Survival of the Witt-est

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In this episode did a recap of all of the turmoil that has happened in the past episodes. One of the recurring themes is that Coyopa tribe has never won and their group remained in turmoil.

When the episode begins Dale comes back from exile islands and hopes that he will not be isolated from the group and comes back to make sure he will be included. Meanwhile at Hunaphu tribe  Natalie found their flint and Drew decided he wanted hatch a plan but this lead to his and their down-fail. Their conflict relates to chapter 8 on cohesion and conflict. During this episode many tribe members in both groups thought they were being wise in plotting and building alliances.

During this episode it was a hot mess for the Hunaphu tribe as the episode was titled. It mainly steamed to the fact that Dale come back from exile islands a stirred up some drama by saying that Jeremy had an immunity idol when he did not and then Drew grew some Survivor ego and decided to do was best for the tribe but  it was what was mainly what was best for him. Due to both of them stirring up drama it cause d the Hunaphu tribe to succumb to Group-think. This showed their cohesiveness that eventually lead to their deterioration because they all began to plot and decide on who they want to possible vote out. I found it particularly interesting that Drew thought that he was the King pin and was had the most wits and that would help him win survivor but in the end his plan backfired on him. The group-think of their tribe prevented from questioning why the were going to vote out members that were totally non-threatening and follow the “normal” procedure of discussing things before going to tribal council so that they were not a hot mess.

The AEIOU conflict relates to the Hunaphu tribe as well. First A; the could have asked their members what their intentions were because most of them meant well expect Drew who was looking out for himself. Second E; Expressed their feelings because some of the members were clearly offended by things that were said about each other and the fact that they were even being put up for vote. Third  I; Identify what they wanted to happen with the group since this was some of their first experience with alliances and going council since Drew threw their immunity challenge. Fourth O; outcomes of what they wanted to happen in their tribe and lastly U; understand they all have one goal in mind to progress as far as they can on Survivor.

Due to them not recognizing their group-think patterns and identifying ways they could have fixed their conflicts the Hunaphu tribe just made an embarrassment of themselves in this episode. Some members of the group that that their wits would help them but it actually lead to their downfall and lack of group cohesion.

“We’re a Hot Mess” Blog#3

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The Hanahpu tribe experienced abundant amounts of conflict throughout the fourth episode. From the beginning, Drew was creating tension by repeatedly suggesting to ask Jeff for the fishing gear that they had to decline from the last episodes challenge. After one of the members found the flint by the camp fire, Drew insisted on trying to persuade Jeff for the fishing gear while the other group members wanted to just move on.  This began to create substantive conflict between the members by having the members disagree with Drew’s ideas and actions.  Tension began to arise when Keith, who was supposed to be in an alliance with Jeremy, blamed him for having the idol. Keith’s accusations about Jeremy began to spread leaving Jeremy to find out from another tribe member what Keith had been accusing him of. Feeling betrayed, Jeremy decided to place Keith as the person he would vote to leave the island. Drew, causing affective and destructive conflict while assuming he was the leader of the tribe, purposely threw the challenge, causing the Hunahpu tribe to lose the challenge. This was in order to get rid of some of the “snakes” in his tribe. Little did he know, Drew struggles lead to a few members hidden agendas of voting him out.  Immediately after the challenge, the Hunahpu tribe members began to secretly consult with one another on who to boot off the island. After listening to every ones opinion, it was clear that everyone was not on the same page when it came to their individual votes. The tribe members seemed to have their own opinion when it came to who to vote off the island creating a feeling of unease. Finally, the group members were able to compromise on one individual that had to go. Drew’s confidence ended up getting him voted off the island.

Survivor Episode 3

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It starts with Drew from the blue squad being apathetic around his group, which does not bode well for him in the future. The groups come together and it becomes apparent that John didn’t keep his promise to Jeremy to keep his wife safe. Jeremy now wants him out, and his girlfriend counterpart knows that she is in trouble. John admits to everyone that he made a deal with the enemy and spread the seed of doubt about him. The orange team ended up winning the challenge and got fishing gear. John proved useful for getting fish and everything was going swimmingly, no pun intended. The guys alliance was still strong and Baylor was on the chopping block. That is until the next challenge unfolded and orange team lost, yet again. After their loss, the blue team was taunting and hollering about getting rid of John, who apparently was some shadow leader. Due to his sordid past regarding homophobia and racist comments, the people in the group started to see him in a whole new light. At this point, alliances shifted and people started to have a direct conflict with whom they should vote off. I find it very ironic that the most dynamic conflict throughout the entire episode was the blue group harassing the one guy. It was a great look at how much power Jeremy had for himself, because with one word from him, the group fell in line. At this point, due to fear of destructive conflict, they eliminate the most destructive seeming person on their team despite the fact that he was a lot more good than bad. I guess perception is a hard thing to gauge in that sort of setting. At the tribal council, a lot had been said through subtext so that only certain people would understand. After which, the voting commenced and the tribe voted off John who decided against using his idol. The group most likely feels that they will have a shift in the right direction with this blindsided spectacle but I believe that this will affect them way more negatively than they can realize. At the first mistake, people will start to think that everyone might be trying to blindside them so alliances will be very blurry. In all reality, they may self destruct a lot faster than they realize, but that will remain to be seen. Ultimately, they decided who to vote out using a third party spectator, the blue team, so they have now expressed that they are very weak and very impressionable. It will be a tough road for the orange team now.

Goodbye #4

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WHY DREW WHY WORK AGAINST YOUR TEAM?!

Does this not make sense to anyone else? Granted in the end there is only one winner but let us not forget we’re only 3 people out. We can’t get selfish yet because where does that leave us? As the fourth person out. Bye yaaaaa Drew!

He basically asked for it! Team work first, build alliances, get your tribe to like and trust you so when it does come down to voting off, your name doesn’t even come to thought. Instead, he decided to throw the game so the orange team can finally have a victory and take a rest? Was he that confident he would not get voted off? Shady strategizing on his part, but he paid for it.

I thought the blue team was stronger for sure. When it comes down to the athletic part, they still prove to be, but getting along as a team, they are weaker than the orange.  I’d like to see the underdogs still rise above but not because someone from the other tribe is throwing the competition.

Survivor III

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On this episode of Survivor, we finally have a momentum swing. The Coyora tribe got their first, hard earned victory against the Hunahpu tribe sending us to uncharted territory. We get to see how the Hunahpu tribe handles adversity from their first loss as conflict in the group begins to emerge.

Conflict is described in the book as “the disagreement and disharmony that occur in groups when members express differences regarding group goals; member ideas, behavior, and roles; or group procedures and norms.” As you can imagine, the game survivor is bound to encounter conflict since it makes a living off of the drama that stems thus providing entertainment. Nonetheless, there are three types of conflict that illustrates many of the tribe members roles that can be seen throughout the episode.

Substantive Conflict is when the group has a difficult time determining ideas, decisions, or goals. It was clear the Hunahpu tribe couldn’t hone in on a clear strategy of how to go about making their team stronger, as it took them up until voting night to make up their minds on who was getting eliminated. Since they hadn’t been in that position before, I could tell they were inexperienced in their approach to each other. Jeremy and Keith had a difficult time maintaining the goals the two had agreed upon in which they were supposed to be in alliance mainly because of their fireman bond.

Affirmative Conflict is more interpersonal and it deals with the inability of particular personalities to coexist. This conflict really takes place as Drew’s personality was congruent with how the rest of the team operated. He came across too strong and rubbed people the wrong way finding himself voted off the show as a result.

Procedural Conflict is the final conflict that is exemplified in the show, which mainly is a conflict with the execution of a particular strategy. Drew once again demonstrated this but his critique of the team in the swimming ring competition. We all know he only did this to disguise the fact that he threw the game, but otherwise his criticism would be a procedural conflict for the way they conducted their strategy.

The Two Faces of Common Core

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A

“The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.” ~ Albert Einstein

 

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend a staff development meeting for all teachers in our school district. It is the first district meeting since the induction of Common Core State Standards in California schools. For all of the positive embracing of Common Core that I’ve been doing, this meeting opened my eyes to the other side of the coin.

The terrific thing about Common Core is that it teaches students critical thinking skills more important to their overall understanding of concepts that build on each other year after year than the old rote drill and kill framework. However, Common Core requires a level of communication that students who have not been raised on the program are not used to. Students are frequently asked to explain orally or in writing how they came up with a response rather than just writing the algorithm. As students spend time learning to communicate in this way, they spend less time practicing algorithms.

Under the previous framework, students who did not have a true grasp of the underlining concepts of, say long division, may still be able to solve long division word problems by plugging in an algorithm. Now, under Common Core, students who do not have a true grasp of this operation will not be able to solve the problem – since they have spent less time practicing algorithm.

These differences are leading *in the fourth and fifth grade classes in my district* to lower grades. Teachers are wondering how to make adaptations for students under this new program. Can they alter the assessments? Well, students still need to meet state standards for division, so no. Do they grade on a curve? I don’t know.

Teachers are frustrated and understandably so. It’s not fair to the students who will be suffering from this transition, poor grades marked forever on their transcripts. Do we remove Common Core? How can we take away something that is so much better for students’ overall education? The answer is we don’t.

I’m pretty sure that answer only deserves partial credit. It’s time to think critically about the rest of the solution.

Episode 3

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Ding Ding Ding guess what guys, the orange team won there first challenge and were safe tribal council. This episode we actually saw them citing like a team, they were cheering one another on, they acted like an actual unit which is a good change and hopefully we see a brighter future fir the yellow team.

This episode we saw our first look at twisted strategy, when Drew goes and loses the challenge on purpose to kick someone out of the tribe.  He felt as though he was eliminating all of the weak links, however because of his actions the girls went after him.  It was good to see  Drew go home because he was pretty lazy he didn’t do much and still felt like he was superior than others.  Of course he was confident that he wasn’t going home this week and of course he was definitely shocked when his name was called five times and ultimately sent home.

We know now how strategy can either make or break you.  The same goes in real life but in a lesser extreme your not getting voted off of an island, but you could potentially exile yourself from the group which is just as bad.  You want to get along with your team, you want to be a productive member, and when it comes to making decisions behind someones back its hardly a good idea.  I feel as though I’m starting to finally make actual real life comparisons, we all run into situations like this and we might be on either side.  It sucks but its part of the gamer I suppose.

Other than that I’m excited that blue team finally knows how it feels to send someone home hopefully this makes them even more of a powerhouse but makes them closer, but this could go either two ways, one they drop everything and start working to be a closer group or no ones going to trust anyone and the blue team might suffer.

Got Conflict? (Episode 3, Chapter 8)

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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.

Week 8 – Exploring Open Education via Creative Commons

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As you continue to build your web presence and blog about learning and your thoughts and knowledge on the subject, it is important to be an Open steward of the Open Web.  That means to not only support Openness through your thoughts but also through your actions, deeds and productions.  One way to practice an Open relationship with your publications and your web presence is to utilize photographs and other media through the Creative Commons.

If you are not up-to-date with what the Creative Commons does, read their about page.

As you blog and further develop your page, put media into it that utilizes the Creative Commons approach and licenses itself via Creative Commons.  If you are the creator of the media, when you save it do label it as CC and use the various tag.  Remember:  if you are putting your own media on the Web, you need to use pictures that do not have your students in them, and you would need permission to use other members of your faculty.

Incorporate at least three pieces of CC media into your work this week, then report on what you did either through Twitter, the Google Doc, or your blog.

Common Core and Smarter Balance… Good or Bad??

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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.