So What's Lisa Doing Now Anyway?

Welcome to my 2013-2014 AP English Course Blog!

Given that it's not 2014 anymore, if you're reading this you must have Googled my name looking for what I'm doing NOW, not what I was doing in high school. So what's happened since then?

• I graduated from Righetti High School as the Class of 2014's "Most Likely to Succeed."
• I attended Allan Hancock College (great school), where I studied Biology and Computer Science. Meanwhile, I led the Science and Engineering Club for a year as Secretary and a year as President. I also joined Alpha Gamma Sigma, the California Community College Honor Society, and as Newsletter Chair I led the production of three 8-page newsletters.
• Now I am a student at UC Davis as a Biotechnology major (Bioinformatics emphasis) and Computer Science minor. In February 2019 I joined the Comai Lab where I contribute to bioinformatics research.

Want to hear more? Connect with me on LinkedIn!

OSL community necessities

From the SurveyMonkey thing:

Given what you know about the challenges and opportunities that Open Source Learning presents, what qualities/ ingredients do you think a learning community must possess in order to make the most of it?

JSYK THIS IS IMPORTANT ENOUGH FOR ME TO SAY SO IN CAPS: what the community needs that we didn't have is adequate virtual infrastructure, most importantly a central place (message board or similar) to post time-sensitive notices, help requests, shouts-out, etc., where EVERYONE (yes, 100% participation is important; that means someone needs to accomplish the digital wrangling of email addresses with more success than I had) will be notified (by email, Facebook, text, phone app, or...?) and see it IMMEDIATELY (that means NOT the course blog [sorry Preston, kids don't check it as much as {I think} you think they do]).

I believe the key determining factor of success is teacher endorsement: in APWH, Mr. Greeley facilitated the creation and use of the Google Group and made joining a requirement; however, in AP Lit Comp, Dr. Preston's "hands-off" policy had one of its few backfires by making it impossible to get full membership or even much participation among members. This is one of those situations in which everyone will do a certain thing if "everyone" else is, but no one will do that thing if "no one" else is. Thus, by common use, the inferior environment provided by Facebook eclipsed the environment I attempted to create with the RAM Google Group, so the latter did not succeed.

Also helpful would be more informal/instant virtual meeting places such as chatrooms, [ahem] *active* shoutboxes, or video chatting.

OSL improvements for next year

From the SurveyMonkey thing:

How do you think this course & approach can be improved for next year's students?

I think if there was a fully functional Random Absence Mentoring next year, it would help the students (chronically ill, foreign exchange, and otherwise) immensely.

Here's why Random Absence Mentoring did not fully succeed: this year there was only one person (me) personally invested in the project (there were others [specifically Min Kim] who would occasionally write posts for it, but only at my prompting), so that as soon as I became out of commission, the whole system collapsed. The reason no one else was invested in the project like I was is because writing daily posts has no *apparent* personal benefit (i.e. I know from experience that reporting on class events certainly helps the writer understand the material more fully, but not even AP teenagers are gonna buy into that one); the only situation with obvious benefit is when a student reads a post written by someone else (i.e. on a day when they were absent). In economics terms, the Marginal Social Benefit of writing a post for RAM greatly exceeds the Marginal (individual) Benefit, and therefore the service is underproduced. In economics, this is where the government needs to step in. The only practical way to create the incentive to contribute is to reward students (extra credit, homework passes, 5P41NX points, whatever) for participating in RAM.

If this is something that next year's students want to continue, I'll be very happy to provide tech support, advice, and mentorship in any way I can, so please feel free to ask.

Lisa's OSL bucket list

From the SurveyMonkey thing:

What would you learn/accomplish in Open Source Learning if you had more time?

• continue refining theory of consciousnes
• continue refining theses of empathy
• read more (or all???) of Shakespeare's plays
• write about theory of consciousness in reference to characters in Shakespare and other literature
• write a crapton more about the Alignment System because I'm STILL obsessed (guess where I'm starting?? SHAKESPEARE)
• learn about classic and modern theories of psychology (and history thereof [Freud, Jung, etc]) and compare to my own discoveries/"made-up" theories, to put it derogatorily
• learn more code
• learn more Japanese and/or Spanish and/or ???
• learn to play piano
• ooh, and maybe guitar
• annihilate everyone on the Internet who has bad spelling/grammar *cough* I mean nicely point them towards quality OSL English resources
• create/curate resources for students with illnesses, disabilities, etc., who have difficulty in "regular" school like I've had
• use the Internet, etc. to connect people with obscure/enigmatic illnesses (like myself) with experts and specialists that can help them
• ...and just generally use whatever resources available to me to increase personal and universal happiness, wellness, and wisdom in whatever way I can :)

There are good people in the world

I've been avoiding use of my blog to post status updates on principle, but something happened to me today that I think needs to be shared.

Just in case there are readers beyond my little circle of English friends, a little over a month ago my mom passed away from a sudden tragic illness. I was glad to see my elementary school best friend and her mom at the memorial service (my mom always really liked them; I think she was happy they were there, too), and today they invited me to dinner and a movie for a girls' night out. Since I have no sisters, I'm now the only female in the house, so it felt really good to spend time with both of them.

However, when we picked the movie we wanted to see, we didn't know that the heroine's mother dies at the end. Hearing the main character pleading, "Mom, Mom, no!" and watching her bleed... It was too much for me, too soon. All I could see was my own mom. I lost it. I sobbed in the middle of the theater, and didn't care who heard me. My friend's mom crossed over to the seat next to me, and held me for a long time. My grief passed soon enough for me to watch the last few minutes of the movie, but afterwards when she commented about the character's mom, "Well, I didn't see that coming!" I cried, "We didn't see it coming for my mom either!" and it all caught up with me again.

In the middle of my tears I looked up to see that a perfect stranger had approached me, and said, "I just wanted to tell you I'm so sorry for your loss, and it's gonna be okay." I was so touched that someone I don't even know would be so kind to comfort me, just from seeing me cry in a theater. It makes me feel that there really are good people in the world, and there really is a kindred spirit of humanity in us all. Like the love you can give to a mother or a child is the same you can give to a brother or a sister, or a friend, or a stranger you see on the street, and through those expressions of love every single person on this earth is connected. Like Shakespeare said, the more love you give, the more you have, "for both are infinite."

I wish I could find that woman who spoke to me in the theater so I can tell her how much it meant to me, but I guess there's no way I can find her again. My only hope is that if I can show the same kindness to a stranger, or if you can after reading this, maybe that love will find its way back to her, and in the process, to the whole wide world.

The Lady Inevitable

My dad used the phrase "delay the inevitable" in conversation today, and for a split second I thought he said "the Lady Inevitable." I soon realized what he'd really said, but I still got an amazing image of fate in the form of Lady Inevitable. She wears a mask and a luxurious old-style gown, like an elegant masquerade guest, and carries something as she follows you, closing in slowly. Maybe she carries a book, or your electric bill, or your death. You won't know when she'll arrive until she does; maybe you can delay the Lady, but she'll always be Inevitable.

THE NOSE

Yup. The Nose.

1. What does Ivan Yakovlevich do for a living?

He's a barber! (on a side note, Kovaloff's valet is also named Ivan. That had to have been intentional...?)

2. What does Ivan find in a loaf of bread?

A nose! *gasp*

3. How does his wife respond to Ivan's discovery?

She's all like, "You drunkard!" (not sure how that's relevant but according to our oh-so-reliable narrator, it's true)

4. What does Ivan set out to accomplish?

He wants to get rid of that stupid nose!

5. When Ivan tosses the "package" in the river, for a brief moment he is happy; then he is arrested. What does this scene suggest about the role of happiness in Ivan's life/community/society?

Happiness is fragile, and subject to the arbitrary will of authorities (in this case, the policeman)

6. Where does the title object belong, and how does it finally get there?

on Kovaloff's face
it just magically fixes itself back on one morning
y'know, 'cause that makes so much sense
THE END