geek accomplishments before 9:00 am...
* remove 120 Gb hard drive from firewire enclosure
* remove wife's old 40 Gb drive from (smaller, nicer) firewire enclosure
* verify that the 40 gig drive, is, in fact, kaput
* place my drive into (smaller, nicer) enclosure
* shop for new 350 Gb drive for large enclosure
* practice speech defending purchase of new 350 Gb hard drive to the wife
Friday, July 28
at least we still have carl kassel...
We're going to Chicago in August and the wife and I have tickets for "Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me" but we just found put the Peter Sagal will be GONE and there will be some kind of GUEST HOST. NO FAIR!!! We're crushed.
(This post will only make sense to those of you pretentious enough to listen to snotty weekend game shows on NPR.)
We're going to Chicago in August and the wife and I have tickets for "Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me" but we just found put the Peter Sagal will be GONE and there will be some kind of GUEST HOST. NO FAIR!!! We're crushed.
(This post will only make sense to those of you pretentious enough to listen to snotty weekend game shows on NPR.)
Thursday, July 27
open and shut...
Forgot to mention I had to report for jury duty today. Well... mostly I forgot to mention it because I forgot I had to do it until last night. But it turned out we were all dismissed anyway, since the case was settled out of court at the last minute. You wouldn't believe this village courthouse, though... it made Mayberry look like fucking Law and Order
Forgot to mention I had to report for jury duty today. Well... mostly I forgot to mention it because I forgot I had to do it until last night. But it turned out we were all dismissed anyway, since the case was settled out of court at the last minute. You wouldn't believe this village courthouse, though... it made Mayberry look like fucking Law and Order
Wednesday, July 26
conference recap / teaching manifesto...
I haven't really gone to many talks since the roundtable-workshop yesterday with the textbook publisher. I noticed something during that discussion that kinda put me off the whole rest of the conference, which is... a lot of science teachers at these conferences are insufferable bores and, well... kind of a bunch of jerks. Rather than being interested in improving the state of science education, they all have some kind of personal agenda or some kind of axe to grind. There is far too much tooting-of-one's-own-horn in the atmosphere, and I really have no patience for it. I don't think I approach my talks with that attitude.
The other thing is, all this talk of "Physics Education Research"... the idea that if we give enough tests and do enough statistics, we can figure out the "best" way to teach something, and... I'm sorry, but I just don't believe any of it. I still think Feynman was right when he called education research "cargo-cult science". It looks like science, and it uses some of the tools of science, but I don't believe there is any way to control or to reproduce an educational study. No two students are alike, no two classrooms are alike, no two teachers are alike... hell, I'm not even the same teacher the first, second, or third time I teach exactly the same subject. And I don't care how many scatterplots you draw, I don't think there is any way to draw very many meaningful conclusions out of the sea of uncontrollable variables.
I take exception to the whole idea of "best practices" in the first place. Physics is a science, but TEACHING is not a science. Teaching is an art. I approach teaching much more the way I approach playing guitar than solving an equation. When you are first starting, you see what other people do and you imitate it. If you still suck after 2 years, you are always going to suck. But if you show some promise, and stick with it for a while, eventually you will stop sounding everybody else and start sounding like YOU. There is no BEST way to play guitar. There is no best way to teach. Which isn't to say one can't learn a new chord progression now and then, or try out a new picking technique, or run your sound through some kind of new effects box. But a gifted guitarist can make anything sound good. Likewise a good teacher.
So yeah, I may listen to what other people do every now and then and try to pick up some tips here and there, but this idea of... We're going to find the BEST way to do this through objective scientific study of student understanding... I think is all just ridiculous.
So there. Maybe I should stop coming to these conferences, huh?
Anyway... it' 10:00 AM... I should probably hit the road soon. Although really, I'm kinda enjoying all this laying-around-the-hotel-room stuff. I wonder if there are jobs for Traveling Physicists?
I haven't really gone to many talks since the roundtable-workshop yesterday with the textbook publisher. I noticed something during that discussion that kinda put me off the whole rest of the conference, which is... a lot of science teachers at these conferences are insufferable bores and, well... kind of a bunch of jerks. Rather than being interested in improving the state of science education, they all have some kind of personal agenda or some kind of axe to grind. There is far too much tooting-of-one's-own-horn in the atmosphere, and I really have no patience for it. I don't think I approach my talks with that attitude.
The other thing is, all this talk of "Physics Education Research"... the idea that if we give enough tests and do enough statistics, we can figure out the "best" way to teach something, and... I'm sorry, but I just don't believe any of it. I still think Feynman was right when he called education research "cargo-cult science". It looks like science, and it uses some of the tools of science, but I don't believe there is any way to control or to reproduce an educational study. No two students are alike, no two classrooms are alike, no two teachers are alike... hell, I'm not even the same teacher the first, second, or third time I teach exactly the same subject. And I don't care how many scatterplots you draw, I don't think there is any way to draw very many meaningful conclusions out of the sea of uncontrollable variables.
I take exception to the whole idea of "best practices" in the first place. Physics is a science, but TEACHING is not a science. Teaching is an art. I approach teaching much more the way I approach playing guitar than solving an equation. When you are first starting, you see what other people do and you imitate it. If you still suck after 2 years, you are always going to suck. But if you show some promise, and stick with it for a while, eventually you will stop sounding everybody else and start sounding like YOU. There is no BEST way to play guitar. There is no best way to teach. Which isn't to say one can't learn a new chord progression now and then, or try out a new picking technique, or run your sound through some kind of new effects box. But a gifted guitarist can make anything sound good. Likewise a good teacher.
So yeah, I may listen to what other people do every now and then and try to pick up some tips here and there, but this idea of... We're going to find the BEST way to do this through objective scientific study of student understanding... I think is all just ridiculous.
So there. Maybe I should stop coming to these conferences, huh?
Anyway... it' 10:00 AM... I should probably hit the road soon. Although really, I'm kinda enjoying all this laying-around-the-hotel-room stuff. I wonder if there are jobs for Traveling Physicists?
Monday, July 24
wireless...
I've barely gotten more than two fucking "bars" of wireless network strength ANYPLACE on this trip... not my hotel room, not the conference venue, not the Syracuse campus. It is unacceptable nowadays to sit in a college lecture hall and not have wi-fi. What the hell am I supposed to do... listen to these other presenters???
I've barely gotten more than two fucking "bars" of wireless network strength ANYPLACE on this trip... not my hotel room, not the conference venue, not the Syracuse campus. It is unacceptable nowadays to sit in a college lecture hall and not have wi-fi. What the hell am I supposed to do... listen to these other presenters???
technology...
I was gonna express surprise, dismay, and disgust over the fact that many of the presenters in this session are using overhead transparencies for their talks. But given that the last presenter's PC didn't work with the projector, I think I'll reserve my snarky comments until AFTER I'm sure that MY computer is going to work. becuase, unlike the last guy, I do NOT have a backup of my slides on transparencies. But if my computer does work, I may open with a joke referring to the "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" commercials.
PS> Yes, it did work, and the joke got a BIG laugh. (My presentation was awesome, btw... in case there was any doubt)
I was gonna express surprise, dismay, and disgust over the fact that many of the presenters in this session are using overhead transparencies for their talks. But given that the last presenter's PC didn't work with the projector, I think I'll reserve my snarky comments until AFTER I'm sure that MY computer is going to work. becuase, unlike the last guy, I do NOT have a backup of my slides on transparencies. But if my computer does work, I may open with a joke referring to the "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" commercials.
PS> Yes, it did work, and the joke got a BIG laugh. (My presentation was awesome, btw... in case there was any doubt)
Sunday, July 23
fitness...
Well, after a few days of this... it's nice to know that despite my pushing-40 metabolism, I can still lose 3 or 4 pounds if I COMPLETELY FUCKING STARVE MYSELF. My short term goal is 200 lbs... long term goal is 185. Medium term milestone is 36" pants. Absolute dream... 34".
I haven't gotten into the exercise portion of this program yet. Not formally anyway. Yesterday my exercise was to install a basement ceiling. Today it was to walk all the fuck over Syracuse. I've also been doing a sort of "yoga-with-weights" thing... basically very slow sun-salutations with a 10 pound weight in each hand. Once I've lost a few more pounds and restored a little lost upper-body strength and back flexibility, I'll be going back to yoga class.
I'm not fucking around this time. I'll post some pix of my washboard abs before xmas!
Well, after a few days of this... it's nice to know that despite my pushing-40 metabolism, I can still lose 3 or 4 pounds if I COMPLETELY FUCKING STARVE MYSELF. My short term goal is 200 lbs... long term goal is 185. Medium term milestone is 36" pants. Absolute dream... 34".
I haven't gotten into the exercise portion of this program yet. Not formally anyway. Yesterday my exercise was to install a basement ceiling. Today it was to walk all the fuck over Syracuse. I've also been doing a sort of "yoga-with-weights" thing... basically very slow sun-salutations with a 10 pound weight in each hand. Once I've lost a few more pounds and restored a little lost upper-body strength and back flexibility, I'll be going back to yoga class.
I'm not fucking around this time. I'll post some pix of my washboard abs before xmas!
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