Rounding the Bend

The homestretch is here! I have three more weeks until the semester is complete. My checklist of things to accomplish in the next weeks include:

1. A ten page paper on creativity testing
2. An eight page psych paper
3. Four items to be written at work
4. Three finals

two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree...

I'm not worried though. A solid rough draft of my psych paper is making the rounds between three people who will provide feedback. My ten pager on the other hand... well, I'm not as motivated. It is not surprising that motivation is flagging in this class. Consider for instance, it is now December and the entire class has yet to receive MIDTERM exam grades. Lovely. Plus, I'm not really excited about creativity testing, it just seems something that I'm more interested in given my choices. It will be a glorious day when this project just gets done.

My psych paper though is good stuff. I'm learning about learning theories. Which has this Alice in Wonderland quality about it. As I'm learning about knowledge construction, I am actually watching knowledge structures take form in my own mind. Weird. Below is a concept map representing a tiny fraction of my mind...



I did have a wonderful Thanksgiving with the family and got to catch up with everyone back home. And guess what! I also hosted my first non-family guests! Dear friends from Tennessee visited via Madison.

I guess that is now...IC 2. Shanghai 12?


Today also marks the first day snow accumulated. Well, I don't know if you would call it accumulation, it just didn't melt away.

Producing

He asked me how my week was!

I knew we made progress when S- asked me how my week was! I've been going every Monday to his school to tutor him. Usually he avoids me for the first five minutes, but I could tell that he was starting to warm up. And this week it finally happened- he actually asked me how my week was.

About a month ago we started talking about movies. When it comes to movies, I live under a rock in a cave. I seriously don't know who the famous actors and actresses are (why should I know their name if they don't know mine?) Admittedly, this is a shortcoming of my ability to relate to middle schoolers. But as we kept talking, I started to ask him if he ever saw himself as an actor, director or producer. I don't know that he ever thought about this.

I suggested he write a script and figured it could be something we worked on during tutoring time since he never had homework anyway. Every week I'd ask him about a script and he'd say he didn't do it and then proceed to write out a list of 'must see movies' he recommended I see. (Annie- You still have netflix right? We are watching a disproportionate about of action movies this Christmas!)

Then last week he said to me, I wrote my script.


S- that is great! What is it about!



It's called 72 hours. Is that two days?



Well, 48 hours is two days so...



It's probably like three days, huh?



Sure.



He proceeded to share his plot line with me. I told him to bring his script and then privately told the program teacher what he was working on.

That is fabulous! Does he want to film it? Let me know what you need and he can film it here. He can get students who are done with their homework to be in the movie. We have several students who need to work on their reading fluency. This would be great for them.

S- brought me the script yesterday, which actually was more of a plot summary. We got online and looked up actual scripts so he knows what he has to write. It has been exciting to watch this transformation in him. No, I don't think he can round to the hundredths place any better than at our first meeting, but he is excited about his film. And he is writing on his own. No teacher, no grades, he is writing because he is intrinsically motivated to learn. I'm not sure when he last experienced that sensation, but I'm glad this project is affording him that sense of pride. I hope it all works!

Metacognition

One phenomenon of academia I adore and admire is the actual honest act of thinking. In retrospect, I witnessed my adviser do it when I visited the school for the first time. Once I got here, I've noticed more and more people doing it. Ok, you are thinking, well duh, everyone thinks. That is true. But there is a distinct quality about the thinking that goes on here. I began to notice it in one of my classes whenever anyone would ask a more complex technical question. The professor would say, "Just one moment, let me think." He would proceed to think, the room was quiet and he would then state his answer anywhere from 10 seconds to 1 minute later. I loved that. I love that he took the time to think before professing an answer instead of just spouting it.

Then the other day, I was sitting at a computer and found myself THINKING! I wasn't typing, or reading, just thinking. Ok, I've done plenty of thinking in the past, but somehow, this was different, I was deep in my thoughts, smoothing them over, testing them out, playing my own devil's advocate. That is when a office mate walked in and just started laughing. I don't blame him for laughing. I would probably laugh too if I walked in on someone staring at the floor. Quickly, I defended my stupor, "I was thinking! Really I was!"

Another office mate is finishing up his disertation. Although he speaks relatively little English, he is known as the genuius in the program. Yesterday, he was sitting in the overstuffed chair in our office, legal pad in his lap with one or two distributions hand drawn on it, and just staring at a wall. I smiled to myself. The academic life is not opulent, but what a luxury it is to think through an idea.