Viral Vicissitudes

"It's about Time!" Re:cess-ing: Where the Other Two Play Out "What we've all been waiting for..." A highly relatable quote for me, the favorite part of my school day which, in my daze, included morning and afternoon...the time when we finally get to "bust out", get out from behind our desks where we have been laboring for what seems to be for an eternity, at least a few hours without a break (for us adults now, on "back to school" nights, only after about ten minutes cramped up behind these contraptions that seem to defy the "ergonomics" of good desk/chair design)...outside of the classroom which, only after a few weeks into the school year for me became "all-too-familiar",  a cramped space...and, at least on "fair weather" days, meant going "Outside!" of the school building itself, onto what's still commonly referred to as "playgrounds" And a quote that I can almost hear in unison fro...

A Re:Examination of examinations, "Proficiency" type.  "What's the use?!"  A quote, lament, often associated with a state of mind, strong feelings of helplessness...powerlessness..."it's hopeless". In my professional life, in the context of an "Educational Psychologist" -- one who seeks to identify and address those encumbrances contributing to a student's underachievement, perhaps after they have experienced a less-than-expected outcome to a test they have spent considerable time and effort prepping for, even after implementing some well-designed strategies for both preparing and taking tests, those that they have received after an individualized assessment of their strengths and weaknesses in an office like mine, or perhaps from a group course their parents have shelled out big bucks for ("ACT/SAT Prep") that their son or daughter attended during after school hours😞. Just imagine how students in "Stand and Deliver...

"But wait...there's more"...on the Re:search, Re:surgence of (Proficiency) Testing: Outside In "The wait is over" As in a good infomercial, I finally get to the good stuff, what it all comes down to, as in dollars and sense. Because it's here again, as in administration of proficiency tests in our schools, an attempt to see if our children of school age are competent, proficient, meet the bare minimum standards set by those inside the "educational establishment". Which is turn a response for those from the outside (later). In order to fully appreciate, understand, take a stand (later) on this issue, perhaps I should start by defining my terms, my own standards... "By Definition" A frequent preface, intro, setting the stage for some elementary or instrumental learning, the basics, stuff to memorize...definitions...defining our terms...of engagement, (dis)agreements...standards. Noteworthy that at least in the re:search I did on your behalf...

Re: Evaluation of Standards, Tests: Back, to Basics  Re-view, Re-fresh: It's what's showing and what we are hearing around here these days, every fall, at least for school age children -- "...an act or function of updating the display on the screen". If only it were that easy, an updated version of an updating the students' knowledge, academic skills they ostensibly acquired in the prior school year, some of which may have been lost in the summer months while likely spending lots of time on screens. The estimated amount of time each school year that each school, each teacher spends reviewing, refreshing, sharpening their re-call. This, either in conjunction with or just following a "baseline" test the teacher administered, either on their own or at the direction of their district's "board", but now, even more likely at the direction of the "state board" as schools throughout the nation have become more 'centralized'. Tests...

Re:Standard-ized, the Rise (in the fall): "You ready for this?!" Rising and Falling: While the recent and anticipated rise in interest rates (by "The Feds"😔😕😟) has gotten, occupied the attention of many 'day traders' and contributed to the decline in "The Dow"...and while fall, "Autumnal Equinox" will not technically arrive around these parts of these United States of America for several hours yet, children of (compulsory) school age who have returned, met their new teacher(s), some of whom have already exposed, subjected their students to tests -- some of which, based on the students' report to the parents upon "pick-up" or returning home otherwise, been designed and arranged by the teachers themselves, sampling their acquired, especially their "retained" knowledge in areas instrumental to academic success, since the almost three month hiatus, still known around here as "summer vacation", more formall...

Re: A-Test-ing: An Introduction to what we have been subjected to. "We're (tests, manufacturers) here for You", Ready-or-Not:  As in, "Combined with classroom work (who has time for it anymore?!) and re-port cards (see September 13th post), and local district assessments, these tests offer a comprehensive view of student achievement and progress (for teachers and parents if they can decipher them)...that provide the teachers (and parents)...with metrics to measure a student's growth early (and often) in their academic life...measuring growth over time helps students and families in goal setting and personal development ("you're grounded until you improve your performance...")...informs and guides teachers (and administrators, such as "heads of curriculum") regarding instructional strategies with various groups and even individual students..." Sold yet? Sure sounds nice, as in...   "Testing, testing, testing...one two three, testi...

  Progress (?) Re:Porting: A Modem/Modern, Stream/Team Approach Remark-able, Question-able: As in "So, teacher, what's the bottom line teacher, is he making progress...will she make the grade...will he pass...ever make something of themselves...are they at least doing better than last year, after we paid out all this money for tutoring, after we agreed to re-tain...???" Another re-markable experience for students, as well as the 'teacher-parent' team attempting to "promote" them, which we adults all experienced as kids, especially as we passed kindergarten -- where we now see marked more ceremoniously, about nine months subsequent to the "Round-Up", as in "Kindergarten Graduation!"😁, a trend in education as well as society at large -- muchos kudos, every step along the way to a long term goal...through what once were known as the "grade school" years, where we started becoming familiar with letters, then "letter grades...

Re:Markable Progress, Getting Carded "Mark this Down" Both parents and students have already heard this from various voices representing formal educators, teachers, front office staff..."put this on your calendar, make a note of it..." Important dates, meetings, even quotations from famous folks we as students may have to re-quote precisely on an upcoming "quizlet" (new name for learning tools we had as lads) or even major, "cumulative" 😟 exam. So much to remember, if we try to simply commit to memory, without marking it down...well, let me know how that worked out for you, whether you were "conspicuous by your absence..." What I am going to re:mark on here, in this limited space, and in the presence of your limited attention span and being "pressed for time"😓, some times of the year we can all relate to, what we have come to count on, those that mark progress, "student progress" in particular..."Your school m...

Re:Port-All Cards; Re:Mark-able Progress...Making, Marking the Grade(s) Intro-duction(s): Yes, plural...let me explain in 'plain English' (as opposed to what is sometimes presented these days on "student progress reports" which usually proceed the more formal, re-markable "Report Cards", which frequently need an accompanying 'legend' to explain, like we used to see on maps before Alexa told us where to go...). Plural because of the importance of making intro-ductions themselves, which hopefully occur early in the year, after the teacher and students have begun to familiarize themselves with each other. There's a lot here to report on so I'll divide it into a few parts, kinda' like the earlier easy-to-read and understand progress reports, report cards were ("tri-folds"😊-- that is, before lawyers, HR departments, and Ph.D.'s in curriculum got together and formed a loose alliance, eventuating in what parents and teachers are n...

Re:verie: Sweet, Sorrow-full, Sounds of Music   Setting the Stage: Read, reflect on September 9th post as Prelude: optional, optimal... Interlude, Gratitude, Attitude: An interlude, what we used to experience as "Intermission", was a time besides when you could rush to the restroom, beat the crowd after "holding it" for FOMO (now known as), a critical part of the movie, whereas others got in line for another round of popcorn, and yet others cleansed their palate, perhaps after eating, drinking something sour...All this prior to the second half of the play or even, back in the days where we went to the drive-in in our PJ's, we readied ourselves for the "second feature", which played out after it finally got completely dark out...hopefully something a bit scary. We were also treated, during intermission, with various music, sometimes scores from other films with which we could relate. Those that might evoke memories, associations, cause us to pause, dayd...

"Get RE:ALL, there's no such thing...THIMK again!" Reality, (bounced) checks: What  we were taught about in our earliest days of formal, public education, things we needed to know about the world around us, which we were to initially memorize and then as we also learned how  to test, question, via the "scientific method", a systematic, disciplined approach to observing, then hypothesizing, then gathering facts to test hypotheses, and ultimately write in a structured, agreed upon format re-garding your findings in such a way that others could re-plicate your procedures (which are laid out clearly,  'transparently', in sharp contrast to "pass this bill and then..."), to see if they get similar re-sults, as well as question your findings based on your data, your conclusions...all of this back-and-forth type of scientific rigor, prior to a formal, serious consideration of your re-commendations from your re-search...which could find itself, if it ri...

Re: A-line-meant: The case for (teaching?) Moral Development. "Get in, stay in, walk, give up your place, stay on the straight and narrow..." Words that guided all of us, some of early and often, whether a form of exhortation or admonition, those that encouraged us forward or to "take a step back"...those that came out of the mouths of our "elders" (those to "be respectful of") which grew to include a vast sum as we ourselves grew...into "responsible adults" eventually...at least that was their hope, aspiration, which was in part the inspiration for these earliest of memes, those that were well meaning...all of this came to me while I, myself, was standing in a (grocery) line, which due to its length, allowed me to reflect on all of this on behalf of all of you, all of it coming to me in a flash of a few moments, while I watched and heard, as in people "talking, walking..."  All of which, of course, prompted me, on the verge o...

Re:Iteration, Re-Admission: "It's about (damn) Time" - Some(one) A-Miss (Over)time, (Under)stated: I was reminded, nudged, by a reader yesterday of this blog, yesterday's post re-garding "Re:calibrating", the implications, ramifications for a particular time of the day, week, year, or even a (miss)step in your aspirational journey. I was reminded -- no, humbled to admit, I had (under)estimated, understated, at least underrepresented the critical importance of timekeeping, being on time...showing up...even though, if this reader had gone back far enough in time, they would see I have talked about "Timekeepers" more than once, a tacit indication of my appreciation for this precious commodity (one of the "Big Three" I have brought to you so many times you have probably lost...count). But here, today, in the form of an addendum (that teachers sometimes allow if you've realized an oversight, underwrite), I make this submission, an admissio...

Re:calibrate - cost of freight, why you're late, what you ate... "Carry On" A double (at least) meaning, a two-for, as in "go ahead, you're good to go, "stay the course" or, even, in a restaurant, after the waiter left the table, who just brought another (course), which caused a pause in the convo, one encourages the other to pick up where they left off. Well, it's already abundantly clear to you, who have been willing to re-turn here for yet another, I don't need much encouragement to do so; that is, regardless the topic at hand..."he'll find a way to bring it into the sphere of psychological experience, one which we can re-late to individually as well as collectively...take on serious, 'heavy' subjects and find at least some lighter sides to it, as well as take some light-hearted topics and apply them to some semi-serious dimensions of life...it's "both an art and a science" -- subjects that, in addition to how a...

  Re:Righting the Wrongs; do's, don'ts, Golden Rule(r)s Branching out, Growing Up: Another branch of math not specifically, explicitly mentioned in my most recent post here (8/20, at a time where many youngsters and collegians, as well as their teachers/professors, already find themselves back in settings of "formal education") is one which calls for a ruler and/or protractor (when was the last time you saw or held one of the latter?) -- in our days, prior to high tech, before a whole range of gadgets calculate all this stuff for "kids these daze", in order to draw straight lines, and/or circles, let alone drawing conclusions, in solving "proofs"...mostly a 'game of inches' which eventually added up to feet, and a bit down the road, whether during the next card marking, semester..."you'll need this for next grade, where things get real serious..." we even learned to "convert"! whether this meant using the ruler, etc....