The Wonk

Many days, approximately 11:00am (after class) I feel like Wonka after the tour.

Self-Focus

During Research Design & Writing, Dr. Carnes mentioned an extremely high burnout rate for teachers. She may have been referring to elementary school teachers but I imagine it applies to university level instructors/professors as well. For me, it is hard not to let my teaching responsibilities monopolize my time. With lecture and assignment preparation, test construction, scheduling, responding to emails, and other tasks, sometimes, it feels like all I am doing is preparing for the next day of class, or an uphill battle.

Nevertheless, it is getting easier to balance my responsibilities as I gain more experience, I mention this fact each self-focus paper I write. In order to not fall into the burnout category I need to appreciate that after the first semester, much of the foundation effort of building a catalog of lectures, assignments, and tests, will be complete. Granted, next semester I am positive there are things I will do different (e.g. emphasize guidelines in syllabus) but I will not be required, as the seasoned colloquialism goes, to reinvent the wheel.

This Tuesday past, my class played a Jeopardy review game. Before the game, I explicitly said there would be no extra credit awarded to the winners, but that they could attend a PDS session for extra credit. Even though I tried to stress the review aspect of the game, students got ugly. The students’ performance also frustrated me; I certainly expected them to do better than they did. Walking into the classroom Thursday morning with the test underarm, I was afraid my students would fail and I would fail.

Today, the tests are graded and I am happy. The mean score was 81%, a little high, but better than a 61%. Furthermore, I have assigned students to write a small report about what concepts of motivation and emotion (chapter six) they could find in the popular print media. This, psychology in the real world, kind of assignment is one that I received as an undergraduate. Assigning such a report has reenergized me; I am so excited to think a student may come to class Tuesday enlightened about the ubiquitous nature of psychological principles.

This is Meagan

She’s studying,

Where did the pirate go for vacation? ARGGHHH – ruba.

Bailey

This is my niece, Bailey, she’s pretty cool.

Ghost Rider and movie list

Last night, Meagan and I went to Ghost Rider with a couple friends. I have to admit I truly enjoyed it, Nick Cage has some excellent eyebrows. (Disclosure: Growing up, I wasn’t into comic books but I did have one that I kept and read periodically, it was collection of Marvel comics with a christmas theme. My favorite of the book was Ghost Rider) It most definetely had “cheese” elements but it was entertaining. My only complaint, it was f****ng loud and at the beginning there were flashing lights that I thought were going to give me a seizure.

Seeing Ghost rider has also prompted me to compile a list of sweet movies: (in no particular order)

• Apocalypse Now
• Motorcycle Diaries
• Amelie
• Five Easy Pieces
• Last Days
• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
• V for Vendetta
• Gandhi
• Crumb
• Dark Days
• Sling Blade
• American Beauty
• Ghost Rider (provisional)

Check out Yoga Guy.

This photo is from the Miles Collection at the Archives of the History Of American Psychology (AHAP), long name, good mission. Miles investigated oxygen consumption among other things.

If you’re interested in reading more about Walter Miles, Check out a paper I wrote about Miles and Alcohol.

This is B. Fritter

T$ update:

I’m always surprised when Friday comes because Friday used to be the end of week and the frontrunner for two lazy days. Now Friday arrives and I’m frightened that I’m one week closer to everything thats ahead. Regardless of those things I’m putting off, our plan tomorrow is to make spaghetti for dinner and drink beers and listen to jazz music in the evening.

KS update:

It’s Friday @ 4:30 pm, I’m sitting in my office and it’s snowing, large snowflakes. I’m near positive we’ve received more snow in Kansas this year than South Dakota did, a complete 180 compared to last year. Meagan often recalls her first visit to Kansas last January and the 55 degree weather.

Other news:
For those of you communists who may enjoy camping with comrades, We’re planning a trip in Mid-March (anytime 19th through 22nd). Meagan, Mike Kennedy, and myself will certainly be involved and most likely Waylon. We camped last summer at Melvern lake, it was pretty good but we may look into other options. Peace out.

Shah

Psychopathology

T$ update:

Wednesday I’ll have my first test in Psychopathology. When most people think of psychology they think of Psychopathology, that is, the mental disorders (e.g. schizophrenia, tourettes, dementia). Most likely I’ll never use this information but I’m positive is will prove valuable for a few reasons. First, knowledge is important. Second, when people find out your a psychologist they immediately think “OMFUG, you’re analyzing me right now!” or “Hey, my brother eats his hair, what’s wrong with him?”. And so, I will be armed with this new knowledge to sound smart (maybe if only to freak people out). Finally, psychopathology is challenging and said to be the “toughest” course in the department, it has forced me to become a better student. It’s somewhat of a paradox: I won’t use this information (really) yet I’m spending the most time learning it.

KS update:

Currently, Emporia is receiving a wintry mix. Kind of a bummer…no bike riding for a while.

Other news:

Meagan’s cousin is a new movie Apocalypse and the Beauty Queen. its pretty poor.

check out these birds, man.

So this isn’t really update-related information. I just wanted to try it. I took this sweet video while on holiday in Tybee Island, GA. I threw a penny to the bird but the bird didn’t eat it.