some stay in 13 and others jump to 24. And if it involves judgement calls, then so be it. Maybe some of them say they don't even want to jump; they want to stay in 13. Maybe the ones who jump are the ones willing to commit to additional supports.
The afternoon was interesting. Fake Moe's for lunch, by the way. I took the math tests via Accuplacer, and it was an interesting experience. She told us to first just try something easy, so I took the arithmetic test, and then you could purposefully get things right and wrong to see how the test would react. It's certainly responsive. I got the feeling, though, that I could guess my way through a decent chunk of it simply based on some limited knowledge. The Compass was different - I took the sentence skills test, and tried to do well. The test itself was really long - I was done with the Accuplacer tests in no time, but the Compass took me about a half hour. I score 100% (99) on each subsection, but only score a 97 in spelling. I'm still not sure which word I spelled wrong - toward the end, I was just tired, and all the words started looking weird.
The weather's still nice, but I hear we have some heat coming. I may go to the library to start some research, grab a bite, and hit trivial Pursuit at 7:30.
Can't hardly wait
Accuplacer today. After thinking about it, I'm really more anxious over the English/reading sections because I should ace those. The math - I don't think I'll do horribly, but I don't have great expectations either.
Also: shorts today. I've worn khakis or jeans every day until now. On the first day, two or three people wore shorts. On the second day, about ten. Yesterday, nearly half the class wore shorts. We've reached a tipping point, and I'm in.
It's sort of sad to see this week begin to close. I'm hoping today covers a lot of ground and addresses more closely the "gray areas" we've been discussing. I've thought for a while that if we wanted to make a big impact fairly quickly, assessment would be as good a place as any to start. There aren't many natural opportunities to do this, but maybe a pilot?
Next week we cover learning environments, which is a little out of my comfort zone. It sounds a little fluffy to me, but I know there's a lot of science to it.
Also: shorts today. I've worn khakis or jeans every day until now. On the first day, two or three people wore shorts. On the second day, about ten. Yesterday, nearly half the class wore shorts. We've reached a tipping point, and I'm in.
It's sort of sad to see this week begin to close. I'm hoping today covers a lot of ground and addresses more closely the "gray areas" we've been discussing. I've thought for a while that if we wanted to make a big impact fairly quickly, assessment would be as good a place as any to start. There aren't many natural opportunities to do this, but maybe a pilot?
Next week we cover learning environments, which is a little out of my comfort zone. It sounds a little fluffy to me, but I know there's a lot of science to it.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Judy and the dream of horses
So, we won Trivial Pursuit. It was a freaking juggernaut; down 3-1 one minute, victorious 7-3 a half hour later. But first:
I went to that optional library research thing. It was alright. The speaker was that Kelly again, and she's really good. To be honest, I didn't learn anything I didn't already know, but it didn't hurt to have a refresher, I suppose. I think that Kellogg takes people from fairly diverse backgrounds, which is cool. There are people here that have never really done serious library research, and I'm sure the presentation was invaluable to them.
I went and had a slice of pizza at the Centralized Dining Food Emporium before the Mexifest, which was good thinking on my part because they put meat in everything. The meat dish had meat in it, of course, but the vegetables had pork in them, the biscuits had sausage with them, the salsa had bacon, the rice had chicken, and the potatoes had bacon and chicken and beef with them. What's up with that? Does freaking everything need a slab of flesh tossed on it? Regardless, I had a salad, which was quite good - red peppers with lettuce and radishes and other stuff.
Trivial Pursuit was great. We held our own - I did well at first, but I messed up a question midway through. What fighting machine was originally called a reservoir or cistern? I guessed submarine because it's freaking logical and makes perfect sense. Jan said "tank" because reservoir is synonymous with tank. I said, both a reservoir and cistern are filled with water, as is a submarine, and I guess I was convincing because we went with it, but the answer was tank. All modesty aside, I'm usually right. Not this time. It was tank.
Anyway, toward the end, Frank caught fire. He was answering all these weird questions. One of them had to do with some bizarre Swedish pornographic filmed called "I Am Curious (Yellow)." I had never heard of it, but I googled it, and it's a real thing. Everyone of a certain age in the room knew of it, and everyone under a certain age did not. I think it's a watermark.
I'm tired, and my back hurts. My rubber mattress is killing me. Tomorrow looks good:
9 - 11:30 / Assessment and placement continued
1 - 4 / Accuplacer and Compass
It is true. Tomorrow, I take the Accuplacer and the Compass. At our Institution, I'd bet that I place in college level in both enc and rea, and mat9024 in math. We'll see. I looked at a 9013 final once, and I thought it was easy, but not so easy that I think I'd sail through 9024.
I ended tonight on the phone with Amanda - the same way I begin every day and end every night. Before that, I hung out with Michael and Joe and talked about the Border Trilogy and films adapted from Cormac Mccarthy novels. I'm still interested in the gray area placement testing; I think it's a good idea.
On XM: Sour Times by Portishead. Awesome.
I went to that optional library research thing. It was alright. The speaker was that Kelly again, and she's really good. To be honest, I didn't learn anything I didn't already know, but it didn't hurt to have a refresher, I suppose. I think that Kellogg takes people from fairly diverse backgrounds, which is cool. There are people here that have never really done serious library research, and I'm sure the presentation was invaluable to them.
I went and had a slice of pizza at the Centralized Dining Food Emporium before the Mexifest, which was good thinking on my part because they put meat in everything. The meat dish had meat in it, of course, but the vegetables had pork in them, the biscuits had sausage with them, the salsa had bacon, the rice had chicken, and the potatoes had bacon and chicken and beef with them. What's up with that? Does freaking everything need a slab of flesh tossed on it? Regardless, I had a salad, which was quite good - red peppers with lettuce and radishes and other stuff.
Trivial Pursuit was great. We held our own - I did well at first, but I messed up a question midway through. What fighting machine was originally called a reservoir or cistern? I guessed submarine because it's freaking logical and makes perfect sense. Jan said "tank" because reservoir is synonymous with tank. I said, both a reservoir and cistern are filled with water, as is a submarine, and I guess I was convincing because we went with it, but the answer was tank. All modesty aside, I'm usually right. Not this time. It was tank.
Anyway, toward the end, Frank caught fire. He was answering all these weird questions. One of them had to do with some bizarre Swedish pornographic filmed called "I Am Curious (Yellow)." I had never heard of it, but I googled it, and it's a real thing. Everyone of a certain age in the room knew of it, and everyone under a certain age did not. I think it's a watermark.
I'm tired, and my back hurts. My rubber mattress is killing me. Tomorrow looks good:
9 - 11:30 / Assessment and placement continued
1 - 4 / Accuplacer and Compass
It is true. Tomorrow, I take the Accuplacer and the Compass. At our Institution, I'd bet that I place in college level in both enc and rea, and mat9024 in math. We'll see. I looked at a 9013 final once, and I thought it was easy, but not so easy that I think I'd sail through 9024.
I ended tonight on the phone with Amanda - the same way I begin every day and end every night. Before that, I hung out with Michael and Joe and talked about the Border Trilogy and films adapted from Cormac Mccarthy novels. I'm still interested in the gray area placement testing; I think it's a good idea.
On XM: Sour Times by Portishead. Awesome.
It could have been a brilliant career
This morning's session was good - getting more towards the answers (though I believe tomorrow will be the reveal). Breakfast: potatoes, biscuit, banana, and coffee. Lunch: fake Moe's, day three. Went with the roasted habanero salsa this time: good, but it was cold. They must have taken it out of the fridge recently or something, and it kinda wrecked the temperature aesthetic. Toppings should be ambient, at least thermodynamically.
I asked Ed about the right to fail as it pertains to EAP situations, and his answer was "it depends." He said sometimes, it's a no-brainer, but others get more complex. The 1.5s, the people who grew up speaking English but with a Spanish syntax, older students, etc. He said that everyone should get the accuplacer regardless, though - then maybe the LOEP if needed. He didn't understand the concept of EAP without the same types of exit processes found in college prep. I guess if an EAP student tested in 9020 or 9003, then maybe it becomes their choice, but if they test into 10 or 01/02 it isn't? Beats me.
But here's what doesn't: the idea of gray areas on a placement test. Ed suggested something like this, and I'll use arbitrary #s just to make it easier.
0-5 / Lowest level
6-10 / Gray area
11-15 / Middle level
16-20 / Gray area
21 - 25 / Highest level
26-30 / Gray area
31 - / College level
Now, and this is kinda getting back to what Marianne said a few comments back, what if there were opportunities to look at placement a bit more holistically? Even though we might now say that someone testing anywhere between 11 and 20 should go to, let's just say, 9013, what if we said 11-15 goes into 9013, period, but if you scored 16-20, you should come on in - we have something to talk about.
And maybe there we say - look, you were close; how do you feel about math? When was the last time you took a math class? What's your attendance likely to be affected by? Are you willing to commit to lab hours? Tutoring? Maybe if someone in that gray area looks like a safe bet, we bump them up.
Not sure what to have for dinner. They're making something in the kitchen - the woman who organized it is a tesol person, and she recited the menu in Spanish. After a few people asked for clarification, she recited it more slowly in Spanish. Super nice person, and really smart, but c'mon - throw me a hueso. I heard carne, though, and I don't need to be an experto to figure that one out. I chipped in a buck, just to be social, but I'm thinking I might grab a slice before heading down.
Trivial Pursuit at 7:30. Tonight, we take back the crown.
I asked Ed about the right to fail as it pertains to EAP situations, and his answer was "it depends." He said sometimes, it's a no-brainer, but others get more complex. The 1.5s, the people who grew up speaking English but with a Spanish syntax, older students, etc. He said that everyone should get the accuplacer regardless, though - then maybe the LOEP if needed. He didn't understand the concept of EAP without the same types of exit processes found in college prep. I guess if an EAP student tested in 9020 or 9003, then maybe it becomes their choice, but if they test into 10 or 01/02 it isn't? Beats me.
But here's what doesn't: the idea of gray areas on a placement test. Ed suggested something like this, and I'll use arbitrary #s just to make it easier.
0-5 / Lowest level
6-10 / Gray area
11-15 / Middle level
16-20 / Gray area
21 - 25 / Highest level
26-30 / Gray area
31 - / College level
Now, and this is kinda getting back to what Marianne said a few comments back, what if there were opportunities to look at placement a bit more holistically? Even though we might now say that someone testing anywhere between 11 and 20 should go to, let's just say, 9013, what if we said 11-15 goes into 9013, period, but if you scored 16-20, you should come on in - we have something to talk about.
And maybe there we say - look, you were close; how do you feel about math? When was the last time you took a math class? What's your attendance likely to be affected by? Are you willing to commit to lab hours? Tutoring? Maybe if someone in that gray area looks like a safe bet, we bump them up.
Not sure what to have for dinner. They're making something in the kitchen - the woman who organized it is a tesol person, and she recited the menu in Spanish. After a few people asked for clarification, she recited it more slowly in Spanish. Super nice person, and really smart, but c'mon - throw me a hueso. I heard carne, though, and I don't need to be an experto to figure that one out. I chipped in a buck, just to be social, but I'm thinking I might grab a slice before heading down.
Trivial Pursuit at 7:30. Tonight, we take back the crown.
Wrapped up in books
I finished The Passage by Justin Cronin last night. It was good - sort of like Stephen King's The Stand, though I think King's was better. The first two or three hundred pages were really, really good, and the last two thirds of the book was just pretty good. It got a bunch of advance praise, probably because Cronin is somewhat a serious writier.
Today is a half day, sort of. Assessment and placement from 9 - 11:30, break, and then the not-really-optional research session in the library. I'm thinking it's probably just basic research stuff, but it's only an hour long and probably couldn't hurt.
Today is a half day, sort of. Assessment and placement from 9 - 11:30, break, and then the not-really-optional research session in the library. I'm thinking it's probably just basic research stuff, but it's only an hour long and probably couldn't hurt.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
The stars of track and field
I wound up going to that library thing. I was putting it off, and then Amanda called, and she was all like "you really should go to make a good impression," so I caved and went. My phone said it was 6:49 when I left, and I arrived at the library at 6:54, slightly out of breath. The campus is so beautiful, and well laid out. Going down hills, through tunnels, over creek beds - it's like a lesson in prepositions every time I go somewhere.
The ASU library is impressive. It was built in 2005, and it employs 41 librarians. I didn't ask how many were full time, but I suppose I should have. It's a five story structure (basement and four floors proper), and the fourth floor has a stunning view of the entire campus. Weird fact: they encourage food and drink in the library. You can actually order a pizza and have it delivered to the library, and they're cool with that. Our guide, Librarian Kelly, said there's never been a problem, though they were quite worried initially. Kelly was really cool, gave a great tour, was the kind of person you'd love to have working for your organization - energetic, smart, funny, etc.
I didn't really learn much in the library, but I'm glad I went. Afterwards, I went back to the dorm and beered up for Trivial Pursuit.
We lost.
Look - the way this guy plays Trivial Pursuit is weird. Day one, you divide into two teams - count off - one two - teams divided - game played. It's a team game - each team consults, talks, makes their choice as a team, and goes from there. The twist is this: the winning team stays the same, but the losing team gets everyone new who joins. Last night, it was nine on nine. Tonight is was seventeen against seven. We were like Butch and Sundance, guns blazing (Australia! Mary Queen of Scots! Eli Whitney!), drenched in sepia - you knew we were never gonna make it, but we fought tough 'til the end. The other team acted like they had won the World Cup or something. Great game, fun time - but I wonder: what will tomorrow night bring? Will it be 17 on 7 again? We need to recruit, yet there are so few free agents.
I plan on arriving to class early tomorrow to ask Ed his opinion of Ann's Level 4 EAP student question. I think that's the trick - begin at the beginning.
I was talking to Amanda tonight, and she asked if the Kellogg thing has been good, and it really has. I really miss being home; I feel like time's passing me by, and I miss my family, but this is good up here.
And now The Album Leaf's "there is a wind" has come on the XM I'm streaming through the laptop - time for bed.
The ASU library is impressive. It was built in 2005, and it employs 41 librarians. I didn't ask how many were full time, but I suppose I should have. It's a five story structure (basement and four floors proper), and the fourth floor has a stunning view of the entire campus. Weird fact: they encourage food and drink in the library. You can actually order a pizza and have it delivered to the library, and they're cool with that. Our guide, Librarian Kelly, said there's never been a problem, though they were quite worried initially. Kelly was really cool, gave a great tour, was the kind of person you'd love to have working for your organization - energetic, smart, funny, etc.
I didn't really learn much in the library, but I'm glad I went. Afterwards, I went back to the dorm and beered up for Trivial Pursuit.
We lost.
Look - the way this guy plays Trivial Pursuit is weird. Day one, you divide into two teams - count off - one two - teams divided - game played. It's a team game - each team consults, talks, makes their choice as a team, and goes from there. The twist is this: the winning team stays the same, but the losing team gets everyone new who joins. Last night, it was nine on nine. Tonight is was seventeen against seven. We were like Butch and Sundance, guns blazing (Australia! Mary Queen of Scots! Eli Whitney!), drenched in sepia - you knew we were never gonna make it, but we fought tough 'til the end. The other team acted like they had won the World Cup or something. Great game, fun time - but I wonder: what will tomorrow night bring? Will it be 17 on 7 again? We need to recruit, yet there are so few free agents.
I plan on arriving to class early tomorrow to ask Ed his opinion of Ann's Level 4 EAP student question. I think that's the trick - begin at the beginning.
I was talking to Amanda tonight, and she asked if the Kellogg thing has been good, and it really has. I really miss being home; I feel like time's passing me by, and I miss my family, but this is good up here.
And now The Album Leaf's "there is a wind" has come on the XM I'm streaming through the laptop - time for bed.
The magnificent seventies
Long day; back in the dorm. I did wind up having a latte this morning. I got it with an extra shot, and it was better than yesterday's. Still not great. Today was two sessions, both led by Ed Morante. The day's topic was assessment.
The whole day was about placement assessments. People talked about they way they did things at their colleges, and some of them are pretty messed up. One college had optional placement testing, another had some weird test that was essentially an eighth grade test. The tesol people started in, and some of them argued for EAP type classes while others argued for all EAP students to go into developmental, and the whole thing kinda gave me a headache.
I had fake Moe's again for lunch, and it was again really good. Even the tortilla chips were good. The guy put a toothpick in my burrito after he was done making it, and he said "this is to let the cashier know that it's vegetarian. It's cheaper that way." And I remember having a toothpick in my burrito yesterday, too, so I guess they don't charge you the same price for a steak enchilada or whatever. My mistake.
I had lunch with the facilitator, Ed, and a guy who lives in WV, but teaches in MD. Light talk, but Ed said he had been working with Brazosport College, which was one of the colleges I looked at in my dissertation, and we talked about their baccalaureate program. FWIW, Brazosport, is a complementary institution, according to my typology, and Edison in a competing one.
In the afternoon, we talked a lot of numbers: standard deviation, SEM, etc. I kept thinking about the stuff we had talked about in the morning and yesterday afternoon. That we should get to our students before they take the placement exam to impress upon them the importance of the exam and that we should look at other things when making placement decisions. The way Ed was talking, he was even saying things like we should ask how many hours per week they work, how they get to school, when did they last attend a class, etc. It seems pretty invasive, but it could also really work. Maybe you do all of that and tell them "you placed here, but based on what I'm seeing, I'd say you're better off there instead." I don't think that would work with our levels - certainly not in a downward fashion, but maybe in an upward one? Like if someone tests into 9013, but has all these variables going for them, maybe they take 24 with additional supports? Maybe they have that option?
After class, Hunter and Barbara gave a brief, optional presentation on ASU. I stuck around, as did five others. I figured it couldn't hurt to be noticed, and it turned out to be an interesting conversation. I went over to the Plant, had some dinner (slice of pizza, salad, and diet coke), and here I am. There's an optional tour of the library at 7, but I'm undecided as to whether or not I'll go. The way Kellogg is set up there are mandatory things, optional things, and optional (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) things, which doesn't sound too optional to me. The library tour is a purely optional one, so I think I'm good either way.
Class photo was today. They took three shots. We'll see.
Trivial Pursuit is at 8. I'll either nap or tour the library - maybe read. Up for tomorrow:
9 - 11:30 / Assessment and placement, con't
1 / Research workshop (Optional but HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)
The whole day was about placement assessments. People talked about they way they did things at their colleges, and some of them are pretty messed up. One college had optional placement testing, another had some weird test that was essentially an eighth grade test. The tesol people started in, and some of them argued for EAP type classes while others argued for all EAP students to go into developmental, and the whole thing kinda gave me a headache.
I had fake Moe's again for lunch, and it was again really good. Even the tortilla chips were good. The guy put a toothpick in my burrito after he was done making it, and he said "this is to let the cashier know that it's vegetarian. It's cheaper that way." And I remember having a toothpick in my burrito yesterday, too, so I guess they don't charge you the same price for a steak enchilada or whatever. My mistake.
I had lunch with the facilitator, Ed, and a guy who lives in WV, but teaches in MD. Light talk, but Ed said he had been working with Brazosport College, which was one of the colleges I looked at in my dissertation, and we talked about their baccalaureate program. FWIW, Brazosport, is a complementary institution, according to my typology, and Edison in a competing one.
In the afternoon, we talked a lot of numbers: standard deviation, SEM, etc. I kept thinking about the stuff we had talked about in the morning and yesterday afternoon. That we should get to our students before they take the placement exam to impress upon them the importance of the exam and that we should look at other things when making placement decisions. The way Ed was talking, he was even saying things like we should ask how many hours per week they work, how they get to school, when did they last attend a class, etc. It seems pretty invasive, but it could also really work. Maybe you do all of that and tell them "you placed here, but based on what I'm seeing, I'd say you're better off there instead." I don't think that would work with our levels - certainly not in a downward fashion, but maybe in an upward one? Like if someone tests into 9013, but has all these variables going for them, maybe they take 24 with additional supports? Maybe they have that option?
After class, Hunter and Barbara gave a brief, optional presentation on ASU. I stuck around, as did five others. I figured it couldn't hurt to be noticed, and it turned out to be an interesting conversation. I went over to the Plant, had some dinner (slice of pizza, salad, and diet coke), and here I am. There's an optional tour of the library at 7, but I'm undecided as to whether or not I'll go. The way Kellogg is set up there are mandatory things, optional things, and optional (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) things, which doesn't sound too optional to me. The library tour is a purely optional one, so I think I'm good either way.
Class photo was today. They took three shots. We'll see.
Trivial Pursuit is at 8. I'll either nap or tour the library - maybe read. Up for tomorrow:
9 - 11:30 / Assessment and placement, con't
1 / Research workshop (Optional but HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)
On my way
It rained terribly for about ten minutes last night, and this morning looks overcast. It's "group picture" day here at Kellogg, which solves my daily "what should I wear" dilemma. Today: it's jeans and the Kellogg t-shirt.
The Kellogg t-shirt is one of the more tastefully designed free garments I've been given by an institution. It's a cardinal red with the Kellogg logo (that flame thing) and the words Kellogg Institute 2010 centered in the upper part of the front. nothing on back.
I brought a small umbrella, so I'm good for the walk down toward the Central Dining Eatery District. I know I said I was going with straight coffee from here on out, but I might order a latte or a breve or something. I'd hate to see my first coffee inadvertently turn into such a high stakes assessment tool.
And speaking of, that's what's on tap for all of today: assessment. Good speaker, good topic, should be a good day, yeah?
The Kellogg t-shirt is one of the more tastefully designed free garments I've been given by an institution. It's a cardinal red with the Kellogg logo (that flame thing) and the words Kellogg Institute 2010 centered in the upper part of the front. nothing on back.
I brought a small umbrella, so I'm good for the walk down toward the Central Dining Eatery District. I know I said I was going with straight coffee from here on out, but I might order a latte or a breve or something. I'd hate to see my first coffee inadvertently turn into such a high stakes assessment tool.
And speaking of, that's what's on tap for all of today: assessment. Good speaker, good topic, should be a good day, yeah?
Monday, June 28, 2010
A schoolboy's charm
We won the Trivial Pursuit contest. I have to give it up to Pat from KY; he scored a solid 1/3 of the pie piece answers (dead man's hand and Mongolia). I did well, all modesty aside, but if I had to crown a MVP, I'd be lying if I didn't say it was Pat. I think I was responsible for 1/3 of the pie, too, but the ones I contributed to were pretty easy.
Not many people showed up; I'd say about 14 did. I'm guessing Ed will make a big deal of it tomorrow and more people will be prompted to come along.
Afterwards, we retired to Michael's room, with myself, Joe (WV), Jason (TX), Pat (KY), and (briefly) Frank (?). Frank looks just like JK Simmons. He's really cool. When he first met me, he said: "someone has been telling lies about you" and I was like "ah - the trial."
We talked about: rafting, hiking, video games, open v. closed worlds, Noam Chomsky, grammar, and parenting.
Tomorrow:
9 - 11:30 / Assessment and placement con't (Morante, the defeated Trivial Pursuit champion)
11:45 / Class photo (I have to wear my Kellogg t-shirt, provided)
1 - 4 / Assessment and placement, con't
4:15 - 5 / Info session, graduate studies at ASU; Boylan (optional)
7 - 7:30 / Library tour (optional)
7:30 / Trivial Pursuit
Further.
Not many people showed up; I'd say about 14 did. I'm guessing Ed will make a big deal of it tomorrow and more people will be prompted to come along.
Afterwards, we retired to Michael's room, with myself, Joe (WV), Jason (TX), Pat (KY), and (briefly) Frank (?). Frank looks just like JK Simmons. He's really cool. When he first met me, he said: "someone has been telling lies about you" and I was like "ah - the trial."
We talked about: rafting, hiking, video games, open v. closed worlds, Noam Chomsky, grammar, and parenting.
Tomorrow:
9 - 11:30 / Assessment and placement con't (Morante, the defeated Trivial Pursuit champion)
11:45 / Class photo (I have to wear my Kellogg t-shirt, provided)
1 - 4 / Assessment and placement, con't
4:15 - 5 / Info session, graduate studies at ASU; Boylan (optional)
7 - 7:30 / Library tour (optional)
7:30 / Trivial Pursuit
Further.
Using the Hope Diamond as a doorstop
I ran up to Wal-Mart to buy laundry detergent. They sell Woolite in a bag. It's essentially a giant Capri Sun looking thing, but it's filled with Woolite instead of whatever Capri Sun is. On the way, I stopped at Panera because I wanted their black bean soup, but they didn't have black bean soup. Their vegetarian option was garden vegetable with pesto. I risked it and lost out. The soup just didn't know what it wanted to be. A few noodles, a little barley, just random vegetables. There was one julienned thing in there that I couldn't figure out what it was - like a turnip maybe? Anyway - avoid that soup.
When I got back, Jerry came over to my room, and Michael stopped by shortly after. We talked about orientations, mostly, and different ideas as to how to make them more effective. They both work in NC and talked about some listening tour their president went on. I talked about the partnership between HOPE, UB, and the lab. The dorm itself is pretty miserable (ac doesn't work well, carpet needs ironing, etc), but the dorm experience has been a pleasant surprise.
The Trivial Pursuit tournament starts in a half hour or so. I wasn't going to go initially, but Ed has a pretty infectious enthusiasm. The whole day has been like that. Seeing Hunter and Ed talk about the field is inspiring. I don't know how I cam across when I talked about Hunter having this certainty about him, but I meant to say it in a very positive light. It's this really cool altruistic, egalitarian view of higher education. Onward.
When I got back, Jerry came over to my room, and Michael stopped by shortly after. We talked about orientations, mostly, and different ideas as to how to make them more effective. They both work in NC and talked about some listening tour their president went on. I talked about the partnership between HOPE, UB, and the lab. The dorm itself is pretty miserable (ac doesn't work well, carpet needs ironing, etc), but the dorm experience has been a pleasant surprise.
The Trivial Pursuit tournament starts in a half hour or so. I wasn't going to go initially, but Ed has a pretty infectious enthusiasm. The whole day has been like that. Seeing Hunter and Ed talk about the field is inspiring. I don't know how I cam across when I talked about Hunter having this certainty about him, but I meant to say it in a very positive light. It's this really cool altruistic, egalitarian view of higher education. Onward.
Weather report
It had been unseasonably warm in Boone for the past few days, but the weather's changed a bit, and it's much nicer now. I had breakfast at the Central Dining Processing Plant, and it was pretty good. I got a latte and some hash browns. The guy sitting at my table said he thought the latte (he got one too) was better than he had thought. I said it was pretty good too, but truth be told I was a little disappointed. I think it's plan coffee from here on out. The hash browns weren't really hash browns. They were processed potato and oil disks, kinda like how Burger King makes, and they were really good. First up: Hunter.
Walking into the classroom, I noticed some coffee, tea, fruit, and stuff set out for us. Now, any jerk can set out some apples and coffee and stuff, but here's where the details swoop in and make a difference: toothpicks so you don't have to just grab a strawberry with your hands, and yogurt dip, kinda like the stuff Jason's deli gives you with the fruit when you order something healthy and forget to ask them to just give you potato chips.
Hunter started on time and went twenty minutes over, and he was "on" the whole time. I think the thing I like about him best is his absolute certainness of purpose. There's a guy who wakes up every morning thinking he's right, and there isn't anything that's going to happen during the day that's going to make him feel otherwise. He's going to go to bed being right, and then probably dream about how right he is, and then wake up refreshed the next morning to repeat step number one. And it works because he can back it up, which is always nice.
His big thing, far as I can tell, is that you have to accept students as they are and not judge them. It's easier said than done, and there's a little more to it, but that's the gist; that's the constant. He said developmental education covers everything from remedial classes to GRE prep, and that makes a lot of sense, too. He said that even much of our remedial coursework probably isn't remedial, and I'll attest to that. Some of that 9024 doesn't look remedial to me. And can you say that the grammar we cover is remedial if it was never taught in high school? The whole idea is to take students as they are and move them as far as they can go.
Here's a few things I wrote down: "gradually accept responsibility for their own learning;" "envision every student as a potential graduate of your institution;" "we tend to look at things that are easy to measure."
More stuff, obviously, but on to lunch: for lunch, I had fake Moe's. It was really good. There's this Mexican place in the Central Nourishment Feedplant called Calientes or something, and it's basically a generic Moe's. I had a black bean burrito with pico de gallo. It was awesome, but the attendant tortilla chips were kinda stale. Apparently, you pay by the pound, too, so my black bean burrito, chip, and diet Coke were $8, and someone probably could've gotten a steak chimichanga or whatever for cheaper, which doesn't seem right. Regardless....
Ed Morante was really good, and he talked about assessment. He was a dean at a college in California for years, but now he's a consultant. Animated guy, New Yorker - he reminds me of Antonio Scalia, but if you removed the part of Scalia's brain that makes him wrong about everything and replaced it with a moral compass. Ed's alright by me. The two best things I learned from him today are: "placement decisions should involve multiple variables," and "we need to get to the students before they take the placement exam." I think both would really benefit our institution, and it's something I'd like to work on when I return. In a freaking month.
Ed apparently lives in the dorm with us, which everyone thought was quite odd. He runs a Trivial Pursuit/Beer tournament nightly during his week of the Institute, so I have to make a beer run before 7:30. Buy in is one beer; it's like a tithe I guess.
One last thing: Ed said that the "right to fail" was pernicious (his word), and I wasn't sure I agreed at first, but then he clarified and said that entering students don't have the right to fail, and I agree with that. I usually say, explicitly, that I believe in the right to fail, and I do, but I also always throw in the caveat that everyone has the right to fail, provided they have given informed consent. Entering students can't really give informed consent.
Walking into the classroom, I noticed some coffee, tea, fruit, and stuff set out for us. Now, any jerk can set out some apples and coffee and stuff, but here's where the details swoop in and make a difference: toothpicks so you don't have to just grab a strawberry with your hands, and yogurt dip, kinda like the stuff Jason's deli gives you with the fruit when you order something healthy and forget to ask them to just give you potato chips.
Hunter started on time and went twenty minutes over, and he was "on" the whole time. I think the thing I like about him best is his absolute certainness of purpose. There's a guy who wakes up every morning thinking he's right, and there isn't anything that's going to happen during the day that's going to make him feel otherwise. He's going to go to bed being right, and then probably dream about how right he is, and then wake up refreshed the next morning to repeat step number one. And it works because he can back it up, which is always nice.
His big thing, far as I can tell, is that you have to accept students as they are and not judge them. It's easier said than done, and there's a little more to it, but that's the gist; that's the constant. He said developmental education covers everything from remedial classes to GRE prep, and that makes a lot of sense, too. He said that even much of our remedial coursework probably isn't remedial, and I'll attest to that. Some of that 9024 doesn't look remedial to me. And can you say that the grammar we cover is remedial if it was never taught in high school? The whole idea is to take students as they are and move them as far as they can go.
Here's a few things I wrote down: "gradually accept responsibility for their own learning;" "envision every student as a potential graduate of your institution;" "we tend to look at things that are easy to measure."
More stuff, obviously, but on to lunch: for lunch, I had fake Moe's. It was really good. There's this Mexican place in the Central Nourishment Feedplant called Calientes or something, and it's basically a generic Moe's. I had a black bean burrito with pico de gallo. It was awesome, but the attendant tortilla chips were kinda stale. Apparently, you pay by the pound, too, so my black bean burrito, chip, and diet Coke were $8, and someone probably could've gotten a steak chimichanga or whatever for cheaper, which doesn't seem right. Regardless....
Ed Morante was really good, and he talked about assessment. He was a dean at a college in California for years, but now he's a consultant. Animated guy, New Yorker - he reminds me of Antonio Scalia, but if you removed the part of Scalia's brain that makes him wrong about everything and replaced it with a moral compass. Ed's alright by me. The two best things I learned from him today are: "placement decisions should involve multiple variables," and "we need to get to the students before they take the placement exam." I think both would really benefit our institution, and it's something I'd like to work on when I return. In a freaking month.
Ed apparently lives in the dorm with us, which everyone thought was quite odd. He runs a Trivial Pursuit/Beer tournament nightly during his week of the Institute, so I have to make a beer run before 7:30. Buy in is one beer; it's like a tithe I guess.
One last thing: Ed said that the "right to fail" was pernicious (his word), and I wasn't sure I agreed at first, but then he clarified and said that entering students don't have the right to fail, and I agree with that. I usually say, explicitly, that I believe in the right to fail, and I do, but I also always throw in the caveat that everyone has the right to fail, provided they have given informed consent. Entering students can't really give informed consent.
A means to an end
This morning is Hunter Boylan talking about the background and scope of developmental education, and this afternoon is Dr. Ed Morante talking about assessment and placement. I'm hoping Hunter talks a bit about student development and its relationship with remediation. I was talking with someone the other day, trying to figure out the big Venn diagram of it all. There are students who never learned it; there are students who need to relearn it; and there are students who are going to do poorly despite knowing quite a bit. All three need development, but if you try to remediate the third one, it'll go poorly. And maybe some in the first two categories only need slight development whereas some need a significant amount.
Off to breakfast and class. Breakfast is in the Orwellian sounding Central Dining Hall, which is actually quite nicer than it sounds. It's a quarter mile or so walk - down a hill, though a tunnel, up some stairs, and between the student union and gym. Classroom doors open at 8:30, coffee and tea 'til nine.
Off to breakfast and class. Breakfast is in the Orwellian sounding Central Dining Hall, which is actually quite nicer than it sounds. It's a quarter mile or so walk - down a hill, though a tunnel, up some stairs, and between the student union and gym. Classroom doors open at 8:30, coffee and tea 'til nine.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Atmosphere
First quasi-real full day done; it went well. The guided tour was done well - it came in two flavors, long and short. I took the long one - about 2/3 of us did. No one can say that the Kellogg people don't put on a good show. Everything is a class act; they get all the details right. Everywhere you go, there's coffee, water, sodas, snacks. etc. That kind of stuff goes a long way with me. It's so easy to screw up the small things, and it's so hard to get them right. Kellogg gets those small things right. I think it's mostly Denise, who seems like the coordinator of the place.
The experiential learning exercise wasn't soymilk. OK, it was kinda soymilk, but if like soymilk actually tasted good and had health benefits commensurate with its advertising. Here's the drill: you and a group of five others are in the middle of a forest fires, and you have a series of ten events in which you must come to a consensus on what to do (eg - the uphill slope leading to the ridgeline is 200' long and free of fire, do you a) continue on the trail; b) traverse the incline, etc. etc. ) There are real "right" answers, but you have to suss out what you'd do and compromise and stuff. I'll tell you: the random stuff people come up with never ceases to amaze me. I mean, some of it's right and some of it's wrong, but I'll go to my grave not knowing how the hell people's heads work.
Afterwards I went to the dining hall. On the right hand side is all you can eat for $x and on the left is a food court; I went to the food court and had something small. Next: appetizers and open bar. Waste not, want not. At the food court, I was afraid my ID (which has $ loaded onto it) wouldn't work, but it did. It's the small things. the details.
The reception was again a class act. Good food, open bar, just Corona and Yuengling, though. I know plenty of people that swear by Yuengling, but I'm not one of them. It has a grit to it or something. Corona's not my favorite, but I had two. I met my advisor; his name is Mick, and he's sharp. In the hour or so I spent with him, I was able to steal two high-quality ideas, both of which I plan to take back. Here they are:
Short term: Move housekeeping to the end of class. Housekeeping at the beginning of class discourages timeliness. Have them submit their own attendance via index cars with any feedback. Needs tweaking, but it's good.
Long term: etc. Edison together with the community. His was ACT. Appalachian and the Community Together. I think etc. is cooler than ACT.
All in all a good night, a good day. Here's the itinerary for tomorrow:
9 - 11:30 / Welcome (Hunter Boylan)
1-4 / Introduction to assessment and placement
Formation of special interest groups
The experiential learning exercise wasn't soymilk. OK, it was kinda soymilk, but if like soymilk actually tasted good and had health benefits commensurate with its advertising. Here's the drill: you and a group of five others are in the middle of a forest fires, and you have a series of ten events in which you must come to a consensus on what to do (eg - the uphill slope leading to the ridgeline is 200' long and free of fire, do you a) continue on the trail; b) traverse the incline, etc. etc. ) There are real "right" answers, but you have to suss out what you'd do and compromise and stuff. I'll tell you: the random stuff people come up with never ceases to amaze me. I mean, some of it's right and some of it's wrong, but I'll go to my grave not knowing how the hell people's heads work.
Afterwards I went to the dining hall. On the right hand side is all you can eat for $x and on the left is a food court; I went to the food court and had something small. Next: appetizers and open bar. Waste not, want not. At the food court, I was afraid my ID (which has $ loaded onto it) wouldn't work, but it did. It's the small things. the details.
The reception was again a class act. Good food, open bar, just Corona and Yuengling, though. I know plenty of people that swear by Yuengling, but I'm not one of them. It has a grit to it or something. Corona's not my favorite, but I had two. I met my advisor; his name is Mick, and he's sharp. In the hour or so I spent with him, I was able to steal two high-quality ideas, both of which I plan to take back. Here they are:
Short term: Move housekeeping to the end of class. Housekeeping at the beginning of class discourages timeliness. Have them submit their own attendance via index cars with any feedback. Needs tweaking, but it's good.
Long term: etc. Edison together with the community. His was ACT. Appalachian and the Community Together. I think etc. is cooler than ACT.
All in all a good night, a good day. Here's the itinerary for tomorrow:
9 - 11:30 / Welcome (Hunter Boylan)
1-4 / Introduction to assessment and placement
Formation of special interest groups
New dawn fades
First morning waking up at Kellogg. In the light of a new day, I notice that the carpet is kinda wrinkled or something. It looks like a graphic relief map of Peru. Still, the room is growing on me, and I can see how they say that the dorm experience is an integral part of the Institute.
I walked around Boone - small town, very beautiful. The altitude change is slight, but noticable. I wasn't winded or anything, but breathing was different. I went to a coffee shop and ordered an iced latte; they made it with soy milk. I forgot what it was like in a college town. If you don't want something all weird put in your food, you should probably ask first. "Hey, are you going to make that normal or hippy it all up?"
I saw Michael walking around the northern end of town and scoped out a few restaurants. We parted ways. He asked me where I got the coffee; I told him and warned him about the soymilk.
We have meetings from 1PM through 8PM today. Here's the itinerary.
1:15 / guided walk to classroom
1:45 - 2:15 / Orientation & Q&A
2:15 - 4:45 / Experiential Learning Exercise (sounds like soymilk to me, but I'm open)
6-8 / Welcome reception - meet your advisor
I walked around Boone - small town, very beautiful. The altitude change is slight, but noticable. I wasn't winded or anything, but breathing was different. I went to a coffee shop and ordered an iced latte; they made it with soy milk. I forgot what it was like in a college town. If you don't want something all weird put in your food, you should probably ask first. "Hey, are you going to make that normal or hippy it all up?"
I saw Michael walking around the northern end of town and scoped out a few restaurants. We parted ways. He asked me where I got the coffee; I told him and warned him about the soymilk.
We have meetings from 1PM through 8PM today. Here's the itinerary.
1:15 / guided walk to classroom
1:45 - 2:15 / Orientation & Q&A
2:15 - 4:45 / Experiential Learning Exercise (sounds like soymilk to me, but I'm open)
6-8 / Welcome reception - meet your advisor
Saturday, June 26, 2010
First night
First night is almost over, and things went well. I wandered around campus a bit; our first event was a dinner at 6:30. Pizza and salad; Diet Coke in paper cups. Hunter came out and gave a talk. I don't fall into that cult of personality thing, but I could see it working for him. He said the first rule of developmental education is to accept your students as they are. Where they are. More than just intellectually or academically or whatever, but also politically, and philosophically, and spiritually, etc. That makes a lot of sense to me.
I spent a few hours afterwards talking to Michael and Jerry, both from different community colleges in North Carolina. Both writing people. I knew Michael was solid because he caught me in the parking lot and asked if I needed anything fom the liquor store, and Jerry is my suite mate and an all around good guy. We talked about: EAP students in developmental classes; the inaccuracy of placement testing; NAFTA and the furniture industry; student leaders; something called "studentship" (which I probably should google); southern gothic literature; and students who go to school because that's where they get their money.
All in all a good evening. I miss my wife, I miss my pets, but it's pretty alright here.
I spent a few hours afterwards talking to Michael and Jerry, both from different community colleges in North Carolina. Both writing people. I knew Michael was solid because he caught me in the parking lot and asked if I needed anything fom the liquor store, and Jerry is my suite mate and an all around good guy. We talked about: EAP students in developmental classes; the inaccuracy of placement testing; NAFTA and the furniture industry; student leaders; something called "studentship" (which I probably should google); southern gothic literature; and students who go to school because that's where they get their money.
All in all a good evening. I miss my wife, I miss my pets, but it's pretty alright here.
Through Charlotte
I slept well and woke up at 5, 6, and 7 before finally getting out of bed. The shower was cold, so I figured I'd let it warm up, but it didn't. It just kept running cold. I called down and asked if there was a problem with the hot water, and the woman said "no." I asked if there was a trick to it or something, and she said "no, there's no trick." So I went back over and turned it on cold and left it on cold and after a minute or so, the water went warm. So the cold water handle works the warm water, and the warm water handle works the cold water. After I showered, I called down there and told woman that the handles had been reversed, and she said "yeah, I knew there was a trick to that." So there's that.
Going through Charlotte worked well, but for a few things. First: Mapquest says to take 485 West, and when you get to the intersection, you have two options - 485 East and 485 Inner. I don't know why you would have two of something, name one east, and not name the other one west, particularly if it's going west, but someone did, and mapquest didn't catch it. Second: they measure their mile markers in 10ths of a mile. So, you're driving and on mile 2, which makes sense, and then you're at 2/2, and I'm thinking that I'm at the end of the road or something, and then it's 3/2, and it looks like they've started using irrational numbers or something to measure miles. It was only about ten miles of that though.
I fueled up in Blowing Rock. The gas pump didn't have a credit card swipe thing on it - you actually had to go in and pay someone inside. It was really weird.
I pulled into Appalachian State University around 1:30. The campus is beautiful; I'm in Newland Hall. The room I was given looks like what I'd imagine a really nice minimum security federal prison cell to look like. My pillow is an odd rubber/vinyl textile, and the walls are bare cinderblock. It's kind of exciting, but I still went to Wal-Mart to buy a proper pillow case and blanket.
I have the World Cup going on my computer, and I've met a few people on the hall. The guy in the room next to me is from just a few miles down the road. Dinner's at 6:30.
Going through Charlotte worked well, but for a few things. First: Mapquest says to take 485 West, and when you get to the intersection, you have two options - 485 East and 485 Inner. I don't know why you would have two of something, name one east, and not name the other one west, particularly if it's going west, but someone did, and mapquest didn't catch it. Second: they measure their mile markers in 10ths of a mile. So, you're driving and on mile 2, which makes sense, and then you're at 2/2, and I'm thinking that I'm at the end of the road or something, and then it's 3/2, and it looks like they've started using irrational numbers or something to measure miles. It was only about ten miles of that though.
I fueled up in Blowing Rock. The gas pump didn't have a credit card swipe thing on it - you actually had to go in and pay someone inside. It was really weird.
I pulled into Appalachian State University around 1:30. The campus is beautiful; I'm in Newland Hall. The room I was given looks like what I'd imagine a really nice minimum security federal prison cell to look like. My pillow is an odd rubber/vinyl textile, and the walls are bare cinderblock. It's kind of exciting, but I still went to Wal-Mart to buy a proper pillow case and blanket.
I have the World Cup going on my computer, and I've met a few people on the hall. The guy in the room next to me is from just a few miles down the road. Dinner's at 6:30.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Driving
It's said that the enjoyability of travel is inversely related to its rapidity, and I find that to be more or less true. Flying is usually pretty miserable, and walking is usually pretty enjoyable, and driving is somewhere inbetween. I left Ft. Myers at noon, hit the Georgia border somewhere around 5:30, and pulled into Walterboro, SC around 8. And that's where I stopped.
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