Hello, my name is Mr. Malley

Last weekend, I made a trip up to Grand Rapids to buy one of those fancy new iMac’s that were released last month. All summer, I was saving for a Mac Pro because I wasn’t impressed with the performance of the old iMac, and I wanted something that would really cruise.

Even when the iMac was released, I wasn’t all that convinced. I kept telling myself that I wanted something that I could upgrade in a few years if I needed to, and that the iMac just wasn’t for a “techy” guy like me.

Then, I realized … I have a five year old Dell that I am now using as a print server and jukebox that has never seen an upgrade.

What can I say? I like new stuff. Why spend $3500 on a Mac Pro and Monitor when the iMac does everything I need?

In the end, I bought a 24-inch 2.8 GHz iMac with a full three years of AppleCare. I figure I’ll want a new computer in three years, anyway. And, in truth, this computer is powerful enough that it will still compete in three years anyway. No compromise was necessary.

So, how ’bout some specs:

• 24-inch glossy widescreen LCD (1920×1200px)
• 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme processor
• 2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM - 2×1GB
• 500 GB Hard Drive
• SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
• TI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB memory
• AirPort Extreme
• Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR

And, of course, here it is:

Part 1: My Quiz Policy

Last year, I gave random quizzes in AP Psychology on a “variable ratio schedule of reinforcement.” My logic was that if students never knew when there would be a quiz, then they would always come prepared.

This, I learned, is untrue. What students did instead was search out possible patterns of behavior in my quizzing schedule. They would say things like “I didn’t think there would be a quiz today” or “Why do you always give a quiz on the days I don’t think there will be one.” They would guess whether they would have a quiz or not, and shape their behavior around that guess. If they didn’t think there would be a quiz, they wouldn’t study. If they thought there might be one, they would.

This is not the type of behavior I want to encourage. Based on the recommendation of last year’s AP class, I decided this year to give a daily reading quiz, reinforcing reading on a continuous schedule.

Part 2: My Quiz Make-up Policy

High school juniors and seniors have hundreds of reasons to miss my class. Many of them are unjustifiable. For example, it is reasonable for me to expect that students schedule vacations, senior pictures, extended lunches, routine doctor’s appointments, etc. around my class.

Based on this logic, last year’s AP students could not make up missed quizzes in my class. They went into the book as a zero. However, since I know that we’re all human, and that we occasionally cannot prevent missing class (illness, certain medical appointments, etc.), I dropped the lowest quiz score from calculation. This, in a sense, allowed each student one missed class every marking period (9 weeks), or two per semester.

Part 3: The Problem

I can’t help but wonder whether this is too strict, especially considering that I am now planning to give quizzes every single class period. If my classes meet five times every two weeks, that’s approximately 24 quizzes every marking period.

Perhaps I could offer extra work in the form of research that would make up for their lowest two scores. This would allow them the opportunity to turn their two lowest scores into high scores, offsetting the effect that an absense would have on their grade.

This, of course, would force me to do more work. I would have to not only read, comment on, and assess the papers produced by the make-up research, but I would have to come up with the research topics, something I would have to do in advance to anticipate students wanting to take the opportunity. After all, these are highly motivated students I’m talking about.

And, would these research papers be punitive? If so, then its not worth doing. Why create more work for my students if it does not reinforce learning the content I wanted them to know in the first place.

Part 4: The Solution

One thing that I would definitely like to do is create a menu of research questions/topics from which students must choose to present on at least once/twice per marking period. These presentations could be “multimedia” (podcast, blog, video, oral, paper, etc.). Questions would range from historical to analytical. Quizzes could be made up by completing additional questions from that list.

Now I think I’m on to something!

This year, all students will be required to present on one topic of their choice from a list of topics that I provide. This list will grow throughout the year; as I find new topics I will simply add them to the list. These presentations can use any media and will be graded using a rubric that I will have to make that assesses their understanding of the topic that they are presenting on.

If students miss class, they can make up the quiz by presenting on another topic of their choice.

Note: exceptions will of course be made for long-term extenuating circumstances (i.e. illness or tragedy).

This should a.) make absences undesirable, and b.) encourage in-depth study in psychology, and c.) actually boost the students grade by allowing them the opportunity to turn a zero into full credit.

I always like to see where people work. It puts things into perspective a little bit for me. With that in mind, I took some snapshots of my classroom this morning. Here they are:

A few notes that I suppose might be necessary:

• The trophy is a 1990s third place women’s weight-lifting trophy. It was a gift from a student last year. I collect trophies and give them away to AP Psychology students as prizes for the “highest test score.” It’s my silly way of recognizing hard work (that I learned from Charles Blair-Broeker).
• The sign hanging on the trophy was left in my room by Tuba Steve - another student. I’m not sure of its origin, but I think its purpose is clear.
• I like lamps. There is something soothing about incandescent lightbulbs. In the morning, I will turn the lamps on along with a single row of ceiling lights. I bought them at Good Will. They have a certain “Uncle Malley” feel that my students tend to appreciate.
• The graffiti on the wall was done by a guy named Woody. It stands for Small Town Skate Crew. Last I heard, he was moving somewhere warm to skate under a sponsor - he’s really good. I really need to cover that back bulletin board. I left it uncovered all last year. Hence, Woody’s desire to tag my boring wall.

Ok, so I’m obsessed. So, shoot me. This recent price drop should mean that I can actually afford one now. I would have bought one anyway, just now it feels a little more justifiable (to those of you who do not read to every word spoken by Steve Jobs, the iPhone price was dropped $200 yesterday). This means that the refurbished iPhone price has dropped $250.

Yes friends, in October my Verizon contract runs out and I run to apple.com like a little girl getting her first Barbie. I don’t care if AT&T’s service map says I live in nowhere. I’ll try it anyway!

I don’t know why, but I can never sleep the night before the first day. Last night, I stayed up later than I should have (11:30), I tossed and turned throughout the night, and then awoke at 4:12am unable to go back to sleep. So, I got up. I drank coffee. I downloaded some music. Then, I grabbed the iPod and was out the door by 6am.

I just don’t function well on such little sleep. I’m a real active sort of guy. I teach as if I’m a rugby coach, for crying out loud. My mojo doesn’t work when I don’t get my z’s! Rather, I stutter, stammer, and my mind traverses every corner of my mind. “Am I going too fast? Am I going to slow? Should I be covering all this on the first day? Should I be covering more? Why are they all staring at me? Ahhhh!!!!”

I’m not like that when I’m rested.

Anyway, it is done. The school year has begun, and I have been introduced to all of my classes. Let the fun begin.