You have got to be kidding...

Yes, testing has become a serious issue in education at all levels, but I didn't realize that it had trickled down to the lowest levels until reading this article from the NY Times today. Apparently there are kindergarten students who are not getting the chance to engage in play during the day because they are being bombarded by academics and testing instead. Now I know that this is an extreme example of one charter school but it is not as far off as you would think. What happens when students are encouraged to be passive learners? All kinds of things and it really bothers me that this is considered okay by a lot of people. We already know that NCLB is causing more problems than it is solving when it comes to the achievement gap. Students aren't learning why a math problem works the way it works or why it is important to question what you read for example. Instead they are just told to do the problem and fill in the bubbles in a pursuit for the right answer. I've started to notice that in teaching fycomp students seem uncomfortable with the idea of thinking for themselves in the classroom and it's not necessarily something they have control over. If they've never been asked to express an opinion or to question why of course they are going to have difficulty when they get to the college classroom. I don't know....it's a difficult situation but it is one that has to be dealt with sooner rather than later. I mean come on, when your five year old son or daughter comes home and needs help with a homework assignment that you can't help him or her with something's got to change.

Trying to keep up with the posts

So I haven't posted anything since Thursday of last week so I figured I had to write something to keep up with my blog. I think that without touching bases with it I will probably lose touch altogether and that would defeat the whole purpose of keeping a blog. Yes there are probably some who feel that only thoughts on specifics are worthy to be blogged....well I think in this case I'm going to say I'm not one of those people. I've thought about things since I last blogged but not actually felt the need to record them. On second thought, maybe I am one of those people. And another thing is that I'm still a little unsure about divulging every part of me online because it is open to everyone and anyone could just stumble across it and read it. Not saying that I'm especially offensive, but there are times when I feel the need to express every emotion and thought in my head. Perhaps this is why blogs can't completely take the place of personal diaries. Maybe that's not the intention though. I kind of like having my private journal even though it is a result of the ancient technology of handwriting, which seems to be more and more ancient every day. Do they still teach kids cursive in elementary school? I know that I had to learn cursive but I can't remember how to write it very quickly or with beautiful penmanship like my mother's for example. Part of me wishes I could, but who would I write? It takes so long to get a letter to someone outside the state and those who I would bother to handwrite letters to are out of state. I wonder if anyone else thinks of these things or if it's my grandmother's insistence on the personable nature of handwritten letters that has led me down this contemplative path.

Windward Reports: Cubicle War 2006

I had to add this after my comment on cubicles yesterday

Who Invented Cubicles?

Procrastinating at job that is my first where I have had to work in isolation...oh I mean a cubicle...I have stumbled across an online article about the punk who invented these makeshift offices. Thank you Bob Propst for making the office experience one that all cubicle workers look forward to each day. Okay well maybe I'm being a little harsh....because he did have good intentions for improving the work environment when he came up with this brilliant plan. I figure Propst is like a modern day Dr. Frankenstein, a good-hearted man with one less marble and probably had no foresight to realize that his creation would unleash a fury over the unsuspecting townspeople. I suppose there is hope though...there have been efforts to change the workplace but like the author of the article I don't think they will be able to change the "telecommuting" that is becoming more and more prevalent.

I love the idea of working outside of work which is why I love the flexibility of working in academia. With the exception of holding office hours, I can basically do my work where I want and feel better doing it at the same time. Why not have people work where they feel comfortable? Are supervisors worried that nothing will get done unless their employees work under their watchful eyes periodically? Personally, I get less work done when I feel like someone is breathing down my neck all the time. Or, I actually find ways to make duties take longer so that I always look like I'm working. The point is....I'm all for "telecommuting" and working to live, not just living to work.

Books I Want to Read

The Mighty and the Almighty - Madeleine Albright
The K Street Gang - Michael Continetti
America - Jon Stewart (there's actually at teacher's edition too)
Blink
A World of Imponderables - David Feldman
Pink Think - Lynn Peril

Nickelback in concert

I'm still speechless from the the concert Saturday and I don't think it's just from screaming so loud, though I didn't expect my voice to still be hoarse today. I've never been a big concert-goer but holy crap I've never been to a concert like this before and that's probably why. The pyrotechnics were out of control and I was so into every song that I didn't even notice that the girl standing next to me was tapping me for probably 5 minutes before I moved to let her out of the aisle. I came away loving Nickelback even more and actually finding a few songs from Three Days Grace pretty cool too. They sure as hell better go on tour every year because I'm there!

Shitty Jobs

Sitting at work today I've had plenty of time to think about work....not actually working but thinking about working. To me there are two main categories of horrid jobs: 1) summer jobs and 2) lifelong jobs. These two categories exist separate from what is labeled as the career category because that is a whole other story in itself. I think everyone has had their share of jobs they disliked and dreaded during the summer months in between semesters of college to pay the bills or just to have something to do. In my case it has been to scrape by paying the bills by doing the summer jobs that no one wants to do in the summer or any other time of the year. This brings me to my first temp job.

After several summers spent working in restaurants, retail, and a few stints lifeguarding and painting houses I wanted a 9-5 job with no weekends or holidays. I also didn't want to have to find someone to replace my shift if I wanted time off. Well, now that I've pursued my first summer office job I've realized that it doesn't matter the location....it's still a rarity to find a non-shitty summer job. Hmmm.....maybe I should just give in and accept that fact. I guess it all comes down to the fact that I'm ready to have my career already. Now that I know what I want to do with my life I don't want to waste my time with jobs to pass the time before I get my final degree. I guess I have to look on the bright side though.....at least I have about 20 jobs I know I don't want to ever have again....and I know that without those jobs I would never really appreciate what I have decided to do as a career.

The Supernatural......is the truth really out there?

I'm not really big into believing in the supernatural because I'm a skeptic. When people tell me stories of seeing strange phenomena I usually just nod my head and smile, but I don't really understand because it's never something that's really happened to me personally. Well, yesterday was my first coherent contact with the beyond. I say "coherent" because I wasn't waking from a dream or in a dreamlike state....it happened clear in the middle of me enjoying my first bidding experience on EBay. Hmmm.....now that I think about it the great shopping experience might have caused a euphoric experience that perhaps clouded my skeptical mind for only a moment. Or, maybe not. In any case, yesterday I had my first real-life experience with a spirit from the beyond.

I suppose it was a run-of-the-mill experience of walking in on a ghost channel surfing in your friend's apartment. How rude! And by the way I don't think this particular spirit had a very long attention span because the channels were changing almost every 2 seconds. My friend thinks its a woman but after the channel surfing experience I'm convinced it has to be a man. I bring this up because the experience has brought up several new ideas about what happens to us when we leave the world of the living and why we may or may not pass to where we are supposed to end up. Let's just say that I hope I don't end up caught in the middle channel surfing in some college chick's room when all that is on is re-runs of reality t.v.