Check-in: Sunday January 15th, 2017
New year 2017 check in time! The past six months for me have been consumed with a tenure application at ODU, some needed publication work, and my two new roles in my department: "Internship Director" and "ePortfolio Program Director."
The work associated with the tenure application has been anticipated, but the new roles have required some adjustment from standard teaching practice to promoting and maintaining programs (e.g., lots of emails, networking, campus meetings). Within my wheelhouse, but a new challenge!
In the meantime I've been stockpiling some blog material...I'll stick to the most recent stuff for now, and dig a bit into some dated material in later posts:
"Moderate Screen Use Boosts Teen Well-being": Everything in moderation right? Can't say this too is surprising, but developmental psychologists found a Goldilocks effect when it came to media usage. Surveys of 300,000 UK 15-year-olds indicated ideal moderate levels (after which wellbeing is negatively impacted during weekdays: Playing video games (40-60 minutes), using Smartphone (57-60 minutes), TV & Films (3 hours, 47 minutes), using computers (4 hours, 17 minutes). Importantly, exceeding these recommended usages is only a 1/3 as harmful as two other important contributors to well being: 1) Getting enough sleep, & 2) Eating Breakfast. My question if we want to provide guidelines for usage, what worthwhile, engaging activity goes in it's place? Check out this weblink for the article: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-38611006
"How stressing out can help you succeed" by Ian Robertson (TIME, January 23rd, 2017): Author of The Stress Test: How Pressure Can Make You Stronger and Sharper (Link), Robertson illustrates how labeling anxiety and stress as excitement can actually help shift ambiguous physiological reactions in our body from negative to positive. I talk about this with speech anxiety with my students, and how arousal or activation is actually an important motivator for performance: Too little activation, you aren't compelled to practice, pay attention to details, consider your audience; Too much activation, you're stressed too the point of breakdown. This fits with both hope and resilience, in that these experiences (whether you choose to label them as "problems" or "opportunities") become important memory based resources for encountering new, but similar experiences.
"9 Questions with Klaus Schwab: Precariat" by Michael Duffy (TIME, January 23rd, 2017): First time in my reading I have encountered this label. According to Schwab, who is the founder and executive chair of the World Economic Forum the Precariat is related to the "rise of discontented workers," and describes "why people have this uneasy feeling: Is my job still safe? I think there are 3.5 million cashiers in the U.S. and as many truck drivers for whom technology might be overtaking their jobs. People feel a lot of anxiety and it may not even be conscious." In the broader context of larger economic shifts (i.e., Great Recession), protests (e.g., 99% vs. 1%), robots taking over checkout lines and fast-food restaurants, as well as stagnant employment circumstances for many millennials, this rise of this term makes sense. British Economist Guy Standing has published on the topic: Amazon Link
Hoping for weekly updates! Check back! :D
Currently Listening to: "The Best of Charlie Parker" : Youtube Link
Blog post image Credit & more about Charlie "Bird" Parker: NPR Link
