More AAAAAAAAAAARGH!

The student who managed to be clueless on the assignment that he had almost two weeks to work on managed to find a solution to his problem. He cheated. Unfortunately, he copied from someone who had made a response that was so spectacularly bad that it was memorable. And of course, once I put the two papers together, the overlap was striking. So now I have to give them each a zero and file the appropriate paperwork. I hate doing that, but I hate even more not doing it.

technorati tag: teaching-carnival

Day 220 -- More Ottumwa

One can't visit Ottumwa without metioning Radar O'Reilly, the erstwhile clerk of M*A*S*H 40077. The character of Radar appears in the novel M*A*S*H, and is from Ottumwa. Gary Burghoff is from Connecticutt, and as far as I know, never went near Ottumwa, but is forever destined to be associated with it.

I ran six miles this morning. After a rough week, I didn't want to push myself too hard. So my goal this week is the same as my goal for last week: run every day Monday through Friday, and run 8 miles on the weekend. I didn't make it last week, but perhaps this week, I will.

Accent? I don't have no stinkin' accent!

As seen at Dr. Crazy's.

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."

What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

Yes, I do call carbonated beverages "pop."

In which I vent a little about student work ethic

The last couple of semesters, I've been using a two-class-day timetable for my homework. So if I talk about Section 20 on Monday, the homework is turned in Friday. The idea, of course, is that all the students will work on it Monday and Tuesday, and if there are any problems, we can talk about them in class Wednesday, and they still have time to finish the problems and hand them in on Friday. In execution, of course, not every student quite keeps on schedule.

In Discrete Math this semester, I am trying something a little different with the proofs. The homework that involves writing proofs, they write up once (in two days), I grade it and make comments, and then they type it up formally for more credit (in another two days.) The idea being that I want to instill in them the notion that a good proof should be well-written, and that that usually takes more than one attempt.

So, with the proofs that I collected today, the problems were originally assigned on Monday, October 30. Some students did have some questions about them, so we talked about them in class on Wednesday, November 1. I collected them on Friday, graded them over the weekend, and returned them with instructions to type them up and hand them in on Friday, today.

So, last night when I got e-mail from a student -- a particularly loud-mouthed student, who is always complaining about how darn hard this material is -- saying, basically, "I don't understand this homework at all. Can you give me a little hint," all I could say was "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"

technorati tag: teaching-carnival

Day 219 -- Ottumwa

I'm not quite to Ottumwa, but there's not much in the area, and I've got several good Ottumwa places I can visit. This is Ottumwa High School, where I have actually been, once in my life. There was a regional speech contest there when I was in High School. As I recall, I got 2's (on a scale of 1 to 3) on both my speeches, which at the time was a disappointment, but now, a mere 25 years later, I'm completely over it.

I didn't run yesterday. My left knee has been giving me a little trouble, and then all of a sudden on Wednesday, my right knee started acting up. So I took yesterday off, which I think was a good idea. Both knees are better today, if not completely normal. I'm afraid I'm going to have to see a physical therapist if they don't settle down.

The big problem with taking a day off is that without my daily shot of endorphins, yesterday was a pretty rough day, particularly in the morning. It didn't help that it was a day of swatting mosquitoes. No big thing to do, but a million little tasks that seemed to multiply even as I got them done. So it was frustrating, but I made it through. Today I ran five miles, and my morning went better.

The Importance of Silence

I had a student in my office today. He wasn't one of my regulars. He was pretty confused. My temptation, of course, was to run off at the mouth. "Let's do this example. Let's do that example. Look how easy it is when I do it." But I resisted. He was processing, but he was processing very slowly. So I had to remind myself to just shut up and let him think. It took time. But he got it. I need to remind myself of the importance of silence.

technorati tag: teaching-carnival

RfP Wednesday -- Prisoner of Trebekistan

This is a "Reading for Pleasure Wednesday" post that I'll enjoy writing. I've gotten my hands on Prisoner of Trebekistan by Jeopardy! champion and fellow blogger Bob Harris. I had an Amazon gift certificate that I had to use up, that I got from some publisher or someone for filling out a survey or something. So I actually bought a recent book, and Mrs. J got a couple, too.

Prisoner of Trebekistan is laugh out loud funny. Often. I'm just enjoying the hell out of it. The theme, sort of, is how Harris managed to remember all the inane trivia it takes to win on Jeopardy!, and how it felt to do it. But in the meantime, it manages to wander all over the areas of cognitive science, human biology, sociology, and entertainment. In a funny way. Sample sentence: "Believe it or not, your body reacts to stress--virtually any stress--with almost exactly the same biochemical changes it would use to evade a horny ocelot." Now that's literature.

I'm not sure that the memory tips will do me any good. It's all about how to remember useless and unconnected stuff like the Secretaries General of the U.N., or the names of the novels of E.M. Forster. It's great advice, but I don't ever expect to go on Jeopardy!, so I don't know when I'd use it.

In any case, it's good reading. I got it on Monday, and I'm 120 pages into it.

Keeping Wisconsin Safe for Married People -- Somehow

There is much celebration today on some of my favorite blogs. I admit that it's some relief to see things finally swinging the other way. I don't have any illusion that the country is suddenly going to go sane, but perhaps a Democratically controlled house can put a check on some of the most egregious abuses of executive power.

My own celebration is tempered by the fact that Wisconsin, my home state, has enacted a "Marriage Amendment." The amendment provides that "a legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals shall not be valid or recognized in this state." Note that this half of the amendment doesn't mention the sexes of the people involved. It's unconstitutional to treat unmarried people as married, no matter what their sexuality. Within six months, we'll be seeing employers dropping benefits for domestic partners, gay and straight. After all, it's the law.

The net gain for married couples in Wisconsin? Zero. Our taxes are not lower. Our jobs are not more secure. Our streets are not safer. And our marriages are for damn sure not any more stable than they ever were, even though that's the language used to sell this bastardized ammendment. "Protecting the institution of marriage." How, exactly?

I know, I'm bitter. I had hoped that Wisconsin would prove itself more rational than that. As it was, the ban was enacted 59% to 41%. It had been predicted to be a lot closer, meaning that a whole lot of people were telling pollsters they were against it but actually voted for it when they got into the voting booth. The vote on the marriage ban in South Dakota was closer than in Wisconsin, for Pete's sake!

Other than that, it's been a good election. That's something I haven't been able to say in a long time.

Day 218 -- Eldon, Iowa

If the house behind me looks familiar, it's because it's the house featured in Grant Wood's American Gothic. I was going to go all out, and give myself a pitchfork and an unmarried daughter (the first Little Jogger, perhaps), but there are so many send-ups of this painting out there, it wouldn't be very original.

I ran an easy four miles today.

Day 217 -- Jefferson County

Jefferson County has a very nice trail system, which is still being expanded. It seems to be mostly in and around Fairfield, which means that I'm past it, but what the heck.

I ran six miles this morning, at a decent pace. I'm supposed to run intervals tomorrow, but I suspect that I won't. I'll probably just go for a short jog. I'm still pretty tired, and I need to be in early tomorrow, so a quick workout will do me.

Day 216 -- Bernhart, Iowa

Got this cool image of the Bernhart, Iowa, station for the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad Company from the John P. Vander Maas Railrodiana Collection at the University of Iowa. I just like the word "railroadiana." It's a neologism, but it's a cool neologism.

I ran to the gym, lifted weights, and ran home this morning. I was still pretty sore from my long run yesterday, so I didn't push myself.

Day 215 -- More Fairfield

I ran 12 miles today, so you'd think that I would have moved on to the next town. But I decided that I wasn't quite to Fairfield on Thursday, and I'm a little past it today. And I found this terrific Victorian Mansion outside of Fairfield from a a blog called Colorjoy!

I was kind of hoping that after two days of rest, I would cruise to an easy 12 miles, with lots of leftover strength and energy. Well, no. The first nine or ten miles were OK, but it was pretty rough at the end, and I really had to drag myself that last mile. But I did it! The plan for this week is to run all five weekdays, and cap it off with a relatively short long run -- eight miles or so.

Light Running Week

Well, this is my second day off in a row. The last time I did that was the 9th and 10th of September. I really didn't plan to do that. I had to take the first Little Jogger to school early yesterday, for Swing Choir practice, so I decided to run at noon, when I wouldn't be so rushed. But I neglected to pack socks in my gym bag. I couldn't run without socks, and I didn't think that my dress socks would be padded enough (nor did I really want to run in them and then wear them around all afternoon.) So I took yesterday off. Then Mrs. J went with the first Little Jogger and the girls scouts on a camping trip last night, so I couldn't run this morning, because I was the only grown-up in the house. So I took two days off. I'll have a good long run tomorrow, and get back on track.

More Diversity Training

I had another session of diversity training today. There have been a series of all-day workshops this fall, and it was announced with much fanfare this fall that it was mandatory that all employees attend one. Of course, the Faculty Senate got its shorts in a bunch and declared that no one had a right to add mandatory training without consulting appropriate governance structures, specifically the Faculty Senate. So it may or may not have been mandatory. In any case, I went. I have no strong objection to diversity training, other than it usually turns out to be a lot of finger pointing and guilt-wallowing, with a minimal amount of contructive suggestions for improvement.

This one started out OK. They talked about goals, specifically to increase the number of faculty and students of color. They talked about their own backgrounds and qualifications. They talked about some of the issues that have come up on campus, about historical problems of racism, and yes, they talked about the fact that it was mandatory (unless it isn't) and they recognized that we may not be the most willing participants in the world.

And then they let Professor Martyr talk.

I don't like Professor Martyr. I never have. He was part of a panel on diversity during my orientation to my university, and I didn't like him then. Just recently, Dean Dad gave me the proper language to describe him: he's a "victim bully." He uses his status as a minority to club people. If you don't agree with him -- hell, if you aren't 100% behind his particular grievances -- then you are part of the racist structure that keeps him and his people down. He's very much an "us vs. them" kind of guy, and you can't be sort of "us".

An example. During the discussion of why we might not want to be there, one of the Economists spoke up and said that, in his view, it didn't pass a cost/benefit analysis. The possibilty that he, personally, would help attract more students or faculty of color seemed sufficiently remote so as not to balance the cost in time spent away from his current students and his responsibility to them. This seemed like a reasonable position, but Professor Martyr took several opportunities to mock it. He didn't come right out and say it, of course, but he managed to imply that this position was right next door to putting out a sign that said, "No minorities need apply."

Professor Martyr talked for a long time. He made a big point of making sure that we knew that he knew that we weren't up to his standards. Why didn't we attend the seminars that he had arranged? Why didn't we attend activities put on by minority students? Why didn't we want to be there? If it hadn't been mandatory, most of us wouldn't be there, and doesn't that speak volumes about our commitment to diversity on this campus? Didn't we appreciate the opportunity to come here and be berated by him?

Just before I lost it, he was talking about an argument that he hears about the difficulty in hiring minorities. People suggest that it would be easier if we offered more money. The fact is that all the time we have candidates --minorities and non-- who seem like a good fit, but who end up taking another job at a higher salary. So, Professor Martyr said, what does that say about me and the other minorities that are currently here on campus? That we had to settle for this job, because we couldn't get anything better?

He caught me shaking my head at that and singled me out, and I suggested, ungently, that not everything in the whole wide world was meant as a personal affront to him. I used the word "asshole." I am not proud of this. This is not normal behavior for me. But I did.

I did apologize, publicly, after the break. He didn't seem very upset, although I know full well that I'm on his shit list, and I always will be.

I've been trying to decide why I was so upset. Often I can let B.S. like this roll off my back. "There goes Professor Martyr again." But not today. At least not right at that moment.

Part of it is his grating personality. As I say, I took an instant dislike to him six plus years ago, and have never seen any reason to change my mind. Part of it is, I suspect, a guilty suspicion that he's right about me. It's certainly true that I benefit from white privilege. I take for granted things that Professor Martyr has had to fight hard for. Maybe I haven't done enough to help erase racism and sexism and other types of discrimination. The burden shouldn't be on the minority, but on the majority.

That's the galling thing. I agree with this guy. On lots of stuff. I know that racism is still pervasive in our society. Indeed, it's a fundamental part of our society, and if that's changing at all, it's because of people like Professor Martyr who won't let people forget it. I just know that there are lots of people who manage to make that point in a more inclusive way. Indeed, all the other presenters managed to make me feel like I have an opportunity to be part of something good. Professor Martyr just made me feel like I'm already part of something bad.

Day 214 -- Fairfield, Iowa

I couldn't pass Fairfield without visiting the Maharishi University of Management. Once upon a time, this place was Parsons College, but in 1974, it was bought out by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Now it's a college where they teach Transcendental Meditation(tm) and Computer Science. I guess. I don't know much about the program, but they apparently attract enough students to survive.

RfP Wednesday -- The Parable of the Sower

I've missed two Reading for Pleasure Wednesdays in a row. Not that I haven't read anything, but I haven't really had much time to post, and haven't had anything really great to write about. But I'm going to get back to it.

I'm currently re-reading The Parable of the Sower, by Octavia Butler. I think this is the third time I've read it, but it might be the fourth. Like most of Butler's novels, it is kind of difficult to read. A lot of really bad stuff happens to the main character, and to her friends and family. But, like most of Butler's novels, it carries with it a hint of inspiration. Lauren survivies, in spite of all the terrible things. This is a very strong theme with Butler. Her character's persevere in the fact of truly terrible pain, and somehow grow.

This particular novel is set in the near future (the 2020's), in an America on the decline. Crime is rampant. Most people live in walled communities, and go out only in well-armed, large groups. The economy is stagnant. If people can find work at all, they can barely afford basics. Nobody has money for luxuries like TV's, microwaves, or even phone service. The police and firefighters charge per call, so they are rarely called, even for major emergencies. People regularly disappear, and are just never heard from again.

And that's at the beginning of the novel. It gets worse. It's somewhat comforting to read it, and to realize that things aren't that bad in America. But I have a terrible fear that they may become that bad, perhaps in my lifetime. Perhaps within 20 years.

I'm not sure why I'm reading it again. It isn't my favorite of Butler's novels. But I'm far enough into it now that I can't stop. I'll press ahead, and probably read the sequel, The Parable of the Talents, as well.

Day 213 -- Lockridge, Iowa

On October 28, 2005 (just barely over a year ago) an Amtrak train caught fire around Lockridge, Iowa. I know this, because Erika at The World's Largest Collection of the World's Smallest Versions of the World's Largest Things was there. It's always nice to visit worldslargestthings.com, although this is a pretty flimsy excuse. Anyway, I'm glad that Erika wasn't hurt, only inconvenienced.

I ran intervals this morning. After a warm up, I ran 400m fast, then 400 m slow, then 400 m fast, etcs. I did 6 rounds of that, and was pleased that I managed to run the 6th just about as fast as I ran the 1st. (No, neither one was exactly World Record pace.) It was a good workout, and I probably burned off about 1% of the calories I've consumed in the form of tiny little candy bars in the last 24 hours.

Day 212 -- Jogger's Progress

	YTD	Oct
Distance	1144	122.0
Time	6 days, 23 hrs, 1 min	18:34
Days	212	24
States	7	2

After the long runs on the weekend, I took yesterday entirely off, and didn't even feel bad about it. Sometimes on an off day, I feel cranky and out-of-sorts, but yesterday was just fine. Maybe it's because I was still pretty sore. Anyway, today I did five miles. The one thing that I regret is that yesterday was the warmest morning for some time, and promises to be the warmest for some time to come. It was cold this morning, with a stiff wind.

October was a good month, overall. I'm pretty sure that my days and mileage will start to drop off, as it gets colder. But I did OK this month. One fewer day than September, but only 1.2 fewer miles, so my average was higher.

Day 211 -- Mount Pleasant

It has been a big week. I don't normally run on both Saturday and Sunday, but I decided to take advantage of the clock change. With the clock set back last night, I could sleep in and still get out early. So I did.

Being me, I didn't just settle for a light four mile jog. I didn't get a real long run yesterday, because Mrs. J had to work, so I did ten today. That caps a 37 mile week, with 20 of them in the last three days. Neither of those is a personal record, but it's been a while.

I was pretty tired by the end. My 10 mile route brought me back close to home after seven miles, and I wanted to quit then. But I imagined myself three miles from the end of a marathon, and decided I wasn't going to let a little fatigue stop me. So I toughed it out. I'm tired now, but it's a good tired. A well-earned tired.

Virtually, I'm in Mount Pleasant. I have a nice picture of a blacksmith's forge, but blogger won't let me upload it.

Pumpkin Carving

Today tbhe kids and I carved our Halloween pumpkins. Usually, Mrs. Jogger is the artistic director, but she's at work today. So we did the best that we could. From left to right, the pumpkins are owned by the oldest and newest Little Jogger, the medium Little Jogger, the medium Little Jogger, the smallest Little Jogger, the smallest Little Jogger, and the first Little Jogger.