For the students in 5314

Hello everyone...well, those that chose to check my blog to see how the heck this thing works. There are a couple of caveats for you, should you decide to keep reading and become a follower: 1) This blog is not about Dr. Wilson. It is about me, Jenny. It is personal and yet public, but not the same as teaching a class or being a stand for something and, 2) This blog, because it is personal contains only my opinions, thoughts, regurgitations, and a lot of cuss words. So, be forewarned.

So, now for the practice blog.

Reading: Here I would, if I had my book input about 10 bullets, quotes, summaries about the actual text. These would serve me as a review sheet for the final. Especially if my professor decided to print the blogs out and let those that did them use them on the final.

Connections: So far, I have really been thinking about high stakes assessment and the impact it has on students. I have known of the ill fated students who stuggle to pass and the impact it will have on future and further schooling, but I think that this reading is the first time that I have been thinking of my little brother in particular. It took him 3 times to pass his exit level TASP test in high school. Our school, at the time, made everyone take it as sophmores and if you passed, kudos. If not, you were remediated so as not to fail when it must be passed, namely as a senior. I took it as a sophmore and-Kudos. I never thought about it again. Eric, my little brother, took it and took it. I think it made him feel like a failure for years, schooling did, high stakes tests did. Sad thing is, he is smart. Even though college was hard, he worked his ass off and made it, in engineering! I mean really! But, he never did do well on tests, never did do well with high stakes and still today, despite owning his own business and graduating college, does he believe he is a good student, a good writer or a good thinker. It is so damaging to have such high stakes attaached to a test. It should not just be a test that makes the difference. Scary.

Is it possible that high stakes do in fact help keep standards and expectations high?

Beaches

In the movie Beaches, Bette Midler was with Barbara Hershey to the end. Barbara was lying on a chaise-lounge on the beach wearing an oxygen mask, because she was dying of congestive heart failure from cardiomyopathy (enlarged, weakened heart).

The audience heard Bette singing “Wind beneath My Wings,” and I’m sorry, but I cry every single time I see that scene! Water fountains burst from my eyes, and I can hardly breathe. I’m worse than Tammy Faye Baker.

But you know what? That’s how I want to die. I want to be a famous, world-altering professor and writer, on the beach typing my last article on my laptop. Just before I take my last breath, I will hit “send” to my unending world audience, and then Bette Midler will croon out, “A beautiful smile to hide the pain!” Yep, that's how I want to go.

Will I die from congestive heart failure? cancer? or just melancholia?

"Do you know what a snoodle scruff looks like?" asks Zoey.

"Here, I'll demonstrate for you."


AND JUST BECAUSE WE LOVE HER, BUT SHE HATES SCREEN TIME...I GIVE YOU MOUSER DOG! "HI THERE EVERYONE," MitzieMouse exclaims.

Blogging in a Faculty Senate Meeting?

IS it bad that I am sitting in a meeting (phone meeting) and blogging? Humm...nah-I call it making use of my time, managing time, being practical. Don't we want the people to multi-task, to be able to move in and between things effortlessly and practically?

So I am still struggling with a sore throat but taught today. Fluency was the name of the game. Specifically, how to calculate a child's fluency and what it does and does not tell us. I also taught this morning with Jackie. That class discussion was about the different models involved in the act and development of reading. I loved it, especially when a student started asking questions about cognition.

Now, I have eaten about 10 mini candy bars while sitting here-not good for my Bette diet. Okay very bad! I go back and forth on the idea of dieting. I mean, why can't I just accept myself for my size, stay healthy but be okay with my heavy nature? If I am not working on my eating in ways that help and instread spend most of my time upset at my lack of control, does it add to my life to be on a diet or does it hinder though self-hatred and guilt?

I am thinking about ravioli as we speak.

Some videos that make me laugh:

Kathy and Jesus

You probably remember the flap last September when Kathy Griffin won an Emmy for her cable-TV reality show, Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List. The award was presented at the Creative Arts Emmy awards. The program was taped and scheduled for broadcast the following week on the E! cable network. She pissed off a lot of people with her acceptance speech which went as follows:


"Now, a lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus. He didn’t help me a bit. If it was up to him, Cesar Milan would be up here with that damn dog. So all I can say is suck it, Jesus, this award is my god now!"

This caused enough of a stink that E! was forced to cut her acceptance speech out of the broadcast. Through some iron reasoning I think I can explain why Kathy Griffin is wrong and Jesus is actually to thank for her award:

And here’s the reasoning:

Jesus died on a cross 2,000 years ago. His dying words were, “Forgive them Father for they know not what they do.” He died and they buried him in a rock cut tomb. Three days later, as the Bible says, he rose from the dead. That day is what we Christians celebrate as Easter.

After the resurrection, Christianity began to take off like wildfire, spreading from the Middle East northward to Europe and westward into Ethiopia. Everyone seemed to like the story of the Zombie God. In 300 A.D. Emperor Constantine accepted Christianity and it became the religion of Europe wherein Rome took charge and became the epitome of Godliness, believing that the Zombie God had a profound understanding of people and in particular, that they don't know what the hell they are doing. In celebration of the rising of the wise Zombie God whose incredible thoughts such as, but not limited to, "They know not what they do," and "Yo soy Jesus," was celebrated with bunnies of chocolate to commemorate his favorite animal.

Well then. I hope that ‘shows‘ you. Some guy who may or may not have existed, was or was not executed on a cross (Muslims disagree with that one), and said one thing or another (depending on the gospel), and may or may not have been put behind a rock, then became a Zombie. A dead Roman thought highly of the Zombie Christ, but then things sucked, and Kathy Griffin beat the Dog Whisperer and so there you are. D’uh - Hello people, it’s crystal clear! The eating of chocolate bunnies in celebration of the Zombie God allowed the birth of joyful noises like the Emmy Awards therefore begetting Kathy Griffin. How Can’t you see it? She definitely owes a lot to Jesus...we all do.

The heathen is off to bed.

Once upon a time...

I was a researcher. I was savvy, smart, and incredibly tenacious. I worked hard for months on end and kept to a routine. So why is it when I look back at my dissertation, at my rigor, it seems like it was someone else? I read the words, feel the world I was in, as if it were yesterday and yet, it feels like an eternity ago, another lifetime, another body.

The job I have now, at the college I am currently working, does not really let me be a researcher. There is not a mentor to push me, not someone who is a researcher to work with. I am not sure that I am a teacher either. I am approached as a prophet, as if I have a code, a key that I can give to another and then they will also possess the power of the written word to be passed on to their children. I teach, but I dont think that it changes the ways these teachers will go about their jobs later. I try to balance high expectations with the need for spoon-feeding, knowing that most will not cross the river with me, they can't. They actually cannot even see there is a river. So, a teacher, I am not sure that I am. So, the very thing that I love about my job, the teaching, isn't really the same, or as rewarding as, teaching young children. While children come to school wanting to be engaged, wanting to learn interesting things, these students mostly want to be done as fast as possible. They take as many courses as possible and are upset when they cant get it all done. Yet, they don't make time for the work. I have figured out something important however: When a lifelong student is out of school, they want back in. When they are in school, they want out. I want to want to do my work. Does that make sense? I want to want to. I don't have that.

I am feeling better after that damn cold knocked me out for the entire weekend. I even missed out on having Logan come and play here. I hate that! My kid time is very important to me. So, he and Karen are coming by tomorrow for breakfast so I get a little bit of Logo time. I just adore him. I am about to go make some hot dogs in celebration of the Super Bowl.