Eggrolls

Experiment #1: Impromptu Egg Rolls

So, in an attempt to be social, I invited a few people over for an impromptu lunch on my way home from the grocery store. No one came, but I still had a great time! Did you know that you can make egg rolls with only 5-7 ingredients (depending on whether you go vegetarian or not)? Can you guess what they are?!

Experiment #2: Fruit Roll Ups

I had a few wraps left over, so I decided to experiment. I had made a delectable tropical fruit salad with fresh kiwis, mangoes, peaches, pears, pineapple, and a few canned mandarin oranges as a side dish. So, I some into a wrap, rolled it up, and fried it. It was incredibly tasty with a little of the Thai peanut sauce dipping sauce I used on the "normal" egg rolls.

Experiment #3: Baked Alaska, Egg Roll Style

Well, if you can make fruit egg rolls, why not dessert?! Especially when no one else is in the room to make fun of you for having (much less actually experimenting with) such silly ideas!

I rolled up a glob of some very well-frozen ice cream in a wrap and dropped it in the pan. I'll spare you the details, but let's just say it ended up being a bit of a disaster (but it tasted good). Nonetheless, I think I'll stick with baked Alaska next time.

Misery

The passing, peaceful

The sorrow lingers
The heart aches
And silent fingers

Grip the grief
All alone
And wish I, too,
Had been called Home.

Cherice Montgomery, August 2007

Residue

She slipped away,
But left behind
Tear-stained cheeks
And grief-stained minds.

Cherice Montgomery, August 2007

How's Your Math These Days?

Cherice x Your Mind = ?

It occurs to me that I am a product of all the people whose minds I have experienced. With every blog or book I read, every conversation I have, every del.icio.us account I explore, every non-verbal communication I notice, every piece of music I listen to, every website I view, I am taking the best of other people's minds into myself . . . internalizing them . . . making them a part of me.

Cherice x School = ?

I have concluded that, for the most part, the institution of school gets in the way of learning. Its conventions and structures constrain natural patterns and rhythms of learning (which I believe to be highly complex, embodied, non-linear, and relational) and limits understanding by chopping everything up into itty bitty decontextualized pieces in the name of making it all comprehensible.

So with what answers would YOU complete the equations above? :-) Do the answers change when you insert your own name into them?

An Aesthetic Feast

What do multiple literacies look like, feel like, and sound like? What happens when you layer aesthetic, conceptual, discursive, emotional, intellectual, rhetorical, and visual elements using mixed media? Take a look at Dave Werner's Portfolio to find out.

The design of the site and the thinking that it reveals are intriguing to me—especially as you explore pages like the reflect/respect page (be sure to watch the video and click on the process images). Note the multiple paths to navigation, the mix of non-linearity and linearity on every page, and the convergence of inquiry with social activism, community engagement, and arts-based education. I also liked the way the site invites you to interact with it, and in the process, helps you to establish a relationship with its author, its content, and its form. You can see and hear Dave's mind at work (and come to understand more about HOW and WHY it works as it does) as you explore it.

The portfolio is a good example of many of the values of the iGeneration—inter-tainment, identity, individuality, information, innovation, interactivity. It engaged me in considering how our representation of content gets tangled up with our values, and how that influences the ways we choose to represent ourselves personally and professionally. I also couldn’t help but think of the research on cognitive flexibility, complexity, design, engagement, perception, multiple representations, and visual thinking as I was exploring this.

It would be interesting to show this to educators and teacher candidates and ask questions such as:

• What do these ‘products’ reveal about what the person who created them understands? What do they reveal about what he may not have considered? What do they reveal about him professionally? What do they reveal about him personally?

• What kind of experiences could prepare someone to create such products? What kinds of experiences would preclude the development of the skills required to create such products?

• What kind of technological pedagogical content knowledge would be required in order for a teacher to facilitate the development of such products or skills?

• What implications might this have for the kinds of things we do in our classrooms and for the kinds of assignments we give to students (PreK-12, undergraduate, graduate, doctoral)?

• What might this mean for the future of education, as well as for cultural, economic, political, and social contexts?

• What questions should we, as educators, be asking that we currently are not?

Of course, there are many counterarguments. (Incidentally, it would be interesting to see a visual representation of some of them.) There will be many who will find the site overwhelming and who will argue vociferously that it has nothing to do with education, literacy, the future, or the challenges inherent in those endeavors . . . .

For me, however, it is the happiest site I've encountered in a very long while--an aesthetically, conceptually, emotionally, and intellectually pleasurable experience.

A String of Quotes

Well, they say it is bad academic form to string a bunch of quotes together. Perhaps so, but I intend to do so anyway and leave you to make of them what you will!

I believe that experience plays a key role in learning, so this quote from Eduscapes grabbed my attention today: "To really experience many topics, you need a wide range of materials."

It brought to mind Elliot Eisner's comment that, ". . . the selection of a material or activity is also the selection of an array of forces that will influence how students will be challenged to think . . . . The curriculum is a mind-altering device" (Elliot Eisner, pp. 13, 72).

And the combination of those 2 quotes led me to wonder about underfunded schools . . . which recalled this little chant that is often attributed to Mother Teresa:

We, the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, for so long, with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing.

And so now I'm musing about the irony of teachers who believe in the value of immersing students in rich experiences with the topics they are teaching, but are working in extremely underfunded schools and the contrasting irony of teachers who believe that lectures and worksheets are the best ways to promote learning, but are working in schools that are so well-funded that they have difficulty spending their budgets each year.

All of THAT makes me wonder if anyone is learning anything at all!

References

Eisner, Elliot W. (2002).The arts and the creation of mind. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-09523-6.

Quintessential Quantum Quips

As some of you may know, I have developed an interest in the principles of quantum physics over the last few years, so it will come as no surprise to you that I was completely delighted by the latest series of panels from PhDComics this week:

Slave Part-Equal Duality (An Introduction to Quantum Gradnamics) (On Comps)

Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle (An Introduction to Quantum Gradnamics) (On the Prospect of Graduation)

Schroedinger's Cat (An Introduction to Quantum Gradnamics) (On Productivity)

These REALLY amused me . . . in part because they are SO true of me, in part because they draw the parallels between doctoral work and quantum physics so substantively, in part because they do such a beautiful job of layering meaning via allusions, concepts, images, and text, and in part just because laughs come so few and far between these days that I'm thrilled for a REAL excuse to smile . . . let alone actually giggle!

The comics perfectly capture my present "location" in the developmental trajectory of tasks and experiences that comprise doctoral work. They also encapsulate my current thoughts, feelings, and frustrations beautifully, but in a much more witty and sophisticated way than I am capable of at the moment.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

Frogs & Snakes

She walked through the woods, enjoying the warmth of the unseasonably sunny October day. Peep! Peep! Peeeeep! Now what could that be, she wondered? She continued along the path, eagerly anticipating the little creature that must be just around the corner. Would it be a little bird, or a frog, or some kind of rodent? She was horrified when she rounded the corner and a striped snake darted across her path with a pale green frog dangling helplessly from its mouth.

She wasn't afraid. (After all, the snake's mouth was already full, so she was in no particular danger.) Suddenly, Emily Dickinson's poem, I'm Nobody, Who Are You took on a whole new meaning. Perhaps the little frog she accused of being so "public" and "telling his name . . . to an admiring bog" was a bit of a misinterpretation! He was probably shouting, "Help me! Help me! A snake is trying to eat me!"

She stood there, contemplating the poor little fellow's misery, and debated whether she should try to rescue him or let nature take its course? She decided that even if she were to manage to successfully rescue the frog, he would probably die because he was already full of venom. So, she sent up a quick little prayer that the frog wouldn't suffer too much and then continued along the path, wishing she had her camera with her so she could have posted a picture of the whole adventure on her blog. (Ironically, the reason she had come to the woods was to take pictures, but she had forgotten that she had removed her camera from the trunk of her car.)

Lost in her thoughts, she was quite startled when a second snake skittered across her path. Well, clearly snakes lived in the woods. She'd better watch where she was walking. She noticed a forked stick lying next to the path and decided it would be a good idea to carry it with her just in case . . .

She almost stepped on the third one. He was hard to see atop the multicolored leaves so littered with twigs. He had draped himself completely across the sunniest part of the path and moved away only after she stood there for a few moments.

She was far enough into the woods to make the possibility of encountering more snakes ahead preferable to the certainty of the three snakes she knew were awaiting her if she retraced her steps, so she continued. She couldn't help but think about Eve's encounter with the snake . . . and what this little experience was teaching her about the possible meanings and symbols inherent in it.

By the time she encountered Snake #5, she couldn't concentrate on such theoretical issues because she was devoting all of her attention to walking as quickly and carefully as she could, praying all the while that she wouldn't be bitten. Her relief upon reaching the bridge leading out of the woods would have been palpable to the snakes (which she later learned had good smell and sight, were extremely sensitive to vibration, and whose tongues could taste the chemicals in the air).

Evidently, there are 18 different species of snakes native to Michigan, but only one is poisonous. "Her" snakes appeared to have been garter snakes who were likely to have been born with their 6 (or possibly 45) other brothers and sisters in the late spring or summer and were probably preparing to hibernate together for warmth (hence their abundance).

For those of you who prefer the lighter side of such things, consider reading Lizards, Frogs, and Polliwogs to your children. It is a darling little picture book that discusses the characteristics and behaviors of all sorts of amphibians and reptiles in extremely amusing poems that are beautifully illustrated (and often contain accurate information).

Do you hear that hollow, whooshing noise?

Words can be weapons that pop balloons of happiness, sucking the joy out of everything!

Something More

So, it's 10:15 p.m., I've been working on stuff for my comprehensive exams most of the day, haven't had dinner yet, and still have tons of work left to do before tomorrow. I don't dare even think about the rest of the week!

The phrase There's Gotta be Something More pretty much encapsulates my feelings about my present activities and life in general so well (with the exception of the coffee, the hitchhiking, and the wine), that I decided to take a few minutes to post it.

The song makes me happy, even though my circumstances don't. I'm soooo ready for a change, but it looks like that is going to be at least another 6 months in coming (at which point, of course, I'll be overwhelmed with it).