Tuesday Evening Reflection

Day 2 is officially in the books ... and it was a long one at that!  Similar to yesterday, we started our morning with an IQ Test, this time it was "10 Brainteasers To Test Your Mental Sharpness" which was a blog post in Forbes on September 8, 2016.  I must say, I was able to answer correctly several more than on Monday morning.  My favorite today:

Which is correct to say, "The yolk of the egg is white" or "The yolk of the egg are white?"

Did you answer is correctly?  I'll admit that I did not ... yolks are yellow, not white!  This was a great way to open the mind for the day.  We spent the morning reviewing what is sure to be the go-to manual for the next several years, the "Publican Manual of the American Psychological Association." Who knew there were so many rules to writing.  I did, actually, but there are a number of rule books out there, including APA, MLA, Chicago and a few others.  In my academic career, I have used each and will need to clear my mind to ensure my writing follows APA.  What I like most about APA is the understanding that writing should be clear, concise and to the point.  I used to use a lot of fluff in my writing, to meet page length requirements, and thanks to Twitter, and of course the APA manual, have been able to be more direct in my writing.

Another major feature of the morning was on the role of theory in research.  Theory becomes the tool in research, and there are many theories out there.  I am excited to learn about a handful and narrow down to two to use to answer my question.  What is my question you may be asking?  I am asking myself the same thing!  I am interested in a few things ... potentially the effects of different charter authorizing structures and its impact on academic outcomes of scholars, or perhaps virtual schools and what strategies support scholar achievement.  A quote from a video we watched does put this work into perspective ... "Have fun with your paper" which was shared by Michael Strange from Denmark.  I shall try!

We also watched an impactful video clip on "Leadership and the New Science," based on the work of Dr. Wheatley.  Basically this is on chaos theory, and that order can appear out of chaos.  I shared a few tweets on some of the key parts of the film, and am trying to get the clip to watch again, and share with my leadership team.  It truly was moving.  And helps to put some things into perspective.  In the back of my head, too, I was thinking about one of my favorite SciFi shows, Babylon 5, which was centered around order and chaos as a running theme throughout the series.  In the end of the show, it was not one or the other, but both, which are needed for balance and growth.  Seems true in real life too - this need to have a mixture of chaos and order.