Freaky Insight into Training Seminar Incident

I just realized something strange about an incident that occurred during the training seminar. We had to partner up with others to present one section of the training using information that was given to us (like a jigsaw classroom). Our section was on the way nonverbal communication affects others. So we did role playing in which I was the principal and my partner was the student who was being reprimanded. In one scenario, the student rolls her eyes, crosses her arms, and looks away, indicating defiance. In the other scenario, the student looks directly at the principal, arms to the side, head nodding, indicating she's willing to listen. The rest of the groups had specific issues with the scenarios because they thought the second scenario would only indicate the student was playing the principal for a fool and just trying to get away with the behavior. Then another person said he would feel more comfortable if the student had slouched and held eyes downward, indicating remorse and submissiveness.

First, I'm a little taken aback that the other people would make such immediate and negative assumptions about students' motivations for behavior. We should be able to give students the benefit of the doubt and not emotionally respond to students ourselves before taking the information from both sides into consideration. Second, the preference for a submissive student also disturbs me. The whole premise of the program is to get people to stop reacting to their emotions, and begin utilizing higher level reasoning in response to situations. A submissive student is operating on fear of punishment, not rationality. The student we had depicted in the second scenario had obtained control of her emotions and was ready to listen and rationally discuss the incident. I think the reason the adults were so unwilling to consider that scenario was that they typically create situations in which guilt is immediately assumed, and students are not treated with enough respect to allow them give their side of the story or at least try to reason with the adult on a relatively equal playing field. Instead, they remain in the seat of power, and students' only recourse is to act defiantly or submissively. I'm sure the adults would benefit from this program themselves if only they realized that their response operated on emotions rather than rationality as well.

Training Seminar and Antiques

Today I attended the BrainWise training seminar. Overall, it was a great experience and I made contacts with some people I might do research with. Well, in my perception it was good, but I do not always accurately perceive how I come across to others. I may think that the interaction went well, but they may actually think that I am shy, unassuming, and extremely young (and potentially socially inept, but I prefer not to entertain that thought). The two ladies that I might work with both appear to be very productive and pleasant, which is quite the opposite of my coworkers in my previous job (but, we won't dwell on that either). So this is bodes well for my future collaborations.

Afterwards, I browsed in a nearby antique shop. I looove antiques. I found a beautiful vintage wedding dress that I would love to add to my collection of vintage dresses. I also found a side table that perfectly matches the style of my other two side tables. I hope I can afford to buy it soon. I think it is too perfect an opportunity to pass up. All in all, I purchased three very old books. Ever since I acquired a collection of psychology books from the 40s and 50s, I've developed an obsession with old books. It took every ounce of will power I had to keep myself from buying all the old books I saw (well, that and lack of funds). But I hope to one day own a large collection of old books. Their worn spines and gold letterings are so beautiful, and I think that the book from 1905 will be an interesting read. And the fact that I hold a one hundred-year-old book in my hand, penned by an author who lived in a time so different from my own, gives me a sense of awe. The permanency of writing, the desire for expression, the sharing of one's mind and soul through print on page, however aged, is glorious. I wish to know them through their writing, to glimpse the past; it is no different from peeking into a portion of peoples' lives through their blogs.

Then I went to a Scandinavian Furniture shop. The furniture was a stark contrast to the antiques, but I thought they were just as beautiful. I wish I had tens of thousands of dollars to throw away at these stores! Le Sigh! Oh, the agony of not having the means to fulfill my desires for immediate gratification! Oh, well, once again I must wait, but I sometimes find that waiting eventually equates to a missed opportunity. But, perhaps that will not be the case this time.

So Christmas has come and gone

This has been an unusual Christmas. My brother and sister-in-law could not come visit since they had been here a couple of months ago, and they don't live close enough to visit freely. So I was the only one to travel to stay with the family. I don't believe my sister counts; she's returned from college, and staying in her own room for the duration of the break, but we hardly ever see her since she spends most of her time with her friends and boyfriend.

The whole family is growing up and now we have a new generation of children to rush to the presents on Christmas morning. The five-year-old and three-year-old were very eager and my little sister had to monitor the gifts since the three-year-old was trying to rip open any gift in front of her regardless of whether or not the gift was for her or somebody else. It was cute, but a little disturbing to my little sister.

Tomorrow, I am participating in a training seminar for the BrainWise program for teaching problem-solving skills to at-risk children. I am not actually going to teach the program myself, but I need to know how the program works in order to plan reading assessements for the children involved in the program. I'm going to test whether BrainWise actually has an impact on the reading comprehension abilities of the children, even though the program is more geared toward behavioral intervention than reading instruction.

The Portrait of a Lady

I emerged from my weeklong babysitting experience relatively unscathed, but for a slight cold and a flu earlier last the week. I love those kids, but by the end of the week I could only manage to stare blankly at the TV for hours on end. So when I returned home I attempted to recuperate by doing what I haven't done in years. I read a book. (What! You say? It's been that long since I've read a book?!) Yes, I must confess that reading is my addiction and in order to finish my master's degree two years ago, I gave up reading whatever wasn't academically necessary (including TV watching). If I attempt to read a book or watch TV, I lose all control of my will and become immersed in the activity until completion (unfortunately for TV watching, there is never completion, hence my lack of cable). But, I have replaced book reading with internet reading. Four hours can go by as I devour article after article without realizing the passage of time. But, nooo! I can't give up the internet. Must. Control. Urge. To. Read. Nonstop. (At the expense of my school work, anyways.)

And now we get to the point of my entry. Now that the semester is over I feel free to let my mind turn to mush in front of my sister's huge TV (remember, I have no cable), and allow myself to read a book for pleasure. My choice of pleasant reading material? The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. I have never been so emotionally torn apart by a book in my life. I have never felt so passionately ambivalent! I love this book, yet if a book could wrench my heart from its chest and mash it to a pulp, this one was certainly capable of it.

First, I begin with why I like this book so much. Henry James is truly masterful with the romantic content. Never, has any modern romance novel so totally captured my own inner thought life and fantasies. It is like Henry James knew exactly the scope of my imagination for what constitutes a fabulous heroine and her interludes with scorned lovers. He must have traveled into the future to observe my thoughts and then used said thoughts as a template for writing many small episodes within his book. In particular, I loved how often James had placed his heroine alone in some remote scene, only to be surprised by the appearance of one or another of her scorned lovers, and thusly ensues a passion-filled interlude during which her suitor pleads for her heart and the heroine valiantly begs to be let alone. Another of my favorites is when two or more of her lovers meet each other, followed by much tension-filled moments. Some of the confrontations and betrayals between the women, too, are amazing to behold. I predicted many of the smaller and larger plot twists and yet relished them just the same; they suited me so well. It is almost as if I had written this book myself.

Now I turn to the reason(s) I disliked this book so much. I can’t believe the choices made by the heroine, Isabel Archer. It is like she is capricious with her decisions in love. For apparently no good reason she refuses two perfectly good suitors who show absolute devotion for her. She claims she likes her liberty too much and has lofty ideals that include seeing the world and life and people and freedom to live is one pleases. But then she chooses to marry anyways to a man whose character was divined by many of her friends to be unworthy and so opposite her own, yet she pridefully refuses to accept it. And yet each time she is approached by any male wishing to express adoration for her, she recoils in fear. I believe the only reason that she did not refuse her final choice was his lack of passion when he made his declaration of love and that there were absolutely no strings attached. In the only scene in which he declares his love, he does not ask her to marry him, he simply puts it out there and she doesn’t need to respond, otherwise she would have freaked out like all the previous sessions with other men. In fact, Henry James does not even write in the scene in which she would have accepted, but moves right to the moments in which she is making plans to reveal the news to others. Perhaps it was for the surprise effect, but I don’t think James would have known how to write an acceptance scene. From what we have learned of her, it is completely out of her character to consent to marriage, especially considering this deep seated fear of men capable of acting with uncontrollable passion towards her, a passion which for her may signify a sense of possession and lack of freedom. And yet it is wondrous that she walks bold-faced and open-eyed into the worst and only cage of them all.

In the end, she is presented with a manner of escape through one of her dedicated suitors, only to refuse once again and instead, return to her living hell of a marriage which could last another 20 or 30 years of her life.

That and I bawled uncontrollably when Ralph died. In a forward to the book, the author concluded that Ralph was a representation of Henry James himself. Perhaps that was why I liked Ralph so much. James and I appear to be on the same wavelength. Plus, Ralph had the uncanny ability to read people and surmise what is going on beneath the surface, which is a skill I greatly admire.

Well, now I’m going to need to recuperate from reading this book.

Literacy and Thought

I stumbled upon an interesting concept while I was researching articles for my paper last week. I had planned to write my paper on cognitive theories of reading comprehension and cognitive apprenticeship models of instruction. It is a fairly well-understood and recognized idea that cognitive processes underlie reading comprehension. Various processes such as working memory and reasoning are required to engage in subskills of comprehension like drawing inferences, finding the main idea, summarizing, generalizing, anything that constructs meaning from text.

I was all set to focus on the cognitive perspective when I discovered a rather strange idea, one which was hotly debated in the 80s, but has fallen into disrepute. But, I decided to resurrect the idea and even make it my thesis; that is how enamored I was of this idea. Basically, the concept is that the relationship between reading and cognition is reciprocal. I switch now to the terms that the authors used, basically, literacy impacts thought. The more we read, the more prepared we become to think critically and scientifically. The more exposed we are the discussion of text, the more we develop tools of thought. Tools that allow us to move from concrete to abstract thinking. Tools that bring us to the point of academic, scientific reasoning, the pinnacle of formal thought, as Piaget described.

I was blown away by such an idea. Indeed, what an amazing concept. Then I found indirect evidence in the form of the effectiveness of the cognitive apprentice models of reading comprehension instruction. The core premise is to approach instruction in a combined format, using explicit instruction of reading comprehension strategies within a discussion group setting, either teacher with one student or peer tutoring. The teacher discusses the passages in such a way as to make the thought processes necessary for comprehension available to the student. Then discussion further develops said thinking processes in the child, as the teacher models the thinking and encourages the student to partake of such thinking until able to do so on her own. There is substantial evidence that this technique increases the children’s reading comprehension scores.

As children are in the process of becoming literate, their ability to think qualitatively changes. Would that not be a fascinating question to study? As cognition allows for literacy, does literacy in turn allow for more sophisticated modes of thought? This warrants further investigation.

Side Note: I’m not suggesting that illiterate people cannot attain higher level thinking, but that literacy in one way through which one can attain higher level thinking.

Saturday Let-Down

Ahh...slept in until 12pm and stayed in bed even though I was fully awake, just to lay there and think, forever thinking, that's what I'm constantly doing. Either that or being fully absorbed by what I'm reading on the internet.

It is such a relief to have the week over, but now I feel so purposeless. No lecture notes to write. No classes to attend. No classes to teach. No grad students to talk to. I want to go back to school! Pathetic? Yes, and no. Not if you realize this is my passion. Suspended passion for a month.

I'll be seeing my family next week. Actually, I'm going to help babysit my niece and nephew for a week. After the first day of full-on energy onslaught, I get used to it. I live alone, so having kids around constantly is a bit of a shock. But, I always find that when I return to my solitude, I am a little at a loss for what to do with myself.

So it will be a nice change of pace.

Yes! I made it through finals week!

You laugh, but finals week for graduates can get infinitely worse than for undergraduates. They just have to study for piddley multiple-choice tests; we have to write gigantic manifestos. (Well, okay, maybe not that bad, but still...) I finished my paper and emailed it at exactly 5:13pm to my prof. I'm sure that he doesn't mind. He didn't say aaannnything about a deadline. Then I sent off my other final project (which I had been leaving for last, because papers are worse) to my other prof at precisely 7:23. He didn't say anything about a deadline either. So considering its Friday of finals week, they've got plenty of time to grade those assignments by the time grades are due next Wednesday. Which reminds me, I'd better record grades for my students before they are due, too.

There is one thing I discovered about myself this week, no maybe two. Once a procrastinator, always a procrastinator. I thought I had remediated myself from this horrible disease, but nooo... And secondly, I can't pull all-nighters anymore. I'm too old. This is hard to take. I once pulled two all nighters in a row. But, now...I just can't do it. I have to sleep or I'll just faceplant on my laptop and snooze. I've wasted two years of my life by not pursuing higher education (you gasp at my warped reasoning) and now that I'm back, I'm too old to pull all nighters. I'm disturbed, I'm not as lack-of-sleep savvy as I used to be. Man, I don't know how I'm going to make it though the next 4 years.

Last contact with students

I gave the final to my students today. It was an 8am final, which undoubtedly leads to 10% of the class failing to show up on time. Two students were at least 30 minutes late. One of them fell alseep while studying last night and woke up late. I can commiserate. I once fell asleep studying for a test. Oh, this is almost too painful to relate. My roommate came in at 3am and asked me what I was doing. I rose from my prone position on the couch and proclaimed that I was studying. Lucky for me she woke me up, or I might have slept through my test, too.

I'm really going to miss my students. I got home today and a fit of moroseness fell upon me (occasionally, I experience emotions without knowing why). After some time, I figured out that I must be responding to the fact that I'll no longer have weekly contact with my students. No more of the same faces every other day. Four of my students came to my office over the course of the day (I specifically invited students to come see me if they wanted to know their grade). I so enjoy meeting with them face-to-face. And now...no more. But, one of my students said she'll email me, and let me know what she's up to next. She's graduating and moving on to a cool job.

One of my students worked really hard for an A, but fell just short of it. I told her I would round it up to an A anyways. She was overjoyed. Those are the things in life that feel so good. She said that she had a 79.4% in another class, but the instructor refused to round it up. I think that is just wrong, and only serves to reinforce the power differential that these students experience every day when they have to deal with professors. I'm not going to be a pushover, but I will be reasonable, and I intend to reinforce students who take an active role in their learning and their grades (as opposed to those who are just complaining about their grades).

I had another student come in after the previous test. She was upset because she kept getting 58% on her tests and since she was hoping to graduate, she didn't want to fail this course. So I went over the test with her and dialogued with her about each question she got wrong, making an effort to get her to defend her choices. Then she asked for study tips and I described a two-pronged approach to studying for my class: (1) study the definitions and the terms (giving yourself an hour between studying and questioning because so many students question themselves right after studying, but the information is still fresh in their mind. After waiting an hour, they'll have a better idea of what they know), and (2) apply the concepts to new scenarios, determine how the research examples illustrate the concepts, and generate new examples, especially make it personal.

The end result? She told me she studied how I told her and she got a B!! I can't believe she went from three Fs in a row to a B on the final! I congratulated her over email and she responded back thanking me and saying she felt proud of herself. I was so proud of her, too. She was so concerned with passing, and she did, but she attained a whole lot more. I believe her success really bolstered her self-concept and made her realize that there's nothing wrong with her, because once she had the right tools, she excelled.

That is another one of the beauties in teaching that just can't be surpassed. The interaction with my students this semester has really changed me. I'll certainly miss them....

It's time for Finals Week Freakout Fest!

It's that time of the year again, when we doctoral students celebrate our semi-annual tradition of Finals Week Freakout Fest! Complete with dizzying amounts of work to do, we scramble nervously up and down the grad office hallway, eyes glazed over, yet hyperaware of any sudden movement. Let the celebration begin! As the tension mounts, we compete with one another for the Crown of Procrastination as we guzzle highly caffeinated drinks in our effort to be the one who has the most last-minute work to do.

Unfortunately, I'm currently at third place in the runnings. I have a nine-page paper to do in the next 74 hours that I have yet to begin, plus a small final project. But, horribly, others have even more work to do. Our second place contender has two 5-page papers and another mini project, and a factor analysis to complete. Our first place contender has a power point presentation to create for tomorrow's presentation and he hasn't even analyzed the data yet because he is deluged with his frantic students who need him to help them create their websites. All bets are on him because he plans to shell out for the expensive coffee, and has to complete the rest of his papers after he's already flown out of town (how we love email)!!

Alas, this year I expect to lose the competition. But, there is always next semester.....

My Teaching Philosophy

Teaching Philosophy

I take a two-factor approach to teaching. One factor concerns the material to be taught, in terms of how to present the material in the best possible way to foster learning. My instructional style for conveying the material is deeply rooted in this factor. The second factor concerns the personal aspects of teaching, such as how to make myself approachable to the students, how to construct an environment of mutual respect for each other, and how to convey myself in a manner that reflects high expectations of the students, while at the same time giving them the sense that I deeply respect them and want to understand their point-of-view. The interaction between my instructional style and my personal style produces the final classroom experience for me and my students.

Factor One: Instructional Style
I am flexible in the instructional style I use; however, I am aware that I am best suited for the lecture-oriented teaching style. I make modifications to my lecturing style depending on the size, level, and topic of the class I teach, the institution where I teach, the make-up of students in my class (e.g., major, age, traditional/non-traditional), and the functionality of the classroom. For lower division courses where there may be a larger class size with a more heterogeneous mix of majors and ages, lecturing predominates with a focus on providing extensive examples of the concept. For upper division courses with smaller class sizes and a more homogenous student make-up, I continue to utilize the lecturing style, but would instead move the focus towards fostering classroom discussions and mutual exploration of the topic through dialogue and original readings in addition to the text. In terms of the functionality of the classroom, I use technology more often when it is easily accessible in the classroom (i.e., a “smart” classroom). I add video clips, audio clips, and photos to the PowerPoint slides whenever possible. By playing films, giving examples, and encouraging class participation, I am able to break up lecturing and keep students’ interest. Furthermore, I prefer to introduce a psychology concept myself and show original footage of classic experiments rather than showing a video clip of a psychologist in the field discussing the concept. I also like to use news clips, commercials, and movies to illustrate concepts.

However, I do not involve technology as extensively in classrooms where its use would impede my ability to move around the classroom. For example, I have taught in a classroom where the placement of the screen, the table, and the projector disallowed me from moving from one side of the classroom to the other. Furthermore, the lights could not be dimmed; the main classroom lights could only turned on or off. Consequently, students on the side opposite from where I was standing became disinterested, and due to the darkness they felt like they could talk amongst themselves without my notice. Even though this was a lower division course, I removed the technology and shifted the class towards lecturing and discussion with occasional use of the chalkboard. As a result, the educational experience significantly improved.

I am versatile in the classes that I have taught and would like to teach. I have taught Introduction to Psychology, Social Psychology, and Cognitive Psychology. I would like to teach an upper-division special topics course in Neuropsychology/Brain and Behavior. I also have interest in teaching statistical methodology courses, such as Psychology Statistics, Psychometrics, and Tests and Measurements. In the future, I would enjoy teaching graduate level seminars that are theory-oriented, such as theories and models of reading.

Although I have taught a variety of levels and topics, I remain consistent in specific approaches to teaching, such as class objectives, certain topics that can be covered across classes, and the manner in which I present material. For example, I am research-oriented, thus whether the class is Cognitive Psychology or Social Psychology, I enjoy providing research examples, and I model the type of language that one uses in discussing research by stating that the research “provides support” or “suggests” or “illustrates” this concept, rather than “proves”. In all of my classes I have discussed research methodology and focused on the logic and reasoning that leads to the principle of falsifiability. Not only do I want students to understand that research findings cannot prove a theory is true, it can only prove a theory is false; but I also want them to understand the principles of logic that explain why a theory can’t be proved true. I hope that through this exercise in reasoning, students come to the conclusion that research findings don’t prove one theory is true because another theory could also explain the findings equally as well.

Through the exercise in reasoning, I touch on one of my class objectives, which is to help students to broaden their thinking and foster an ability to consider multiple explanations for behavior. I continue to touch on this objective as I discuss historical paradigms and paradigm-shifts. I teach on historical perspectives so that a student understands: (1) how we have arrived at our current state of understanding, (2) how research has been driven by different paradigms throughout history, (3) how these paradigms explain behavior, (4) and particularly I want my students to understand that each of these paradigms provides a different explanation for the same behavior. In this way, I attempt to instill in them a tendency to withhold judgment until they have considered all possible explanations for behavior and weighed each explanation with reasoning and insight.

Factor Two: Personal Style
Even though I may have more knowledge than my students, I want to treat my students as intellectual equals who have their own base of experience that can add to the learning environment in the classroom. Although some students may not come to my class with the perquisite critical thinking skills, I prefer to treat them as if they do and begin a process of instruction designed to foster their current critical thinking skills. I find that the attitude and expectation of the teacher can have a profound effect on the students. I would prefer that effect to be in the positive direction in my classroom. If I hold positive attitudes and expectations of my students, I will act in positive ways to bring out these expectations in the behavior of my students. I will treat my students like adults, and I will call my students “young men and women” rather than “kids.”

Furthermore, since I consider instruction and learning to be a collaborative process, I modify my language in the classroom by using the term “we” rather than “you.” This language reinforces the notion of intellectual equality and sends the message that their input is important. I also want to democratically include them in decisions about the class. With a sense of control over their learning environment, I believe students will feel more connected to the class and thrive in an environment in which they have helped to create.

I make an effort to appear warm, friendly, and approachable to the students. I want them to see that I enjoy teaching them, and that I am passionate about what I am teaching. I hope that the passion is contagious, and they begin to enjoy the class and find the material interesting and applicable their own lives. I feel successful when my students tell me that they have been applying what we talk about in class to what they see out in the world.

My teaching philosophy includes a mixture of formal lecturing and informal collaboration, structure and spontaneous dialogue, facts and practical application, research findings and personal examples. My ultimate goal is to foster respect for each other as well as critical thinking. I achieve this goal by respecting the students and by modeling the process of critical thinking when I present material and also when I meet one-on-one with students.

Life Philosophies Really Do Matter

I just figured out one piece of the puzzle for why I was such a bad fit for my previous job. In essence, my employer and I had different philosophies toward how to manage the project and group meetings. It's amazing, but I realized this after reading an excerpt out of a book on different approaches to reading instruction:

"In whole language lessons, students would direct the emphasis of the lesson from the beginning, with the teacher's role to be to 'lead from behind.'" Stal, S. (1997). Instructional Models in Reading. (pg. 13)

I thought back on one of the meetings that I led, in which I had prepared an extensive paper on the research on cloze assessments. I structured the presentation to start with a theoretical question of validity and then progress from simple to complex research findings that culminated in an overall conclusion that cloze could be used to isolate reading comprehension processes.

To me, the meeting finally followed some structure with enough information for us to come to a reasonable conclusion instead of arguing in circles forever. But then my supervisor dropped by right after the meeting and told me that he thought I should have led the meeting differently. According to him, I should have identified the key points and placed them on one sheet with reference to the supporting information on another page. Then I should have asked the group members what key point they wanted to discuss first, and let them direct our progression through the presentation.

I was absolutely appalled. I told him that if we did it that way the members wouldn't bother to look at the supporting information, and we would probably never get to all of the information and key points. Instead, they would focus on a couple of points and start making arguments based on their intuitions rather on the information. I realize that he wanted me to "let the students lead," because he follows the life philosophy of Whole Language. Apparently, Whole Language is a philosophy, not a methodology. I am a Phonics person, and I think I should be leading and directing the group members into an understanding that they don't have.

Clearly, we were not compatible, and life philosophies really do matter, otherwise I still might be working there.

Last Day of Class

Ahhh, this was the last day of class. The last day came and went, but I'll see my students at least one more time for the final. I always have such sad feelings about classes ending. I feel like we've been experiencing this reciprocal relationship, this collective experience that has just abruptly ended, never to be renewed again in the same form.

It's funny, but I think that I go through a period of mourning for a class. I think I am ready to let go and start yet again next semester with a new set of classes to become attached to, but I won't be teaching a class, though. I'm also mourning the fact that I won't have consistent office hours next semester when other graduate students can expect to see me if they want to drop by and talk. That will actually produce a much greater sense of mourning, and I'm not ready to move on from that yet.

Yes, this is unusual, and no, I'm not crazy or emotionally unstable, just sensitive, empathetic, and nostalgic.

To Blog is Divine

I'm really getting to like this whole blogging thing. I wish blogs had been around when I was a kid. I sporadically kept journals throughout childhood, and a recurring theme was the strange sense I felt that I was writing for an audience other than myself (but I'm pretty sure I was actually the only one reading my journals). That is truly the essence of a blog; it is a journal that everyone in the world can read. As a child I really only thought about compiling the journals into a book someday, never anticipating this future medium that would fully encapsulate all those feelings I had about journaling. Perhaps someday I will create another blog with a post for each day I aged. A virtual snapshot of my childhood.

I sat down with another graduate student and spent hours just talking about research ideas, teaching, anything. We were so energized, and we fueled each other's excitement. I don't know how many times I've talked with others and we came to the conclusion that we should have recorded our conversation! I just love theorizing, synthesizing, teasing apart. Truly the best ideas come out through conversation. I came up with two research ideas: one piggy-backing on vygotskian approaches to learning, the other clarifying the direction for research that I had planned to do with a faculty member (although I may be just be participating in her research initially, no need to make any changes in methodology).

I enjoyed a fun time with my prayer partner this morning. We were both in relaxed moods and laughed more than we ever have in the past.

The Ed Psych Society strikes again! and other ramblings

Our end-of-the-semester lunch went off without a hitch. It was beautiful (that half that I was there for anyways). Our advisor said that she received compliments from many of the faculty members afterwards, extolling our efforts and ativities. Ahhh...praise is like soft feathers billowing around me (or whatever that means). I even spoke with complete ease and comfort during my part of the presentation. I love this department; it feels like home.

I gave out the teacher evaluation suveys in my class. I was remarkably nonchalant about that, too. It seems to not really matter that much to me. Of course, when I get them back, I may be singing a different tune (a dirge, perhaps?).

I spoke with my teaching advisor, as well. I always enjoy quizzing him on every teaching question that comes to my mind. And despite my dour feelings about teaching, I'm still flooded with questions, curiosities, ideas about the very nature of teaching (particulary classroom management).

I've discovered that there is nothing I like more than conversing with intelligent others about topics that are mutually interesting. Oh, the beauty of it, the sheer flow of ideas, the broadening of understanding. It's glorious. I only hope that the brown bag research colloquium I'm in charge of next semester will provide a forum for such an exchange of minds.

Now I must get back to writing the final for my class. There is only so much time left to complete everything in the next few days, yet sill, I feel no pressure. Which is very nice.....I hope it lasts.