sunflowers #2 (2011)

I’ve always dug sunflower season: a last brilliant gasp of summer before autumn. Every sunflower season for the last 3 or 4 years we’ve made a point to find a first rate sunflower field for photo ops with the family. Marshall county has had some of the best in the past, but the farmers I know have moved away from the crop – and they never got into it for the aesthetics anyway. And it’s a 2 + hour drive.

Right now is the best time to find pictures. They'll be haggard in a week.

There’s a farmer near Lawrence who we’ve discovered – who plants a field most years – and leaves a Karma bucket up so you can cut flowers (1$ apiece I hear) if you want. I’ll search and post again once I find more pictures from years past. His wife (I assume) blogs at The Farmers Wife blog.


Map with directions found below.




Double click on map to enlarge. Field is 7 miles from the turnpike ramp in north Lawrence.

Echo Cliff

Discovered a hidden gem of Kansas geology this weekend at Echo Cliff near Dover just outside of Topeka. It started at the sunflower field near Lawrence - where the boy discovered some Sioux Quartzite and got really interested in my stories of glaciers and how the rocks ended up in Kansas so far from their home in Minnesota.

That lead us to the Kansas Geological Survey site, which noted an anomalous sandstone deposit less than an hour from our home. The sites we found had less than impressive photos, but they hinted at something interesting - and that called for a road trip.

There is an echo - and some bizarre steam punk out houses, picnic tables

and wild folk art trash cans. But the landscape looks alien to Kansas.

SQUIRREL!

Been thinking about the squirrel meme lately. It started in the pixar movie UP! A dog is given a device that enables him to speak English. We like him and he wants to please, but every time he sees a squirrel he interrupts himself and completely loses focus. The train or thread of the discussion is lost.

A popular entertainer noted the corporate media tendency to give eccentric or ridiculous behavior way too much attention - moving from distraction to distraction rather than exploring any topic or issue in a meaningful way (it is here at 4:15 in). He compared us/ the media to the dog.

As a teacher, I've dealt with bats, a cobra, a wild dog and more insects than I can recall in the classroom. No real challenge to maintaining decorum; however, those with ADHD/ADD, autism spectrum disorder, and myself can get distracted by certain unnecessary or inappropriate images, behaviors and activities. These include but are not limited to:

• Walking in to class late while holding an uninterrupted conversation not related to the class.
• texting
• walking in late holding a fresh coffee.
  
• being consistently late (classic passive aggressive behavior - sends clear message to teacher and class)
• Sleeping in class.
• sexually inappropriate behavior (groping, disrobing, whispering, and any exchange of bodily fluid of any kind).
• ?

SO if I shout squirrel in class - I'm using a meme to express my distraction and loss of focus due to inappropriate behaviors that I can't train myself to ignore.

That will work, if we all share the same values, but do we? To what extent?

This is culturally laden. Blowing ones nose in Taiwan would send the class into hysterics. BUT I could belch really loud and no one cared at all. I used to enjoy that.

What behaviors should I add to the list?

image found at http://filesll.fluxstatic.com/01112D4701DE4E26000710FCFFFF/TN1/Jpg/B-1008/AR590x590,Resize/634200684000000000

the no sshls rule

Been thinking of boiling my course policies down to something short and clear. Something like the best selling book, The No Asshole Rule (written by Stanford business prof Robert Sutton - and winner of the 2007 Quill award for best business book - based on his popular essay written for the Harvard Review). I thought it was brilliant and funny. (buy here at amazon - and/or read additional review of text).

He makes a great case for using the A word, but not sure I can get by with it. But does jerkwad have the same impact? Isn't D-bag even more offensive and probably sexist?

If 3 to 4% of the population is sociopath (as scientists/psychologists argue) then we can't doubt jerkwads exist. Most of them aren't clinically anti-social so the percent of jerkwads is way more than 5%. In college it has a lot to do with maturity - and/or lack of it. Learning to think of those other than oneself is a big step - and considering the prefrontal cortex doesn't finish developing until the mid-20's - and that's necessary to see the consequences of actions.

Is one of the roles of / goals of/ objectives of college to recognize and avoid jerkish behavior? Should it be?

I say yes. It is addressed in comp student learning objectives as: tone, audience awareness, peer work and collaboration and effective communication. When one is a jerkwad - that is the only message received by one's audience. Any other intention is rendered moot.

To that effect, rules about use of cell phones, sleeping in class, tardiness and all other passive aggressive and disruptive behavior should be consistently applied....but...

It gets wrapped up in power or control, doesn't it.

questions for classes

• What behaviors in class qualify as jerkwadish? Why? How do the affect the class?
• Does every class have jerkwads? What percent of the school population in general are jerkwads?
• What about teachers? What behavior have you seen in instructors that qualifies as jerkwadish?
• Is it merely manners? Are manners related or not and how or why?
• 
  

Funny because it's true...

Got this from a post on the funniest facebook fails, but something very much like it has happened with one of my students.

Then he asks me to tell him what's in the textbook

found this gem at memebase

How to say nothing in 500 words

What does "Concise" mean? Is writing the art of spinning bllsht into gold? Isn't a grammatically clean paper all you really need for an "A"? Do students really think instructors can't see through BS? OR do students think BS is what is expected? (After all we see nothing but BS on TV, in the news, from those around us)....
Turns out back in the '50s a prof. had some brilliant insight into this. I've only just scanned it - but it comes highly recommended by a colleague.

• the essay
• a blog post on it by someone else.

The writer's job is to take a boring idea, and make it interesting.