The Treachery of Words

2009-04-18T12:09:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-07-26T08:10:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-15T12:37:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-03-10T15:36:00.000-08:00

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

2007-02-05T08:12:00.000-08:00

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...

2006-12-27T15:40:00.000-08:00

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

The Real Meaning of Christmas

2006-12-26T13:22:00.000-08:00

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.

Later Afternoon Christmas

2006-12-25T19:55:00.000-08:00

The whole gang arrived at about 1PM. We ate guacamole and chips and salsa (pictured above), then opened presents.

Then we ate. There was:

One large tray of green chile and chicken enchiladas, one large tray of chicken enchiladas with red sauce, and a tray of chicken taquitos.

One whole ham.

One pineapple upside down cake, two pumpkin pies, and one apple pie.

More than 100 cookies.

Coffee (to ward off the nighty-night syndrome brought on by eating all that food).

Aftermath, part 1

2006-12-25T12:56:00.000-08:00

Christmas morning

2006-12-25T11:55:00.000-08:00

We got up late (8AM) because James had a hard time getting to bed. Ricky arrived shortly after.

Adrienne baked and cooked and cooked and cooked 'til after midnight last night. (I forgot to pick up the tamales from the restaurant so from 4:30PM yesterday we had to make a new plan for food.)

We put the local "Yule Log" channel on, and opened presents while I fed the first real fire we have had in our fire place. We had dueling Yule logs.

I put the ham in the oven at 10:30AM at 325 degrees on tin foil with nothing covering it. The package says 15 min per pound. I have no idea if I am doing it right. Luckily Adrienne made enchiladas and taquitos and pineapple upside down cake and and and...

Yukon Cornelius is my hero

2006-12-24T22:10:00.000-08:00

Yukon Cornelius: We'll have to outwit the fiend with our superior intelligence.
Rudolph: How?
Yukon Cornelius: Douse your nose and run like crazy!

The day before the day before Christmas

2006-12-24T19:27:00.000-08:00

Today, James and I played catch in the backyard. He actually catches now; he used to just bat the ball in the air and laugh as it fell. I think I will miss that.

We play almost every day since I have been on break. He assigns me a name when we play. I have been named "Struggles" and "Baby Paradise." Today I am "Kayak."

James, who also named himself "Kayak," stopped me to look at a spider climbing on his miniature basketball hoop, stopped me to look at the berry stem he found (what kind of berry is that, anyway?) and came in to show me a bee hovering over a flower. We watched the bee buzz from blossom to blossom.

Strange that three days ago James and I romped in the snow not an hour from here...

<------It took five stores to find boots.