The View From Here

It’s a tough world right now. Here’s how I know:

1. The mayor of the biggest city in my state, Michigan, has been dubbed the definition of a profane word by Esquire magazine for his alleged criminal activity and overall sliminess.

2. People are being shot to death. At church.

3. I was ecstatically thrilled when I saw gas selling at $3.82 a gallon this week.

4. A fifteen year old’s pregnancy has been celebrated on the cover of OK! magazine.

5. Reading the blogs of financial analysts is like reading the obituaries of America’s who’s who of the business world.

6. When a plane gets a gaping hole in its cargo compartment over the middle of the ocean, we have to rule out terrorism first.

But, then again, maybe it’s all in the perspective.

1. Thousands, if not more, teenagers will be foregoing the traditional summer vacation in favor of a get-away centered around improving a community through building houses, creating parks and dispensing food to the needy.

2. A postal carrier placed himself in harms way to save a baby this week by catching her when she was falling out of a window.

3. A New Jersey cab driver returned the 285-year-old Stradivari violin to its Grammy-nominated owner when he forgot the $4 million instrument in the back seat. The incredibly honest cabbie was then treated to a free, private concert for himself and all his cab-driving friends, about two hundred of them.

4. Because of increased production prospects, the price of rice will fall in Japan and worldwide, easing a hunger situation in the country that depends greatly on its harvest of the grain.

5. Even though the church-goer opened fire on members of a Knoxville congregation while they gathered to watch a children’s musical, a good citizen and church usher jumped in front of the gunman and took what would have been a devastating shot at the children. The usher was killed but also saved countless lives.

6. In a new report from Good Morning America, actress Kiera Knightley will not allow a movie studio to enhance her cleavage on movie posters promoting an upcoming flick, because she wants to promote a healthy body image and stand up for herself.

When all the dust has settled, it matters more which perspective you have at the end of the day than the news that you came across. The only way to ensure a good perspective is to be a part of the side that you want to promote. Enjoy good news more than the down-side of life? Be a good-news maker. As educators we already have a leg-up because we contribute to effecting lives everyday. Let’s make sure that we make good things happen, even if that means that we are swimming upstream all day.

The Power of Metaphors

The Power of Metaphors

Aside from researching for my senior thesis, I assisted Paul with his work on metaphors. Paul studies how metaphors can frame or shape our thought about certain issues. For instance consider the metaphor "crime is a wild beast preying on the city" vs. "crime is a virus infecting the city". Amazingly, when these metaphors are embedded in paragraphs about crime in a city, participants choose to solve the crime problem differently.

For the "wild beast" metaphor, people tend to look towards stopping crime through stricter enforcement of the law, adding more police, or harsher sentences for criminals.

For the "virus" metaphor, people tend to look towards the cause of the problem, and crime prevention. They suggest crime can be reduced through more community programs, and better education.

Amazingly these differences occur without the explicit awareness of the participant. In other words, participants do not know their conceptualization of the issue is affected by the metaphor.

Metaphors can serve as tools to help us understand new issues and are often extremely helpful. For example if I told you than an argument is like a building, you might realize that you need support for your ideas, and to make sure there is a strong fact base. This is obviously helpful, just as the crime metaphors are helpful; however, there are limitations to how much a metaphor can aid our understanding.

If policy makers believe that crime is a wild beast they will focus their attention on stopping crime rather than preventing it, and may neglect the prevention aspect. Furthermore, when crime is conceptualized within a particular metaphorical frame, it becomes difficult to argue against that conception because it makes sense to stop a wild beast. But prevent a wild beast attack isn't as natural a conclusion from the wild beast metaphor.

A real world example comes from Buffalo, New York, where a serial rapist was harassing the city. Police had a good description of the perpetrator, who had already committed several acts of rape. Was it their resposibility to prevent more rapes or catch the criminal? The two may seem one and the same; however, they are clearly different. The police chose to catch the criminal themselves, rather than release the perpetrator's picture to the public and educate them on how they could avoid further attacks. The rapist struck three more times before he was caught. A job well done?

Well the police had done their job, they had caught the criminal, but only after he attacked again. And it seems that society's definition of police "doing their job" isn't enough. The focus on stopping crime needs to be centered around prevention.

I know a person who teaches in the juvenile detention system in Los Angeles. She said that it costs $ 120,000 per year per student in LA county. She said that if only half of that money were spent on community development there were be fare less crime and the tax payers would get a break. And as a taxpayer, would you rather spend less money developing a community that will likely have a more positive impact on people's lives; or spend more money on a system of punishment? Do we want a proactive positive approach, or a response approach to the problem?

Two great articles that discuss this issue are:

George kelling - taking back the streets: http://www.city-journal.org/article01.php?aid=1428

Kotlowitz - blocking the transmission of violence: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/magazine/04health-t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine&oref=slogin

There will be more discussion on how metaphors shape our understanding of our world; how they can both enhance and hinder our ability to problem solve. Think about your life and what metaphors or concepts shape the way you think. Teachers are constantly using metaphors to teach students. I would love to know how people think about different issues, and I invite you all to think about how an alternative understanding could shape your opinion differently. I would also like to know of any teachers experience using metaphors in their classroom. Feel free to comment.

Also if you would like to know more about Paul's research email him at pthibod1@stanford.edu

A New Test

A big thanks to everyone who answered the poll… more on that next week!

For now, I digress to a few weeks ago when I was telling you about the preparations for my Michigan Teacher’s Basic Skills test. If you’ll remember I was a little frustrated to learn that a “basic” skill included the quadratic formula, Pythagorean Theorem and more mathematical tasks far beyond the reach of my puny art-centered, right-brained mind. These are all things that I have put out of my head in favor of reserving the space for things that I will use again in my lifetime: like an interactive, highly accurate map of my favorite store. (I swear that I could stock it in my sleep – wish someone would put that on a test!) Anyway, that’s all irrelevant to the bigger point that I am trying to make.

I showed up for the test a half hour before it started, at the first time that the doors were slated to be open to test-takers. To my complete surprise, about five hundred anxious testers were already in line ahead of me. I never imagined that I’d be testing with this many. We all filed through the doors, hearing again a warning (this was about the fifth time that we’d been told) to not bring a cellphone into the testing center. For those that had to park miles from their testing site and forgot to leave their phone in their car, people were on-hand at a special table that allowed them to check their phones. Then, we all filed into a hallway to begin looking up the classroom that corresponded with our testing identification number.

Then we waited.

Finally, eight o’clock and time for the test to begin when what should appear but a last-minute test-taker. He showed up, looking like he had a very rough night, still in his pajamas. His shirt was wrinkled, stained and with a vulgar saying too vile to mention. He slid into his seat with seconds to spare, only to finally figure out that he was in the wrong room. He left. But, in ten minutes he was back. He said that he couldn’t figure out the testing i.d. number/find your classroom system. Eventually, after disrupting us serious test-takers for about fifteen minutes, the administrator escorted him to the proper testing room.

More than an hour into the test we had another disruption. You guessed it… a cellphone rang. Not just any ring, but one of those rings that only cellphone owners with the most obnoxious taste in ringtones would pick. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. The girl was upset when the testing administrator told her that she would have to leave, forfeiting her test. She explained again and again that she didn’t know she couldn’t have a phone. Right. I wondered how anyone could be so dense. She didn’t even have the common sense to turn it off. Even most movie-goers are smarter than this.

This left me to wonder… isn’t it more important that you are a decent (non vulgarity-wearing) person that can follow basic directions (like not bringing in a banned item) than one who knows how to find the length of the side of a right triangle? In my own opinion, its common decency, honesty and basic consideration that are the foundations of a good teacher.

I wish there was a test for that. I bet some people would have to start studying today.

Altruism

I received this comment and thought I would share my response as I feel it can illuminate some of the issues presently affecting our thought.

Comment:
Your ideas about charity and communism are nice, however, as a psychology student, I'm a little surprised. Evolutionary psychology explains away what we view as altruism as evolutionarily advantageous. This is why communism doesn't work, man is not forward thinking enough to realize the benefits of true collectivism and will always try to take advantage of the siutation.

My response:
First let me discuss the merit of evolutionary psychology. I feel I share the view of many psychologists, when I say that evolutionary psychology, while informative, is not empirically testable today, which greatly weakens the arguments. To say something was advantageous a million years ago does not mean it is advantageous today, especially as our social environments are different. One way to create a strong argument for a specific behavior is to utilize different lines of evidence, thus creating a stronger claim. (Evolutionary evidence combined with biological evidence and social evidence paints a clearer picture than any of the individual lines alone.)

That being said, let me address your claim that there is no evidence for altruism as advantageous. First, studies of birds have shown that when a predator is attacking it is advantageous for a bird to call out to the others, even though it puts itself in more danger in the present situation. This is the idea of reciprocity.

One may argue that reciprocity is simple selfish behavior as well, but here they are mistaken. It is a collective behavior for the greater good of all. The bird who makes the warning call does so, because in the long run he will also receive warning calls. So the sacrifice an individual bird makes at one specific time actually pales in comparison to the benefit that bird will take in the long run, as it benefits from other warning calls.

Furthermore, biological evidence supports the argument that altruism is a heritable trait. In a study comparing identical twins to fraternal twins, Rushton et al. demonstrated that identical twins had a higher correlation of altruism (r = .50 males, .54 females) than fraternal twins (r = .23 males, . 26 females, .28 male/female pairs). This study controls for environmental cues as best any study can by comparing sets of twins. The fact that identical twins showed higher correlated behavior than fraternal gives further evidence that altruism is indeed heritable. Furthermore aggressiveness was correlated higher in identical than fraternal twins. For identical males the correlation was r = .33 and for fraternal males was less than half, r = .16. A common argument against the concept of altruism is that has no genetic foundation in the claims. Aggressiveness however can be accepted as genetic because it helped human ancestors survive in nature. This research does not claim, evolutionarily that altruism is more or less helpful than aggression and other ego related behavior. What it does demonstrate is that altruism is not simply a socialized behavior based on an individual’s guilt and distress due to situational and social norms. But in fact it shows altruism has a genetic base, and therefore influences human behavior.

I would also like to point out that even though we tend to explain much of human behavior in terms of self-interest this may actually be a self-fulfilling norm. Please read the Dale Miller's Norm of Self-interest, to which there is a link under the original article.

Lastly, I would like to pose a hypothetical to you. If a society was collective enough that free-riders and highly selfish people were ostracized, how much anti-group behavior would you expect? Much of our behavior is shaped by our relationships with others and whether or not our peers condone or reject the behavior. If this were true one could expect a similar pattern from humans, as was demonstrated by birds. This is exactly the case.

Fehr and Gachter performed a study with 240 college-age students and demonstrated altruistic punishment improves group performance, even when the long-term benefit for punishing an individual is zero. Half of the 240 students performed six punishment trials, followed by six no-punishment trials, while the other half performed the reverse order. Groups of four were formed and each participant received 20 monetary units (MU). With these MUs, a player could put it toward the benefit of the group for a return of 0.4MU, or keep the money. If each group member invested all of his MUs, the total reward per person was 12 MU (total 32 MU). Each investor was unaware of his or her group members. The participants submitted their decision simultaneously, then were informed of their group mates’ decisions. For the punishment condition, a player could decide to punish a group member based on a ten point scale. Each point cost the punisher 1 MU and the receiver 3 MU. To ensure the punishment was truly altruistic, group members changed in each trial, and no participants were with a similar group member more than once. So, a player who chooses to punish is not rewarded in any way. Punishment can only help future group members of the punished individual. So by individual sacrifice in the short-term, the group is helped in the long term. (This seems the opposite of what we see in America today: competition and little sacrifice in the short-run, and the long-term effects are disastrous. One example is our impact on the environment. Small sacrifices in the short-term, rather than no sacrifices, would make the job of reducing our impact on the climate much easier today)

I would like to conclude by saying I am glad you commented. I hope I have shed light on the lay presumptions of altruistic behavior and hope that we can alter the norm of self-interest. Recall, it is not that everyone must always sacrifice him/herself for the greater good. Only that we all must alter our behavior enough so that as a group we will all mutually benefit, more so, than if we are still constantly competing and undercutting one another. And remember your peers note how you act, so set a good example. Not only will you get in the habit of helping, but so may your friends too.

"American Blackout"

I just watched this documentary on voting in America and found is both heart wrenching and uplifting. It was so depressing seeing how many people were not allowed to vote, but the fact is that we can rectify the situation in 2008.

Any teacher out there who wants to hype up American democracy, let him/her watch this first. To borrow a phrase from the movie- we must stop believing in our American myth of democracy and must start promoting real democracy. Just because we claim we have a democracy doesn't make it so. If we can educate people about the trials people face, even today, when voting we can end our charade of democracy and again have real democracy.

American Blackout. Watch this before you vote.

What am I doing?

In addition to helping Paul with his work on metaphors (which will be discussed in a future blog when we get more results back), I have been preparing for my senior thesis in psychology. At Swarthmore, honors majors in psychology must complete a year long thesis. The thesis is extremely important piece of work. Not only is it important to graduate and when applying for graduate school, but it is the first real step towards a career in psychology.

That is really scary. The fact that a choice I make now, as a senior in college, will affect my career 10 years from now! If I choose a thesis in social psychology, I will likely need to apply to a social department. But what about cognitive psychology? What if I want to do that, but I did my thesis in social? What if I can’t get in to graduate school, because I chose the wrong discipline?

Maybe I am making too much of it---In fact, I know I am. After all, the thesis doesn’t really decide my career path, but it is weird to think that if I do change my area of interest, all the work will seem to have been for nothing. Well, you can see my fatalistic attitude seeping onto the page.

What I should actually be thinking is that I have the opportunity, my senior year, to explore an issue that I may never have the chance to learn about again; that I have the opportunity to broaden my research skills; and that I have my first real opportunity to sink my teeth into an idea and run with it.

But that is not the way I am thinking. It has been really hard for me to rationalize a thesis topic that doesn’t interest me, even though it may be a more practical topic, or may look good for graduate school. What is the point of toiling over a thesis for which I may be unmotivated? Like most of us, I feel I do my best work when I am motivated. Thus, I am searching for a topic, searching for a situation, in which I am motivated and can thrive.

So, what am I doing?

Well I have been reading a lot. Research on perspective taking, the concept of self-interest, and metaphors have all crossed my desk. At times I feel like I am reading in circles. At one moment I feel the perspective taking is definitely what I want to do, only to read another article on self-interest and subsequently have an intense desire to spend more time on that topic. I was trying to fit my thesis topic within a framework. I had the notion that I needed to choose a topic that is both doable and interesting. Though I did get inspired by the ideas I read, this inspiration was short-lived. Nothing I searched for stuck.

So I asked myself- What do I want to do? Regardless if it is practical, regardless if it will look good on an application. What motivates me? What do I think about when I am not working?

I decided to examine how our (the USA) economic structure affects our perceptions, assumptions, and behavior. How does our competitive structure influence our cooperative behavior. I have begun to read Marx and have found it invigorating. Not only am I motivated to do the ‘work’ but I feel I am learning information that will affect me for the rest of my life. To be fair, it is going to be a lot harder to create a psychology experiment out of what I am reading, because it is lies outside of the discipline. But I am not worried. I am learning and progressing, I am sure an idea will find me.

Even though I have at times gone in circles and I am not as far along as I would like to be on my thesis preparation, I do not feel negative about the path I have taken. And whatever path we take we must be honest with ourselves. Are we doing the things we want to do? Are we doing the things we planned to do? Will we be able to look back and say “I am glad I chose the profession I did?” It may seem rather utopian and idealistic, but why give up our ideas for a job, that we may not enjoy, may not fit our beliefs. In fact it may only pay the bills.

My advice: Don’t focus on a job that only pays the bills. Life is too short. It is not money we must grapple with. It is time. Money can be made and lost in a day. Time is limited. We cannot get more time, no matter what we do (at least not yet). So use your time to fulfill your goals, and change people’s lives.

Some may argue that money is a way to change lives. I do not dispute that this is possible. I only respond, who would you want your child to emulate: The man or woman who donates 10 million of his or her 100 million dollars? Or the man or woman who donates his or her time, his or her energy, and his or her life? It is our behavior, our actions that matter. It’s easy to donate money once you have it. But when all that one possesses is time and energy and he or she still chooses to give this up that, to me, is a more powerful decision.

Once again, I defend education. Here is a profession that is dynamic, fulfilling, and world changing. Do teachers do what they do for the money? It’s a choice to help and bring knowledge to others.

I hope my words have helped people in a similar spot grappling with the notion of a career versus an ideal. Choose the ideal. It will keep you upbeat, keep you happy, and your attitude and actions just may influence others to do the same. We don’t remember people who chose the easy route, we remember those who actions carried forth their beliefs.

A couple great things to read:

Dale Miller (1999)- The Norm of Self-interest
http://64.233.179.104/scholar?hl=en&lr=&client=firefox-a&q=cache:JzzRNxtpO6kJ:www.law.berkeley.edu/institutes/law_econ/workingpapers/PDFpapers/dtmiller.pdf+

Peter Singer – Marx: A very short introduction
http://www.amazon.com/Marx-Very-Short-Introduction-Introductions/dp/0192854054/ref=pd_bbs_9?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215753343&sr=8-9

Marx and Engels- The CommunistManifesto http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/classics/manifesto.html

Don't Forget to Laugh... and VOTE!!!

Vote - and take a minute to find the funny side of the not-so-funny economic times!

Check out our on-going poll on the upper right-hand corner of the Education blog and give us your feedback!

The power of the situation

First, I want to mention Rachel's poll about year long school. Give your opinion. Personally, I think kids need a summer. I need a summer. How else would I have gotten to California to learn a lot and have a blast. I hope she can recharge for the upcoming year, I am sure all those classes and work this summer will pay off.

The power of the situation

If there is one thing I have learned in psychology it is that the situation has immense power over our feelings and actions. This summer I decided to live with a family rather than individually in an apartment. I put myself in a situation where I knew I would have an interesting experience.

Sure, I was nervous, but I people tend to underestimate their ability to adapt and therefore do not take the chance and seek out the experiences that can prove so important. So my advice is to put yourself in an interesting, perhaps not always comfortable, situation that will only lead to personal growth.

Amanda’s experience is a prime example. TFA is selective, rigorous, and extremely challenging. Yet, each week we get a taste of all the benefits that Amanda reached simply by placing herself in an interesting and challenging situation.

Needless to say I have learned a great deal while in California. I expected to learn from my internship but being able to gain knowledge outside of work has been just as much as worthwhile as what I have gained from my job. I want to share my past week, which was both unexpected and amazing.

So my California mom as I call, Christina, in whose home I am staying, invited her friend and co-worker Shiho to stay in the home, for a week as she met with the California office. Shiho flew in from the Tokyo office and I met her on a Friday, and on Saturday we travelled into San Francisco with our bikes, with our goal to cycle from San Fran to Sausalito, across the Golden Gate Bridge. Kind of a big trip when you’ve known someone less than 24 hours.

Once again I didn’t know what was going to happen, but why not go for it. We had a great time. But the Golden Gate Bridge was freezing! Weird, but that is San Francisco weather for you. Mark Twain once said, “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.” Well the weather was definitely weird for the end of June. After our lunch in the beautiful town of Sausalito we took the ferry across the bay, passed Alcatraz, got off, and made our way to Lombard Street.

We finally made it up a side street, a very very steep side street, and came to the top of Lombard. Shiho really wanted to bike down Lombard Street, but it’s not really allowed. But she came all the way from Tokyo, and the policeman wasn’t looking, so we went for it. The picture of Lombard Street doesn’t do the street’s incline justice. It is a solid block of clutching your breaks and hoping they don’t give out and you slam into someone’s car door. Well we made it and continued along the boardwalk back to the train station where we made our way home to Palo Alto.

Photo source: http://www.visitingdc.com/san-francisco/lombard-street-picture.asp

Next weekend was another adventure. We kayaked in a slough near Monterey, where there were otters, and sea lions in the water with our Kayaks. It was amazing. Our guide was a marine bio major and filled us in with loads of knowledge about the slough and the ecosystem. After that adventure, we made our way to Cannery Row and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Wow. The aquarium is amazing, and the fish very beautiful. As we made our way through the various exhibits, Shiho made sure to tell me which fish were “tasty.” A bit off color, but hilarious. Imagine a petite, sweet, Japanese woman telling you she wants to “cuddle that tuna” because it is so beautiful. If anyone has ever heard someone say “I want to cuddle that tuna” please let me know because this person should meet Shiho.

After shopping a bit in Monterey, we stopped at a bar and joked and laughed until I the designated driver, reminded Christina and Shiho that Shiho had a flight in the morning and we had a one and half hour drive back home.

All this experience was unexpected, but it all stemmed from picking a situation that could only be interesting. I could have stayed home, but then I would have missed learning various Japanese words like kampai (cheers), arigato (thank you), and ita daki mas (about to receive- not a great translation, but you say it before you eat). I would have missed out learning about Christina’s family in the Philippines and Chile. We discussed how time is conceptualized in Japan versus the US. It was great and words don’t give the warmth I felt from my experience over this week.

We often think we can control the situation, but as psychology will teach you: we can’t. So pick a situation where you can grow and learn. Pick a situation where you are unsure what might happen, and perhaps you will find wonderfully unexpected events waiting for you.

SO Crazy!

Hello everyone! It's been a little while since I have posted, but that's because my summer teaching Institute is CRAZY! For those of you just tuning into my life right now, last week I finished Teach For America's Induction in Los Angeles. Our week was a series of content sessions, talks, guest speakers, and programmed social events. An example schedule of a typical Induction day looked like this:

7:30-8:00 Breakfast
8:00-10:15 Content Session: What is the Achievement Gap in America?
10:15-10:30 Break
10:30-12:00 Content Session: Stewardship in the Movement
12:00-1:00 Lunch with your Content Session Group
1:00-4:15 Diversity Session: Culture and Cultural Schisms
4:15-4:30 Break
4:30-5:30 Corps Value Club #5: Integrity
5:30-6:30 Dinner with your Corps Value Club Members
6:30-7:30 Guest Speaker: Los Angeles Culture
7:30-10:00 Social: Lucky Strike Bowling

Doesn't it sound like every day was very planned? You have no idea. Induction was nothing compared to Institute. Let me back up a little. Some important things about Induction need to be addressed. First of all, the people. I have never in my life met so many accomplished, intelligent, genuinely nice, compassionate and well-rounded people. Everyone here (for the most part) seems to have their heart in the right place. Although there are definitely discussions and debates around every corner, people really want to get to the bottom of deep issues, particularly involving education, policy, and achievement. I get along with just about everyone I meet, and it's amazing to be somewhere going through something so specific with others. It would be like college if you were taking all the same classes with the same people all day and it was for a specific profession where many of you would be working together. "Tight knit" doesn't even come close to describing it.

Ok, now let's talk about Institute. Institute started this past Monday. This is what the schedule for Insitute looks like:

4:30-5:30 Go for a morning run (if you're me)
5:30-6:00 Get up, shower, run and eat breakfast if you have time (not if you're me)
6:00-6:30 Grab a "to-go" lunch (or two, if you're me and did not eat breakfast) and get on a bus
6:30-7:00 Bus ride to the school at which you will be teaching during the summer
7:00-7:15 Sign-in at your school and find the room you are supposed to be in
7:15-7:35 Corps Member Advisor Meeting: Discuss your learning objectives for the day
7:35-7:40 Transition time
7:45-9:15 Curriculum Session: Five-Step Lesson Planning
9:15-9:20 Transition time
9:20-10:50 Literacy Session: Literacy and the Achievement Gap
10:50-10:55 Transition time
11:00-12:30 Curriculum Session: Rules and Consequences in the Classroom
12:30-1:00 Lunch (but actually work with your collaborative group on lesson plans for the upcoming week)
1:00-2:30 Collaborative Group Session: Basic Planning Principles
2:30-2:35 Transition time
2:35-4:05 Curriculum Session: Classroom Management
4:05-4:20 Message from School Director
4:20-5:00 Bus ride back to school
5:00-5:30 Personal time
5:30-6:30 Dinner
7:00-9:00 Resource room time/random activity to encourage us to work together to plan lessons and collaborate

Micromanagement, anyone? It's a crazy schedule. But I am learning so much! I start teaching with the other three members of my "collab" or Collaborative Group next Monday. Basically what that means is that the four of us are teaching a summer school class by ourselves. Each of us "lead teach" for one hour a day. We're teaching Algebra 1 to a class of mainly eighth graders who are hoping to move along to the ninth grade. Many of them have already taken Algebra and failed, so we have our work cut out for us. We will have a faculty advisor who will sit in on every class we teach and observe us, but will not be allowed to speak during any classes. They'll help by providing us with reviews and feedback. I heard that sometimes the criticism gets pretty intense. Well, I should probably go and finish planning my lesson for Tuesday. My objective is to teach students to "combine like terms in an algebraic expression using the distributive property." Good times.

In the Good Ole Summertime

I envy my co-bloggers this semester, and for more reason than one. First, they are both part of fascinating programs, working to further their studies through incredible internships. If you aren’t reading their posts, you’re really missing out because they are detailing their experiences for you, the reader! Second, they are working, and therefore not in school, like me. That’s right, I’ve signed up for the dreaded spring and summer semesters where lengthy lectures fill sunny afternoons better fit for poolside than the classroom.

I am sure that in the long run, I’ll be happy with my decision to accelerate my school schedule and possibly graduate ahead of my anticipated date. At least that’s what I keep telling myself.
For now though, it’s not so great. Come September all of my friends will be returning to class tan and refreshed, excited to learn again. I, on the other hand, am really feeling the toll of all of this work. When I return to campus in the fall I’ll be fried alright, but it won’t be because I sat in the sun for too long. Instead it will be because my brain never got a rest.

This raised some questions in my weary mind. Elementary, middle and high schools across the nation are contemplating a new year-round schedule, as they have been for some time. Sure this set-up would have a few week or longer vacations thrown into it, but gone will be the lazy summer days. Proponents of the new system say that students loose too much of the information they worked so hard to learn while they are on a three-month hiatus. While discussing this with some friends the other day they raised an interesting point by saying that we really aren’t preparing our kids for life after school where there is no extended summer vacation. Others, like me, say that there is much to be learned outside of the classroom – either at home or through internships such as Evan’s and Amanda’s or those offered by Experience.

So, now it’s your turn. Talk back. Give your opinion. Let me know what you think by answering the poll (top right), leaving a comment or both.