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miscellaneous thoughts before bedtime
Dec. 19th, 2009 01:13 amWent to hot pot and board game night at Ed's tonight. They're cool and I want to know them better!
We played Small World, which was lots of fun. I really enjoyed the colorful people that you can play while you conquered, and it was straightforward in just the right places (2 steps in a single turn, only one basic way of calculating victory points, 8 rounds, only 5 races to choose from at any given point, and very visual representation of any complications), but also complex in the right places (complex interactions with other players as you figure out which lands to conquer and what they might do on their turn, 20 skills x 14 races = many possible combinations, and the combinations all both fun to imagine but also have in-game relevance -- flying dwarves can conquer any land and get +1 on mine lands, etc).
We also played the new Super Mario Bros Wii as a group. It was pretty fun. I think it's a game where me, an utter novice at the entire video game playing enterprise, needs to take some time to practice and explore on my own. But Jono got pretty excited. Especially when he got to wear the penguin suit. What was also interesting was later at home I was talking about how the advanced players were asking me and Jinghua, the n00bs to do things like jump on them, but I couldn't figure out how to time the length and distance of the jump. Jono then commented, "sounds like you haven't mastered the jump skill-atom". I then had to point out that jumping is not a skill-atom. It's a whole skill-organism: just knowing which button to press is just the beginning. Then you have to figure out distance, direction, timing, eye-brain-hand evaluation and coordination (to say nothing of all the other options like stomping and shooting things and the various purposes of jumping). It's good to be a novice at something, though. It helps remind me how something as straightforward to me as "consider the context of this document" might be many many skills to my students.
I've also been going to some of Jono's accordion lessons. They seem so different from the piano lessons of my youth! He would show up to his lessons and show the teacher what he's worked on during the week, and they'd work on it a bit more, with the teacher correcting anything that needs correcting or teaching strategies where necessary. The pace of the lesson is very organic. It seemed that my piano lessons as a kid were very prescriptive -- I play the pieces that were assigned as homework from last time. Teacher corrects what is necessary. New pieces are assigned. Looking back on it, I realize that no time was spent asking whether I was interested in this piece, or telling me what new skill the piece was supposed to practice, or discussing the music theory or music history or music appreciation aspects. It's just: do this. I'm not saying that there is no benefit from doing things from rote. But on the other hand, thinking needs to happen. Engagement with material needs to happen. I feel like as a teacher, even now, I don't have the right balance between rote and thinking. (Which is related but on a slightly different axis as skill vs. knowledge)
Lastly, there were a bunch of Asians at this party, and it sort of made me realize how much I miss having someone to geek over Chinese stuff with me. Ironic given where we live. I mean, there is quite a substantial Chinese and Chinese-American population here. But always this feeling of being disjointed or somewhat distanced -- my particular encounter with Chinese culture is ... weird. Plus I've always been "the principal's kid" with all of the Chinese peers I interact with. So... I'm not sure I know how to properly interact with Chinese-Americans my age outside of that context. :/
We played Small World, which was lots of fun. I really enjoyed the colorful people that you can play while you conquered, and it was straightforward in just the right places (2 steps in a single turn, only one basic way of calculating victory points, 8 rounds, only 5 races to choose from at any given point, and very visual representation of any complications), but also complex in the right places (complex interactions with other players as you figure out which lands to conquer and what they might do on their turn, 20 skills x 14 races = many possible combinations, and the combinations all both fun to imagine but also have in-game relevance -- flying dwarves can conquer any land and get +1 on mine lands, etc).
We also played the new Super Mario Bros Wii as a group. It was pretty fun. I think it's a game where me, an utter novice at the entire video game playing enterprise, needs to take some time to practice and explore on my own. But Jono got pretty excited. Especially when he got to wear the penguin suit. What was also interesting was later at home I was talking about how the advanced players were asking me and Jinghua, the n00bs to do things like jump on them, but I couldn't figure out how to time the length and distance of the jump. Jono then commented, "sounds like you haven't mastered the jump skill-atom". I then had to point out that jumping is not a skill-atom. It's a whole skill-organism: just knowing which button to press is just the beginning. Then you have to figure out distance, direction, timing, eye-brain-hand evaluation and coordination (to say nothing of all the other options like stomping and shooting things and the various purposes of jumping). It's good to be a novice at something, though. It helps remind me how something as straightforward to me as "consider the context of this document" might be many many skills to my students.
I've also been going to some of Jono's accordion lessons. They seem so different from the piano lessons of my youth! He would show up to his lessons and show the teacher what he's worked on during the week, and they'd work on it a bit more, with the teacher correcting anything that needs correcting or teaching strategies where necessary. The pace of the lesson is very organic. It seemed that my piano lessons as a kid were very prescriptive -- I play the pieces that were assigned as homework from last time. Teacher corrects what is necessary. New pieces are assigned. Looking back on it, I realize that no time was spent asking whether I was interested in this piece, or telling me what new skill the piece was supposed to practice, or discussing the music theory or music history or music appreciation aspects. It's just: do this. I'm not saying that there is no benefit from doing things from rote. But on the other hand, thinking needs to happen. Engagement with material needs to happen. I feel like as a teacher, even now, I don't have the right balance between rote and thinking. (Which is related but on a slightly different axis as skill vs. knowledge)
Lastly, there were a bunch of Asians at this party, and it sort of made me realize how much I miss having someone to geek over Chinese stuff with me. Ironic given where we live. I mean, there is quite a substantial Chinese and Chinese-American population here. But always this feeling of being disjointed or somewhat distanced -- my particular encounter with Chinese culture is ... weird. Plus I've always been "the principal's kid" with all of the Chinese peers I interact with. So... I'm not sure I know how to properly interact with Chinese-Americans my age outside of that context. :/
