SCED 303h Blog

The Long (and Sometimes Expensive) Road to the SAT

2006-05-29T06:23:00.000-07:00

The Long (and Sometimes Expensive) Road to the SAT - New York Times:

"MARK KROESE, of Medina, Wash., spent more than $2,000 on SAT test prep classes, books and tutoring for his son Daniel. Mr. Kroese said the tutor deconstructed the test format, taught Daniel logical strategies and pacing, and gave him confidence."

This article raises two important questions.

Do test preparation courses provide an unfair advantage for children of well-to-do parents leaving poor children behind?

What ethical questions arise as a result of test preparation?

Regarding the first question, the answer appears to be obvious. Those that can afford these expensive courses appear to have a clear advantage over those who can't. Is that advantage limited to being able to afford expensive courses? I think not. The advantage of the rich over the poor in school goes far deeper than that. Issues of school funding, the design of curriculum, standards and assessment all favor the middle and upper classes at the expense of the working and welfare classes in the United States. The advantage extends largely to white students leaving students of color struggling to achieve in school. John Dewey argued that the real worth of the advantaged is how they are willing to support public education for those less advantaged then they are. In Dewey's mind, all citizens are entitled to a fair shake at learning.

Ethical questions abound with regard to test preparation courses. The issue of advantage over disadvantage is one that separates the class structure in America. The question of unfair advantage is an ethical issue with which we have not yet come to grips. Additionally, the question as to whether test preparation is cheating can be raised. What about the competitive nature of college preparation? I could go on but I will stop here.

George Hillocks writes in The Testing Trap: How State Writing Assessments Control Learning (Language and Literacy Series (Teachers College Pr)) that tests tend not to align with standards and are inherently unfair. Nicholas Lemann's The Big Test : The Secret History of the American Meritocracy presents a vibrant historical view of the American obsession with testing while addressing issues of class division.

Zoundry

Technorati : assessment, cheating, class, culture, democracy, education, ethics, performance, policy, politics, poverty, race, testing
Del.icio.us : assessment, cheating, class, culture, democracy, education, ethics, performance, policy, politics, poverty, race, testing

7 deadly books? Talk of ban hits burbs

2006-05-24T03:27:00.000-07:00

"A northwest suburban high school board member seeks to ban seven books from classroom use because she thinks the profanity, depiction of graphic sex, and drug and abortion references in the literature are inappropriate for teenagers.

"Leslie Pinney admits she only read passages of the controversial selections, including Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five and Toni Morrison's Beloved, which were on the American Library Association's 100 most challenged books list between 1990 and 2000."

I am particularly disturbed by the second paragraph of this story--the one in which the censor, Leslie Pinney, admitted to having only read parts of the books she wishes to ban. Censorship, book banning, what's next? Shall we return to the days when, in order to publish anything one had to have the blessing of the Church? Shall we burn the books of certain authors, of specific religions, orientations or points of view? What does Ms. Pinney think of parental intervention, of parental responsibility? What if I don't share Ms. Pinney's sense of moral outrage? Book banning is a slippery slope from which only dark consequences emerge.

7 deadly books? Talk of ban hits burbs:

Zoundry

Fahrenheit 451

Technorati : censorship, democracy, free speech
Del.icio.us : censorship, democracy, free speech

Academic Blacklist Gets an 'F' for Factual Errors

2006-05-12T08:00:00.000-07:00

We live in extreme times. When diversity of thought and the free expression thereof is not tolerated by a free and democratic society we risk plunging into a new "dark ages" where thinking is regulated by those for whom certainty is absolute. The problem with certainty is that it is not open to rationality. Certainty demands blind obedience to what is known to be true rather than be burdened by having to examine one's beliefs. What is problematic is that mainstream booksellers like Barnes & Noble place books like David Horowitz's The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America on the shelves as if it presents a well-researched stab at some kind of "truth."

"We think of blacklists as something out of the 1950's McCarthy red-baiting era. But a new report by Free Exchange on Campus highlights how recent attacks on university professors for exercising their freedom of speech in the classroom are eerily similar to that decade of ruined reputations (and lives).

"In Facts Count, Free Exchange analyzes David Horowitz's The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America, a diatribe published earlier this year by the extremist Regnery Publishing. Regnery is the same group that packages its most recent bit of bombast, The Politically Incorrect Guide [P.I.G.] to Women, Sex and Feminism, as feminist lies finally revealed, and was behind the pre-2004 election screed, Unfit for Command, which attacked John Kerry and his three Purple Heart awards."

AFL-CIO Weblog | Academic Blacklist Gets an ?F? for Factual Errors:

Zoundry

Animal Farm and 1984

Technorati : censorship, culture, democracy, free speech, politics

What will you do to be heard?

2006-05-08T12:36:00.000-07:00

Whenever someone asks, "What can I do?" My general response is to join the professional discourse. Teachers have an obligation to make their professional voices heard on all issues regarding their professional lives. Debra Craig is doing just that. She is angry about the thoughtless political approach to education that is imposed on American public schools by No Child Left Behind and she is going to do something about it. I say hooray for Debra. So the question remains, just what will you do to enter the debate? To make your voice heard?

"High school teacher, author, and education advocate Debra Craig will be traveling 3,000 miles to Hartford, Connecticut to give her two minutes worth on why NCLB is bad for public schools with it's obsession on raising test scores and not looking realistically at the cultural problem that exists in public schools."

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006510/5/prweb382350.htm:

Zoundry

Amazon.com

Technorati : NCLB, assessment, class, culture, policy, politics, power

Young Americans Geographically Illiterate, Survey Suggests

2006-05-04T14:29:00.000-07:00

Young Americans Geographically Illiterate, Survey Suggests:

According to the National Geographic web site:

Young adults in the United States fail to understand the world and their place in it, according to a survey-based report on geographic literacy released today. Take Iraq, for example. Despite nearly constant news coverage since the war there began in 2003, 63 percent of Americans aged 18 to 24 failed to correctly locate the country on a map of the Middle East. Seventy percent could not find Iran or Israel. Nine in ten couldn't find Afghanistan on a map of Asia. And 54 percent were unaware that Sudan is a country in Africa.

I am not surprised. I suspect that several factors help create this mismatch between geopolitical reality and the lack of information that US students seem to have. Below are some of my own speculations:

Social studies and history especially are neglected in schools. This has traditionally been the case however since the advent of No Child Left Behind, where literacy and mathematics take a front seat, social studies and history along with the sciences have been placed in the trunk, barely to see the light of day. Some studies reveal that for all subjects outside of literacy and math, many schools spend less than one hour per week inclusively.

Within the social studies, geography seems to draw the short straw. While it is nearly impossible to understand history, economics, political science and the like without a strong knowledge of geography and its effects on civilization, it is often taught as merely points on a map.

Much has to do with the current geopolitical climate in the United States as well. Because of our status as the last superpower, there is a tendency to lean toward a hegemonic view of the world. There is no room for any other geopolitical dominion so long as the arrogance that accompanies the grand scheme for spreading democracy to the world is running full force.

I could go on and point to the messianic fervor of the religious right where, since we are near the end days according to this uncreative, and certainly not new, dogma, there is no need to know anything about the world because it soon won't be the world we know. I could point to the almost maniacal drive to standards based education with its accompanying focus on testing that actually minimizes learning, reducing it to a bunch-of-facts model of teaching and learning. We all know that what is memorized for testing purposes is forgotten within a few days. But I won't do that. Let it suffice to say that I am underwhelmed by the pointing fingers without offering creative solutions.

Here is mine--I believe, as teachers, we must invite students into the study of geography, not because it is going to appear on a test, or that one should know where one is going off to war, but because it is interesting and contributes to the critical decision making needed by citizens of a true democracy (or better, a republic). If students fail to find interest they will fail to learn. And fail to learn they do and not just in geography.

Zoundry

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Diamond provides a geopolitical analysis of the rise of civilization. Explaining what William McNeill called The Rise of the West has become the central problem in the study of global history. In Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond presents the biologist's answer: geography, demography, and ecological happenstance. Diamond evenhandedly reviews human history on every continent since the Ice Age at a rate that emphasizes only the broadest movements of peoples and ideas. Here is some interesting geography!!!!

Technorati : NCLB, assessment, critical pedagogy, curriculum, education, geography, history, instruction, social studies, standards, teaching, testing

News4Jax.com - News 4 Georgia - Glynn Educator Aims To Use Southern Charm To Improve Student Performance

2006-04-30T20:45:00.000-07:00

What ever happened to parenting? Do Georgia students really need school to teach them manners? I don't know about you, but I find it amazing that schools feel the need to take on the role of parents because the parents have apparently failed so miserably to set limits for their children. I sound like some kind of a conservative nut case here but I don't think schools are in the "class" business. When Superintendent Bull announced that "class" is as important as chemistry or calculus he let the cat out of the bag. Just what does the superintendent mean by "class?" How is it to be defined? Is there a single offering for "class" or can there be multiple approaches to "class" in his lexicon? In this case, "class" sounds to me to be a lot like standards in a one size fits all model.

"Public education in Glynn County may soon be made up of reading, writing and respect, with manners possibly joining the curriculum beginning in the next school year.

"Superintendent Michael Bull said class is as important as chemistry or calculus, and he is pushing for an elective course for sixth-graders that would include topics like politeness, communication and respect.

"A two-week session on etiquette is already in session at Frederica Academy. The private school on St. Simons Island addresses good manners, making introductions, writing thank-you notes and occasion-appropriate clothing."

News4Jax.com - News 4 Georgia - Glynn Educator Aims To Use Southern Charm To Improve Student Performance

Zoundry

Technorati : class, critical pedagogy, culture, curriculum, education, instruction, policy, politics, power, race, standards

Kennedy Assassination Newspaper Articles Archive

2006-04-26T19:56:00.000-07:00

I just discovered this web site. While it attests to being the Kennedy Assassination Newspaper Articles Archive, the site, in reality, covers a wide range of searches for newspaper articles that can be used as primary source documents for units in historical or social studies research or inquiry projects. Check it out and see if you can use this one.

Zoundry

Answers.com

Technorati : critical pedagogy, culture, curriculum, education, history, learning, newspaper, politics, primary source documents, race, social studies, teaching

American Immigration Law Foundation (AILF): Teacher's Corner

2006-04-25T05:26:00.000-07:00

I just discovered this web site and I strongly suggest that you all take a look at what it has to offer. The AILF Teacher's Corner provides a number of resources, including a grant worth from $500 to $1,000 for teachers K-12. There are lesson plans and more for you to tweak to fit your own classrooms. A great web resource.

Technorati : critical pedagogy, culture, curriculum, education, globalization, history, instruction, learning, policy, politics, race, social studies, teaching

School Textbooks, Lack or fiction?

2006-04-22T14:59:00.000-07:00

today's Trib. ran follow up to the textbook shortage in Chicagos Public Schools. The piece goes on to address the problem of how this shortage upsets the balance of learning in the schools. On the Op-Ed. Page are a number of pieces by teachers and others with varying responses to the article ranging from disdain for the problem to possible solutions for a teacher to overcome the problem. One thing that I found disturbing is the attitude of parents. The letters state that the teachers should be responsible for bringing in texts and other learning solutions themselves. This is not a very well thought out fix for the problem. It just transfers the responsibility from the State to the teachers backs without addressing the underlying problem. If anyone has any thoughts on this problem please feel free to jump in with suggestions!

2006-04-20T10:55:00.000-07:00

I have been following the story in the Chicago Trib. of the ongoing problem of students not having textbooks or outdated texts for use in their core courses. It is hard to beleive that the state was not aware of this problen as it has been brought to thier attention by both teachers as well as the school Administrators for quite some time. The amount of money that the state makes available for books ranks the state in the bottom third of the state listings in the country. The amount that is curently being made available for buying textbooks will not even provide one book per student at the schools. The Tribs story showed the condition of the current books as abismal and so out of date as far as History Books that the the study of current history is imposible. The books are often more than twenty years out of date. President Reagan is not yet in office in many cases and Russia has not yet lost Eastern Europe yet. If this is how we provide for the students how are we to insure that our classes are not left out in the cold? As I hear more news on this topic I will post the info on the BLOG.

Illinois School purchasing Network

2006-04-20T09:17:00.000-07:00

The Illinois school Purchasing network offers all school districts in Illinois access to high-quality products at some of the best available government prices the network was developed in response to Governor Blagojevich's call for the State Board to create savings apportunities that help Illinois School Districts.
Contact: ispn@isbe.net

The End of History?

2006-04-10T08:31:00.000-07:00

In commenting on Hegel, Collingwood argues:

History must end with the present, because nothing else has happened. But this does not mean glorifying the present or thinking that future progress is impossible. It only means recognizing the present as a fact and realizing that we do not know what future progress will be. As Hegel put it, the future is an object not of knowledge butof hopes and fears; and hopes and fears are not history.
Of course, another way of looking at historical thought is that the job of the historian is to make clear the teleological idea that the end of history occurs in the future and that historians must make clear the path to the future based on the developments of the past.

How do you understand the purpose of teaching history. Do we use history to explain the present or the future?

CUIP: Chicago Public Schools/ University of Chicago Internet Project

2006-04-06T14:06:00.000-07:00

Mission
The Chicago Public Schools/University of Chicago Internet Project (CUIP) is a collaborative partnership between the University of Chicago, Chicago Public Schools (CPS), and 26 CPS schools in the Woodlawn, Hyde Park / South Kenwood, and North Kenwood / Oakland neighborhoods of Chicago. Our primary goal is to enhance teaching and learning in the CUIPschools through the use of the Internet and other computer technologies. Toward this goal, we focus our attention on the following fourinitiatives:
Infrastructure:Data wiring in schools, electrical power, computers in classrooms
System Management/Maintenance: Network administration, operating systems, troubleshooting, NSP Tech assistance
Training:Individual and group training on specific technology skills and/or technology integration into the classroom
Classroom Technology Integration: Classroom technology projects, curriculum development, NSP Project Assistant activity

In support of these strategies, CUIP is also involved in specific projects, some with formal liaisons with other institutions.

http://cuip.net/cuip/about/mission/index.htm

Technology

2006-04-06T13:04:00.000-07:00

Using technology in the classroom is an excellent way to promote active learning rather than the passive role of recipient of information transmitted strictly by a teacher. I think it is excellent that you are incorporating a Webblog in your future classrooms. My only concern is if it is entirely feasible to incorporate all student participation? Access to the internet is limited to some individuals.

Educator Templates: Your FREE education template directory

2006-04-06T06:56:00.000-07:00

Educator Templates: Your FREE education template directory is an awesome web site. Many FREE teacher tools available just for the asking. I strongly urge you to take a look. There is never a reason to reinvent the wheel.

Zoundry

Technorati : curriculum, education, instruction, learning, standards, teaching

U.S. Science Lessons Focus More on Activities, Less on Content, Study Shows

2006-04-04T13:52:00.000-07:00

The National Center for Educational Statistics, part of the Department of Education just released a the video study Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study in which they report that U.S. Science Lessons Focus More on Activities, Less on Content, Study Shows. In part the Department of Education states:
In the United States, lessons kept students busy on a variety of activities such as hands-on work, small group discussions, and other "motivational" activities such as games, role-playing, physical movement, and puzzles. The various activities, however, were not typically connected to the development of science content ideas. More than a quarter of the U.S. lessons were focused almost completely on carrying out the activity as opposed to learning a specific idea.
My question is simply this, if teachers are focusing on hands-on scientific activities why are the 8th grade students not learning specific ideas. If an activity is authentic then it focuses on value to the student, academic rigor, and has an audience beyond that of the teacher. Perhaps the activities viewed by the Department of Education researchers were not rigorous, or lacked value to the student, or had the teacher as the sole audience, and if they were not that is something that needs to be addressed. But, the 2003 TIMSS findings state clearly that:
In 2003, U.S. eighth-graders exceeded the international average in mathematics and science. U.S. eighth-graders outperformed their peers in 25 countries in mathematics and 32 countries in science.
According to the table below, the international average score of 473 is far lower than the US average science score in 8th Grade of 527. The fact that only 8 countries scored higher than the US on average score with the highest score only 51 points greater than the US average score is significant but not for the reasons you might think. There are many explanations for such a differential including the basic fact that the US tests a more diverse population than do any of the other nations listed on this survey. This means that the US mean score should be slightly lower than the scores of other countries that test a less diverse population. The US also tests far more of its population per 100 students than the other nations listed so that the universe of testing populations are not comparable. It is as if apples are being compared to oranges.

The problem I have with the way the government reports these data is that it is made to appear as if there is a crisis in American education that simply does not exist. See David Berliner's book, The Manufactured Crisis for a detailed account of how the statistics of studies like the TIMSS are made to appear as if a crisis mode exists when, in fact, there is a great deal to be pleased about in the American educational system. It is easy to lie with statistics, to mislead the public. I am not suprised that the Department of Education misrepresents their findings in headline grabbing fashion.

Zoundry

Technorati : 8th grade, TIMSS, crisis, education, science, statistics

Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

2006-04-04T09:32:00.000-07:00

From time to time I will recommend books that are both interesting and can add to your social studies content knowledge. Collapse is one of these books. I personally found the book to be a fascinating account of the possible reasons for the collapse of societies. Read what Jennifer Buckendorff has to say about this book.
Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed is the glass-half-empty follow-up to his Pulitzer Prize-winning Guns, Germs, and Steel. While Guns, Germs, and Steel explained the geographic and environmental reasons why some human populations have flourished, Collapse uses the same factors to examine why ancient societies, including the Anasazi of the American Southwest and the Viking colonies of Greenland, as well as modern ones such as Rwanda, have fallen apart. Not every collapse has an environmental origin, but an eco-meltdown is often the main catalyst, he argues, particularly when combined with society's response to (or disregard for) the coming disaster. Still, right from the outset of Collapse, the author makes clear that this is not a mere environmentalist's diatribe. He begins by setting the book's main question in the small communities of present-day Montana as they face a decline in living standards and a depletion of natural resources. Once-vital mines now leak toxins into the soil, while prion diseases infect some deer and elk and older hydroelectric dams have become decrepit. On all these issues, and particularly with the hot-button topic of logging and wildfires, Diamond writes with equanimity.
Because he's addressing such significant issues within a vast span of time, Diamond can occasionally speak too briefly and assume too much, and at times his shorthand remarks may cause careful readers to raise an eyebrow. But in general, Diamond provides fine and well-reasoned historical examples, making the case that many times, economic and environmental concerns are one and the same. With Collapse, Diamond hopes to jog our collective memory to keep us from falling for false analogies or forgetting prior experiences, and thereby save us from potential devastations to come. While it might seem a stretch to use medieval Greenland and the Maya to convince a skeptic about the seriousness of global warming, it's exactly this type of cross-referencing that makes Collapse so compelling. --Jennifer Buckendorff
Collapse : How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Technorati : culture, failure, organization, social studies, societies

Spellings Praises House Commitment to Education, Competitiveness

2006-04-04T08:22:00.000-07:00

When Margaret Spellings told Congress, "
When Margaret Spellings told Congress, " To be a global economic leader, America must remain an educational leader," she served to emphasize all that I have been ranting about for the past few days Spellings Praises House Commitment to Education, Competitiveness. When Spellings makes the explicit connection between economics and education she diminishes the underlying reason for educating children, to develop people who think critically in order to preserve and defend democratic principles. One of the things President Bush gets right is that democracies tend to prosper while totalitarian states tend not to do so. So, one might argue that prosperity is an intended consequence of democracy. If this is the case, then it is unwise to think that one educates for economic gain and leadership. If one truly wants to maintain a position of economic leadership in the world, then, it stands to reason that one would be concerned about educating young people how and when to defend democracy. The price of liberty is not cheap but if one loses the incentive for liberty then liberty will not prosper. Margaret Spellings must know that.

Isn't This A Sign of Our Times.

2006-04-03T20:00:00.000-07:00

So it seems that a doctor is marketing a device to help relieve test anxiety. The Story, at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006510/4/prweb365646.htm focuses on a silent alarm time management system. Nothing here about what one knows, just how to efficiently manage time so that one won't be so nervous about taking the high-stakes test. Something seems terribly wrong about this whole idea. This is symptomatic of our times where testing is far more important than knowing. It also recognizes a fact that among young people in our country there is a great deal of unnecessary stress related to test taking. When will it end?

Technorati : education, stress, testing
Del.icio.us : education, stress, testing
Ice Rocket : education, stress, testing
Flickr : education, stress, testing
Buzznet : education, stress, testing
43 Things : education, stress, testing

2006-04-03T13:08:00.000-07:00

I think this will be a great site for future sced 303 students. I used "the blog" in Read 301 and actually enjoyed it. What I find to be of most interest is the community we are creating with the use of this technology. Furthermore, since this class meets only one day per week it gives us more time to discuss important topics with one another. We all have issues to deal with when doing our clinicals and it would be nice to share with one another the great ideas that are out there. Finally, it is a good tool for sharing with us the vast array of information that is out there for teachers without taking up the class time to cover it.

See you Thursday!

Cynthia Holzmann

National Lewis & Clark Bicentennial Commemoration - walk with them and see what you discover...

2006-04-01T21:33:00.000-08:00

National Lewis & Clark Bicentennial Commemoration - walk with them and see what you discover...
Another great resource for teaching history in the classroom. Give it a look.

Mark the dashboard

2006-04-01T18:48:00.000-08:00

The first time I came in on the link provided in the e-mail it prompted me to create an account. It worked! However, when I tried to come in on the same link, I got the "blog invitation error". Since then, from the same page, I have had to go to the home page to log in, which has been a hassle. It seems to me, once we have accepted the invitation and have created an account, we cannot go in through the invitation link we were sent in our e-mails again. So, if this is your first time in, mark the dashboard http://www.blogger.com/home before you log out, or else you are going to have to put it in the address bar everytime.

Hello

2006-03-31T21:40:00.000-08:00

Just thought I would see if I could get on this site, as usual yahoo wouldn,t take my name without using a different user last name. this took 7 trys to find one that was available. I hope this experiment works!

Report Says Schools Lack Funding to Comply with NCLB

2006-03-31T20:47:00.000-08:00

NEA: Report Says Schools Lack Funding to Comply with NCLB
"NEA President Reg Weaver said, "It should come as no surprise that schools are having a hard time meeting the one size fits all standards of the law."

"In an official statement , Weaver also said, "Lawmakers say they want accountability, they want results, but they won't back up the rhetoric. Schools are already hurting because No Child Left Behind has been underfunded by approximately $40 billion. Now, Congress is talking about cutting even more, as part of the biggest cuts in the history of the Education Department as proposed by the president. If these lawmakers aren't held accountable for these cuts, students are going to feel the impact for years to come.""
It should come as no suprise that the Congress has no stomach for spending tax dollars on education should also mandate standards and performance for schools. Votes are important and the idea of school reform, higher standards, accountability and the like play well with the average American voter.

When Reg Weaver calls for lawmakers to be held accountable that cry will fall on deaf ears in the Congress. When have lawmakers ever been held accountable? While I recognize the overtones of bombast in this last statement, what is clear to me is that there is a double standard in this country: the powerful tend to bully the powerless. Schools and schoolchildren are among the least powerful members of our society. Teachers are underpaid and overworked. Students are treated as objects in a game of chess. The force of education is to prepare students to take their place in the economic life of the country when the real purpose of schooling must be to know when and how to defend the constitutional liberties afforded us all, the powerful and the powerless. That element is and has been missing in our society for quite some time. Perhaps it is time to get it back.

AwesomeStories.com, The Story Place of the Web

2006-03-29T03:26:00.000-08:00

AwesomeStories.com, The Story Place of the Web

The website http://www.awesomestories.com/ is free for all educators, schools and libraries.  Simply request an academic membership with this sign-up form.  http://www.awesomestories.com/group_signup.php 

This is a great source for lesson plans, primary source documents and teaching ideas.  Check it out.

American Historical Association

2006-03-28T19:51:00.000-08:00

American Historical Association Criteria for Standards in History/Social Studies/Social Sciences is found through this post. It is worth at least looking at.

Welcome

2006-03-24T08:05:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the SCED 303h BLOG.

The purpose of this blog is to pilot the use of the weblog as a tool for increasing audience and learning in the classroom. So here is the assignment.

I am asking you to log on to http://sced303hblog.blogspot.com and to post a reflection or a lesson you want to share. I am also asking you to comment on no less than three and no more than five posts per week. I will also post ideas and make comments. The idea is to help develop a community of learners.

I don't know how this will work so I am really looking for feedback from you. You may give me written feedback, feedback through e-mail or post feedback as a reflection on the blog.