I am not in a movie, because if I were, someone would have already drawn an arc for my character. The arc would make sense, even if it didn't make sense. It would throw light onto the human condition or elevate a point of view to a movement. My day would not be filled with directionless meandering, fulfilling urgent duties at one moment, trying to find peace in others, but mostly just wondering why the hell I can't see an arc.

In the course of teaching high school, I have noticed that there are persistent underground myths circulated by students. Some of them are urban legends found at http://www.snopes.com/, like trying to protest gas prices with a one-day boycott. Some are more insidious.

I am taking on one myth that has major implications for the standardized test scores that form the basis for judging school progress. (Is that a good lead? Do you want to know more?)

Here it is: many students truly believe that "c" is the most likely choice for a correct answer on a multiple choice test. All of the California state standardized tests are multiple choice. These students know the stakes of these tests, and they are looking for any chance to improve their score. Choosing "c" has become a viable test-taking strategy.

Even after I remind them that standardized tests have multiple versions generated by computers which randomize answer order, a lot cannot let go of the hope for an easy answer.

This is a powerful reason to reconsider how tests are designed and administered. The only real way to assess students' mastery of a concept is with multi-modal aseessments.

There, I will step off the soapbox now.

Sumer is i-cumin in

All right, Summer is already here - but since "Sumer" came since I last wrote, I thought I would reference the song.

Blogging requires me to think of my audience, so who are you? I may have already lost you with a slow start and centuries-old musical reference, or you may be intrigued by my esoteric musical sensibility.

Or you are a relative and you know that I sang madrigals as a youngster and so they bounce occasionally through the cavern of my memory and echo out of my brain.?

Anyway, who are you? Are you lurking? Are you even there? And why do I care?

I'm published!

I received the author's copies of my article, published in an honest-to-goodness scholarly journal (it has an ISSN and everything).

I am really excited.

English anomalies

Sometimes, in the middle of working with high school students, a teacher can start to pass over things that are quite unusual. Here are some innovative uses of the English language that I have seen recently:

• Two students arguing about whether "wait" should have an "e" at the end of it.
• Congradulations (at least ten times).
• Secede used for succeed ("I know you will secede at everything you do").

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Oh, what the heck, at our elevation in Southern California, this is a snow drift.

The Real Meaning of Christmas

Our megastore Christmas tree has been shedding needles since the day we brought it home, so in the interest of fire safety (and frustration removal), the boys are disassembling it on the front lawn.