• Listening
• Public Speaking
• Child Development: Prenatal through Age Eight
• Child Development: School Age through Adolescence
• Infant /Toddler Caregiving
• Apparel Construction
• Beginning and Intermediate Word
• Introduction to Catholicism
• Louisiana History

 In her Final PLA Reflection Essay, Amy wrote, in part,

As the process was challenging me in academic ways as well as time management, goal setting, managing priorities, problem solving, researching and writing, I see that it was also preparing me for my years at Marylhurst. Each term I attend Marylhurst, I know that I will be challenged in each one of these areas. My experience with the PLA process has given me the foundation I need to be able to excel in all of my undergraduate course work.”

Amy talks more about her PLA experiences here:

• Team Building: Managing Work Groups
• Great Meetings! Planning and Facilitating Difficult Group Discussion
• Leadership Communication
• Managing Transitions
• Conflict Management
• Negotiation
• Legal Issues of Managing Human Organization
• HR for the Career Minded Professional
• Creating Inclusive Trust Cultures
• Listening Skills
• Public Presentations

Congratulations, Bobbi!

In Bobbi’s Final Reflection Essay she wrote, in part,

My biggest ‘ah-hah’ moment was towards the end of LRN 312 when I was seriously getting tired of writing essays. My inner voice was telling me that I was getting tired and I wanted to learn and write about something that I did not already know. Then it occurred to me that the PLA process and writing itself was, in fact, teaching me something new. I was learning how to and becoming a masterful writer!

Bobbi talks about her PLA journey and simple tips for success here:

Folks, whatever you do, create a sexy title. Academia isn’t sexy enough – you need to make your good work pop more. Use a sexy title.

He said this more than once with his emphatic Eastern European accent; it’s one of those grad school phrases that emerges for me every time I need a title. Make. It. Sexy. (You will note that I haven’t done very well following this advice.)

But I won’t deconstruct this issue now because I have a different problem. Her name is Polly.

Here’s the deal:

I have one paragraph in this chapter I am writing that is driving me crazy. My colleagues who have read the article all agree  — something is not right there. It contradicts itself; it’s not clear; the overall point is good, but the discussion doesn’t exactly, or directly support it, only kind of, sort of, but in fact not really. The ideas I have included for support are great! Nice! Really bold and interesting! But something is … off.

I named her Polly. She is my problem paragraph. So:

• I tried just deleting her — that didn’t work.
• I’ve re-written her about 20 times – that hasn’t worked.
• I threw her out and started all over again – that hasn’t worked.
• I “humpty-dumptied” her – that hasn’t worked.
• I even resorted to putting her away for a while and coming back to her. Three weeks later … that hasn’t worked either.

Polly is just a problem. She just is.

But I haven’t given up. Polly and I are now going on walks together (my dog doesn’t seem to mind the extra company), sleeping together, and eating together. We do sun salutations and go grocery shopping together. Last night we took the recycling out together, because right now, we’re that close. And we’re working through it. We may need counseling, or intervention, or chocolate and wine, but I know we’ll make it. We just need to trust our relationship, our intentions, and give it our all together. We also know our time together is limited; the impending deadline pressure may force us work out our differences.

How we’ll get through it remains to be seen, but my money is on chocolate and wine. Polly and I seem to work best together under these conditions. (Between us, she behaves better when she is offered something yummy – she’s like me in that respect.)

In the meantime, Polly and I are going to hang out a bit more for the next few days and instead of working on our differences, I think we’ll work on that title …  we need to Make. It. Sexy. (Between us,  I am not sure Polly and I are up to that challenge. We’ll need chocolate and wine, for sure!)

Apparently there’s now an app for critical thinking! Read all about it here:

Critical Thinking: There’s An App For That

Ditch your Liberal Arts education – who needs it?  And hey – you no longer need to engage in dialogue or reflection with others — what a waste of your time! And reading, writing, and learning math? Nah – don’t bother!  And learning about ethical frameworks? Or what it means to be human? Or science, art, music, history, literature, sociology, etc? Money down the drain, I say. Just download this app and soon you’ll be able to think your way out of a paper bag! As it promises:

The ‘Think-O-Meter’  app challenges your thinking and helps you develop a Sherlock Holmes-like attention to the evidence at hand. Think through dozens of scenarios and test your ability to separate reliable facts from assumptions, focus on the relevant information, and think critically to get the right answer.

Wait. . .

WAIT!

The “right” answer??? What does this mean, the “right” answer?

Hmmm … it must not work very well. Not many people I know who think critically would claim there is a “right” answer to many problems. They might even go so far as to frame different questions, or pose new scenarios.  Or at least say, “You know what? I think that’s an ill-formed problem. Let’s consider a different way of approaching it.”

Wow. Total bummer! I guess the developers of the Think-O-Meter need to think again. Too bad there’s not an app for that!

When I humpty-dumpty an essay / article / chapter, I quite intentionally de-stabilize it and push it off the wall. In doing so, I take it all apart (crack up that old egg) and I put it back together again, differently. Unlike all the king’s horses and all the king’s men, when I’ve done it well, I end up with a  whole new egg, one without cracks or leaks, one that will keep organized the yolk and white on the inside, one that will be, well … coherent.

Other writers may call this process “revision” — the act of re-seeing what you’ve written in order to write it differently, in order to write it better (a different process, of course, than editing). But I like to call it the humpty-dumpty method because I don’t always know what I’m looking for — what it will look like –  until I actually crack it into pieces and start re-assembling it, piece by piece, checking for fissures and ensuring strength along the way.

The humpty-dumpty method for writing is worthwhile; even if you take that egg all apart and put it back the way it was, the exercise is typically beneficial because you’ve thought it through more so than you would have had you not humpty-dumpty’d it.

Now only if I could afford to practice the humpty-dumpty method with my kitchen. You see, we have this little crack in the ceiling … and in fact, we may need all the king’s horses, men, and then some to deal with it:

What’s interesting to me is that in the last year, I’ve been contacted by four people — people I do not know — who have tracked down that rubric online (and subsequently tracked me down too) and have wanted to use it. One wanted to put it in a book she’s writing for college students, one wanted to use it as part of a writing course she’s developing, one wanted to use it as part of a research project to support the writing skill development of mechanical engineers, and one wanted to place a link to it on her university’s writing center website. In addition to these folks and the faculty at Bakersfield College, who are also apparently using it, it’s entirely possible that other folks are using it too. (And, frankly, is totally ok with me that they’ve not asked for permission because I doubt that I can take full credit for it anyway!)

Thanks to horizontal.integration on Flickr for making this image - "trail break" - available.

I have given my permission to these four, of course, because hey — why not share it? I mean, I also brought it with me to Marylhurst and it informed the university writing rubric that we use here now. My take on these things is simple: if it’s useful toward supporting learning — which all good rubrics should be — then by all means, use it! Be my guest!

But man! That old rubric of mine has been around the block, and apparently, continues to go to interesting places. And I am so happy for it. I only wish it could take me along on its journeys. If I could track its trail, and forge new ones with it, that would be really cool.

But instead I’ll act like the mama bird pushing her baby out of the nest.  Fly, rubric, fly. Fly far, far away from home. Go to interesting places; see amazing things; do good work; support and help others. But please, as you continue on these trails — old and new — please, do so only in the name of learning.

(Or Any Other Individuals Seeking To Learn From Their Mistakes Experiences)

Read the 16 Outcomes of Reflection. It’s a GREAT framework for reflecting!

Then:

1. Think Back – about your topic / your experience / your learning.
2. Think Forward – about your topic / your experience / your learning.
3. Think Inward – about your topic / your experience / your learning.
4. Think Outward – about your topic / your experience / your learning.

"Unstandardized" from Indexed

And write — back. forward. inward. outward. — about your topic / your experience / your learning.

And remember that sometimes to write IS to think. Strike that.

And remember that ALL of the time, to write is to think.

An English teacher / mentor of mine once told me that he tells his students that the apostrophe in “it’s” represents the dot of the missing “i” in “is.” That’s (that has) always helped me remember “its” versus “it’s.”

Something about the apostrophe must call to me as I realized that I noted another good learning tool in a previous post: It’s (It Is) Brillant

• My first 2 cents Here
• My next 2 cents Here

My 2 cents: Thanks for Kiribati on Picasa for making this image available.

The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning announced that Pam Tate, the President of CAEL, was interviewed on NPR´s show Here and Now about the use of prior learning assessment nationwide. According to the announcement, “She also commented on the new relationship between the for-profit online school, American Public University, and Walmart to offer academic credit to employees based on what they learn on the job.” Listen Here:

Here and Now

Here at Marylhurst, we intentionally keep our PLA program pretty darn rigorous. Students have to demonstrate that they have the college-level learning, based on specific course outcomes. It’s not an “easier” way to earn credits; it is often, however, a very rewarding way to earn credit.  As I’ve mentioned previously, it’s about so much more than credit. (It also saves our students time and money — both pretty valuable resources for busy adult learners!)

So again, here are links to Marylhurst’s PLA students talking about their experiences — as you will hear from them, the credit is quite often the icing on the cake:

• Christy Dirren – 12 credits through PLA
• Angela Pernisco – 15 credits through PLA
• Chrissi Antonopoulos – 45 credits through PLA
• Chip Brinks – 33 credits through PLA
• Barbara Eckroad – 45 credits through PLA
• Julie Fleming – 17 credits through PLA
• Debra Giannini – 15 credits through PLA
• Loretta Rowe – 21 credits through PLA
• Ty Wells – 27 credits through PLA
• Stephanie Lillegard’s (a current PLA student) comments about her experience of getting credit.

Check this out:

How To Use An Apostrophe