Archive for date: October 19th, 2014

In many ways, Episode 3 was all about John Rocker. He may have thought he was doing his best but, his failure to keep Val from going home spurred on an array of conflict in both tribes. That being said, I do feel a little bad for the guy because he honestly thought that Val had an immunity idol and, he told her to play it. She shouldn’t have lied to him but, what’s done is done.

Speaking of things that shouldn’t have been said, I don’t think John Rocker exercised much forethought when he blatantly told Jeff Probst that he had been trying to keep a promise to Jeremy by protecting Val. He seemed completely oblivious to the shocked expressions of his male tribe members when he made this confession. Although he may not have realized it at the time, John essentially launched his tribe into a great deal of substantive conflict.

For the men in the Coyopa tribe, this evidence of John’s hidden agenda showed complete disregard for their alliance and the corresponding group goal. John’s hidden goal to ensure Julie’s safety had interfered with the goal of the men’s alliance and, this was not to be tolerated. For this decision, John Rocker was ultimately voted out.

It follows, however, that John’s failure to protect Val resulted in conflict for the Hunahpu tribe, also. For this tribe, affective conflict arose when Jeremy became emotional and upset that John had let his wife be sent home. Jeremy’s anger towards John turned into affective conflict as he decided to take on an opinion-giver role and tell his tribe all about John’s history of racist, sexist, and homophobic remarks. In turn, this made Jeremy’s tribe members become angry and aggressive which, subsequently, put Julie in a very uncomfortable spot. For the Hunahpu tribe, this was a potentially destructive conflict because it isolated Julie and may affect the tribe’s future ability to collaborate effectively.

In fact, the discord within the Hunahpu tribe was palpable at the end of the immunity challenge when tempers flared and tribe members let it be known that they were not a fan of John’s poor reputation. Most notably, however, was the way that Natasha lashed out at John in a way that the Coyopa tribe sarcastically referred to as “classy”. When it comes to gender responses to conflict, Natasha’s reaction was viewed negatively whereas Missy’s choice to seek out and comfort Julie when the conflict arose was a much more acceptable and expected gender response.

On the other hand, back at the Coyopa tribe, John’s decision may have resulted in a much more constructive conflict. There definitely was some procedural conflict as the tribe members tried to figure out who would be voted out at tribal counsel but, after careful negotiation, the male members of Coyopa decided to take on a compromise-conflict strategy with the two remaining women tribe members. The men decided that it was was worthwhile to break their alliance with John and let the women buy a little more time in order to let go of a member who was operating with a hidden agenda. As Jeff Probst said, hopefully this will prove to be a well-timed blindside for the Coyopa tribe.

In the past year, most of my classes have had discussions about Common Core State Standards. Not only has this been a big topic of discussion in my classes and in schools but also in the media. I find that everyone slightly concerned with politics or education has an opinion about the new standards. I’m not here to say if anyone’s opinions are right or not, but I do often find that people are negatively affected by things they hear or read. I have also been seeing quite a bit of this in schools recently; some students seem to feel that this new curriculum is too hard for them and that is what they are being told. They can do it! We need to encourage them and provide them with a positive idea of Common Core rather than telling students that the work is going to be really difficult for them. One thing that I know for certain is that Common Core State Standards is what is happening in our schools now and we need to accept it and do our best as teachers to make it as fabulous for our students as we can.

Common Core has some great potential to be a successful endeavor for United Staes Schools. Right now though, potential is most of what it has. There is so much talk of implementing new strategies and providing professional developments for teachers to get everyone on track for Common Core success. I’m questioning though, how and who is making that potential happen so we can all be successful. CCSS gives teachers so much room to be creative and innovative which is an amazing opportunity. As a teacher, I am excited to be given more control of how I teach things.  That said, I am a new teacher, this is what I’ve been taught to do, what I’ve been trained for and I am prepared for this sort of teaching freedom. For more experienced teachers however, this is a terrifying situation. It’s not that experienced teacher’s can’t do these things, it’s that they feel they are being asked to change something that was working well in the first place. We need to help experienced teachers understand the steps they can take to utilize their old methods and incorporate Common Core strategies into them.

In addition, one area in which Common Care is a new endeavor that is not quite understood is in testing. The Smarter Balance test which is accompanying Common Core implementation is entirely computer based. This poses a major difficulty to schools in many ways. How are the schools going to accommodate computer based testing of students. Many schools don’t have the resources to efficiently allow that to happen. How are our teachers going to help the students with these tests? Many teachers are not technologically savvy and are not prepared to have to help students with the problems that are likely to arise.

As I mentioned before, there are a lot of exciting things coming as we delve deeper into implementing Common Core. Some people are upset that Common Core is asking for more challenge of students. As a college student, I can say that the things Common Core is asking students to do is preparing students for college and career readiness which is the point. I definitely took college courses I was not prepared for. For example, I don’t feel that I was prepared for the level of critical thinking that was demanded of me in college. I worked hard and was able to do what was asked but I was not as prepared as professors expected from a student coming straight from high school. The things I am seeing students doing in class and the responses to questions are amazing. Common Core is asking students to think in ways they are not used to but the students are doing an amazing job. Common Core is not hurting our students or our teachers, I see it as improving everyone. Change is good for keeping people on their toes and not just getting into a pattern but continually challenging their brains instead. As I said, Common Core has great potential and benefits can already been seen. However, we do need to think more about how exactly we can work together to make this all work for the students and the teachers.