Ha! I know some game designers and by the end of a development cycle they are often so damn tired of 'playing' their game over and over again they want to be doing anything else.
It's cool, I'm into graphics chip architecture and so I watch videos of these guys who talk about the design of these chips for high-end gaming machines, and they try to describe the whys of what the hardware is doing in terms of gaming, but they don't actually game, so they say things like, "So if your sprite needs to move across the screen really fast for some reason, say there's a bad guy..." and it's cute cuz these guys are too much of super nerds to even be hep to the gaming the regular nerds are doing.
I got an e-mail today from a student who thanked me for the class. He told me how much he'd enjoyed it, how much he'd learned, and how much he'd appreciated the effort I'd put into the class.
He also made a point of telling me that he was disappointed in how so many of his fellow students clearly didn't appreciate the class.
It's perhaps worth noting that he's an Army veteran. He's a bit older than most of the older students, and a lot more disciplined and attentive. Having been out in the so-called "real world" for awhile, he's probably in a much better position to appreciate the value of a good education than are most of the other students.
It's always nice to hear something like this from a student. It reminds you why you got into the field in the first place, and why you persist.
__________________
“The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.”
I know it's not fair, but if your HR department is sorting through hundreds of applications for a single position, you have to do some sloppy culling.
Recently some applications I've completed online included a little survey/quiz ascertaining understanding of and experience with the basic functions/principles needed for the position. If you didn't meet the minimum criteria, your application was not forwarded for the position.
I was personally disappointed because I was applying slightly outside of my actual experience parameters, but well within my "slightly different application of existing skills", and they wouldn't forward my application for that position I wanted. However, they kept my survey and resume on file, and have sent a few positions that I would qualify for. So that's not a bad system.
But, yeah businesses have to cull, and this allowed non-human culling by benchmark experience and skills, so at least the HR person only had to look at people that had minimal knowledge. I think this is better, overall, though for targeted assumptions about applicants abilities, than the presence or absence of a degree.
Ha ha, I was just talking to my mom today about this horrible vice principal at my high school who hated my guts. I didn't know this at the time, but I got the highest standardized test scores in my school, and it enraged this guy so much that when my parents got the paper copy of my scores, he'd scribbled some kind of inchoate rebuttals all over it, which someone had tried to scribble out or erase or something. lol.
Anyways, later, in the 90s sometime, he got put on suspension and sued for harassing Hispanic students. I don't know how that turned out in the end.
But I hope that guy, and the guys in that story, get fired, then sued, then lose and have all their assets attached to pay off the injured parties, and then I hope they get really painful papercuts every single day for as long as they live.
To keep her from getting away with cheating. You know, criminal academic fraud.
__________________ Old Pain In The Ass says: I am on a mission from God to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable; to bring faith to the doubtful and doubt to the faithful.
__________________ Old Pain In The Ass says: I am on a mission from God to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable; to bring faith to the doubtful and doubt to the faithful.
In fairness, the sensors were measuring Sympathetic Nervous System activity, as indicated by electrodermal activity. This is much the same thing that a lie detector does.
In other words, it wasn't measuring mental activity at all; it was measuring the student's stress response. All that it indicates is that he was perfectly calm during class (and while watching television), and that he was significantly more stressed when taking exams, studying, or doing homework. And, interestingly, he sometimes experienced relatively high stress levels when sleeping. At a guess, I'd say that he was dreaming at those times.
__________________
“The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.”
Quit making excuses why it's OK that your boring class causes brain death, Professor Ranger.
I just thought it was funny, particularly in light of all the talk of how dull and mindless school can be for some kids. And I do remember sometimes having to induce a near trancelike state just to be able to sit through classes when I was a kid, so the flatlining theory bolsters my extant bias.
Yeah I think I mentioned once already that actual in-class time was the least stimulating for me. I couldn't wait to get out and dive into the homework, actually get my hands dirty rather than just listen and nod.
We met Kiddo's teacher tonight, and she's awesome. She's 16 or something, but has a Master's in reading so that's exciting. It's a tiny rural school you see, so advanced degrees are impressive.
Anyway I asked about the DIBELS and she's all "Oh, they changed it to iStations, like yesterday and I haven't gotten my training packet on it even." and we made sympathetic WTF faces at each other.
Well, apparently it's exactly the fucking same as DIBELS only with the trendy i-name and done on the computer instead of from paper. Luckily her philosophy is to use assessments as a tool when appropriate and is otherwise just whatever about them.
Quote:
ISIP automatic scoring not only ensures accurate ability assessments by taking the risk of human error out of the equation, it goes beyond mere scoring and identifies the optimal curriculum for every child in each critical reading area.
No other system does this!
Yes, humans who err are the problem with standardized assessments, let's get rid of them!
It pretty much sucks when you're trying to give constructive criticism to your students and then get told that the evaluation method you're mandated to use doesn't allow for actual student/teacher discussion of what those standards are, how they are doing and how that's relevant to their actual education.
“We implemented Istation at our elementary schools thus saving our teachers hundreds of hours of assessment time so they can invest more time on instruction.” So yay, I guess, it takes up less time.
We are a Reading First grant school, so they have to use some kind of assessments...but I just keep thinking nobody thought this all through very well.
My niece was allowed to choose an all girls class one year, they offered it as a sort of experiment I think. She did so. But requiring it for all kids? Based on sketchy theories?
It's not just the gender segregation, though. It's the idiotic dim lighting and auditory learning fascism that makes it so profoundly anti-individual and anti-learning. I mean, what kind of school doesn't even consider the impact of lighting on the visually impaired, or for that matter, on kids with good vision who would like to actually keep it? That's so basic an issue it's grounds for a negligence lawsuit, imo.
Re: Fucking education! How does it work?
Where do I pin that? Too many options!
Linear Mode
