The Coffee House

[minicoop1985]

Evening, hosers. Was actually a pretty exciting day today. Got to do some spelunking. Been many a year since I've done any of that.

As for Nickelback... Argh. I just... I just can't. I could do some Wynton Marsalis performing Hummel's Trumpet Concerto in E flat major, then follow it with some Dimmu Borgir (Swedish death metal) and maybe some Lady Gaga thrown in there somewhere. I do that fairly regularly, actually. I have very diverse taste in music.

 

[robbins.photo]

Evening, hosers. Was actually a pretty exciting day today. Got to do some spelunking. Been many a year since I've done any of that.

As for Nickelback... Argh. I just... I just can't. I could do some Wynton Marsalis performing Hummel's Trumpet Concerto in E flat major, then follow it with some Dimmu Borgir (Swedish death metal) and maybe some Lady Gaga thrown in there somewhere. I do that fairly regularly, actually. I have very diverse taste in music.

You went spelunking, I ended up at a kids fashion show. Yes, the world has indeed gone mad.

 

[limr]

Evening, hosers.

I did not go spelunking. Nor did I go to a kids' fashion show. Both activities would be, to be frank, quite horrifying and nightmarish for me.

What I did do was sit through six hours of admin babble. We ended earlier than planned, but we still needed drinks, so a few of us trundled down to the nearest bar and started the effort to forget the monotony of "engagement" and "student learning outcomes" and "infused learning goals." I had a Maker's Mark neat. Nothing else was strong enough to come close to the pain.

Came home, had some dinner. Changed into pj's an hour ago. And now it's 9:20pm and I have a feeling I'm going to be in bed soon. It's a rockin' Saturday night!

 

[robbins.photo]

Evening, hosers.

I did not go spelunking. Nor did I go to a kids' fashion show. Both activities would be, to be frank, quite horrifying and nightmarish for me.

One certainly was for me.. lol

What I did do was sit through six hours of admin babble.

Suddenly somehow that kids fashion show isn't looking that bad afterall...

We ended earlier than planned, but we still needed drinks, so a few of us trundled down to the nearest bar and started the effort to forget the monotony of "engagement" and "student learning outcomes" and "infused learning goals." I had a Maker's Mark neat. Nothing else was strong enough to come close to the pain.

I don'[t think I could actually drink enough after hearing a dissertation on infused learning goals. Yikes.

 

[robbins.photo]

Morning Hosers...

Well the fashion show thing turned out to be a bust at least for photos, sadly it was a last minute deal and I didn't have my external flash with me- the lighting was just too poor for my little AFS-C sensor. Yet another excuse to go full frame I guess. But the evening wasn't a total loss, it was for charity and it made my niece happy that I showed since some of the clothes she designed were in the show.

I think I'm headed out to the lake this fine morning, going to see if that daffy crane is still wandering about.

 

[snowbear]

I'm going to look for some space to photograph.

HEAR THAT, SHARON? I'M LOOKING FOR SPACE. Now enjoy your vacation.

But first, another cup of coffee.

 

[snowbear]

We still want to see what you've got of the show. We won't judge, or at least, not in this thread.

 

[robbins.photo]

I'm going to look for some space to photograph.

HEAR THAT, SHARON? I'M LOOKING FOR SPACE. Now enjoy your vacation.

But first, another cup of coffee.

I had a thought on that one but the picture I wanted would have required a long exposure, and sadly I loaned my tripod to a friend. I'll see if I can't come up with something that doesn't completely suck though. I don't want to ruin Sharon's vacation after all.

 

[robbins.photo]

We still want to see what you've got of the show. We won't judge, or at least, not in this thread.

Well they mostly look like this:

 

[snowbear]

I had a couple of ideas but models (animate and otherwise) aren't cooperating. I'll find something.

or I won't.

 

[snowbear]

We still want to see what you've got of the show. We won't judge, or at least, not in this thread.

Well they mostly look like this:

You can fix that in post. At least the highlights aren't blown out.

 

[snowbear]

Infused learning goals.
Sounds a bit like the stuff we had to listen to during the TQM days.

 

[minicoop1985]

Wow, infused learning goals... Buzzword Bingo time!

Morning, fellow hosers. Looks like it may be a pleasant day here after all. About damned time if you ax me lol

 

[limr]

Infused learning goals.
Sounds a bit like the stuff we had to listen to during the TQM days.

The most ridiculous thing about all of it is that they are talking about the same exact things that they did 20 years ago when I was taking education classes. It's all EXACTLY the same, but they are just putting different terms to it. And then they fall so in love with the rhetoric that they forget what it even means in terms of actually being in the classroom.

"Infused learning goals" or perhaps it was "infused student outcomes" which is even fuzzier. It just means something that should be a goal of the teaching regardless of the subject matter. Critical thinking, for example.

I get why there needs to be consistency in language so people understand what the other is talking about. Every profession needs standardized definitions of certain terms to avoid confusion when describe the work. It just seems that some professions revel in changing terms every 10-15 years or so because the old words weren't good enough.

In reality, with teaching anyway, nothing has changed in the fundamental process:
-you have something you want to teach your students
-you have techniques and methods and activities that will convey that information or practice that skill
-you have ways to measure how well the student is learning

But people are constantly tweaking or reevaluating what the second and third parts should look like, and they think that every time a new methodology or assessment is used, they need to mess with the language used to talk about it.

And if the presenter had talked about it that way, it would have been a much more interesting session. But instead, he used rhetoric to explain rhetoric and had himself going in circles.

One woman in the row in front of me actually said this when he was done: "Well, it sounds like gobbledy-gook but I have a feeling there's something important about this that we should think about."

Well yes, there is some actual information we should have been given, but too bad it was presented in such a foolish manner.

 

[snowbear]

Each new group has to reinvent, or re-brand, its processes. How many times have we heard someone is going to "clean up (insert favorite bureaucratic element)"? I can't tell you how many "exciting new math curriculum" announcements I've had to endure, and ultimately it comes down to 2 x 2 = 4.

Sometimes I think they are trying to convince themselves as mush as convince us.