#Student evaluation tools

[newsepick]

Newsepick Evolve - Utilizes Digital Frameworks to Digitalize Daily Homework for Effective Practice

Newsepick #Evolve utilizes digital frameworks to digitalize daily homework for effective practice. Educators can use this tool to help students identify areas that need improvement with instant feedback and comprehensive data insight 📊 of their performance. So what are you waiting for? Connect with Us: support@newsepick.com. Call us at +91 99039 99574

[whentherewerebicycles]

a bunch of people have already registered for my mentoring workshop! unfortunately this means i have to plan and host a workshop aaaaaa

[neil-gaiman]

Hi Neil! I’m a computer science student that’s moving on to my final year in uni soon and for my final year project, I’m hoping so sth along the lines of producing a tool for preventing voice cloning! It’ll be exploring techniques similar to what Glaze does to defend against style mimicry in visual art and it’s all very exciting. I will need ppl to evaluate the end result in terms of success of preventing voice cloning, sound quality after adding the defence etc. And it’ll be great to get some ppl who actually voice/read stuff for a living to evaluate all this. I have zero idea how I would get access to that kinda community tho. And I thought you might know sth abt it. It’ll be great if I can get some contacts (I’m based in the uk if that helps) but otherwise can I just get a good luck for my dissertation? :3

Sincerely

A girl who rewatched Sandman 5 times and proceeded to go down a rabbit hole of all ur works

Sounds like a very worthwhile project. I hope lots of people reach out to you! (And Good Luck!)

[un-lawliet]

Can I PLEASE request more soft gojo fics pleaseee. Maybe in jujitsu tech where he barges in the class we're teaching just to give us a goodbye kiss because he's going on a mission and he just can't go without a kiss! 🥺

“Teacher, Teacher”

-in which Gojo visits you before he leaves for his mission.

“And so Maki!” You say, staring down at the faces of your students, your arms opening in a hug like motion towards them.

“When using any of your cursed tools, make sure you protect your weak points, it’s essential!”

It was late in the afternoon, and you were currently going over your students last performance in training, your eyes lit up with passionate praise as you evaluated their improvements.

Maki nods, her face resting on her palm, her glasses slipping down her nose slightly.

“Now..Panda.” You turn, looking at him a grin on your face.

Panda straightens, cocking his fluffy head in acknowledgement to your engagement.

You giggle, “Well, you did great! However, maybe try to rely a little less on your size and more on the technical aspect of your attacks.”

“Tuna.” You hear Inumaki sigh, rubbing his shin in which Panda had sat on mid battle.

“If I have the weight shouldn’t I use it?” Panda questions gently, ignoring Inumaki entirely.

You nod, “Of course! Just not to the point where your entire strength hinges on it…If that makes sense..”

“Try throw a punch she means.” Maki interrupts, leaning back in her chair yawning.

“Salmon.”

“Listen, I can’t help it if my battle tactics are different from you’s two” Panda huffs.

“So what? You gonna sit on a curse?”

“Maybe I will.” Panda replies, sticking out his chest, “See if they can handle me!”

Inumaki’s shoulder slumps as he writes something on the book in front of him before holding it up.

“You’ll get destroyed.”

“The hell? No I won’t.”

Maki leans over to read Inumaki’s writing before laughing to herself, “He has a point y’know”

“Stupid point.”

“Bonito flakes.”

“Ooh someone’s mad I beat him.”

“OoOoh some Panda’s mad that he gets annihilated by a grade 4 curse.” Maki cheekily replies, her eyes glimmering with mischief.

“Hey!” You interupt, “Nobodys getting annihilated when I’m the teacher.”

Your students sigh and turn back to you, Inumaki sticking out his tounge to Panda in his movements.

And you giggle to yourself fondly.

You love being a teacher.

After training at Jujutsu Tech it seemed the only natural course for you, you had strength of course, but your real talent stemmed from your ability to create battle plans that exploited sorcerers strengths and disguised their weaknesses.

Yaga had welcomed you as a co-worker just a couple days after your graduation, his grin wide as he explained your duties before frowning at someone behind you.

“And what are you doing here Satoru.”

“What? I’m here to teach.”

“Huh?” You had said turning to look at him.

Even Shoko, who you would tease for her stoicism, raised an eyebrow.

“You’re gonna teach?” She said, “You.”

Gojo placed a hand on his heart, a dramatic showing of offence present in the way he opened his mouth and gasped, “Is it that weird?”

“Yes.” You all deadpanned.

Yaga scratched the back of his head, “Never in all my years of teaching you, have you ever shown an interest in teaching.”

“Well, it’s different now.” Gojo replied simply, grinning at his previous teacher, gloating. “Someone has to look after this one.” He nodded towards you, winking.

“Look after me??” You exclaim, turning to face him fully, your arms crossed, “I’m more than capable of-”

“Is this about Geto?” Shoko had asked plainly, resting her chin on her palm, staring Gojo out.

All of you went silent.

“No, not at all.”

Gojos’ expression had turned cold, as if the very mention of his best friend could freeze any conversation, any fleeting moment. You felt uneasy, your body closing in on itself to fight off the chill.

“Are you sure-”

“Yes.”

It was awkward.

Gojo and Shoko staring at eachother, as if commuting in a silent battle in which you and Yaga could not understand.

Quiet. Until Yaga interupted with a sigh, shaking his head.

“You’ll have to do an interview.”

“HUH?” Gojo replied, his head swinging back to Yaga, breaking his battle with Shoko instantaneously.

“Y/N didn’t need an interview?”

“Y/N is not a reckless.”

“Neither am I!!”

And you remember laughing into your palm, the pain of the past dissipating for a split second, as Gojo pouted, and followed Yaga into his office, as Shoko congratulated you on your new job.

Your new job that you had kept for the last 10 years.

…With Satoru Gojo.

Who had somehow, along the way, stole your heart.

Your phone buzzes from your desk, and you glance at it to see a message for Satoru, asking you if you wanted anything back from his mission later.

You deflate a little at the reminder.

You weren’t going to see Gojo before his mission due to your scheduled classes with the second years.

It had been a while since you had properly spent time with him, you missed seeing his silly face.

You sigh, you’ll reply later.

“So Maki, were you with Nobara yesterday?” You hear Panda start as you tune back into your students conversation.

“Huh? Yea? We were training.”

“Oh oh oh…Private training sessions…” Panda smirks, and you swear Maki’s glare could kill.

“Salmonnn~.”

“Shut up Inumaki.”

“Look Inumaki she’s totally blushing!” Panda laughs, you think it sounds more like a roar.

“That’s it! I swear to God, next training session I will fuc-”

The sliding door behind you opens, and you turn to see your boyfriend waltz into the room, bending to pass through the threshold.

“There she is!” Gojo says, opening his arms in your direction.

“Oh here we go.” Maki mutters.

Gojo was beaming, his mouth carrying the weight of his expression, teeth bared in a wide grin, eyes hidden behind his blindfold.

He raised his arms and walked towards you, ignoring your students exasperation, only focusing on you.

“Hello!” You say, as he pulls you into his chest, giving you a big; dramatic kiss on your head, swaying gently.

“Thought you were leaving?” You question, leaning towards him.

“I was, but someone didn’t reply to my text.” Gojo huffs back, pulling away to watch your face.

“How can I face this world’s dangers if I’m being ignored!?”

“You just sent it Toru.”

“Aha! So you did see it!”

“I was gonna reply later.”

Gojo shakes his head, pouting, “Not good enough.”

You watch amused as he taps his cheek twice, challenging you.

You giggle rising up on your feet to kiss his cheek, before you push him away by the chest.

“Go!” You say, your voice light, “You got your goodbyes, don’t let me hold you back.”

And he just looks at you, a soft smile on his face and you miss the cheeky look he gives you before leaning down and quickly kissing you.

It was small and gentle, and you barely register the disgusted groans of your students, your cheeks warning.

“I’ll be home by 10.” Gojo says, patting your head, “Don’t wait up for me if you’re tired yea?”

And you nod, although you both know that you’ll stay up to see him regardless.

“Be safe!” You call after him, as he walks away, a spring in his step.

“Always am baby!”

And then he’s gone, and you’re left speechless and smiling.

“God, can we leave?” Maki groans, “I feel sick.”

“You just wish that was you and Nobara Maki.” Panda teases, and you hear Inumaki laugh, slapping the desk.

Maki’s face turns bright red and she stands up from her desk, pointing a finger at Panda.

“You and me outside now, we can see if Pandas can survive being buried alive!”

“Oh it’s on!”

You lift an eyebrow and all three of them rise, not bothering to stop them.

“Please try not to kill each other.” You call after them, laughing as Inumaki salutes you before he exits.

…You love being a teacher.

masterlist <3

FEEL FREE TO LEAVE A REQUEST

A/N THANK U FOR THE REQUEST !!! i decided just to write it silly, just bc i’m not too good at the characterisation of the second year students EEK so i hope this is ok !!!!! i love gojo <3 also i wrote this instead of getting ready for work so AHHHHHH i have to panic get ready now so that’s fun

i love you all have a lovely LOVELY day thank u for reading :)

[loving-n0t-heyting]

According to South Korea’s education ministry, the tablets will be customisable so that “fast learners” and “slow learners” can be assessed by the software and given different AI-generated tasks with varying levels of complexity.

But the government has provided few details on exactly how the digital textbooks — and other AI-powered education tools being developed by Korean tech firms including LG and Samsung — will work or how the system would be prevented from AI’s tendency to “hallucinate” or produce errors.

The AI apps will be introduced for all subjects except for music, art, physical education and ethics by 2028, with teachers monitoring activity through a digital dashboard. Pupils will be given classes in digital literacy to help them to deploy AI tools responsibly.

“AI textbooks will enable teachers to evaluate each student’s study level and pace based on their data, and provide a tailored education for each one of them,” one government official said.

“Many students tend to fall asleep in class as some of them already learned the content in private cram schools and others just fail to follow the lessons,” the official added. “[Soon] they will be able to think outside the box as AI textbooks provide various content for any situation and induce their interest in study and help them think creatively.”

if this sounds fantastically fucking stupid and like the south korean govt is planning on selling out its students educations for vague hyperbolic techno-hype, dont worry, this policy is not without significant domestic pushback: there are several korean parents who regard "screens" as tantamount to vortices of youth mind control and extend this reflexive technophobia to any educational aids involving computers

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: The Five-Factor Model of Personality

Culture is transmitted to people through language, as well as through social norms which establish acceptable and unacceptable behaviors which are then rewarded or punished (Henrich, 2016; Triandis & Suh, 2002).

With an increased understanding of cultural learning, psychologists have become interested in the role of culture in understanding personality.

The 5 Personality Traits According to this Model

OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE

Refers to a person's imagination, feelings, actions, ideas

LOW score: More likely to be practical, conventional, prefer routine

HIGH score: More likely to be curious, have a wide range of interests, be independent

CONSCIENTIOUSNESS

Competence, self-discipline, thoughtfulness, goal-driven

LOW: Impulsive, careless, disorganized

HIGH: Hardworking, dependable, organized

EXTROVERSION

Sociability, assertiveness, emotional expression

LOW: Quiet, reserved, withdrawn

HIGH: Outgoing, warm, seeks adventure

AGREEABLENESS

Cooperative, trustworthy, good-natured

LOW: Critical, uncooperative, suspicious

HIGH: Helpful, trusting, empathetic

NEUROTICISM

Tendency toward unstable emotions

LOW: Calm, even-tempered, secure

HIGH: Anxious, unhappy, prone to negative emotions

Applicability

The idea that personality can be described and explained by five traits (OCEAN) has important implications, as does the fact that most personality tests were constructed and initially tested in Western countries.

Western ideas about personality may not apply to other cultures (Benet-Martinez & Oishi, 2008).

2 Main Cultural Approaches for Researching Personality

Etic traits - considered universal constructs that are evident across cultures and represent a biological bases of human personality. If the Big Five are universal then they should appear across all cultures (McCrae and Allik, 2002).

Emic traits - constructs unique to each culture and are determined by local customs, thoughts, beliefs, and characteristics. If personality traits are unique to individual cultures then different traits should appear in different cultures.

Using an Etic Framework

Cross cultural research of personality uses an etic framework and researchers must ensure equivalence of the personality test through validation testing.

The instrument must include equivalence in meaning, as well as demonstrate validity and reliability (Matsumoto & Luang, 2013).

Example: The phrase feeling blue is used to describe sadness in Westernized cultures but does not translate to other languages.

Differences in personality across cultures could be due to real cultural differences, but they could also be consequences of poor translations, biased sampling, or differences in response styles across cultures (Schmitt, Allik, McCrae, & Benet-Martínez, 2007).

Personality Test/Measure Used: The NEO-PI

Most of the cross-cultural research on the Five-Factor Model (FFM) and Big Five (OCEAN) has been done using the NEO-PI (and its subsequent revisions; i.e., it is an assessment tool developed to measure the 5 dimensions of personality according to the FFM) which has demonstrated equivalence, reliability and validity across several cross-cultural studies (Costa & McCrae, 1987; McCrae, Costa & Martin, 2005).

Research using the NEO-PI found support for the entire Five-Factor Model in Chinese, Dutch, Italian, Hungarian, German, Australian, South African, Canadian, Finnish, Polish, Portuguese, Israeli, Korean, Japanese, and Filipino samples, in addition to other samples (McCrae, Costa, Del Pilar, Rolland, & Parker, 1998).

NOTE

Personality tests rely on self-report which is susceptible to response bias like socially desirability responding.

To evaluate this possibility, McCrae and colleagues (2005) recruited students from 50 cultural groups and modified the NEO-PI to be in the third person (i.e., he, she, his, her):

The research participants were asked to complete the form on someone else that they knew very well (McCrae et al., 2005).

The same 5 factors emerged in this study.

These results provided empirical support for the FFM and for the use of self-report instruments when conducting cross-cultural personality research.

There was no reason for the students to respond in a desirable way because they were answering questions about someone else.

Sources: 1 2 ⚜ Writing Notes & References

[horsesarecreatures]

Attendees of the 2023 USEA Annual Meeting & Convention were in for a real treat with this year’s keynote speaker, Dr. Temple Grandin. Dr. Grandin is an icon in the worlds of agriculture and autism and is most notably known for applying her own experiences as an autistic individual to her studies on how stress impacts both humans and animals. In this year’s keynote address, Dr. Grandin shared several different scenarios encountered in both her studies and the studies of her animal science students at Colorado State University that apply to the equestrian community. Take a look at some of our favorite takeaways from this year’s keynote address below:

1. Animals live in a sensory-based world. Get away from verbal language to understand animals and instead evaluate what is the animal hearing, smelling, and touching and use that to your advantage when exposing your horse to objects that often spook them.

“Sudden new things are scary for people with autism and for animals. If your horse is afraid of flags, don’t shove it in their face.," she said. "Decorate their pasture fence or arena fence with flags and let them walk up to it on their own.”

2. Exposure, conducted in the right manner, is the best training tool for your horse.

“A lot of animals lead sheltered lives," said Dr. Grandin. "I had a chance to go to the Keeneland Thoroughbred sale [Lexington, Kentucky], and the horses were terrified of the auctioneer because they hadn’t been trained for the sound of the auctioneer's voice. They also hadn’t been prepared for a strange groom or handler to hold them. What I realized was that when a horse was swapped from his regular groom to a new person, the horse became anxious and let out a giant shriek. I noticed that noise. I don’t think anybody wants to make that stressful mess, but they did. Now the horse was alone in this strange, creepy, scary new place, and his regular groom was gone. You have to expose your animals to enough different things.”

3. Horses think in pictures which can impact how and why they spook at certain objects.

“This is an interesting study that one of my students did that explains why a horse might suddenly spook. If you look at this playset, you will notice that it looks totally different when it's rotated. My students walked young fillies and colts past this playset 15 times at the walk, until the horses just walked by it without stopping, raising their heads up, or flaring their nostrils. When this thing was turned, it became a new thing. It became something different.”

4. Everything feels different to horses at different gaits.

“The saddle feels different at a walk, trot, and canter," she said. "I suggest to students to put a backpack on and then walk, trot, and canter so they can see how it feels different. Sometimes you have to go slow and think about how you are going to introduce things to your horse. Since they are sensory-based, it is much more specific.”

5. Animals are very fear specific. Keep that in mind when dealing with a horse who habitually exhibits fear as a response to certain stimuli or when trying to expose a horse to something new.

“This horse was terrified by black cowboy hats because he associated a really bad experience with a person wearing a black cowboy hat," she said. "So black cowboy hats were very frightening, but white cowboy hats were fine—it was very specific. Now, if I put the black cowboy hat on the ground, it was a lot less scary, but as I brought that hat toward my head, it got more and more scary. And the problem with fear memories is that they are very, very difficult to get rid of. So let's try to not have that.”

6. Animals have emotions and, just like in humans, each animal or each horse is going to be very different in the way they manage their individual emotions.

“Fear is a proper scientific word," said Dr. Grandin. "When I first started doing scientific research in the early '90s, I wasn’t allowed to use the word 'fear' as they said it wasn’t scientific to assign human emotions to animals. But now we know that animals have emotions; they definitely do. Fear is real, and some animals genetically are going to have higher fear responses than other animals. It turns out with me that my fear center is three times larger than normal. You can have animals that are higher fear or low fear. An animal that is high fear is an animal that gets scared more easily; their heart rate and cortisol levels go up more, and when you put that animal in a high-stress situation they are more likely to get sick.”

7. The best thing for your horse is to let them be a horse.

“We have to look at what animals need," she said. "Dogs in an animal shelter need 45 minutes every day of funsies with the volunteer, that is what they need because we have bred them to be social. A lot of horses need to get out and run around in the pasture just to have a chance to be a horse. I am concerned that some horses are so locked up in stalls. You’ve got stallions with abnormal behavior? It’s because they have never learned that give and take of social relationships with other animals. Does the animal have a life worth living? Does it have a positive, fun, experience? Does it get to do things it likes to do? For a horse, that is getting out and running around. You want to let the horse have positive, happy experiences.”

8. Horses can be life-changing for people of all backgrounds, but especially for kids with autism.

“When I was in a regular high school, I got bullied and teased for being autistic," Dr. Grandin shared. "So I went away to a special school where horses became my life. The only place I had friends was when I was riding horses or getting horses ready for shows. I learned how to work with horses and there are a lot more troubled teenagers today who cleaning horse stalls, taking care of horses, and getting involved could be the best thing that has ever happened to them.”

[ivyblossom]

In the last 10 years or so my library career has involved a lot of hiring committees, and I've gotten pretty good at sussing out great candidates. I swear it's been like 70% of my job or more at some points, writing job descriptions, reviewing applications, interviews, evaluating candidates, arguing with committees, etc. Hiring the right candidates for a role has a huge positive impact on work and work culture, and hiring the wrong ones is so detrimental for everyone involved including the candidate, so I take it very seriously.

I have become an industrial strength implicit bias detector (people's biases never come out as strongly as they do on hiring committees, omg, the racism, the sexism! The preference for the comfort of the shitty known over the fear of change! The respect I have lost for colleagues because of serving on search committees could feed a village for a year).

I have a ton of weirdly specific experience and tools for this work, and I have a series of favourite interview questions the answers to which can tell you how a candidate is going to blow up your org (in a good way or in a bad way), and my track record for being right about that is still spotless after 10 years.

But in spite of the fact that everywhere I've ever worked hires a lot of students into student jobs, I have never been involved in student interviews and hiring. These are 10 hour a week jobs. This week, I'm standing in to help with student interviews because one of my teams is down a person. After all that experience hiring, you'd think I'd be primed for this, but no.

I am useless interviewing undergrads for student jobs, useless. I am charmed by all of them. I think they're all wonderful. They's so smart and thoughtful and earnest and have the potential to change the world, I love them all. Hire them all. They're perfect.

[yesthattoo]

Survey recruitment; I gave feedback as a later consultant & Tuttle is another Autistic AAC user who was involved in the project from the start. Shares are Definitely Helpful :)

Are you an autistic adult who uses speech and other tools (such as augmentative and alternative communication [AAC]) to communicate?

If you answered yes, please consider participating in this survey at this link:

We are interested in learning about the speech, AAC, and assessment experiences of autistic people who use speech and AAC. We are curious if a modified version of the Communicative Participation Item Bank (CPIB) can be a reliable tool for clinicians to utilize in measuring the internal experiences of speaking autistic people. Regarding assessment, we are interested in understanding how their speech efficacy, or the extent to which one can use speech to completely communicate their intended meaning, was measured and considered in the evaluation process and if the evaluation resulted in a recommendation of an AAC tool.

The survey includes a mix of multiple choice, slider, and written response questions and is estimated to take between 10-20 minutes.

No identifying information will be collected in this survey.

Please reach out with any questions or concerns via email.

We thank you in advance for contributing your insight on this important topic!

Karina Rayl, B.S. (Lead Investigator)

Graduate Student

Speech and Hearing Sciences

Portland State University

Email: krayl@pdx.edu

Pang Lee Herr, B.S. (Lead Investigator)

Graduate Student

Speech and Hearing Sciences

Portland State University

Email: pherr@pdx.edu

Brandon Eddy, M.A., CCC-SLP (Co-investigator and Faculty Advisor)

Associate Clinical Professor

Speech and Hearing Sciences

Email: beddy@pdx.edu

Amy Donaldson, Ph.D. CCC-SLP (Co-investigator and Faculty Advisor)

Associate Professor

Speech and Hearing Sciences

Email: adonald@pdx.edu

Tuttle (External Collaborator)

Email: tuttleturtle@gmail.com

Alyssa Zisk, Ph.D. (External Collaborator)

Email: ahzisk@gmail.com

[maxdibert]

What does your daily routine consist of?

I wake up at 6:45 am. I want to die. I check my phone until about 7:15 am because I need between 20 minutes and half an hour for my brain to decide it can be 1% functional. I force myself to get up. I still want to die. I take my meds because I have ADHD and a diagnosed anxiety disorder, so I need the pills to keep myself from shooting myself, you know. I usually shower at night because if I shower in the morning, I waste too much time since my timeline management is awful, so I get dressed, pack my bag, and head to work. I try to get on the metro, which feels like a very complicated mission at 8 am when I arrive—it’s like having to push through people and fight aggressively retiring ladies. I end up crammed into the car like a sardine between people who want to die and university students who also want to die but not as much because they can still be happy until they graduate and real hell begins. I get to the office, make myself a matcha latte because I can’t drink coffee as caffeine wrecks me. I have it with oat milk because I’m lactose intolerant, thanks. The first thing we do every day at 9 am is a meeting with the bosses, the psychology team, and the social workers to review the day’s plan. Then it depends on the week—some weeks I’m almost always at the office reviewing paperwork and the "boys" (the users of the organization I work for) come here, other weeks I go to supervised homes to interview them, and other weeks I have trials or hearings at court and spend the day out.

On Fridays, we have a general team meeting to talk about the cases of the people we manage, how they’re progressing, and unresolved matters. The social caregivers are also there; they work directly with them and give us feedback on the week, basically telling us about all the rules they’ve broken because they literally behave like teenagers who think their parents don’t notice their messes—but we do. And well, after that, we have some sessions where the users come in, and we run a progress check and evaluation with them. Not with all of them, just one or two each week.

My schedule is from 9 am to 6 pm, and there are days when I end up with a horrible migraine, days when I end up at the bar drinking to forget, days when I go straight home exhausted and can only watch True Crime on TV to stop thinking, and days when I’m in a reasonably good mood, and then I write my fanfiction, which I’ve committed to updating regularly as an exercise to work on my ADHD and the consistency it takes from me.

Every two weeks, I have therapy, and occasionally I go out with some guy I met on Tinder or during a night out, and well, not much else.

The good thing about days when I’m in the office and have lots of meetings is that most of them are on Zoom, so I can ditch all the tools my psychiatrist and therapist have given me to stay focused and answer questions like this while having five or six minimized faces on the screen talking about things I half-listen to because I’m incapable of paying attention to non-face-to-face conversations for more than 10 minutes. Fortunately, my boss is very happy with me because I get the "boys" everything they need and we share the same terrible rage when someone tries to harm the "boys" so he acts like he doesn’t notice when I dissociate or get distracted.

And that’s my life, the normal routine of a young adult with a teenage soul immersed in the social precariousness of depressing adulthood, already starting to experience an early 30s crisis.

[emilato]

𝕊𝕙𝕚𝕟 𝕊𝕖𝕜𝕒𝕚 𝕐𝕠𝕣𝕚 ?

There is a huge possibility that I am incredibly dense, but I seriously struggled to follow this show and its story. Now my confusion could be coming from the fact that we had to skip a good chunk of episodes, paired with my bad attention span. I was able to follow the story at the beginning but got lost at some point. Due to my unfortunate confusion, I don't have a strong opinion on the show; it isn't bad by any means, but it wasn't really amazing either. I feel bad because I feel like I missed out on so much, especially with the middle episodes. Regardless, I noticed a slight theme of power and control throughout the show. 

The plot follows 12-year-old Saki Watanabe, who lives in the town of Kamisu 66. After finally discovering her cantus or powers, Saki is sent to school, where she and her friends, Satoru, Maria, Mamoru, and Shun, better their powers and explore the complex rules of the world they live in. On a camping trip, the five friends discover the horrifying truths of their society's history, such as the origin of their powers and much more. Throughout the show, we discover more dark truths about the society they reside in. For example, we find out that the government within the town evaluates students, and based on these evaluations, some students are removed from society. What stood out to me was the portrayal of the possession of special abilities by humans for positive purposes; however, over time, these powers transform into tools of control and oppression. 

Once I have some free time, I might come back to this show and give it a second chance by watching it all the way through. I genuinely feel like I missed out on a lot. There was a point where the characters were young kids, and then all of a sudden they were older. While doing some research to better my understanding of everything, I stumbled upon a picture of Satoru and Shun kissing (?) which just further validates my point that I missed a lot. If anyone has watched most of the episodes and can fill me in, that would be appreciated!

[newsepick]

Digital Assessments for Students from Grade 3 Onwards - Newsepick Evolve solution enables educators to create regular assessments as per their curriculum and affiliated boards and gain student performance insights for personalized guidance

[covid-safer-hotties]

I loved my teaching career. COVID normalization stole it from me - Published Aug 23, 2024

It might not have been the most favourable, but one of the most memorable comments I ever received on a student evaluation was that I could be “a bit hard to follow, but that was more an example of [my] passion for this subject over anything.” That subject was creative writing. And yes, sometimes, I had difficulty tempering my excitement throughout a teaching career that has now been cut short.

I have – or had – been teaching as a contract or “sessional” creative-writing instructor. Given the competitiveness of the academic job market and my age (I was nearly 40 when I earned the requisite degree, though I had already published four books), I had come to accept that it was unlikely that I would ever have a faculty position. But I could live with that because I still had the rare privilege of making a (barely) livable wage doing something I was very passionate about.

The COVID-19 pandemic took that from me. Actually, that’s not quite right. It was the perceived “end” of the pandemic that really ruined my teaching career.

I am immunocompromised and rely on medication to manage an autoimmune disease. This means vaccine protection from the virus is probably less effective for me than for most people. Also, my particular illness – Crohn’s, an inflammatory bowel disease – has been shown to put me at significantly greater risk than most for long COVID: a potentially chronic condition that can be very debilitating. And despite how it may seem, COVID circulates widely much of the year: We are still in a pandemic.

When universities returned to in-person learning in early 2022, a brief letter from my specialist was all I needed – because of my medical condition – to continue teaching online. But all that changed about a year ago.

Ironically, it is now harder for me to receive accommodation to teach online even though there is less protection in the classroom against COVID. I cannot require masking, which is perhaps our best tool against transmission (particularly respirator-style masks such as N95s), in the classroom. Nor does one-way masking offer as much protection as universal masking. Also, current air filtration in classrooms is generally insufficient. In other words, classrooms are not safe and accessible workplaces for medically vulnerable people. But that’s certainly not how university administrators, and even those who were supposed to represent employees’ interests, perceive things these days.

Last year, trying to discourage me from requesting to teach online, a union rep told me that he “believed in in-person learning.” The most frustrating thing about this comment, and the widely held opinion it represents, is that I too very much miss teaching in person and would, if it were safe to do so. (That said, I believe I am every bit as effective a teacher online.)

On another occasion, a university administrator, after I had submitted my medical documentation, thought “the solution” was for me to co-teach the class so it could include an in-person component and, consequently, less pay for me. After a struggle that went on for months, I taught the class entirely online, but the accommodation agreement I had to sign stated I had “a medical condition that needs limited exposure to as many people as possible.” I nearly refused to put my name to this bizarre description of what is a prevalent disease, but it was too late to apply elsewhere.

It is clear it will only become increasingly difficult for me to teach online as time goes on. The back-and-forth with administrators, department heads and union reps, waiting to find out if I will or won’t be accommodated, and/or what new obstacles will be thrown at me – it has all caused me significant anxiety, which in turn has made it more difficult, ironically, to manage the symptoms of my illness.

I know that the people I have been sparring with are, for the most part, decent folks: They are just ill informed. But I can’t keep trying to do the job of a public-health official to ensure my own health. It’s quite literally making me sick. I’m done. I quit. I have to.

Disability activists have fought long and hard for workplace accessibility to be a right. But the culture has not caught up to understanding the particular accessibility needs of the immunocompromised.

I do not know how to go forward from here. Online courses, especially creative writing, are few and far between. I am looking for online work that utilizes my skills and education and/or that pays more than minimum wage. I have yet to find even an opening for anything like that. For now, I’m grieving: In many ways, it’s a full-time job.

The last time I taught in person was the year I graduated from my MFA program – just months before the pandemic began. After the semester had ended, a student asked if we could have a coffee together so that I could offer further guidance on revising a piece of writing that I had told him was of near-publishable quality. And I only say that to students when it’s true. He also, to my surprise, wanted to share a bit of his own constructive criticism for me – about how I could facilitate workshop discussion a little better. I chuckled at his audacity, though later, upon reflection, took his suggestion. But mostly we focused on his creative work.

As we were getting ready to go our separate ways, he mentioned, in passing, that he had a long drive home: 2½ hours. It has always stayed with me that a student was willing to spend five hours driving for a relatively brief chat over a coffee. Clearly, he thought I was a good teacher, but with more practice and experience, I could become – like a talented, but novice, student writer – an excellent one. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like I will get that chance.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Journal Writing

Some professors assign journals as a tool for students to become actively engaged with the course material.

Some writers often are resistant to keeping journals because they feel unsure about either the content or the purpose of the journal.

Knowing some of the basic goals common to all journals could help you better approach journal writing and may help with your writing process, or when you are experiencing writer's block. 

Common Goals of a Journal

To encourage regular writing

To make connections between class material, lectures, and personal observations

To raise questions and issues that can fuel classroom discussions

To generate ideas for future writing

To provide a forum for inquiry, analysis, and evaluation of ideas

Do

Write regularly

Try to make concrete connections between journal entries

Link personal reactions to the class material

Approach the exercise with the intention of being challenged

Present your ideas in a coherent and thought-provoking manner

Do Not

Ignore basic rules of grammar and punctuation

Write to fill pages; the process is more important than the product

Wait until the last minute to make your entries

Confuse your journal with a personal diary. Although this is your journal, the main focus should be on class assignments and their connections. Try not to focus too much on your personal feelings, such as whether or not you liked the book or the film. Instead concentrate on why your professor assigned the material.

Simply summarize — analyze. Avoid describing what you have read. Ask probing questions: are the points well-argued? Does the writer come to a logical conclusion? What other issues should be considered?

Take your journal seriously. Keeping a journal helps develop writing, reading, analytical and critical skills that are necessary in all disciplines.  

Source ⚜ Writing Notes & References