Holy WOW, dude. I am sitting in Panera working (both corporate stuff and school stuff), and I swear to you Pedro (VOTE FOR PEDRO!!!) just walked in and is sitting in front of me. I had to quickly avert my eyes (although I think my smirk just gave me away) when he noticed I was staring.
God, that is AWESOME.
In other news:
I always knew this, but some days the extent to which this is true is just frightening: I have an extremely low tolerance for "Baloney Slicing". (That's me, striving to keep the PG rating on this blog.)
Oh, AND STILL NOT PLACED. V. V. VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV ANNOYED.
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Strengths (and weaknesses)
I was typing out my answers to the questionnaire we have for our seminar class. There was the typical "what's your strength" question. I was sitting and thinking about it, and I thought about the Myers-Briggs personality traits. Heh. I saved mine from when I took it for another class (maybe it was EDFN 405 or 406). I am an INTJ (Mastermind Rational - oooh, sounds very authoritative, doesn't it?), and boy, does it really nail me.
I emailed my classmates to see if anyone would be interested in seeing how well their own M-B traits match up with what they perceive to be their strengths. Our questionnaire also asked what we thought our peers' strengths were (if we've known them from other classes). Could be muy interesante. Wikipedia also has entries for each of the types; just punch in what your letters are.
For more detailed description on INTJ, try here or here. The second link has a particularly good description. "INTJs know what they know, and perhaps still more importantly, they know what they don't know." The intuitive shouldn't surprise anyone who knows me and some of my other pursuits. Here's mine for the curious:
Qualitative analysis of your type formula
You are:
I emailed my classmates to see if anyone would be interested in seeing how well their own M-B traits match up with what they perceive to be their strengths. Our questionnaire also asked what we thought our peers' strengths were (if we've known them from other classes). Could be muy interesante. Wikipedia also has entries for each of the types; just punch in what your letters are.
For more detailed description on INTJ, try here or here. The second link has a particularly good description. "INTJs know what they know, and perhaps still more importantly, they know what they don't know." The intuitive shouldn't surprise anyone who knows me and some of my other pursuits. Here's mine for the curious:
| Introverted | Intuitive | Thinking | Judging |
| Strength of the preferences % | |||
| 33 | 62 | 1 | 56 |
Qualitative analysis of your type formula
You are:
- moderately expressed introvert
- distinctively expressed intuitive personality
- slightly expressed thinking personality
- moderately expressed judging personality
Friendly and generous with those they consider to be peers, they have a tendency to show scant regard to those beneath them on the food chain...The wolf pulls no punches when communicating with its peers, for there is nothing that a wolf detests more than a yes-man. The truth must be told and damn the consequences. Those unable to handle its steely straightforward style are quickly relegated to the rear of the pack, while those who demonstrate courage are allowed to run alongside.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Guess Who's Still Not Placed?
ME, that's who. (And AC, which surprises me. Thought she was placed already.)
This sucks.
This sucks.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Still No Placement
You can't see me, but I'm freaking out about this. Called one of my advisors to ask "Should I be as freaked out about this as I currently am?" That indirect way of me saying "Haaaay, I'm really freaked out and I'm about to start repeat-dialling X, Y and Z until I do get a placement."
The advisor is going to check up on it for me, and she reassured me I'm not in any dire straits at this point. We talked about placement location. Apparently, she knows someone in a high school up here, so that may be something pursued. It would be an "urban environment". Fine with me; at this point I just want a real school with real, live kids!
Off to go to Staples. Not that I need to, but I'm bored.
WEIRD THOUGHT: Anybody ever play "Magic" or the Buffy CCG (see also btvsccg)? I randomly thought today about making a Shakespeare CCG. How funky would that be? Yes, I know I have forever branded myself as a mega-geek, but who cares? Heh. I know a couple people who could make the mechanics of that work quite well...!
The advisor is going to check up on it for me, and she reassured me I'm not in any dire straits at this point. We talked about placement location. Apparently, she knows someone in a high school up here, so that may be something pursued. It would be an "urban environment". Fine with me; at this point I just want a real school with real, live kids!
Off to go to Staples. Not that I need to, but I'm bored.
WEIRD THOUGHT: Anybody ever play "Magic" or the Buffy CCG (see also btvsccg)? I randomly thought today about making a Shakespeare CCG. How funky would that be? Yes, I know I have forever branded myself as a mega-geek, but who cares? Heh. I know a couple people who could make the mechanics of that work quite well...!
I think I might be sick...
I can't locate my final-final version of my research
proposal from last summer. I need to include it in my
final portfolio, and I was hoping to link it here in
my blog.
proposal from last summer. I need to include it in my
final portfolio, and I was hoping to link it here in
my blog.
AND I NEVER GOT BACK MY PAPER FROM THE PROFESSOR WITH
COMMENTS. GRRR! Says he mailed it...yeah right. That's
one thing I never want to do to students. Don't just
take their work and have it disappear down a black
hole: GIVE FEEDBACK.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Graveyard Humor
I saw this on a friend's blog and I spent the next five minutes laughing until I cried. I'm tempted to use it on an unruly student, but that's probably not such a good idea. I should save it for when one of my lesson plans goes completely down the toilet.
Maybe I'll print it out in color, and if I have a bad day on the day my supervisor asks me how my lesson plans went I can just whip it out.
Oh man, that picture still makes me snort with laughter...
Teaching Skills, not Beliefs
Harking back to that "dirty liberal" reference from my second post.
When I was in undergrad, I went to a small liberal arts school in the middle of Iowa. It's pretty much what you expect in a small Iowa town. Very conservative and straight laced. I don't know if that's changed since the late 90s. Probably not too much.
To this day, I don't know why I chose that school. While I got a fantastic education, and there were some great programs, especially the study abroad program, that place was so wrong for me mentally and emotionally. I am fairly liberal, although I do have some conversative leanings (hey, like maybe a balanced budget would be nice?).
Anyway, the reason for the whole idea of "teaching skills, not beliefs" is Professor R. I signed up to take an American Politics course of his. I must have stayed in through the first paper and then I promptly dropped. I don't remember what my grade was, but it wasn't good. It wasn't the grade, it was how I was graded, and his teaching that aggravated me. You see, you could "write" an "essay" test with bullet points and get an "A". As in, completely no need for sentence structure, segues...nothing. What mattered was you had to spout back R's uber-conservative beliefs in toto. You could not disagree with the man and get a good grade.
So.Wrong.
Education, learning and the pursuit of knowledge is a dangerous business. To me, education is about questioning and challenging. If you never question anything you're told, you're a mental slave. Disagreement and debate are the building blocks of a civilized society. If students of mine accept everything I say, I'd seriously question if they learned anything. You don't have to agree with me. I may not like your opinion, but you're entitled to it. Provide evidence to support your claims; let's have a discussion. Let's both learn something.
Like I said, I may be liberal in my own views, but I'm not going to shove it down anyone's throat. There's been far too much of that for the past eight years of the Bush administration. Questioning your government is not unpatriotic. If you don't question, you lose your freedom and you get despots.
So here's a promise I need to make to any student I may have:
I will strive to never be a "Professor R". You are entitled to your beliefs. All I want is to give you the skills and tools to be critical thinkers: to be able to look at the information and messages society is bombarding you with and to decide for yourself their value and their accuracy. Be educated consumers of knowledge! There's an excellent article I read that relates to this. I'll have to dig it up and provide the link to it soon.
Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. --Thomas Jefferson (Now, I admit that this quote is taken entirely out of context. I think TJ was referring to religion with this, but it does have its uses as far as developing critical thinkers is concerned. I don't mean to touch religion with a ten foot pole as far as education is concerned.)
When I was in undergrad, I went to a small liberal arts school in the middle of Iowa. It's pretty much what you expect in a small Iowa town. Very conservative and straight laced. I don't know if that's changed since the late 90s. Probably not too much.
To this day, I don't know why I chose that school. While I got a fantastic education, and there were some great programs, especially the study abroad program, that place was so wrong for me mentally and emotionally. I am fairly liberal, although I do have some conversative leanings (hey, like maybe a balanced budget would be nice?).
Anyway, the reason for the whole idea of "teaching skills, not beliefs" is Professor R. I signed up to take an American Politics course of his. I must have stayed in through the first paper and then I promptly dropped. I don't remember what my grade was, but it wasn't good. It wasn't the grade, it was how I was graded, and his teaching that aggravated me. You see, you could "write" an "essay" test with bullet points and get an "A". As in, completely no need for sentence structure, segues...nothing. What mattered was you had to spout back R's uber-conservative beliefs in toto. You could not disagree with the man and get a good grade.
So.Wrong.
Education, learning and the pursuit of knowledge is a dangerous business. To me, education is about questioning and challenging. If you never question anything you're told, you're a mental slave. Disagreement and debate are the building blocks of a civilized society. If students of mine accept everything I say, I'd seriously question if they learned anything. You don't have to agree with me. I may not like your opinion, but you're entitled to it. Provide evidence to support your claims; let's have a discussion. Let's both learn something.
Like I said, I may be liberal in my own views, but I'm not going to shove it down anyone's throat. There's been far too much of that for the past eight years of the Bush administration. Questioning your government is not unpatriotic. If you don't question, you lose your freedom and you get despots.
So here's a promise I need to make to any student I may have:
I will strive to never be a "Professor R". You are entitled to your beliefs. All I want is to give you the skills and tools to be critical thinkers: to be able to look at the information and messages society is bombarding you with and to decide for yourself their value and their accuracy. Be educated consumers of knowledge! There's an excellent article I read that relates to this. I'll have to dig it up and provide the link to it soon.
Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. --Thomas Jefferson (Now, I admit that this quote is taken entirely out of context. I think TJ was referring to religion with this, but it does have its uses as far as developing critical thinkers is concerned. I don't mean to touch religion with a ten foot pole as far as education is concerned.)
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