Hobbits, Gravity and Politically Correct

Good morning!

For the first time in about 8 years, Denver celebrated with a White Christmas. After several days of 50 degree weather, which made the roads nice and warm, the snow melted and became ice under about 9 inches of snow. Once we got home from dinner with my family, it was actually pretty. We didn't go to our regular Christmas Night movie – home was where we needed to be.

 

We have finally managed to see The Hobbit, Battle of the Five Armies. Epic. Gratuitous violence. Resolution. Acting was good, plot unfolded slowly. There were times when the movie felt endless.  I could have napped while some of the exposition took place. The final battle was the culmination of all the other battles in this series times 5. I wish I could edit the whole series down to about 3 hours – I think it could be done without losing any of the story.

We also watched Gravity with Sandra Bullock.  It is a great twist on the Robinson Crusoe story.  I have never been much of a Bullock fan, and I admit I was skeptical as to whether or not she could pull it off. She did. What I'm most impressed with was the fact the movie was 91 minutes long. It was great to see a good story told in less than 2.5 hours. Sometimes great things take less time.

With all the snow, and now that the rush of Christmas is over, I can sit back and relax. There is no more second guessing, or suddenly remembering one more thing to do! I can relax. As I was fixing dinner last night, I realized that we only have another couple of packages of homegrown beets to eat. We might get through January, then it is back to store bought beets. Needless to say, I started figuring out my container garden for next year. So I'm finally relaxing and what do I think about? The work in the spring.

Where you had Detroit and the auto industry, I was raised with mining as the Holy Grail. As prices went up in the 1970s, a lot of mines were closed and many of my parent's friends lost their jobs. Environmentalists got into the act and drove prices even higher. My mom's favorite phrase was "Let the bastards freeze in the dark." 

Today we have fracking and all the after effects that go with it. It made for interesting conversation at the Christmas Table. My niece is a geologist who based her masters on finding frackable fields, my brother is a water engineer. At the other end of the table was an environmentalist. His comment was mining and fracking weren't religion or politics so it was fair game in conversation ... in our house, mining and fracking are both religion and politics. Hell froze over quickly and there is truth to avoiding a woman scorned. 

The conversation quickly passed on to other things, and like you, there was the inner voice that ordered "clamp teeth firmly on tongue..." I complied. Some conversations just should never be broached in a time of peaceful celebration. 

I understand your hesitation to homework, especially for the lower grades, but without some "homework training", how can we help the Millennials become adults? We ship them off to college without the ability to work on their own, which is one of the main learning experiences to college – it becomes the make or break it experience for academics.  Sadly, it also becomes the harbinger of how well individuals will do on the job.

 

My better half has downloaded the "Garage Band" app on his iPad and is now serenading me with a beautiful full string orchestra – time to go play!

Don, have you played with this app?

Have a wonderful New Year!

Carolyn 

All images downloaded from Google Images

The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies retrieved from www.fanpop.com

Gravity: Acompasando retrieved from www.acompasando.org

What is Fracking? Theory and Application retrieved from www.azomining.com

Fracking Frensy ignores scientific concerns retrieved from priceofoil.org

GarageBand on the App Store on iTunes retrieved from itunes.apple.com

 

Gas tales, tributes and organic experiences.

HI Carolyn,


Good to hear that you got all the graduation "i's " and "t's" dossed and crotted. It is one of those, thought-provoking , send them out into the cold cruel world kind of experiences that reminds us how educating isn't too far removed from parenting in one respect. I found your whole account of the event more than a bit nostalgic - and I'm gonna go back to the whole education milieu before I sign off here.



  Just finished our swing through southernmost Ontario to touch base with both of our families for the holiday season. For my lsbh It was a  poignant reminder of just how things change as parents grow old. Sometimes the " Golden Age" moniker can be quite ironic.




Interesting to see just how much the price of gas affects everyday life down thataway. No surprise, though.  My in-laws live in Kingsville, Ontario.  It's a satellite community of Windsor, Ontario which is just across the bridge from Detroit. Windsorites, who toiled for the big three automakers in Canada,  or  who commuted across the Detroit River on the Ambassador Bridge every weekday to work for those same auto companies stateside comprised the bulk of the population for multiple generations.   The whole economic superstructure was, in a big way, spawned by and predicated upon low fuel prices.





  It was decade upon decade of boom times up until the price of crude took off.  Major cracks started  to appear in the foundation of the North American auto industry in the last quarter of the 20th century. Nowhere did this become more apparent than in the lower Great Lakes area, where I grew up. This was the epicenter of  the proverbial land of milk and honey and the queen bee clearly lived in Detroit.  In my pre-teen and early teen years those trips to Motown a couple of times a year were akin to a jaunt to The Emerald City.  








Interestingly enough, even though Detroit has slipped well and sadly below it's past glory, the Ambassador Bridge is still the busiest one along the Canada-U.S. border. Plans are afoot even now, to build a second bridge to ease the traffic situation for the bridge and tunnel.









So, this time when I took my dad-in-law to that frozen-in-time barbershop of his that I mentioned a few months back I was reminded how this area gave birth to and economically, and psychologically  hitched its hat and coattails to the auto industry for at least a  century. The regulars were there rambling rapturously on about how, now that gas has gotten back to " where it should be "   we can get back to driving "real comfortable cars".


"Clamp teeth firmly on tongue", my inner voice ordered.



Anyhow, once we got back from no Wi-Fi land I looked back at my hastily assembled entry from just before I left and realized that I should have been more precise about which part of the educational spectrum I was talking about vis-a-vis the homework thing. I'm talking strictly about the grade school/high school arena.


Post-secondary is another galaxy completely. My salad days student experiences are really my only frame of reference, in that regard. There were plenty of fellow students, I remember, who definitely took the " I'm here for a good time, not a long time " approach to their academic lives and who trod regularly on the path of least resistance.

'Tis true that I would have been a constant hiker on that path except that I had to pay the freight for any post-secondary education I chose, so that changed my motivational ground rules significantly.  Slaving whenever possible for The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company meant that in the off hours from my post secondary educational pursuits,  I wasn't free to be a regular on the stoner and beer-blast circuits - although I, initially at least, tried to keep in touch, shall we say.   Also. I was only a year into undergrad when I met my LSBH - lets hear a major round of applause for the fortunate intervening hand of fate on that one!! 

 As an educator  I've not ever had to deal with post-secondary students who are  there on their parents tab, and may feel that its  party-hearty time whenever there is a break in the action. My daughter's teaching tales from the university trenches make it sound like their kind has not gone extinct and won't be doing so anytime soon.  








  BTW, as I'm writing this I'm listening to  " The Art of McCartney " a recent tribute album to  Paul McCartney and it's pretty darn good. Artists who've covered his work on it run the gamut. Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, Billy Joel, Smokey Robinson, Yusuf Islam ( aka Cat Stevens ) B.B. King, Willie Nelson and a wackload more.  







 The most intriguing inclusion on this collection, for me, has to be Dion - yes!,  the fifties heartthrob who gave us  " The Wanderer " and "Run Around Sue" and then returned in a most classy way in  the 60's with  " Abraham, Martin and John "  has stuff on this 42 song compilation. It does point up just how superlative and almost unparalleled  Mr. Paul is as a songsmith and how those in the industry revere him - Far out!  





Well, since I've managed to steer things into the musical realm let's finish off with some more of the same. I was thumbing through the local newspaper - The Owen Sound Sun Times - and came across a most enjoyable little article by a former United Church Minister from this area.  " All hail the king of this season's instruments" went the title and that made me curious. It kept my eye  because in the first paragraph he was recalling an occasion of musical wonder he experienced  at a  Christmas themed musical performance in the Metropolitan United Church in London Ontario a number of years back. In high school I was in the orchestra and we played there a couple of times that I remember for the same reason. This church had ( and may still have ) an absolutely awesome pipe organ. To be in a concert where a full orchestra and a pipe organ combine their decibels can be, as the author of the article so simply and eloquently put it

" Bombastic. Thrilling "

 

 

 

I've been fortunate enough to be  there to experience that gut-shaking feeling when this instrument is in the hands of an artist and I  agree with him absolutely that " nothing beats the king of instruments at full throttle."


We are, as we blog, watching  the yuletide come in here, with anticipation, too. I've got my Santa #+$*  together , as they say, and am ready and eager  for the opportunity to have daughter, son and assorted other relatives together for a short but sweet time.



Catch ya later, and have a good Christmas.


Don





All images sourced from Google Images

Fig. 1 - www.zerofiltered.com

Fig. 2 - www.peterwerbe.com

Fig. 3 - www. nytimes.com

Fig. 4 - www. cadillaccountryclub.com

Fig. 5 - cupidjazmine.blogspot.fi

Fig. 6 - exetermagazine.com

Fig. 7 - www.1051 rocks.com

Fig. 8 - theartofmccartney.com

Fig. 9 - commons.wikipedia.org

Graduation

Good morning from cloudy Colorado! Wouldn't you know it? As soon as I get all the grading done and finally have time to enjoy the 45 degree sunshine we've been having, it gets cloudy and threatens to snow. Yes, I know, it is almost Christmas and we are very dry and in need of snow... but couldn't I have just one day of sun?

So, the quarter is put to bed! We had graduation yesterday and I was privileged to sit on the side where the graduates come off the stage after receiving their diplomas. They go up the stairs, shake hands and exchange hugs with so much confidence, so much joy and pride! And as soon as most of them reach the steps to go back to their seats, the air is let out of them, they deflate, and relief and a look of being the deer in the headlights escort them off the stage. There are those that pop the crazy pose, you know the one that looks like a distorted pumpkin with the tongue   hanging out, thumbs up in victory ... but they are few and far between. Most just slide back into their seats, relieved that "learning" is finally over. So little do they know.

In many ways I admire the graduates. They hung in there – they got done what they set out to do. They might realize that now the real work begins, but for just an hour or two, maybe a week, they can relax and not worry. Maybe they can sit with the realization of the enormous adventure they have just completed and feel proud of themselves.

I remember when I completed my master's in education – it had been a long long couple of years. I had to defend my master thesis before a panel of 7 – 2 panelists were my choice; the other 5 were the university's choice. It was a tough two hour defense. But I passed! I made it! We celebrated by going out to eat lunch, then home to change my clothes and get ready to go SHOPPING! Something I hadn't done in 18 months. My husband had to go out to his shop to get something; I laid down on the couch and didn't wake up for 3 months. I image most of the graduates I saw yesterday feel the same way. 

So Christmas is upon us. We managed to slip away last weekend to visit the Grandkids. Our oldest will soon be 15 – able to get a driver's permit ... now that is scary - realizing that you are old enough to have grandchildren who can drive. Our youngest granddaughter, a fashionesta at heart, told us she wanted "collared" shirts so she could wear scarves. She just couldn't accept that you can wear a turtleneck with a scarf. "That's just wrong, grandma..." Our grandson dressed for the weather! He is so ready for snow! For the first time in his life, he knows where his snow pants are, where his boots and mittens are ... he actually hung up his coat so he could get to it just in case it snowed. You have to love the simpleness of brilliant geeks.

We are ready for Christmas. MBH works through Christmas Eve, so I get to watch all the Hallmark Christmas movies. Just me, the dog and a cup of hot chocolate. Not a bad way to go!

We'll spend the rest of the year (all 7 days of it) relaxing, enjoying, reading, maybe some walks – but not in malls. I don't do New Year's Resolutions, so I'm free to take on 2015 in any way I see appropriate. As I'm still trying to figure out what happened to 2014, it could be a while before I admit we've changed into a new year.

I've been getting the bookkeeping done for Wormhole Electric. I discovered that the short novels did really well! The Anthologies didn't do as well this year as in previous years. The weekly e-zine is doing a guarded "okay". Several of our writers appear to be more widely read than others. Over all, it was a good year! Not rich yet by any means, but rich in experience and opportunity to make things grow.  Thank you, good folks, for reading us!

On behalf of Wormhole Electric , we wish you all a great holiday season!

Carolyn Varvel

All images downloaded from Google Images

Graduate dog retrieved from www.lovequotespict.com

No note from mother retrieved from www.freshboo.com

Hot chocolate retrieved from www.shopeshelas.com  

Pedagogical and Paper Chases

Hi Carolyn,


Glad to hear that the presentation went well. I meant to ask, last time around, who you were addressing as an audience - students, teachers or...... But, it's history now and it went well.  Cool.

  Back to where we left off recently.



Well, first of all being concerned about being  "late"  in your response in this conversation, as you were a bit ago , seems non-sequitor-ish. A conversation moves along at whatever speed the conversers set. So how could either be "late"  to it ?


I haven't forgotten how busy it gets just before the Christmas break.  I'd be prevaricating, in a manner that would make third-rate politicians, and used car salesmen turn scarlet, if I said I missed that mushing and slushing in the trenches part of educating.




  BTW, recent  archeological research in Mesopotamia  revealed that one of the commandments on the third tablet - you know, the one Moses dropped on the way back down  the mountain -  was " Thou Shalt Not overextend thyself or Unduly Stress Thyself Out " .


 I believe that the New Testament version  read " Thou Shalt Chill" .






So many things you brought forth in the last little bit, beg responses  that I don't know where to start.

How 'bout the homework thing. 



 As an educator conversing informally with another educator I will admit straight-out that this one opens a can of hermaphroditic oligochaeta .   














I  feel kinda like Mel Gibson at the end of Braveheart right now - as far as this conversation between two lifelong teachers goes.   I get the feeling that you are foursquare in favor of having the days educational activities follow the students home and be dealt with further therein - my verbose/evasive way of avoiding uttering that dirty word  " homework ". 

 I can't be that unequivocal.



 Yes, I see the continuity thing - pedagogically. But the cold and bothersome voice of reality butts in on the conversation here and reminds me that I have no idea what these students are facing at home. No, it's not a presumption that all, or any of them are going home to crack-houses, brothels or seedy orphanages. But with the other expectations that are often laid upon them by those parents with a wish to achieve things vicariously through their offspring , it may be better to err on the side of less than more.


 The stuff you mentioned about homework being useless for students below grade 7 strikes a major chord here.



  In my first decade, teaching grade 6 and grade eight students,  I wasn't  inclined to send them home with work at all. I  felt that the core part of  learning, and the prime situation to gauge just how much had gone past the eyes and into the cerebellum was done face to face in the classroom. When the freedom bell rang at the end of classI told my students that next time we met, ( i.e. tomorrow or Monday ) what we dealt with today would be our starting point. 









 I carried a lot of that approach with me when I switched back to secondary school. It served me well, perhaps in part because it was a semestered school and we still met daily. There were  courses I taught that clearly required reading and follow-up  at home ( ex. Law, English Lit., History ) but I tried to keep it to what would amount to about an hour at the most - spread over two evenings where possible.  We spent a lot of class time " in conversation " as it were and I made it clear to my mid to late teen charges that oral responses were part of the daily routine and a crucial part of the evaluation process.  In class I made a conscious effort to be part of the process as opposed to being the auditor general- as it were. I wasn't looking for the intimidating Socratic interrogation that I remember seeing portrayed in such a galvanising manner  by  John Houseman's in Paper Chase so much as the attempted pulling together of diverse strings that were touched upon in the subject matter.



No surprise that this movie sticks with me, though.




I was in first year Law at Osgoode Hall Law School -  the Canadian equivalent  of Harvard Law School ) when this movie came out. I saw it a couple of times in a week. John Houseman was simply indelible for me in that role. The movie depiction was not too far from the reality of my experience.

 I sometimes wonder if the part where Timothy Bottoms and a fellow student break into the Law Library and go back to look at  Houseman's undergrad papers is an indirect influence on the scene in Harry Potter where Harry and his cohorts break into the library at Hogwarts. Just idle thoughts of course. - Jeeze, I hope you've seen The Paper Chase, if not this will be kinda superfluous.



 Although if you haven't then I envy you for the experience you could have in store if you go and have a look at it, too.


Egad, even after 3/4 of a decade out of the classroom this teacheresque stuff just flows back in a polysyllabic torrent. - Class dismissed !





Your " practise grounds " for adulthood take on homework is interesting. I can certainly see it. Although, I always felt that the most significant experiences I had in those formative years as far as preparing me for the world of grownups were those first menial part-time jobs I had in the retail business. They were my actual exposure to the reality of self-centered, self-absorbed and uber-condescending folk. Alas, as I went further in academia I found that a not small number of the people who treated me almost like an "untouchable" while I was wearing my A&P apron were the same ones passing me in the halls at those universities I went to.


 Lessons in life, eh?


Well, this entry just about took on a life of its own. Anyhow, in about ten hours  we are off to do the southern Ontario holiday swing. It includes a number of days in the land that wi-fi forgot so I'll catch again in a few days. In the meantime rock on and chill on.




Don




  All images sourced from Google Images



Fig. 1 - vinylpulse.com

Fig. 2 - lawrencespencer.com

Fig. 3 - lifesomundane.net

Fig. 4 - mefedia.com

Fig. 5 - businessweek.com

Fig. 6 - scenenough.com

Gen Y, Christmas Cyber Monday, and Homework - what do they have in common?

Don, 

The Generation Y presentation went well. Those who attended left a bit depressed as they realized that this new generation took very seriously "elders are the role model". This generation has modeled itself on the concept that actions speak louder than words. No previous generation has followed this as resoundingly as Gen Y.

I enjoyed your digital technology social media impact thoughts. I think what is so interesting about cyberbullying is that no one seems to understand that they can simply turn the computer off or go to another cite. Being proactive does not seem to be a part of this generation's mode of operation. There is a small trend that is actually a backlash toward technology with this group. They still use technology, but appear more discriminating as to which pieces of technology they are going to live with.

Moving on to "Invasion of the Money Snatchers!" Sorry to hear that Black Friday has found its way into your neck of the woods. I was really hoping that there was a place in the first world nations that didn't have this "experience." One thing that has spun out of this has been the Cyber Monday -  the Monday following Black Friday – deals and promises and price cuts on all things electronic! Movies for 20% off, computers on dizzying close-out sales! My email box is still stuffed with "up and coming" specials.

Are you sitting down, Don? Okay, so I'm cruising through the latest news one evening as a break from all the papers I've been grading (we are at the end of the quarter) and I run across an article about some teachers agreeing students get too much homework... that it causes more stress and sleep deprivation than it does to improve knowledge and skill development; that only students in grades 7 – 12 really benefit from it at all.

Now the examples that were given were extreme – an hour of homework a night for 2^nd graders. I agree, that is a bit out of hand – but I'm not sure allowing students to avoid stress (so don't do the homework or only do part of it), not learning how to manage stress (by learning how to better manage their time), telling them to not do the work is in their best interests. It was suggested that students email their instructors when they feel overwhelmed. That is a good strategy – and the first time a young, brand new-to-the-job employee does that to a boss, they don't have a job anymore. And often the young new-to-the-job person doesn't have a clue as to why they've been released.

School and homework were my practice grounds for adulthood. I spent many nights working with my dad to learn physics and algebra and stats– I was sleep deprived and so was he – but we didn't live and stay in the thought and mood that this was terrible, horrible, god-awful. We knew it would end and we worked toward that.

Several school districts have changed the order of class work. Students now listen to the lecture at home, and do the homework in school under the instructor's supervision. The reports are mixed as to whether or not this is effective. Since my class periods are 4 hours long, I do both. It works for those who come to class.

At the college level, especially this time of the quarter, I hear a lot about being sleep deprived, not having enough hours or minutes in a day to accomplish what has been assigned. When asked how long they've known about the assignment, most will admit they've known for at least a couple of weeks, if not more. I did, however, have a tutoring student last week who tried to convince me the writing assignment had just been assigned. When I showed him the syllabus for the class and pointed out when it had really been assigned, he admitted he'd not been to class lately... REALLY? Fresh snow during the week – he just had to try the new powder out even though he missed class and sure enough, he got stranded because of blizzards so he missed more classes ...

I should be keeping an excuse list – and starting about 6^th week, putting it on the board. I had another rash of food poisoning again last week – students who didn't know each other or eat at the same places all came down with food poisoning at the same time. Now, I sure that in their minds, they had food poisoning. But  several admitted that they'd been celebrating the night before. Food poisoning, REALLY? Hope I don't sprain an eye doing the eye roll.

To tell the truth, I don't know which is worse, students ducking class and homework or the Christmas sales.

I've been investigating internet search engines to better help my research students and myself with research. I have a list of about 35 different search engines, found a chart with 100 search engines on it... amazing! I'd forgotten that there was more to the internet world than just google and yahoo, bing and .gov. Been having fun tracking down sources for what I think might be my next writing project.

So the website is up and current for December. Books for sale are up and ready... guess Wormhole is contributing to the Christmas sales. But I can guarantee readers will be pleased, amazed and mystified!

Have a great week everyone.

Don, I took a look at your next conversation – "Thou Shalt Chill" as the 3^rd Commandment? I like it!

Carolyn

All images downloaded from Google images

Fig 1 – More on Black Friday retrieved from brooklynbuzz.com

Fig 2 --  Huge best cyber Monday deals retrieved from www.hugecybermondaydeals.com

Fig 3 – Cyber Monday Sales top $1.25 billion retrieved from mashable.com

Fig 4 – The Case Against Homework retrieved from www.thecaseagainsthomrework.com

Fig 5 – My homework philosophy retrieved from placlair.wordpress.com

Fig 6 – Homework retrieved from slates-tablets.com

 Fig 7 – Too much homework retrieved from www.aplacetolovedogs.com