Musings from Mrs. Galvan

I have been meaning to publish this for quite some time, but have waited because I really want to post a video of the presentation with my commentary. Well that has fallen to the bottom of my list. So until I get around to that, here at least of the slides of how I explain to my students how learning works and why therefor, I choose which teaching strategies that I choose. The bison might not make sense without my commentary, but ah well.

Three weeks into grad school and once again last night I was sleepless at 1 am, second guessing my ability to learn new things quickly and participate intelligently. Why can't I make connections quickly and speak my mind in class? While walking to class this morning, I was re-listening to an episode of  This American Life called Is This Working  on the role of punishment in the School to Prison Pipeline. It opens with a mother talking about her preschool age son being suspended unfairly. Even though I had heard this before, it brought me to tears. It also made parts of what we have learned the last three weeks come together for me. Specifically, how Nodding's ethic of caring points to the shortcomings of some No Excuses schools to help students grow emotionally by learning from mistakes versus facing no-tolerance punishment. How do strict discipline practices in No Excuses schools fulfill their responsibility to complete the sense of caring within their students? It isn...

I want to write about my school choice class, actually I need to also for an assignment, but instead we are exploring the city. The Empire State Building is tall and the Natural History museum is huge.

Dave and the kids are here. I think I spent all of Friday evening cuddling their faces, smelling their hair and telling them how much I had missed them. Having finished the big paper, we spent the weekend exploring the city: Central Park, the Village, 9/11 Memorial, Brooklyn, the High-line and Wil's favorite, the subway. I started two new classes - Privatization and Research - both are, surprise, heavy on the reading. This experience is challenging my ability to process vast amounts of information, stay up late, write efficiently, participate (at all - not going for eloquent at this point), and my confidence overall. I am grateful for my spouse. He has supported me from the moment I thought of applying, cared for the kids in my absence, carted them all over the city via stroller and subway (with a backpack loaded with their supplies), cooked meals, proof-read papers and provided much needed reassurance. <3

1. Laundry 2. Check Facebook 3. Take out the trash 4. Use the foam roller to painfully, stretch my IT band (when did this become a thing??) 5. Clean the stove 6. Sun Salutation 7. Make coffee 8. Google vegetarian dining options 9. Ballet 10. Check Instagram (I refuse the Twitter temptation - too prone to suck time) 11. Stellar kickboxing routine the tune of Eye of the Tiger, choreographed on the spot 12. Gaze out the window to watch the pigeons 13. Write silly blog posts This is what I need to do!!!

Tomorrow will mark the end of mt first two weeks in New York. My family arrives this evening. I am both incredibly excited for their arrival and a teensy bit nervous about balancing the workload with my desire to spend time with them (BTW apparently "teensy" isn't a word but "weensy" is - what's with that?). Today then seems to be the shift from being a mom set loose in the big city to learn and grapple with being alone to being a busy mom trying both to learn and have fun with Dave and the kiddos. It seemed appropriate then to take a break from writing the 10 page ethics paper to write a blog post. Somehow I have become a person who takes a break from writing to write something else. I mentioned in my last two posts that things have been making more sense. Yesterday, our class on ethics ended and I am no longer in a quandary over ethics, or rather I am at peace with its vagueness. I finally have a sense as to the possible meaning(s) of the word aestheti...

My weekend was super productive, go me! Which means I didn't make time to blog.  The recap: Friday - Excellent Happy Hour with cohort (is it happy hour when it lasts for four hours), my voice is still hoarse from excellent conversations Saturday - Walked and walked around the UWS a bit in the morning (pictures below) and wrote a paper in the afternoon Sunday - had coffee and yoga with two new friends in the morning and read ethics all afternoon Today This morning's Ethics class was illuminating in a basic way for me - I realized that all  of the philosophers we had been reading believe(d) in Virtue Ethics, that the goal of thinking and questioning is in pursuit of the good life. I think my classmates understood that last week, but better late than never.  We also watched a movie on philosophy called Being In The World . It tried to explain Heidegger. Rather it did explain Heidegger and I tried to follow. Here is my attempt at a synopsis: One u...

The stages of stress I have experienced in the last 48 hours: confusion, doubt, stomach pain, worry, over sharing with anyone who will listen about said doubt and worry, furious work resulting in no sleep, realizing I'm not alone in confusion, exercise, courage, seeking community, determination. Today was better than yesterday. Today started off with a run in Riverside Park with new friends. I think the exercise helped boost my confidence to ask a "dumb question" to our ethics teacher as still on day 3 I was (am?) perplexed by my esoteric ethics readings. The question resulted in his drawing a diagram on the board which helped me make sense of key terms. In doing so he also admitted that to truly understand these concepts would take something more akin to 25 years and we are thinking about them for 2 weeks. After spending this week engaged in significant internal abuse of my intellect, I am going to let Pincoffs go.  Our discussion turned in Montaigne which was a we...

The first two weeks of the six that I will be spending in New York this summer, are dedicated to Ethics and Negotiations. I don't think I am alone in feeling intimidated by the Ethics course. The pre-reading assignments were intense. Even in rereading Cora Diamond, Joseph Brodsky and about Quandary Ethics, I am struggling to make sense of the material. It was a relief that our Ethic class started with group discussions and a field trip. Our group discussed the point of writing, Is it to push society forward by any means possible? Is it to make complicated ideas seem simple? How should writers strike a balance between aesthetics, accessibility and action? I also took away a small, nagging apprehension about my own ability to write in an advanced form. Our field trip to Rodin's thinker, to the plaque denoting John Dewey's home and to Book Culture  was a welcome bit of exercise and opportunity to socialize. I think I have only met half of my cohort. I want to get to know e...

I accomplished most of my to do list for the day: Acquire ID Card and magic sticker for free museums Print paper for Ethics Class Find classroom Read more for Ethics Buy coffee Avoid cheese I did not workout at the gym write the paper due July 1 read enough for Ethics Orientation consisted mainly of introductions and clarifications. It was helpful to have the day just to get the lay of the land. Once home, I settled in with Dewey and Montaigne. Here are a few quotes that spoke to me: "With respect to sympathetic curiosity, unbiased responsiveness and openness of mind, we may say that the adult should be growing in childlikeness." - Dewey "Growth is regarded as having as end, instead of being an end." - Dewey "Education means the enterprise of supplying the conditions which insure growth." - Dewey "Spewing up food exactly as you have swallowed it is evidence of failure to digest." -  Montaigne So far the reading is bot...

So for the summer, this blog will focus more on school leadership as I am going to Columbia Teachers College for grad school. Six weeks this summer, a research project during the school year (pretty sure this will require more excel and less poster board), six weeks next summer and then a final (smaller) project to end things by the December of 2016. Going away to school is a risk for me and a hardship for my family. I am lucky to have a great support system at home: a mother and and mother-in-law who are watching my kids during the day and a husband willing to both be a single parent and haul a five year old and a three year old on a cross country flight to visit me in a couple of weeks. While I have received some help financially, this will also be a hardship financially - though we reason it to be a good investment. So why go? Beyond the adventure of experiencing a new city, I am eager to learn. I am excited to read new texts, discuss ideas with my cohort and think about teachin...