Slightly Off KIlter

Normal is overrated

  • Substitute Teaching Vignettes #3

    4th grade. Math. Students are learning multiplication with "partial products". I know this concept as well but I use parentheses. 14 x 37 = (10 + 4) x (30 + 7) They use diagrams. Continue reading

  • Substitute Teaching Vignettes #2

    (I have begun substitute teaching) December 2016 First grade I only have the first graders for half an hour before they'll go to lunch. They're going to do Prodigy Math on their iPads for that time. One girl is a budding SJ temperament in pint-sized form. She takes me in hand, making sure that I… Continue reading

  • Substitute Teaching Vignettes #1

    (I have begun substitute teaching) November, 2016 From 12:30 to 12:40, I did yard duty – watching the kids at recess. My goodness, they're active! 1) A ball went over the fence and one girl figured out how to put her hand through the (wide) chain link grasp the ball (they're not well-inflated) and work… Continue reading

  • CBEST

    I took the CBEST yesterday at the Pearson VUE test center in Oakland. I took the computer version of the test. It costs 2.5 times as much as the paper version but I had more opportunities for an appointment. I also had no desire whatsoever to use paper and pencil. It's 2016 not 1970 (or… Continue reading

  • An Early Memory

    (I wrote this essay yesterday as part of the CBEST "writing" test. The topic was "an early memory".) My sister's birthday is tomorrow. She was born in early September, five months before I turned four. My parents and I had traveled out of town for the weekend, to visit my grandparents, who lived about an… Continue reading

  • Slightly Off Kilter

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  • Time to SOAR

    I presented a two-hour workshop on Temperament and Communication for SOAR for Youth in July. "SOAR for Youth offers an intensive and innovative program to serve some of the most vulnerable members of our community: foster youth. In community partnership with UC Berkeley and with support from many volunteers, partners, and donors, SOAR fosters the… Continue reading

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  • The MBTI Is a Test (and the Unreliable Part is the Test Taker)

    I've been participating (once again) in a Facebook discussion among people who claim that the MBTI is not a "valid" assessment because some people get a different four-letter code the second time they take the inventory. Many people can't bear the idea that the reason for a different result is as simple as the fact… Continue reading

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  • The MBTI Is a Test (and the Unreliable Part is the Test Taker)

    I’ve been participating (once again*) in a Facebook discussion among people who claim that the MBTI is not a “valid” assessment because some people get a different four-letter code the second time they take the inventory. Many people can’t bear the idea that the reason for a different result is as simple as the fact… Continue reading

  • Late 19th/early 20th century tradition meets early 21st century tech

    I filed a "Fictitious Business Name" application this month. The process seems, largely, to be stuck in the late 19th / early 20th centuries. According to San Mateo County, CA, the process requires: Fill out the form (this, surprisingly, can be done online). Make four copies of the form. Write a check (I still have… Continue reading