NR 386 - The class called University Teaching.  Twelve PhD students who will end up teaching some undergrads in their careers and unlike most doc students, these twelve get to explore the world of university teaching with me.  We think about things they rarely ponder, things that are on the minds of public school teachers all the time - lesson planning, how best to introduce a lesson to get max student participation, how to close out a lesson so students hear what it was they think they may have learned (if they even have an idea!), and so on.

I was frustrated at the end of the class as I always am.  This is not a new thing to me.  After all my years of teaching, I know the best way to get these characters to think differently about how to teach well is to involve them in hands on action with the methods and ideas we talk about.  Mass practice, distributed practice, building relationships, wait time - strategies with proven track records vis-a-vis increasing student learning.  My frustration is I always run out of time in class and either I don't get to do what I'd planned to do, or I do and we have little or no time to process the activity.  Granted, I'm working with the cream of the crop but still, they are young, they are inexperienced, their models may not have been so great, and they don't realize that teaching and learning are actually connected and that they have as much responsibility for ensuring the latter as they do delivering the former.

So I thought I'd use this blog as a repository of 45 minute activities I could do in class that we could process using frameworks (UDL, Bloom) and teaching theory (mastery, inquiry, projects) to get the biggest bang for their buck.  So here goes... .  I'm hoping to do one of these for each class if I have the honor of teaching this course again next Fall.

1. Correcting crappy objectives.

2. Communicating with cartoons.  Above is one of mine, along with substantive comment from text.

3. Doing small groups with rules and norms, task and resource cards.  Assessing the impact of norms and roles on group processing.

4. Using the feedback sheets to assess their chapter presentations.  Perhaps even having them design their own feedback sheet, all based on substantive research of course.  We could start with critiquing mine.

5. Critiquing my syllabus using the chapter on beginnings, and then redesigning the syllabus.

Gotta go.  But this will grow.

Thanks for listening.

CR

Fun Pictures with the Moment Macro Lens

I love taking pictures with my iPhone.  For me, the accumulated albums are an authentic and personal statement revealing the life being lived around me.  Few of the pictures are "posed" in the traditional way and many catch unsuspecting moments in the lives of those important to me.  Sometimes I'll put the iPhoto file of my iMac on automatic play just to see if I can remember the details of my life that at one time or another were important to capture with the phone.

So last Christmas, my family gifted me with a Moment Tele lens.  Moment, a company of young millennial photographers produces a wide, tele, and macro lens for the iPhone.  They are quality products - these people have designed products that they desired to enhance their photographic endeavors and clearly, the rest of us are beneficiaries.  Because they are bikers, hikers, world travelers, and self-proclaimed photo nerds, their products are to be taken seriously.

My experiences with the Tele lens were good and I learned a lot about the interface between lens, phone, and my life in terms of what excited me photographically speaking.  I love shooting "interiors," literally and figuratively.  My usual mode of shooting is using a Pentax K-7 with the 18-55mm zoom.  The lens works for me, particularly shooting in the wide angle ranges.  I'm no pro, so most shooting is as much discovery and surprise as it is strategy and plan.  But with my abiding interest in the macro world, my interest in the Moment Macro lens just won't go away.  The iPhone is a great tool for shooting macro already so to be enhanced by its own especially designed Macro lens seems too good to be true.

I was sharing all this with a dear friend a few weeks ago in response one of those questions I prefer to duck, "What are you doing for yourself these days?"  (I can never come up with a comfortable answer as my inner voice whispers to me, "Not much!".)   So I told her about the interiors idea that I continue to explore and she mentioned that her younger son, Alden, has a Macro lens for his iPhone.  When she mentioned to him my interests he offered to share his Macro lens with me, an opportunity I just jumped at.  He also was interested in seeing some pictures that were taken using the lens.  So these are for you, Alden.  I'm posting five pictures and will add a bit of commentary to each one.

Picture One.

Rocky Neck Surface

This closeup is of a small section a painting.  The artist has a studio on Rocky Neck, Gloucester MA.  We try to visit her studio (called Imagine) every summer because there are such good vibes there and she does wonderful things with inks, paints, found objects, driftwood, etc.  This tiny section of photograph is part of her rendering of the word LOVE.  I'm drawn to the etching quality of the photo.  She uses blades of all sorts as well as brushes to put her paint to paper or wood or, well, etc.

Joekai 1.

My youngest grandson is six, almost seven years old.  He's just beginning to make the shift from scribble to concrete representation in his drawings.  I took several pictures of his figures - family members - because they are so darn cute and Happy.  His first picture is a self-portrait and yes, he does have curly hair.  I'm drawn to the joy that pops out at you when you get close to this character!

Joekai 2.

Another smiling fellow.  I was particularly happy to see the detail of pupils in this fellow's eyes, a detail I would never have noticed had it not been for the Macro capacity of the lens.

Stem

No, not science/tech/engineering/math;  Pomegranate.  This photo was taken looking down at the cut stem of said fruit.  Wow.  I saw things I'd never seen before.  The Macro function added a dimension to the real almost alive fruit I'd never observed.  Look closely.  It's almost like there are little mushrooms growing in the stem, which there weren't!  And if you'd like to know more about the politics of Pomegranates, read on. Meet The Resnicks (Mother Jones)

Living On The Edge.

I'd just finished slicing some parsley (flat-leafed) for something I was cooking when the phrase "living on the edge" drifted through my mind.  I kind of like living on the edge sometimes, but not all the time, that's for sure.  Sometimes, not so good things can happen to you as is the case for these parsley leaves, now separated from their parents, now fully consumed.  (Note the edge of the knife.  First of all, the Macro lens reveals it; secondly, it has regular marks on it from my sharpening stone.  Not sure that's a good thing.

In terms of favorites, I think "living on the edge" is my least favorite.  I've chosen the other three as favorites: two because of the detail in the smiles, one because of how the paint is arranged, and the other because of the small world (the mushrooms) revealed.

Thanks for asking, Alden.  And thanks for the loan of the lens.  It will be returning soon via your Mom.

CR

Addendum: Picture 6.  Alden, I forgot about this one and it is perhaps my most favorite of all that I've taken with your Macro lens.  When I was a little kid growing up, my Dad had this humidor next to the big easy chair in which he spent many evenings.  On the weekends, he's smoke a cigar from this humidor.  It was always an odd object to me, he never explained where it came from though I asked.  I was always drawn to the little dog on the top of the humidor's substantial cap.  I took a picture of the dog using the lens and I have never, ever seen the detail in this little fellow.  It's pretty amazing craftsmanship given its size.  The origins are Chinese, I do believe.  Here he is.

Addendum, Picture 7.  I was walking Kuma.  It was a fairly cold Winter day - temps in the teens, breeze coming up the hill from the lake.  Not a day to be without gloves for any amount of time for sure.  Walking the usual route, the UVM path that goes under the small memorial arch.  I kiddingly told my Grandson Joekai that I'd met an ancient man with the most distinguished face, one of those faces that held "character".  I'd asked the ancient one if he'd let me take a picture of him and he said "sure" and so I did.  This is the picture, not macro, just real close up.  2-10-18

Nina Simone - I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free (with lyrics) - HD

One of my all time favorite jazz singers singing one of my all time favorite jazz compositions.

I was in Boston this past weekend, visiting family.  You've all had an NPR moment, right?  These are the moments Tom Gjelton or Terry Gross or Gwen Ifell make you pull over and stop just to listen to something that's captured your heart and mind; aka "driveway moments".  On the way down, I had one such moment.  Except I kept on driving and discouragingly I drove out of signal range.

I was listening to an "On Point" interview with Renee Graham and Jamilah King, Boston Globe and Mic News correspondents respectively, about the new protest moment we are in.  The conversation was brought about because of the pushback to Beyonce's SuperBowl "Formation" performance and Lamar Kendrick singing in chains at the Grammy's.  I found the podcast and it's worth a listen for sure.

I also want to draw your attention to the comments that have flooded the site since the program aired on Friday last.  There's some great music of the past mentioned and included.  And going back to the days when I was in my twenties, there's a great YouTube of Les McCann and Eddie Harris playing "Compared To What." 

I've remembered that message over all these years.  And, should you really be interested in these recent mainstream connections to BLM, here's an analysis and discussion of Beyonce's SB performance from the NYT.
CR

 As some of you know, I am headed into surgery on March 1st.  An MRI in November 2104 showed I have a small, BENIGN, craniophyringioma on my pituitary gland.  Between then and now, the little bugger was unchanged, and the docs said I could have been carrying this since my early adolescent days.  In January, my 6-month MRI scan showed considerable growth in the tumor. Though I have been symptom free to date, considerable compromise to my vision and hormonal balance could occur with further growth.  Hence, the surgery.  I am well prepared for the surgery while I can't say I'm looking forward to it, I am ready.  If you feel called to do something as a result of reading this news, how about carrying out an outrageous act of kindness on my behalf?  The payback to yourself will be immense.  See you on the other side!
CR