Day: October 8, 2013

I think too much of people. Something I really struggle with is the idea that folks need a lot of clear and specific instruction on how to do things. I’m talking about every thing. In teaching it is how to hold an intellectual conversation, how to stage the various stages of an assignment, how to transfer simple skills from one type of task to another, and so on. This can be a spot of difficulty in my teaching, because I teach in an environment where most students won’t stand up and say, “I don’t get this” even if I ask the class out loud and sometimes even if I ask the student in private. It is the idea of needing help for things that they feel should be easy and I recognize are difficult, but far more difficult than I recognize.

Because of this phenomenon, I lowballed my kids for a while, judging them as less intelligent than they really are. ‘This is too easy’ became synonymous with ‘I’m bored’ and ‘what else can we do?’ All three pointed to the idea of challenge and that very small region of psychological engagement known as the Zone of Proximal Development.

I think, in the spirit of saying random but inspirational drek, I will add this to my focus. I will try to be better about breaking things down and explaining them and I will try to be much more cognizant of everyone’s ZPD. This year I’ll move back towards the New Year’s resolution, but in the form of a new code of conduct to govern my behaviors. After all, isn’t that what a New Year’s resolution is all about?

Some Thoughts:
1. Big things coming in my writing. I am almost done getting all my long term family and work stuff squared away, which gives me a year’s worth of a manageable workload, or as I see it, several hours a night to write my ass off. So shall it begin.

2. Hitting a lot more 10K step days lately, though it isn’t showing in any physical way.I feel like I need to find the will and thus a way to step up more.

3. Thinking about random acts of kindness: I’ve done many in the past but less so since having kids, which goes to show, perhaps, that RAKs are tied to time, opportunity, and psychological preparedness, three things generally stolen by the advent of spawn.

4. I love my kids, really.

5. Having kids is damn hard.

Lack of sleep has dragged me into the depths of allergies right in the middle of flu season. My guard is down at a time where I should be doing everything to stay healthy. I’m considering Zyrtec or some other such supplement. I am also watching Prometheus, which constantly proves to be a stimulant to my imagination.

I must say tonight is another night for rambling. Sometimes it is good to clear out the mental cobwebs in order to make room for fresh thoughts. Lately the cobwebs are in the shape of lingering paperwork, football playbooks, and compound sentence structures. Trapped in those webs are plots of stories I’ve never cared to write but wondered how they would look in print. If you look closer you’ll find the gossamer threads of dual enrollment responsibility, an odd collision between the world of high school and college that I’ve chosen to navigate.

Okay, enough thinking. Now I want to enjoy Prometheus.