Plimoth Plantation battles the need to study

Today we took my parents to Plimoth Plantation, even though I was so tired I literally cried when I drug myself out of bed and wanted to spend the entire day studying/reading/blogging/working on assignments/discussion board posting. I told someone recently that this program has been a gaping bottomless maw swallowing up every free moment, even my dreams, but never satisfied, never full. There is always something else to do, to read, to hurry up and catch up on. It would be great to be balanced about this, but it takes me so long to figure out the components of the assignments in Info Tech, yes I am the annoying stupid "kid" in the class, that I can't find a way to be balanced and finished at the same time. What scares me is that I am not retaining. I read one of the articles for Understanding Information and took notes in the margins. A few days later, I returned to it and had no memory of ever reading it, nor did any of my notes look familiar or help me to remember the content. Darn! So, today I found myself at Plimoth Plantation entertaining my parents on their annual visit to MA instead of studying. While I had a nice time, I found myself distracted and wishing there was a way to sneak in a little time with the book I'm trying to power through for Essay #1.

Texas strikes again

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/21/education/21textbooks.html

This is an article about the Texas Board of Education's proposed changes to textbooks for history, social studies, and economics. It mentions the rise in digital texts allowing different states to tailor their books, and thus the reverberations of this conservative movement being mitigated in a way the science book changes from 2009 were not. However, for some states (and I am guessing it will be many) it continues to be a problem (Texas deciding what the others will be able to teach their students by its mere size). It's worrisome that there are publishers willing to allow consumers to determine what material will be included in the historical record of fact, or the record of scientific fact. It's outrageous for popular opinion, size, and brute force to be used in altering what students learn in school. How does the librarian in a Texas school provide a well-rounded collection to the students in an environment of active hostility to openness? The constraints on their collection development must be fierce and closely monitored, because there is rarely a more radical person than a librarian when it comes to reading material. I'm curious what types of rules they are operating under from the board of education and their individual school boards. And, I wonder how some of them are finding ways to subvert those restrictions.

Completion not perfection. . .hmmm

Yeah! I got in to Ref-works and was able to create an account. It's the little things in life.

So, I'm wondering what does the mantra, "completion not perfection" really mean? I'm pretty sure our grades are based on our proximity to perfection and not the mere completion of the material. This is a grade-based program, in as much as they use grades to determine our success. I'm familiar with a non-grade based program, and their evaluations were heavily weighted on personal growth and increased "understanding". University of Pittsburgh seems a little less touchy-feeley, kum-ba-ya than that. If someone turns in an assignment that is obviously completed, and in a timely manner, but struggling mightily in it's approach to perfection, how will they be evaluated? My instinct tells me the grade will reflect its accuracy and to take the platitude offered at the beginning of this course for what it is. . . an attempt to keep us from having a nervous breakdown.

I don't really get the whole blogging thing . . .

Blogging seems odd to me. Of course, I don't journal or write in a diary either. There's a similar component to the two activities at times. However, I've seen a few blogs that are simply posts of news and journal articles, or grant opportunities, and find those more my speed. The blogs that chat endlessly about a particular person's life or preferences (just like this one so far), are bothersome. Too often, they turn into rants or examination of the minutia of someone's day. What's the point of reading that? It's great that there is a space for people who want to blog that way, but I don't want to read them.

Where there's smoke. . .

Oh boy. I guess it's a bad sign to feel overwhelmed in the first week of classes. I can see the info tech class is going to challenge me. I'm excited about that, but also nervous. It is so simple to get behind if you hit a spot that just refuses to be understood. I know nothing about the things listed in the syllabus and can't evaluate if what we learn informs the next thing we learn. Is it possible to not understand one assignment but still move forward to the next? I can tell you that my weekend is filled with reading for the two classes. Nothing but reading :)

On a non-Pitt related note . . . we had a fire today at the school where I work, nothing serious. While we stood in the parkinglot waiting for the fire department to do their job, and trying to wrangle teenagers into good behavior, I noticed a bunch of kids holding library books. Our students aren't permitted to carry backpacks. They carry all their binders and school books in their arms during the day. When the fire bell went off, these kids left everything else behind on their desks, binders, books, homework, term papers . . .but they brought their library books. It wasn't just the quiet, nerdy, bookish kids either. Some of the kids were in the more popular groups and others in the scary-kid crowd (black sweatshirts, edgy demeanor). Maybe they thought we might be outside for a long time and they needed something to do, but I doubt it. All of them were socializing, squealing, gossiping, and acting silly, not reading. They just brought the books and were holding them. Why? Are they really good books? Was it instinct? Are they connected to those books in a way they aren't connected to the other things they cart around all day?
I told one of the boys (scary-kid crowd type, but a really nice boy) that in the future we should have all the kids grab a book on their way out the front door. They pass the library, and we could save 688 books, 200 more if faculty and staff joined in, from burning to the ground in a future emergency.