sorry i haven't been posting much lately. i've been in a strange funk. i had to struggle to keep "on track" with the sped program, because technically, i am still an unclassified grad student (won't be formally enrolled until spring). this fall (which begins in a week and a half or so) i will be student teaching! maybe it worked out for the best, because in the midst of my "pleadings" to continue with the program, my current teacher (for classroom management) said she would be happy to be my mentor if they'd allow me. now that the sped department's relented, i'm going to take her up on her offer. this is great, because i consider her to be a truly dedicated and compassionate teacher. i am already brainstorming a variety of ideas for classes; i'm supposed to be teaching 7th/8th grade science to the kids (not my "cup of tea"), mainly stuff on "measurement" and "scientific process." here's one idea: create a "musical instrument" by pouring specific measured amounts of water into a set of glasses. this initially will be a simple exercise in measurement of volume (remember, these are sped kids), but it will extend into topics of waves (sound waves: pitch, amplitude; relating the "length" of vibratable glass to the pitch, etc.)... i could have the students make "observations" of these cups, relating the pitch to the amount of water; then, the students could make hypotheses, like, what would be the pitch if we filled up a glass this much, etc. after hypotheses formation, students would research waves, sound waves, etc. to get a better understanding. and then we could formulate an experiment to test our hypothesis... simple, but i think the whole idea of working with water, and creating an "instrument" would be appealing to the kids... also, we could extend (in behaviorist terms, "generalize") the understanding to other musical instruments, like a violin, or guitar, or even drums (all of which i have access to) to show that in all instruments, the pitch is determined by the "size/length" of the vibratable medium... we could even extend the understanding of sound waves to waves in general; i have a resource who works for noaa, who could be invaluable in talking about ocean waves. maybe we could even plan a field trip over to some wave measurement facility to talk about different aspects of ocean waves... we could also extend our experiment to the effects of evaporation (by leaving the "glass instrument" out); talk about measuring "rates." the ideas are endless.
of course, it's always fun to incorporate "gimicky" science, like the oobleck idea. but all demonstrations should be purposeful, not just "cool..."
but again, i'm in an ambiguous phase, largely because i am trying to assimilate and organize a lot of info, try to routinize things into my life. things are about to get really hairy... i've been getting somewhat into trouble with icaom, because i haven't been able to commit to doing the supervising for the wednesday clinic shift (because i wasn't sure what my student teaching schedule was going to be like). but since my mentor is going to be ms. lim, and because she is pretty flexible, looks like i could do wednesdays...
speaking of clinic: i've thought of this before, but i'm more committed to it now: writing an explicit clinic manual, so the student interns under me would have a better sense of how i look at things. a lot of "structural work," also kiiko matsumoto style stuff. if i can make this explicit, then perhaps there won't be so much confusion on the part of the interns, who are usually locked into tcm style of thinking.
...people have been giving me a lot of new things to think about. when i mentioned to a patient that i wanted to develop a more "energetic" understanding of healing/acupuncture, i was turned onto chozenji (this really really famous temple in kalihi valley, which combined zen training with martial arts: kendo, archery, etc.). and this book by omori sogen, on the rinzai zen training method. i am working through it now. i'm ashamed to say that i haven't been meditating for a while now; that time at kannonji with shodo san was wasted. hopefully with the help of this text, i will be able to make zazen a more consistent and meaningful part of my life...
one thing that was interesting about this book: the idea of the word "sit." of course omori sogen was referring to it primarily from a japanese understanding, but it's relevant in english as well. when we talk about "sitting," there's a connotation of balance, of properness. think about the question: "does that sit well with you?" omori discussed this because zazen is meditating while sitting in a specific posture. omori mentions that people nowadays think too flippantly about this matter, imagining that zen can apply to any activity. while he says that, ultimately, at high levels of understanding, this can be true, there is something specifically ideal about sitting meditation that makes it conducive to bringing about the proper state of mind (samadhi, sammai in japanese)...
i also hope to receive another book from this afternoon's patient, one written by her former acupuncturist called "the needle and the sword." also, oddly enough, combining martial arts with something else, this time with acupuncture. promises to be interesting reading...
frankly, i am overwhelmed with new ideas at this point. consolidation, organization has never been my strong point, so i'm in for more ... "disorganization."
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funny... aiden came to my uh class yesterday. i wanted him to demonstrate his bow grip as part of my behavioral modification project. but of course the environment of the class proved to be too much of a distraction. funny thing, there is this "cute" girl named jamie in my class. as i was ushering aiden out of the class, aiden stopped in front of her, and said "whassyoname?" ... jeez, he's only four, and he's such a playah.
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