FIRST, THE GOOD THINGS

I'm in the middle of the first week of school! Yea!

I'm highly tempted to begin by complaining about a Kafkaesque move by our on-line grade information system people to limit instructor input, but I'll pass on that for now. Why? Because, simply put, there are so many good things happening on our campus right now, and a lot of it has to do with training that I and other instructors received from the district that really struck a nerve:
"Capturing Kid's Hearts"

This is a program by the Flippen Group, intended to introduce teachers to a process of classroom management built around a social contract. This isn't exactly a revolutionary idea: many teachers have used social contracts before, but what made this presentation so helpful to me is that it provided a very thoughtful and well-organized way to channel our good intentions into results, to allow us to express caring to students in a way that is professional and appropriate.

I have attended more than my share of such meetings, and I can honestly say this is one of the three best things that I have experienced in my career so far. Look at this photo of veteran teachers after the third day of the presentation:



I have trouble squaring these smiling faces with past experience. You could see the 'light bulb' go off in the heads of veteran teachers, many of whom described the training as transformational.

Now, me...I'm a natural skeptic where good feelings and good intentions are concerned. I don't really know yet if this will be a lasting change, or a momentary blip. But my money is on the former: Tuesday, the second day of instruction, was one of the best days of my ten years as a teacher. Without sounding Pollyannish, I have to wonder how much our entire campus culture might change if everyone went through this program, not just a significant fraction of teachers and students. We . . . could change everything.

ANOTHER RECORDING ODDITY

WOW


Umm....wanted the sound of a marching snare drum approaching and departing in a stereo field. Could've achieved a left-to-right motion by simply panning the sound, but good listeners would know that was how it was done, because there would be no timbral change. So, we attached a headphone amp to the back of a real field-mounted snare drum:


Then, I played the drum (which had been loaned by a colleague) while moving it, recording it with a pair of ribbon microphones in an 'X-Y' pattern:



Then, because this sound we got was a bit pointed, we sent the recorded signal through a speaker mounted on top of another snare and recorded the resultant sympathetic 'buzz' of the snares with a reference microphone:


It was surprisingly easy to get the actual effect I wanted, perhaps 70 minutes of work, but this was for just eight bars of audio. The result was a bit spooky, though, so well worth the effort. By the way, this is the same track that I hired Blake Jones to play theremin on and to which we added sirens (as in background-singing bombshells) which morph into 'sirens' (as in bomb shelters, seek cover).

WOW

EVOLUTION AND CREATIONISM: THE SHORT COURSE

Yours truly will be teaching it, as shown in this snapshot from the local web site:


I'm afraid my course isn't highlighted at the web site, but there is also a link here to a PDF version of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute's offerings this fall in Fresno. The details of the course are as follows:


I received the opportunity to do this out of the blue in late April. I hope to offer a user-friendly, engaging but uncompromising course. Anyone can become an Associate Member of Osher for $15 per semester, and the course fee is an additional $30. If interested, please contact the Osher Institute:

Phone # 1-559-278-0008

Email: osher@csufresno.edu