PGD-I4: The beauty of competition

I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but current gas prices are pretty sweet. I took this picture several weeks ago because gas had fallen below $3. I couldn't believe it! Surely, I thought, the trend could not last long, and it had to be documented.



Well, I was driving to school this morning and I saw that two gas stations near my flat have gas for $2.01.

Yes. $2.01.

How is that possible, you might be wondering. Certainly, gas prices aren't that low in Northern Virginia ... not to mention California. Just to add to the ridiculousness of the matter, only a half mile away, there is a gas station selling its cheapest gas at $2.19.

Again. I'm guessing that this is puzzling.

My guess, based on my knowledge of economic theory, draws on a couple factors about the locations of these gas stations. Gas Stations A and B are located on opposing sides of an intersection that is relatively well-traveled, but not a major route through Williamsburg. Gas Station C, however, is located on one of the five or so major roads. There are also no other gas stations on this road for a couple miles. Further, Gas Station A is privately owned, while Gas Station B is owned by a typical gas station that can be found through most of the U.S.

Therein lies the beauty of competition. Gas Station C has no direct competition, even though it is only located a half mile from the other two. Anyone driving down that major road without insider knowledge about A and B will get gas at C. Gas Station C is located next to the entrance to a major highway, as well as a lot of fast food. Tourists come across it regularly, and they're in a hurry. They want to buy gas and get some food quickly. They are also probably coming from larger metropolitan areas so they think that $2.19 for gas is a pretty sweet deal. In contrast, Stations A and B are in a mainly residential and local area. Plus, locals like me compare gas prices and know where to go.

Further, Station B has to match the price of Station A because it is right across the street. Because A is privately owned, it can set different prices. Of course, it has to make a profit, so it can't set a price below cost (whatever that really is). Actually, they probably aren't making much money. Gas prices at $2 are not sustainable for long. But the fact that both gas stations are selling at that price proves the point. Competition is beautiful. I've been watching these two gas stations set steadily lower prices for four weeks now, and my jaw still drops whenever I drive by and see such low prices. Competition is so good for the consumer, as long as that consumer is willing to do some research.

Granted, this is a very simplistic example of competition. I'm sure there are some economic aspects to the argument that have not been covered, and I know enough economists who could correct those points for me if they wanted to. However, it remains interesting. It is a post-graduate discovery because it is an example of something in real life that I learned about as an undergrad.

Here's hoping for a stable economy ... please?

Technology Modules

One class that all W&M education students are required to complete is a course in technology integration in the classroom. Obviously, this is right up my alley. Even more exciting is the fact that my GA adviser is the teacher! Mark always has great ideas in and out of class for technological integration. His rule of thumb is that yes, technology can do a lot for you, but what should you be using technology for? What is the relative advantage of a specific type of technology in your classroom ... meaning, what does it add to the classroom that you would not be able to do otherwise?

This week we are each meeting with Mark to discuss individual technology lesson plans. I'm still trying to decide what I'm going to do for mine. We have done some class exploration to learn about different types of technology and how they work in the classroom. Here are some class project examples from that exploration (the elementary people did these technology modules as well). I could easily come up with a lesson plan for the technology module I created (podcasting) but I think that I want to explore something different. I am considering blogging, Inspiration, PhotoStory, and Web Inquiry. Ideas?

Also, here is a sample of a movie that one of my colleagues (Eric) created during one of our classes to answer the age-old debate: Pirates vs. Ninjas.

Autumn

Things I love about fall:

1. Fall colors ... they just started coming out in Williamsburg this week! The trees around William and Mary are beautiful. Growing up in California for such a prolonged period of time really made me appreciate having all the seasonal changes. I've been watching for good fall colors for a couple weeks now, and I'm so glad that they've come out in full force.
2. Football ... I've watched almost every VT game this year and most of the UVA games, as well as some of the other games, too. I've enjoyed watching football for several years now, but this is the first year I've really invested time in watching it regularly. It's a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon (while lesson planning, of course!)
3. Fall food ... pie, turkey, cornbread, chili, soup, mashed potatoes, stuffing, all of it. I can't wait for Thanksgiving.
4. Cooler weather ... the days have started getting especially cooler this week, and I'm so excited to be able to wear sweaters again, and use my brand new red peacoat from my parents for my birthday.
5. My birthday! and my sister's ... she just turned 21, heavens ... that makes me feel old!
   

School days

Going to the high school is the best part of my week. No joke. This is probably why I haven't written as much here as I should have -- I've been having so much fun lesson planning and preparing for my time at school. The best part of the experience so far has been getting to know my students. I am currently completing observations in an AP Government classroom and an AP Microeconomics classroom. Initially, I was only interacting with students in Econ because the class does a fair amount of small group work, but I've been able to interact with the AP Government students recently during our political parties unit.

Some of the highlights so far:

1. The kids look up to me a ridiculous amount for not having known me for very long. A couple of the girls have asked me for advice about things. I think this is partially because I'm a young, female teacher and they probably don't know many women in their mid-20s. Regardless of the reason, it's cool.
2. Assisting the students with their political parties project ... they split into groups and created their own political parties and platforms. I helped them make short campaign videos! Go using journalism skills.
3. Direct quote from said political parties project: "Hey, Ms. N---- said it would work, and she's a grad student! We should put it in our platform!"
4. Chaperoning at the Homecoming Dance ... lots of "Hey, Ms. N-----!" and "Why didn't you bring a date?" haha ...
5. Getting to know lots of teachers ... I've also observed in another AP Government class, a 9th grade regular English class, and a 10th grade World Geography class
6. Finding my "teacher voice" and my "teacher demeanor" ... a year ago, there's no way I would have been able to lead a lesson for 90 minutes. Amazing.
7. Lesson planning is actually fun ... which is good since that is all I do. 80% of teaching is planning, I have decided
8. Seeing high school from the other end of the spectrum. I mean, I was never the kid who hated high school, but there were definitely parts of it that I didn't like. This puts an entirely new spin on the whole affair.
9. Seeing how each high school is unique.
10. Meeting dozens of innovative teachers who teach beyond the standards and find ways to make content engaging while getting across the main points.

Don't get me wrong, it's plenty challenging. It's hard waking up at 5am, and there are some days where I don't exactly feel like I'm making a real difference ... but then there are other days that are fantastic. That's part of the job. Luckily, the best part of it all is the kids. I'm so looking forward to getting to know them better.

Things I am hoping to continue cultivating in myself

1. Ability to ask engaging, higher-level questions
2. Relating to all of my students
3. Finding ways to introduce technology in a seamless way
4. Designing real-life lessons that relate to things my students are interested in
   
5. Doing all of it without losing my sanity! :)
   

Wordle

I know I haven't written in a while! I will again soon. But first, I wanted to bring your attention to a cool Web site that my graduate assistantship (GA) adviser, Mark, showed me yesterday: www.wordle.net. The site allows you to paste text in a box and it randomizes it for you in a word cloud to show you the most used words. You can also put a link in to any Web site with an RSS feed (like a blog) and see the most used words there, too. Of course, I couldn't resist. Here are the word clouds for each of my three blogs:

Wonder of Now (this blog):




London Holiday (study abroad experience in London):




For His Renown (attempted blog when I went to the Urbana and Passion conferences in 2006):


Go check it out! And, if you want to see any of these clouds in detail, just click on the picture. You'll be able to read all of the words.

Mark and I were thinking that this could be a cool way to analyze primary source documents in the classroom. He ran the Obama and McCain convention speeches through Wordle and it was really neat to see visually what words they both focus on. Any thoughts on that?

Back to school

I've probably thought of about fifteen different things to blog about in the past two weeks, but as I've been busy with school work and life in general, that hasn't happened.  I've been considering blogging about general technology use in classrooms, the inquiry method of social studies instruction, content reading and writing, and classroom management strategies.  I've also been considering blogging about worship, Philippians, 1 Samuel, and relational evangelism.  Still further, what I have been up to.  It's been a busy two weeks.  Here are some highlights.

1. Student teaching  I got my student teaching placement!  To protect anonymity, my students, W&M, and the high school I am in, I am not going to reveal which high school it is or my cooperating teacher.  However, I will say that I will be teaching government, both regular and AP, come spring time.  I am mostly doing observations this semester.  Of course, the school is somewhere in the Tidewater area, within an hour's drive of Williamsburg.  That's about 10 plus possible school districts.  ;)  Naturally, I am very happy with my placement, and I think that this will be a great year.  I will meet the kids for the first time next week.

2. Christian life  I have been attending services at New Town UMC since June, and I still really like it there.  I also started going to their Wednesday night Bible study with some friends in the end of July.  We are doing an expository study of the book of Philippians, and we're still in chapter 2, haha.  Seeing as we only discussed one verse this week (2:25), this is not surprising.  I really admire NTUMC's commitment to fellowship, doctrine, worship, prayer, and the needs of the congregation.  The church really feels like a family to me, and I've only been there a short while.  I'm seeing God's blessings everywhere I look, and it's just amazing.  I've been attending the Bible study with a couple friends and we're hoping to get more people to join us as the year progresses.  The great part is that we don't just see each other for Bible study, we try to get together outside of church, too, so that we're involved in each other's lives.  This is so important in Christian community.  I have also started singing at Bruton Parish on Sunday nights.  A friend found out that I sing and invited me to sing in the student choir, and it's been really interesting and fun so far.  Definitely a different experience, but one that has been beneficial for me, especially considering my experience with TFC.  I'm glad to have this opportunity to be in open dialogue in that setting.

3. Working hard  I'm working for a different professor during the school year, and I'm having a lot of fun so far.  One project I worked on a few weeks ago was to create screen capture videos as an explanation for how to use Wikispaces.  W&M education students use Wikispaces to create electronic portfolios of their progress throughout the year.  I had a lot of fun creating these videos, so check them out.

4. Reading ... not for pleasure  My month of pleasure reading has ended.  While I have been finding some time to read through the last book in the Twilight series (Breaking Dawn), I have mostly been reading for my various classes.  I'm hoping to write a blog about the Twilight series once I finish it.  :)  I will likely offer some thoughts on other reading materials for my various classes, but I do have a lot to do, so those may be more infrequent.

5. Time for play  Despite the work, I'm still a social person.  The C&I bunch has become even closer than we were over the summer, and I think we're starting to scare some people because we know each other so well.  It's fun.  :)  I also went to UVA this past weekend with a friend for my first Cavalier football game.  I really like Charlottesville, and thankfully we managed to avoid Tropical Storm Hanna!  The rain stopped an hour before the game started.  Fantastic.  I'm going to Virginia Tech this weekend with my friend Laurie and her family, and I'll also get to see Jesse and Caelah!  So, I'm really just having an orange identity crisis between Tech and UVA.  Who do I cheer for?  ;)  There have also been Wii game sessions, dinners, bowling, poker, movie nights, and endless conversations.

Needless to stay, I've already built a life here, and I love everything about it.

Chapter 13

For anyone who reads my blog for my fanfiction updates, this is for YOU!  Chapter 13 is finally up.  I know that it has been 8 months.  I know that I could have spent all the time writing my blog this year writing "Heart of Gold" (actually, the story has approached novel length, so I might start referring to it as Heart of Gold instead).  I greatly apologize for that.  BUT I promise that you will like the chapter.

Some highlights to whet your appetite:

• Liam and Aislinn decide to do something new
• We finally find out what Christopher Devon is so afraid about
• Regulus and Lily decorate the office for Christmas (note: this shows you what month it was when I started writing the chapter, haha)
• Regulus feels mortal peril ... three times
• Regulus gets into a tiff

Go read.  :)  And review!

Is there something more?

One of my readers asked for more information about IVCF in my previous post, and I was really glad to get that perspective.  IVCF is an organization centered on college students, so they have little direct presence in public schools, however, the organization is involved in promoting service among college students.  A lot of that service work happens in the public school sector, so IVCF does affect public schools indirectly.  In fact, IVCF has an entire conference called Urbana devoted to promoting service and missions work.  The conference happens every three years, and really is an amazing way to spend five days -- I attended the one in 2006.  According to the mission statement of IVCF, its purpose is to establish "witnessing communities" on college campuses and universities mostly in the US, but also around the world and to promote the message of Jesus Christ, growing in love for God and for God's Word, God's purposes for the world, and ethnic reconciliation.

I have seen IVCF have a positive impact at every university I have visited with a chapter, and I have experienced the power of this kind of community first hand.  I went to Urbana with only two other people from my chapter (our staff worker and a law student) so I was "adopted" by several other chapters while I was there.  I went to the conference knowing next to nobody, but left with dozens of new friends.  That alone shows the power that the organization has in welcoming students and drawing them into community.

In terms of this kind of teaching and NCLB, there is obviously something missing in modern schools.  We're test-driven and we've lost a lot of focus on developing our students as people and as future leaders.  Beyond making sure our students get good grades and test scores and go on to make our schools look good, we've lost a concern for helping them discover a future hope and goals.  This was always a part of both private and public education until now, and it's rather tragic that this is so downplayed in modern public schooling.

I do not think that any particular group would say that developing students and people and leaders is a terrible goal for schools, but I think that priorities have changed.  This is one reason why I am looking forward to teaching social studies -- you can't get away with this kind of thinking in a social studies classroom.  Social studies has a dual purpose of teaching the subject and promoting citizenship and the discovery of an enlightened life.  You can't teach history without teaching what people thought, and that is a great opportunity to challenge your students with the thoughts of philosophers and great thinkers, from all over the globe.

The fact is that though students can put up a front about not caring about their education, most of them are searching for the answers to life's big questions.  My high school experienced this in a powerful way.  Two of our social studies teachers proposed starting a Comparative Religion/Philosophy elective for the junior and senior class.  The students would spent half of the year studying religion and the other half studying philosophy.  The school and the school board fought the proposition for months, stating that it would be a waste of resources because no modern student is interested in that kind of thinking.  Our schools are full of atheists and deists now.  Who would take such a class.

How wrong they were!  Half of the senior class and a good chunk of the junior class signed up for the course.  They actually had to open three new sections and ask other teachers in the school if they would be willing to teach religion and philosophy.  The class was fantastic because all of the students were interested in the subject matter and in applying it to their own lives.  We all wanted to consider and answer questions about the meaning of life and how we order the way that we think and the way that we make moral decisions.  The county actually asked the teachers to consolidate their notes so that they could promote the class at other high schools.

Clearly, students do want something more, but they need to be presented with the opportunity to find it.  There is certainly room for this within No Child Left Behind and public education, but it takes initiative, planning, and perseverance.  It takes teachers willing to take a risk and not just stick to the properly approved courses, but to reach out and do something more than is required.  If they really care about their students, they will do that.

What matters?

What matters to InterVarsity Christian Fellowship?  Everything.

I've been having fun promoting InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at W&M over the past couple of days.  I'm so excited to be involved with this chapter this year!  Everyone is friendly and I can really see God working in their lives.  For a summary of what IVCF is all about, check out this video.

A future hope

"I want to talk to you about the subject of plans, life plans and how we all make them, and how we hope that our kids make good, smart, safe plans of their own.  But if we're really honest with ourselves, most of our plans don't work out as we'd hoped.  So instead of asking our young people, "What are your plans?  What do you plan to do with your life?" maybe we should tell them this: Plan to be surprised." ~ Dan In Real Life

Anyone who spends any length of time with my immediate family will quickly come to recognize my father's love for movies.  So, the time I spent at home is generally colored by which movies I watch while I am there.  Lexington was not really a prime location for seeing new movies as our theater only showed three movies at a time and the next closest theater was a 30-45 minute drive.  I really haven't gone to the movies much in the past four years, except when I was at home.  However, whenever I do go home, my family is always discussing some movie that they've all just watched and have a million inside jokes for, and then we usually watch it together.  Dan In Real Life was one of those movies this time.

The movie documents the family vacation of recently-widowed Dan (Steve Carrel) and his three daughters, all in various stages of moving through life.  Dan has tried to rigidly control their lives and his own, and this has become even more apparent since the death of their mother.  Much to Dan's surprise, the reunion turns his life upside down, and he has a completely new perspective on the future by the end of it.  This is when he writes the aforementioned quote on plans.

I used to plan out every detail of my life.  I had this idea that by a certain age I would graduate from college, get my first job, be married, start having children, publish my first book, etc.  I think part of that was wanting to give myself something to dream about when I was bored.  Now, I think that it is a good idea to have goals.  We should be encouraging our young people to have an idea of where they want to go and what they want to do, and I think that it can be good to say that we would like something to happen by a certain date.  BUT only if we have the control to make that happen.

In the movie, Dan's problem is that he is trying to control things that he cannot possibly control.  I think that is the major problem with the planning that we do in our lives.  I have had a lot of people ask me in the past couple months where I think I will be teaching next year.  My answer is that I would love to be back up in Northern Virginia with my family, and hopefully a good number of my cousins, but I know that my life is going to be completely different eight months from now.  Everything about my life can change in a day, for better or for worse, and a single event can sometimes have the intensity to alter my views on where I want to be.  There may be a compelling reason for me not to be in Northern Virginia, and I know that I need to stay open to that.

I like the idea of planning to be surprised, because this gets at the idea that the future is hopeful and something to be experienced and embraced, especially if we don't know what is going to happen.  This is something that we need to instill in young people, especially our students, and in "old people" as well.  :)