{"id":220,"date":"2010-11-29T01:59:47","date_gmt":"2010-11-29T06:59:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/msmichetti.edublogs.org\/?p=220"},"modified":"2011-04-01T19:23:25","modified_gmt":"2011-04-01T23:23:25","slug":"on-doozies-and-reflection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adriennemichetti.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/29\/on-doozies-and-reflection\/","title":{"rendered":"On Doozies and Reflection"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been putting off this blog post for a while. Not because I have wanted to avoid this blog; in fact, nothing could be further from the truth. I miss blogging here immensely. But I&#8217;ve been putting off this post because I knew it was going to be big &#8212; epic, really. Or so I thought.<\/p>\n<p>You see, I didn&#8217;t even post ONCE in the entire time from January 1st, 2010 until now.* That&#8217;s nearly 11 months, and marks my longest absence from blogging ever. I&#8217;m saddened by that, and embarrassed even, particularly because I do consider myself to be A Writer Of Some Kind. You&#8217;re possibly wondering why the absence. It&#8217;s nothing earth-shattering, really: I just had a really rough Spring semester. I mean, the Fall 2009 semester was rough too because of the whole lifestyle adjustment thing, but Spring semester felt like a steamroller compared to Fall semester&#8217;s mountain climbing expedition.<\/p>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/wheatfields\/3147240294\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3218\/3147240294_c23b3b40bf.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Steamroller by net_efekt, on Flickr\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.creativecommons.org\/l\/by\/2.0\/80x15.png\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License\" align=\"left\" \/><\/a> by\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/people\/wheatfields\/\" target=\"_blank\"> net_efekt<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imagecodr.org\/\" target=\"_blank\"> <\/a><\/div>\n<p>Yeah, so this is my (very late) reflection post. And I hate that I&#8217;m reflecting on something that A) happened a while ago now, and B) was such a big chunk of time. I usually prefer the as-it-happens, contextual kind of feedback, the kind that&#8217;s most aligned with my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.adriennemichetti.com\/blog\/category\/education-philosophy\/\">educational philosophy<\/a> (y&#8217;know, formative assessment and all). But here we are with all this time since my last post. I guess I have some answering to do.<\/p>\n<p>If you know me personally or follow me on <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/amichetti\">Twitter<\/a>, you might be saying to yourself, &#8220;Huh? But your Spring semester ended months ago! What gives?&#8221; And you&#8217;d be totally justified in saying that. See, the semester was such a doozy (that&#8217;s for you, <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.misterhamada.com\">Clint<\/a>) that I needed some serious steeping time to get back to my &#8220;regular&#8221; life (whatever that is) and let things sink in. So, first, I give you&#8230;<\/p>\n<h2>Why this semester was a doozy<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>I can sum it up like this: I was <em>much <\/em>busier than during my Fall 2009 semester, but felt that I learned less. The reasons for this are complex. Some are evident below.<\/li>\n<li>One of my courses in particular had me playing the role of project manager rather than grad student. This was troublesome for me, not because I don&#8217;t like project management (truth be told, I think I&#8217;m pretty good at it, as I&#8217;m a big-picture kind of thinker), but because it ate up time that I should have been devoting to research and processing. It also put me in a difficult predicament with my classmates, because I was not an authority but needed to behave as one in order to get the final project done. Color me uncomfortable. It didn&#8217;t take long for the project to turn into a game of politics and that left me even more uncomfortable. In the end, all worked out fine, but it was <em>not<\/em> the route I had in mind when I signed up for the course.<\/li>\n<li>Another course had me annotating articles like my life depended on it. Every. Article. Posted. And. Then. Some. This amounted to approximately 150+ pages of reading and 2,000 words of writing per week (just for 1 course!). Annotations for this particular prof required regurgitated information (think: low levels of Bloom&#8217;s taxonomy) rather than any processing or reflection, which meant I didn&#8217;t really have a whole lot of time to consider just <strong><em>what the heck I was actually learning, anyway.<\/em><\/strong> It was a LOT of busywork. My annotations amounted to a 50-page document, which I actually had to turn in at the end of the semester. I mean c&#8217;mon &#8212; does my prof actually read those? (And hey, if you&#8217;re reading this, Dr. You-know-who-you-are, I&#8217;d actually really like to know if you DO read them. Really).\n<ul>\n<li>Let me publicly state here &#8212; not that it will be a surprise &#8212; that I see little value in this kind of work. I successfully summarized between 56-60 articles over a 14 week period, but what did I <em>learn <\/em>from them? That&#8217;s hard to say, because I did not have time to process any of the content that I was so busily transcribing into notes. Had I had the chance to choose one or two of the 4 weekly articles and spend time thoughtfully annotating them and &#8212; even more importantly &#8212; reflecting on how they apply to my experience and previous knowledge, I suspect I would be sitting here now telling you more about what I actually learned in that course, and how this new knowledge became synthesized with my previous understanding &#8212; or at the very least, how it challenged my understanding. But, sadly, that&#8217;s not the case, and though nearly 6 months have passed since that course finished, I still sit here and am not sure how to make sense of it all. That tea needs more time to steep, which is a shame, really, because I suspect it would have been much more of a healthy tonic for me to drink while I was actually <em>in<\/em> school rather than somewhat removed from it.<\/li>\n<li>Note: I must be clear here: I highly respect the professors of both courses mentioned so far. They are well known, prominent, and prolific researchers in their fields and regardless of my criticism, I learned from <em><strong>them<\/strong><\/em> (rather than the coursework) deeply. As an experienced educator well-versed in teaching and learning sciences, I have difficulty stomaching some aspects of their styles, but this is fine. Any experience helps me learn &#8212; I take what I can from it and accept responsibility in my learning. I offer my criticism here as a reason for why this semester felt like busywork rather than learning. And, lest you think I&#8217;m just ranting &#8212; as both a professional and a mature student, I&#8217;m quite comfortable discussing anything I&#8217;ve said here with any of my professors in person, and I did indicate my honest thoughts on the end-of-semester evaluation forms.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>My aunt passed away. This happened while I was on Spring Break in sunny (yes, really) San Francisco. While my aunt had been sick for many years, I learned that despite how prepared a family thinks they are for the loss of a loved one, they really cannot start grieving until the day of death. It was a very, very sad week for my immediate and extended family, and I missed a full week of school between flight changes, funeral arrangements, and an emergency passport renewal. Stress all around, not to mention the mountains of catchup work required for me when I finally did return. It took me about 4 weeks to finally get back on top of things &#8212; just in time for the stress of finals to begin.<\/li>\n<li>Finals. This semester I worked on some really amazing projects, some which took me way outside my comfort zone and into areas of research and design I&#8217;d not even thought of before. This was good, of course, as I felt really stretched in terms of my skills and knowledge. However, because the learning curve was so steep for me, these projects required considerable brain power, research, and outside-of-the-box thinking. The projects included:\n<ul>\n<li>a mobile application to teach basic Math skills to elementary-aged children in Bangladesh,<\/li>\n<li>a <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/present\/view?id=ddhxj5fk_149dj3tjfcf\">community development program<\/a> for digital mobile storytelling in Suriname,<\/li>\n<li>a combined physical and virtual learning space for future NYU ECT students, and<\/li>\n<li>a re-design of a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.metmuseum.org\/works_of_art\/musical_instruments\">musical instruments exhibit at the Met<\/a> (which currently is quite boooooring but with our redesign would be quite fantastically awesome and fun).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Before finals, I also worked on several smaller projects involving:\n<ul>\n<li>analysis of various museum exhibits and public spaces around NYC (at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mocanyc.org\/\">MoCA<\/a>, the <a href=\"http:\/\/wondertechlab.sony.com\/\">Sony Wonder Lab<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amnh.org\/exhibitions\/silkroad\/\">The American Museum of Natural History<\/a>, and the<a href=\"http:\/\/www.movingimage.us\/site\/site.php\"> Museum of the Moving Image<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>extensive research of teen social network use in developing countries (resulting <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=aw8x8NR1ewc\">video<\/a>);<\/li>\n<li>analysis of the educational technology initiatives in Jordan;<\/li>\n<li>a <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/present\/view?id=dxjvhqt_486fn4k7bhm\">teacher support program<\/a> for rural schools in Suriname; and<\/li>\n<li>the user interface design of an online studio-based learning community for ECT<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>My parents visited &#8212; during finals. Not that having your parents visit is a bad thing &#8212; actually, in my case, I usually love it when my parents visit. But it was just bad timing this particular instance. During finals = ugh. So yeah, there was some stress this time &#8217;round.<\/li>\n<li>Personal relationships. Without going into too many revealing (and unnecessary) details on this &#8212; a professional &#8212; blog, I will simply say that some close relationships in my life changed rather dramatically in the 6 months from January to June 2010. It is too soon to tell whether all of these changes are for better or for worse. At this point, I can simply say that the relationships are evolving, and it has caused a significant amount of stress, as these kinds of things do. Nothing to be done about it; this is just the way life is, and I am grateful for having these relationships to teach me about the world and about myself.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That&#8217;s just a brief rundown of all I dealt with in my Spring 2010 semester. I haven&#8217;t even gotten into the summer yet. Wow. Or this semester, a.k.a. <a href=\"http:\/\/search.twitter.com\/search?q=%23ThesisLand\">ThesisLand<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I hope that my next post will begin with&#8230;<\/p>\n<h2>What I actually learned<\/h2>\n<p>&#8230; in those 4 months of that Spring semester. But who knows. Things have become somewhat unpredictable lately!**<\/p>\n<p>*well, not really now. As you can see I&#8217;ve already posted thrice. But this post has been in the works the longest.<\/p>\n<p>**were they ever really predictable?<\/p>\n<h3 class='related_post_title'>Like this? You might also enjoy these:<\/h3><ul class='related_post'><li><a href=\"https:\/\/adriennemichetti.com\/blog\/2010\/12\/06\/wants-vs-fears\/\" title=\"Wants vs. Fears: who will win?\">Wants vs. Fears: who will win?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/adriennemichetti.com\/blog\/2009\/12\/31\/and-thats-a-wrap\/\" title=\"&#8230; and, that&#8217;s a wrap!\">&#8230; and, that&#8217;s a wrap!<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/adriennemichetti.com\/blog\/2009\/10\/20\/panwapa-wha\/\" title=\"Panwapa Wha&#8230;?\">Panwapa Wha&#8230;?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/adriennemichetti.com\/blog\/2010\/12\/13\/home-stretch\/\" title=\"Home stretch\">Home stretch<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/adriennemichetti.com\/blog\/2009\/11\/28\/classroom-practicality\/\" title=\"Classroom Practicality\">Classroom Practicality<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been putting off this blog post for a while. Not because I have wanted to avoid this blog; in fact, nothing could be further from the truth. I miss blogging here immensely. But I&#8217;ve been putting off this post because I knew it was going to be big &#8212; epic, really. Or so I <a href='https:\/\/adriennemichetti.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/29\/on-doozies-and-reflection\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[190,6,10],"tags":[192,54,194,60,193,94,121,191],"class_list":["post-220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academia","category-education-philosophy","category-on-the-personal-side","tag-annotations","tag-design","tag-doozies","tag-ect","tag-finals","tag-learning","tag-reflection","tag-semester","category-190-id","category-6-id","category-10-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-line-bottom","fix"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3serH-3y","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adriennemichetti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adriennemichetti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adriennemichetti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adriennemichetti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adriennemichetti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/adriennemichetti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":307,"href":"https:\/\/adriennemichetti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220\/revisions\/307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adriennemichetti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adriennemichetti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adriennemichetti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}