Pistols- 12:2

When and Where: I encountered this word last night when I was reading a fellow cross-fitters post. Apparently, she made up a WOD (workout of the day) while she was in a hotel that did not have any crossfit equipment. She mentioned a series of exercises and included "pistols" in there. 


What does it mean: Pistols, in crossfit terms, are a one legged squat. According to http://www.crossfitendurance.com/blog/3/post/86, this website showed a demonstration of a "pistol" or one- legged squat. 

Level of Familiarity:  In terms of doing pistols, it is still a relatively new exercise for me. I have the balance and coordination but I am just working on my strength and endurance to sustain this exercise during a WOD (workout of the day). 

Reflective Commentary: I know I have mentioned this in other blog entries but crossfit is like a new language to me. Although I have been a "crossfitter" now for almost 7 months, I am still learning new lingo and exercises every time I go. I feel that crossfit is a relatively new approach to fitness and even my trainers are learning new exercises along the way. With cross-fit being described as an cross-disciplinary approach to fitness involving weightlifting, gymnastics, and cardiovascular training there are so many dimensions to be explored. Despite often feeling confused and slightly insecure about my form on various exercises, I will never stop doing crossfit. With anything that you learn, you are going to make mistakes. Even after 7 months, I am still learning and want to be a life-long learner of this new fitness approach. 

Heavy heart or heavyhearted- 12:1

When and Where: I often see this expression on many Facebook posts pertaining to something tragic or deeply sad that has occurred. From the context, I clearly understood what the person meant but when I attempted to use the phrase "heavy heart" in response to someone's death, I felt unsure about it. I continued to re-read my sentence that included that phrase but still felt that I sounded awkward and incorrect. 

What it means: Like I believed,  the phrase "heavy heart" means a "sad heart (dictionary.com)." Also, according to thefreedictionary.com, heavyhearted can mean "depressed" if used as an adjective. These words can be spelled either way from what I gathered from dictionary.com and thefreedictionary.com. 

Level of familiarity: Despite knowing what this phrase meant, I had a difficult time using it context. I think , like many others, I have a very hard time expressing condolences during times of sadness. I often feel like I can't find the right words and don't know the appropriate thing to say.  

Reflective Commentary: I admire funeral home directors. The struggle to be comforting and consoling to a family in grief is a hard one for many. For my purposes, I wanted to remember a man who had just recently passed.  Carefully selecting my rhetoric in situations like these are often very hard for me. 

Acquiescence and Yiddish 11:1 and 11:2

When and Where: Watching one of my favorite series, Boardwalk Empire, I heard these two words used by the character Arnold Rothstein. The character, who is newer to this season, was discussing plans with regards to bootlegging. In context he said "Yiddish Meyer? I can't think of a more obvious route to my acquiescence than shared commonality." 

What they mean: 

• According to dictionary.com, the word acquiescence means "agreement or consent by silence or without objection." In this context, I think Arnold is insinuating that compliance with the common culture is the best option. 
• Yiddish, also according to dictionary.com, is a "language spoken as a vernacular by Jews in Europe and elsewhere by Jewish emigrants." It is a "dialect of high German with an admixture of words of Hebrew, Romance, and Slavonic origin." 

Level of Familiarity: Both words really sounded familiar to me but I really did not know what they meant. I had more insight on the word, Yiddish, and thought it had something to do with language and possibly the Jewish culture. When I heard the word acquiescence used in context, I knew I had heard the word before but really did not know the meaning. Thank goodness for digital recording because I was able to replay that dialogue over a few times to clarify the words that interfered with my meaning making of the scene. Unfortunately, I could not grasp the meaning from just the spoken context, particularly for the word acquiescence. 

Reflective Commentary: Before I looked up the words this time, I really tried to decipher the meaning without the support of a dictionary. I wanted so badly to understand what the character was saying because the show is becoming so dramatic and climatic. Additionally, I feel very unsure about this character, Arnold Rothstein. I can't determine which group he is associated with and how he really feels. Often characters in this series are unpredictable and you (as the audience) find yourself surprised by their actions. I seemed to perseverate on the word acquiescence much more than yiddish as I know it said more about who he is as a character. Based on the context, I believe Arnold Rothstein is attempting to appear colloquial with other major bootleggers but he is possibly scheming to overthrow major players in this controversial business.  

Movember 10-2



10:2

When and Where: I came across this word at my crossfit gym's website.  I saw that my gym was participating in "Movember."

What it means: According to the http://us.movember.com/about/ website:  "During November each year, Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces, in the US and around the world. With their Mo's, these men raise vital awareness and funds for men's health issues, specifically prostate and testicular cancer initiatives."

 

 

Level of Familiarty: Since I joined my crossfit gym, back in May, I have been exposed to several charities or runs that benefit medical research or other healthy initiatives. In September, I participated in the Dirty Girl Mudrun, where our funds went towards breast cancer research.

Reflective Commentary: Now that I know that Movember is I want to find a way that I can be a part of this cause. My grandfather is now in remission from prostate cancer. Luckily, his doctors found the cancer early enough where they could quickly treat it. I think this is a great initiative and the movement helps to raise so much awareness about men's health which can sometimes be ignored by some.

Salience 9:2

Salience 9:2

When and Where: I encountered this word while reading the article for class, "Content Literacy for the 21st Century: Excavation, Elevation, and Relational Cosmopolitanism in the Classroom." In context it reads "Explicit in much of this history is the salience of inquiry -based teaching and learning" (2012, p. 233).

What it means: According to http://www.thefreedictionary.com, the word salient means to be either- "Projecting or jutting beyond a line or surface" or "strikingly conspicuous; prominent."

Level of Familiarity: I know I have come into contact with this word before. I probably just ignored it because it did not interfere with my meaning making abilities.

Reflective Commentary: I had a conversation with the speech therapist that I work with this week. We were discussing how she is trying to teach her students to learn to use important tier 2 vocabulary words. She is having them look up the words, find pictures to represent the meaning and also writing the word in a sentence correctly. The students are struggling most with this aspect. I even have trouble sometimes during those vocabulary tests. I often wonder, does this sound right? So just to really reinforce this word meaning, I am going to make myself engage in a very difficult task using a newly learned word in a sentence, correctly. The salience of assessment in schools in becoming overwhelming for all.

Now, when it comes to my picture, I know this is not the most school appropriate selection but it really helped me at acquring the word meaning of the word salience. When I searched for images, I simply just searched under "salience." Under that search this picture really captivated the meaning for me. The guy with the steriods is so consipisous that it's hard not to look at him.

Edmodo - 10:1

Edmodo - 10:1

When & Where: A couple of weeks ago I was having a conversation with a technology integration specialist in our district. I happened to mention how I enjoyed facebook and wish there was something to that level for our students and parents to have access to. At that time, he said “Don’t use facebook, use Edmodo. You can be my guinea pig with trying it out with your classroom.”

Definition: Edmodo is a social networking site that is designed for teachers. It has a very similar appearance to facebook, even the pages and the names of their pages. The difference is, it is more private and you have to invite parents to follow you. Additionally, you have to set up different passwords for parents to have. It is definitely not as easy to access when compared to facebook but it’s landscape lends itself to strong social communication between the home and school.

Level of Familiarity: I am very familiar with facebook and other social networking sites. However, I had never heard or even seen this application. With all the new apps (applications) that are available, I thought I would have recognized the little logo but I had never been exposed to that little, blue e. 

 

Reflective Commentary: Although I have an account set up for my classroom, I have not had the opporuntiy to really start using it in my classroom. I love the concept and particularly love the idea of putting up status’s everyday to show parents what your child is learning in the classroom daily. If test-taking and student learning objectives were not so salient throughout public schools, I would have more time to engage in this newer technology.

 

Cosmopolitanism- 9:1

Cosmopolitanism- 9:1

Where and When: I encountered this word when I was reading an article for class titled "Content Literacy for the 21st Century: Excavation, Elevation, and Relational Cosmopolitanism in the Classroom." I am quite familiar to the word "Cosmopolitan" because of the magazine. Oddly, I really never knew what the word meant. Based on my own ideas and perceptions about the magazine, I just assumed the word pertained to something that was popular, fashionable, and trendy.

Based on the article, the word "cosmopolitanism" is different from my perception/ understanding of the word. However, I am still interested in knowing both word meanings to see if they relate to eachother.

What it means:

• The word "cosmopolitan" means "pertinent or common to the whole world," according to http://www.thefreedictionary.com/cosmopolitan.

• The word " cosmopolitanism" pertains to "the opinions and behavior emerging from the theory that cultural and artistic activities should have neither national nor parochial boundaries" according to http://www.thefreedictionary.com/cosmopolitan

Level of Familiarty: Like I mentioned above, I had heard this word but not used in the same context. I really honed on wanting to know this word meanining because I had so many previous exposures to this word, just in different contexts.

In terms of the literacy article, the word or idea "cosmopolitanism" pertains to "a model for framing, understanding, teaching, and learning content in the 21st-century schools" (Baildon & Damico, 2011, p. 232).

Reflective Commentary: After reading the article and thinking about Cosmopolitan magazine, I can better conceptualize the meaning of both cosmopolitan, and cosmopolitanism. They both have to do with releasing discourse from the confines of preconceived boundaries like culture, religion or even regional prejudices. The relational "cosmopolitanism" in the classroom specifically pertains to constructing instruction that focuses on the interrelatedness of different subject areas while abstaining from inadvertently assembling bias or opinion for our students. More specifically, cosmopolitanism encourages teachers to embrace the "challenges of living in a global society" and teach students ways to "critically and creatively respond to these challenges" (p.239).