Why I hate Facebook

I've been a part of facebook for about a year now, and I still just really hate it. I've given it quite a bit of thought, and I think I have finally figured out what exactly bugs me. It probably isn't what you think it will be. It isn't the oversharing and childishness that sometimes occurs there that I hate. No, this was a much more difficult thing for me to articulate than my rant against myspace. And yet, I will continue to use facbook.

My biggest complaint is the closed nature of the whole thing. You can't see anything unless you are a member. I'm fine with keeping some things closed, but the whole nature of the facebook is that you are sharing stuff with all of your "friends," but a similar outcome could be achieved through a private blog or wiki that you allow your friends/family to have access to. In particular, the model that flickr uses for the photos is very much what I'm thinking about. Many (most?) people post things publicly in flickr for the whole world to see, but some people choose to post some or all of their pictures privately that only a certain group can see. Facbook completely lacks this functionality. There is nothing that is available to the outside world. Sure, Facebook offers more finely sliced layers of privacy (the ability to create user defined groups that have different privacy settings), but I can't share with the world. And yet, I will continue use facebook.

This really manifests itself in the email center for facebook. My friends have started to just send messages through facebook instead of using email. What I like about email is the fact that it can communicate with any other type of email. I use gmail, and I have friends who use hotmail, yahoo's email, apple's email system (whose name is currently escaping me), work email, or even juno (!). And yet, we can all communicate completely and without trouble using this system. But to receive messages sent from facebook, you have to belong to it. That seems like a step backwards technologically. And yet, I will continue to use facebook.

In addition to this is the "walled in garden" feeling of facebook. It is beginning to feel an awful lot like AOL and Compuserve used during the dial-up modem days. The only difference is that the content is user generated instead of professionally generated. It was a mistake back in the olden days, and I think it is really a mistake now. There is so much out there that doesn't feed into facebook very well. The whole place feels like an internet for idiots hangout. And yet, I will continue to use facebook.

I understand people's urge to feel connected to others, but I am convinced that we could do it much better by using tools like blogs (including the silliness that is twitter. . . a post for another day), photo/video sharing sites like flickr, a good feedreader, email, and perhaps even an old fashioned website. It would allow for much more customization. And yet, I will continue to use facebook.

Why? Well, for one, all my friends are there, and I would be unintentionally cut out of the loop if I ignored facebook. Second, because all my friends are there, I am able to get a quick snapshot of their lives. Of course, if they all had blogs/twitter accounts, I could just follow them through my rss reader, but now I repeat myself.

What about you, poor reader? Are you a part of facebook and do you share any of my frustrations? Do you have any of your own? I invite you to let it all out in the comment section.

On my mind

As usual, there have been more things floating around in my mind than I have had time to fully flesh out. Since it has been a long time since my previous post, I thought I would just give a quick update on some recent things relating to teaching that I've been pondering:

1. How can I get students to read more? Reading is so crucial, but my subject isn't as conducive to reading as I would like.
2. How can I structure the year so that kids become better problem solvers? I don't work on deep problems as often as I would like, so then I become frustrated, and then give students a difficult problem to work on. Since I haven't spent as much time on it as I would like, then students flop around.
3. What is the proper amount of speaking I should be doing in class? I often feel like I'm the only one speaking in my classes, and I don't like it at all.

Well, that is probably enough of an insight into my mind for now.

A long slumber

I know that I have been away from this for far, far too long. I apologize. I want to lead off by saying that I have had a podcast reawakening (my first interest in podcasts going back a couple of years ago to when I first got an ipod). One that I have been especially enjoying is the daily video put out by TED. The videos are usually pretty short (most come in right around 20 minutes) and I have really enjoyed about 90% of them. That stat might seem lower than it should be if I am really endorsing the sight, but seriously, what interweb source have you found that you enjoy even 90% of? I don't even like my own blog that much.

Calculus Activity

Over the last year or so, I have used board work as my main mode of having students practice new skills. It gives them the chance to work a problem, see how others are working it at the same time, and gives me 4-6 examples of how to work a problem, or how not to work a problem. However, I realized recently that I needed some different activities besides board work.

So in the next several weeks, I will be trying out a few new things. Here is one example. It is a calculus puzzle. The kids cut it apart and try to piece it together so that the edges match up (one side will have the original function, and the other side will have the derivative).

(sorry for the poor design quality, I didn't have time make it uber pretty)

Overall, the activity worked well in class. If I had it to do over again, I would save this one for a bit later and give an activity that gave more drill on the concept (this was their first chance to practice basic derivatives). However, the kids enjoyed this (except when they couldn't fit the pieces together).

Congratulations Jott!

Compared to others out there, I am slow on commenting about Jott coming out of Beta testing. However, so many others don't seem very happy about the choices Jott is making as it launches as regular service. From what I can gather from the buzz around the internet, it seems like a bunch of people will be jumping ship from Jott's services. However, I will be sticking with them.

For those who don't know what Jott is, basically it is a web service that you can call and leave a message. They then transcribe that message and put it into a list for you. They offer many more services, but since they have come out of beta, they no longer offer those services for free. This has frustrated a lot of people who have used the service for a while.

As for me, I'm glad for them. I had been wondering how they could do it, because I couldn't figure out what the business plan was for them. It cost me nothing at all for the first several months that I used their service. Now, they are offering different levels of service for different prices. However, they still have a free (ad-supported) service which I will be using. But the next plan up (which includes many of the features people are griping about losing) costs a whopping $4 a month. If I used the service more regularly, I wouldn't hesitate to drop $4 a month. I'm not sure what these people are upset about.

Anyway, I wish Jott luck and I hope they have a lucrative, money-making business. I will be using their service as long as it is around (and they offer a free/cheap version).

No longer following my own advice

As this school year gets underway, I've changed a couple of things that used to be part of my standard way of beginning the year: I did not give homework out on the first day and I did not give a seating chart.

I used to give homework on the first day simply so that I could get started with the material as quickly as possible. However, I recently decided to try week-long homework assignments instead of nightly ones. I experimented with it in Algebra 2 last year, and I am trying it in all my classes this year. We'll see how this will work. My kids seem flabbergasted. Especially the ones that have had me in the past.

Why did I switch over to a week-long assignment?

1. I wanted to give problems that required more thought than the problems I would typically assign. I wanted to give them something that they could chew over for a few days. These are the most interesting types of problems.
2. I wanted students to be able to fit this into their schedules. I firmly believe that academics should come first, but there is something to be said about the fact that many of them have sports practices/events until late in the evening some nights, making homework from even one class hard to complete.
3. For some reason, by only assigning homework once a week, I am a little more careful and selective about the problems I am assigning. I want to be pretty sure that they hit the concepts I want my students to be practicing and aren't just fluff.

As for the seating chart, I used to have one up on the board when students came into the room the first day. Their first task was finding their seat. This was usually an informative moment where I quickly learned which students were able to interpret the data of the seating chart. A surprising number had trouble until there were enough people seated to narrow down the choices.

This year no chart. Today I finally passed around a blank chart for them to fill in, but only because I would need it for a sub when I miss class. Why the change?

1. I used to need to flex my muscle early in the year to let students know I was in charge. However, I am not quite so young anymore. I convince them I am in charge by using my/their time to its best, by being amazingly prepared for class, and by nipping disruptive behaviors very quickly.
   
2. The beginning of the year is too chaotic for seating charts to be worth anything the first couple of days. We always have students switching classes for the first couple of days, so my seating chart might be out of date before the end of the first day.
3. I usually have to move things around once I find out who needs to be up front or in the middle for visual/hearing/behavioral reasons. The way it stands now, at least those knowing they need to be close to the front can place themselves appropriately. This is yet another chance for them to take responsibility for their own learning.
4. This avoids the ill will that seating charts usually generate in students. I can handle the ill will, but why cause it if it isn't necessary.
5. I will institute a seating chart if/when it becomes necessary, but I am convinced that several of my classes won't lose the privilege I've given them.
   

All of that being said, I am glad that I used seating charts and homework on the first day during the first couple of years teaching. They were my training wheels. They finally came off this year.

The hardest part

So tomorrow is the first day of school. I was sitting at my desk today after spending the day preparing for the students I will see tomorrow, and I was thinking about what makes this first day hard for me.

I teach Algebra 2 and at our school, this is predominately a sophomore level class. My classroom is located in the freshman hallway. So. . . the problem is this. While I haven't had most of these students in any previous class, I have seen them in the hallway when they were freshmen (read: immature). I try to not have any preconceived ideas of these new students. I try to avoid asking questions about them from their previous teacher until I form my opinion. I try to forget what I have been hearing about them from the year before. That usually isn't so hard. It is only hard to forget their crazy behavior that I have seen in the hallway the year before.

The funny thing is that every year, I realize that most of the kids have matured, and even the ones that haven't don't usually act as bad in my room as they do in the hallway. So it is never as bad as I fear. But this moment right now, staring over the brink. This is the hardest part.

Slices of the life of Faith

Building off of my Praxis and Contemplation series, I thought I would give an initial stab at the various slices that are involved in the faith life of a Christian. As with my teacher list, this probably only touches the surface

Slices of Faith (these are taken from Richard J. Foster's book The Celebration of Discipline)

• Inward disciplines
• Prayer
• Meditation
• Fasting
• Study
  
• Outward disciplines
• Service
• Simplicity
• Solitude
• Submission
• Corporate disciplines
• Confession
• Worship
• Guidance
• Celebration

There are a few other sources I want to pull from for comparison and additions to this list, but it seems like a good place to start.

Related Reading:
pt. 1
pt. 2
pt. 3

Battlestar Galactica Wisdom

I just watched an old Battlestar Galactica episode () and it reminded me of something pretty important. Quick background. After a series of unfortunate events for the officers of another battlestar (the Pegasus), the head engineer is placed in command. He bungles things up and eventually, his decisions cost him his life. At the end of the episode, Lee Adama states that the mistake the engineer had made was that he was used to working with machines, but that command wasn't about machines, it was about people.

I think that teachers (especially of the math and science variety) can make a similar mistake. Teaching isn't just about the subject, it is about the people as well.

Praxis and Contemplation: part 3

Looking back at the last two posts, here is where we have been. In the first post I brought up the question of splitting up my profession into small "slices" in order to be able to then focus on them individually, so as to improve my overall skill. In the second post, I listed out what I considered to be the slices of my profession. I left the post with the question I want to address today.

What is to keep me from putting this "slice and focus" method to other areas of my life?

I believe this method will work in all areas of my life.

So I started to look at what the important areas of my life were. Or, put another way, what are the various roles that I play? I am a husband, I have family and friend relationships, I am a teacher, and I am a child of God. I believe that all of these areas can benefit from the slice and focus method.

A postmodern aside

Now, there are several who would say (and probably correctly) that this method of analysis (taking something apart to see how it works) is an idea or technique that is left over from the industrial revolution and Renaissance. This is a very mechanical way of thinking (what small cog is broken? let me try to fix that one piece), and I would agree with the critics who might say that the sum is more than its parts in each of these cases. Relationships (and that is really what every one of my roles is about, at their core) are more than listening skills and God is more than the religion that surrounds him. I agree. This is one hundred percent true.

But . . . I believe the quality of my relationships will increase if I can improve my listening skills. I believe that I will know God more fully if I read his word and seek to serve him in the world more often. I believe that the quality of my relationship with my wife will improve if I work on flower buying skills.

My current mission:

So now that I have defined the roles in my life, I am going to be trying to look for the different slices of those roles that can impact the quality of those portions of my life. I don't really have too much of an idea where this will lead, but I am excited. Any future posts about these topics will be labeled slices (if I am talking about a portion of one of my roles) or focus (if I am talking about specific ways I might try to improve those slices.