fishing

I never understood the fun in fishing. I have numerous friends that live by the phrase " a bad day fishing is better than any good day working". we can spend time arguing about this statement but to what end. its just a saying. anyway, i discovered the joy of fishing on my own. I found a fishing hook attached to some fishing line in a creek ( that my companion was sampling, see prior posts). I quickly assembled a fishing pole and got after some minnows in a shallow pool. I eventually got bored of watching them scurry around and moved to a bigger fishing hole. unfortunately the big fish were not interested in what i had to offer. so i attached a bit of my protein bar (my lunch) to the hook in hopes of getting a bigger fish to nibble on it. alas, they came out of their hiding spots, but none every took a bite. After a while i was bored, but had discovered a new hobbie. now i just have to make it legal. (im getting a license for next time) ;)

second snake encounter

About half an hour later, i had another encounter with another member of the same species. this time it was less dramatic but just as scary. I had stopped for a minute to talk with by companion who was on the other side of the river. we were shouting about this and that. when we finished saying what we had to say, i took a nice and slow step forward. at this time i watched how a fat cottemouth slithered into the water just 2 feet from my foot. It had been waiting there all along. That sucker was nearly invisible until he/she started moving. I even had been using a stick to whack the vegetation in front of me hoping that it would scare any slithery friends. Needless to say, i picked up my effort of whacking the shit out of the vegetation.

death X2

this weekend, I spent my time counting rare trees along the blue river in Oklahoma. The activity seems wquite easy when you are stiign at your desk or even when you are driving to the site. when you get to the site, i realized that it was going to be alot more difficult than imagined. these trees grow at the very edge of the river, sometimes 98% of the tree aboveground biomass is located above water. Additionally, there is dense undergrowth all along the rivers edge, a heaven for all things nasty and deadly. So, it was just a matter  of time unitl i stumbled across a fat ass cottenmouth. we were both startled by the sight of another and simultaneously jumped in the air. Unfortunately the snake jumped across the front of my body while showing me her?his wonderfully cotton colored inner mouth. I got away with a minor heart attach but thankfully unbitten. I watched the snake scurry off into its hole at the base of a rock. FUN

whatever

I am lucky to have such a good and helpful group of student in my course. They are by far the best group i have ever had. By best i mean that they interact very well with me and with other students. I find myself explaining less and less as the course progresses because they are explaining things to each other. Some students even volunteer to share their understanding of concepts in front of the entire class! It shows me that the environment is comfortable for the students and that they do not feel intimidated by me or other students. This is an experience i never had as an undergraduate. I admit that their participation is not completely altruistic fore they are looking at me to make sure that they themselves understand the concepts correctly. Either way, the student support each other and support me what i misspeak or just have a bad day. I am truly amazed of the positive attitude in my class room.

Hail to the chief

I am green. i am not talking about living green or eating green or anything related to "sustainable"  or low carbon emission. What i am talking about is inexperience. I have a four semesters of TA experience which in retrospect has given me limited wisdom. I learned how to deal with students in terms of answering questions about similar material. however, I was not responsible for teaching them the objectives. THis is proving to be one of the most difficult parts of teaching the inquiry course. Thankfully i have a mentor who is making footsteps for me to follow. I feel comfortable following these footsteps because i have a lot of the same teaching qualities. among the important ones is enthusiasm and engagement. I have learned how to engage students in a real and intense manner which i see keep students engaged and interested. I am not sure if he realizes that i see him as my mentor but given that i attend almost all of his classes, he most likely understands his role.

teaching = learning

Teaching has lead to a severe reduction of doing research because it consumes the entire morning four days a week. I did not expect to be spending so much time each day grading homework, exams and preparing for lecture. preparing lecture requires coordinating reading objectives with lab demonstrations and exercises. In addition, this is in Inquiry course so the learning is supposed to be student centered and discussions are based on their participation. My job, is to direct their participation so that they can use what they learned in their reading with the lab demonstrations to arrive at major objectives. This is easier said than done. For the most part, i have done what i think to be an adequate job at keeping this course inquiry based. At times i have accidentally undermined the inquiry process by dropping hints or jumping to the "punch line". Doing this reveals the lessons "secret" or "suspense"and the students are liable to trun their brains off after this happens. It is nearly impossible to keep the class engaged after you drop the punch line prematurely. Knowing how to prevent this from happening takes practice and preparation.

First exam for my kitties

I finally had the opportunity to assess my students and i thoroughly enjoyed it. The whole process was enjoyable even though i am short on time. I spent quite a bit of time going through my lecture notes and assigned readings to create the test questions. I had a general guideline for the type and number of questions that would compose the test in order to make sure that the students had enough time to complete the exam. unfortunately, it only took 16 mins for the first student to complete the exam. Most students finished before the end of the class period, which was part of the reason why i was surprised about the outcome. I already had an idea about how a few specific student would do given their background and class participation. However, the high grade of 91 was unexpected. In addition only two students scored in the A range. Never the less, the class average was acceptable at 78.

big mistake

When given the task of providing a study guide for your students do not cut corners and use a old study guide just to save time. More than likely the material covered during the previous class is different than what you have covered. Even worse you may emphasize different things that another teacher. Still, one thing i have going is that the course has not been revised in over 25 years. Really! the students are learning from the same setups as some of your parents have. So the content of the course has not changed much, leading me to believe that a generic study guide will be suitable. obviously this is crap. Now i am running the risk of pissing off my students  to a point where their attitudes towards me will be permanently negative. I guess the only thing to do is to send out a revised review sheet. cheers

Sea side alder 2

The seaside is facing a very difficult problem. Seedlings are unable to establish themselves, and no seedling have been seen in many many years. The alder is capable of sprouting new branches from "clumps". Theoretically, these clumps may be hundreds and even thousands of years old. Periodically stems will break or be burnt in a fire, resulting new clones re sprouting from the base.
It would be interesting to examine why no new seedlings are able to establish themselves. Previous investigations have found out that viable seeds are produced by individuals, and that germination does occur. It seems that seedlings are incapable of finding suitable micro sites.

Seaside alder 1

Last weekend i accompanied my major prof. and an undergraduate student on a filed trip to the blue river located near Tishomingo, OK. the aim was to become acquainted with the study area and study species so that the undergraduate could do research without supervision.
The study species is a very rare alder tree commonly called the seaside alder. There are three small areas in the world where this species grow. In rhode island, georgia and in oklahoma. If you are terrible with geography, these states do not share state lines, thus making the populations highly disjunct.
most scientists believe that these populations are relics and that this species range spanned most of north america before the last ice age.
We visited four populations located along the blue river and natural springs. The area is easy on the eyes and is a popular trout fisher attraction.

untitled

in recent weeks i have been watching my physical health slowly deteriorate. I used to exercise everyday, sometimes twice a day. If i am not mistaken i have exercised once in the last three weeks. I am starting to notice changes in myself like a decreased energy level, motivation and a dwindling joy in everyday life.
These days there is just too much work to be done which make fine excuses not to go for a swim or run. Unfortunately my work performance is going down the longer i do not exercise. It seems that there is a healthy balance (no shit right!) of doing "fun things" and work. The sweet spot seems to be a balance between time spent working out and time spent working. performance is jeopardized when the balance is tipped toward either end.
If you are reading this and are thinking "i hate working out" substitute working out for "playing video games" or "playing music" or whatever you like to do.
Seems like common sense right? Where exactly is this balance? I guess i need to figure that out myself.
in retrospect, this more of a motivational speech for myself than anything else.
cheers

Is there a point where a teacher can say "i have done all i can to teach XZY to you. You ability of understanding XYZ now rests in you and no longer in me" ? 

I feel like there is nothing worse for a teacher than when students are incapable of understanding a simple idea/concept or procedure that has been discussed/taught for at least one week. 

For example, think about the use of a microscope. For the last two weeks we have used a microscope every single day. I have spent an entire class period introducing the parts and the use of the microscope. We have looked at dozens of slides and discussed them in class. I expect that at this point each student can make their own slides and bring it into focus under the microscope. This is important because we have reached a point where i can no longer invest time in talking about operating the microscope because the course needs to move forward. Still this seemingly simple task has escaped more than one student. Since my job is to teach i would never utter the sentences in the first two lines of this post and I will keep explaining the principle each time it is needed. I guess this where testing comes in to play. test=my revenge

legalize my chickens

Norman just like many other cities have a strict policy about the keeping of animals other than dogs and cats. Mainly, these restrictions keep home owners from raising farm animals such as chicken or rabbits by demanding a large distance between your home and the chickens home. In norman that distance is currently 100ft. This distance requirement allows 10% of the norman population to legally raise chickens. The other 90% may not. it seems that this distance was established because of some sort of health risk that may arise f chickens are in too close of contact with humans. Strangely, large cities like Seattle, San francisco and even Oklahoma city have a smaller distance requirement. So, in areas which higher human densities the raising of chickens is allowed in a smaller proximity. does this seem counterintuitive to you? So here in Norman, 90% of the population is barred from raising chickens for what reason?  

its time that this silly city ordinance is changed and the people are returned their freedom to raise their own food. 

A forced post

I find it very difficult to write a post when i feel as though i dont have anything to share. I guess I can bore WHoever is reading this with some things that I have learned about teaching. The first thing i would like to share is that if you truly care about teaching you will find new ways of teaching the same material no matter if youve taught the same class many times. For those of you that have taught the same course for over 20 semesters, this may not apply. Just like everything in life (it seems), being good at something means learning from your own mistakes. This is a very difficult task for teachers, because there are many factors that are out of your control that influencing student learning. This may be one of the first things you need to accept about teaching.
How then, do you learn that the way you teach is useful or rubbish? The easiest method is to do a little research. you can learn from other peoples mistakes and successes in the comfort of your own home or office. Another way would be to seek advice from your mentors/ supervisors. This might be the most valuable resource since these people most likely have taught the same course you are teaching before. You can go as far  as inviting someone to sit in during a lab or lecture and "evaluate" your performance. just be sure you are open to all criticism that may come up.