Juji's Place

Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic

2010-04-17T12:04:00.004-06:00

Just going through my English Companion's Tweets (http://twitter.com/ecning) and found a cool website called The Daily Riff (http://www.thedailyriff.com/) - lots of education information. One of the articles that caught my eye was about a book by Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind, and his new book, Drive.( http://www.thedailyriff.com/2010/04/the-real-missing-link-in-education-motivation.php) The book is about intrinsic motivation vs. extrinsic. There is a link to an excerpt of the first chapter (maybe the intro, can't remember) in the article. It appears to be an excellent book, one I am going to buy. What really got me thinking as I was reading the excerpt, was 1) how can I be a better teacher by using intrinsic motivation, and 2) Wow! I think that is the way Heavenly Father works!

As I was reading, I realized that most of the gospel plan entails intrinsic motivation. Do we have external rewards for attending church, the temple, paying tithing, living the word of wisdom, etc. ...well, to a degree, but I think they are by-products of these activities, and not "rewards" per se. If we are able to get to the point that we recognize the intense satisfaction of doing good for doing good's sake, we have almost mastered our mortal body!

All through my university training, the debate raged concerning intrinsic and extrinsic--there were also those deriders who claimed that the church, society, our culture, etc. were actually inhibiting our basic human needs and rights, (the natural man?), there were even times when I questioned my motives for attending church, obeying traffic laws, and obeying societal laws. Reading this excerpt has made me stop and realize that I am not happy unless I am doing what I know to be right. There is nothing external in that motivation.

We are so blessed to have a loving Heavenly Father who allows us to find our own way--one of mankind's basic requisites. In the excerpt, Pink states: Human beings, Deci said, have an “inherent tendency to seek out novelty and challenges, to extend and exercise their capacities, to explore, and to learn.” Pink quotes Deci as saying "Rewards can deliver a short- term boost— just as a jolt of caffeine can keep you cranking for a few more hours. But the effect wears off— and, worse, can reduce a person’s longer-term motivation to continue the project."

I'm anxious to read both of these books--but I feel as though I've had an epiphany! If I can learn to teach so as to allow my students to become intrinsically motivated, and if I can live my life to ensure I am intrinsically motivated, then I've won half the battle!

(OK, enough soap-box...)

Ramblings

2010-01-09T10:09:00.002-07:00

I met an old friend at the store yesterday and the first thing she said to me was, "You haven't updated your blog in a long time!" I realized then that I should be better at this than I have been. It seems that life passes me by, but I tell my creative writing students that in order to be a good writer, they should be writing every day. That should be incentive enough for me to write at least every week! I've always told my students I wouldn't give them any assignment that I wouldn't do. So...here's my assignment! I am going to organize my life to be able to follow my own advice. There is so much to do and so little time, but hey, my shows don't start up again for two weeks...just kidding. (Thanks, Latu for my TiVo!)

Quick update--I finally finished the Special Ed classes..yipee!!! I passed every class with an A or A- giving me a 3.88 GPA. Not bad for an old lady! I just need to take the Praxis II (for my teaching license) and the Praxis for SpEd and I will be officially done and certified. My next goal is to get my Master's in English with an emphasis on Reading. I think that will have to wait until next year, though. I was hoping to start this year, but I'm not financially ready to do that.

Speaking of being an old lady...last week I was in the store with Mason and he said to me, out of the blue, "Grandma, why are you so old?" I said "Because I've been alive a long time." He thought for a minute, then said, "I want a new grandma!" He cracks me up!

Can I just say that I LOVE being a grandma! I'm not anything close to the wise, loving, wonderful grandma my mother was (or her mother, for that point), but I love my grandkids. I have had all the materials to make them quiet books for a year and a half. I have not been able to motivate myself to get them done. I finally figured out why. I am so completely OCD (and ADHD and a bunch of other initialisms) that I can't stand the thoughts their quiet books would look "homemade." I am now in the process of making them tote-bags (a job I can reasonably expect will not look homemade) and I will fill it with all the cutesy things I can find and make to keep them quiet during church. This will also serve another purpose that was upsetting me; I can let the t0te-bag "grow-up" with them. I can add more mature activities as they get older.

Well, enough of my rambling. I need to get to work on the tote-bags.
Julie

2009-10-24T13:22:00.002-06:00

OK, you may have noticed that I stopped that last blog rather abruptly. I didn't start the blog with any intent other than great pancakes...how it turned into a sob-fest about my mom, I'll never know. I just know that I miss her and somehow everything I do or say reminds me of her. I wasn't able to keep writing about her without seriously breaking down--and I can't break down--can't lose face :0

Food

2009-10-24T11:59:00.002-06:00

I am constantly amazed at how good the simplest of foods can be. I was out of money and needed to make breakfast for my three grandkids (I LOVE being a grandma!) so I got online to get a good pancake recipe. I found Alton Brown's Instant Pancake Mix. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven! Of course, like any good cook, I changed it up a little. But not much. Here is the link: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/instant-pancake-mix-recipe/index.html and here are the changes I made.

1. I doubled the recipe for the mix and added 2 extra tablespoons sugar.

2. I didn't have a lidded container, so I just put it in my Kitchen-aid and mixed it dry

3. I didn't separate the eggs

4. I didn't really measure the buttermilk, just threw in what was left, it was probably 2 1/2 cups

5. I added more plain milk 'cuz I like my pancake mix a little more runny.

I know why I look the way I do. I have had a long love affair with good, simple foods! My mother and both of my grandmothers were exceptional cooks. Food has always been a big part of our lives. I remember the best breakfast I ever had. I think I was about 7 or 8 and we were spending the summer in New Mexico at my grandma and grandpa Hassell's. Grandma told us the story of Little Red Riding Hood and then made us Bear Porridge. It was sooooo good! All I can remember is that she browned flour in a frying pan, added water, and milk. I tried numerous times after that to duplicate her recipe. I even called and asked grandma for her recipe. Her response? "I don't remember doing that. I never have had a recipe for Bear Porridge. I think I may have been out of food so I told you guys it was Bear Porridge."

I realize now that it wasn't the porridge. It was the story, the love my grandma always gave us, the feeling of closeness to the woman I saw barely once a year. The porridge has come to signify my grandmother. She could take, literally, nothing and make something out of it. Food or people...she worked her magic with our souls as well as our bodies.

My mother inherited that from her mother...she inherited her feistiness from her dad. She was the perfect combination of angel and demon. I really, really, REALLY miss my mom!

Musings

2009-04-05T10:59:00.006-06:00

I got a phone call from my OCD daughter the other day telling me that I need to stop enabling her. Funny thing is everytime she wants me to do something for her and I remind her about her phone call, she tells me she didn't mean it for this or that, I just need to stop enabling her for everything else. What? does she want me to stop enabling her or not? Then I read her Benjamin post today and I totally understand. She just wants to be in charge of when I enable her or when I don't. She is so silly!

Just a side note - Latu told me I HAVE to post today, so...here it is...he,he,he...gotcha!

Hidden Blessings

2009-02-06T10:56:00.006-07:00

I guess I'd better start answering my phone! Yesterday during 8th period I got two phone calls from a 253 area code. I was in the middle of class, and thought it might be from Kenny or Kelly and I'd call them back. Then just as school ended, I had been on hold with the IRS for 15 minutes and they had just answered when I got 3 phone calls from another strange phone number in Utah. Again, I didn't want to give up my phone call to the IRS so I ignored the call. Soon after my classroom phone started ringing but I couldn't get to it because my homeroom team was meeting and they had moved the desks. Once again, I thought I would call back and then promptly forgot. About 1/2 hour later, I got a phone call from Talia. She informed me that Vili and Darl had been in an accident - they didn't have their phone with them - and she was on her way to pick them up and bring them home.

Vili had been in SLC for a doctor's appointment, and I had let Darl go with him at the last minute. On the way home, Vili took a drink of water and it wouldn't go down. He was choking and thought he had pulled the car to the inside emergency lane and told Darl he was in trouble. In actuality, he had blacked out. Instead of relaxing, as a normal person would, Vili became rigid with a death grip on the steering wheel and his leg pushing the gas pedal down. They hit the cement barricade in the median, then cut across the freeway hitting two cars. Then they went down the embankment towards the new theater at Thanksgiving Point, and ended up going straight for the theater. Poor Darl had been yelling at his dad and trying to turn the wheel to avoid an accident, but with Vili's death grip and the fact that he kept trying to turn against Darl's attempts, he had been unable to do anything. They were on Frontage Road at this point and a car was coming straight at them. Darl shoved Vili's hands off the steering wheel, yanked it to the left back up the embankment and was finally able to slam the gears into park. As soon as they got back to the top and the car slammed to a stop, Vili came to. He missed the entire thing! In fact, he tried to put the car into gear and drive on. Darl yelled at him that they couldn't go and took the key out of the ignition. Vili got angry and tried to put the key back in before he realized they were on the opposite side of the freeway from what he thought they should be. They had dragged 400 feet of fence with them and the tires were flat--the car is totaled, but no one is hurt! One of the cars they hit must not have stopped, because it is not on the police report, the other car was hit and the lady went to the hospital, but the policeman said she should be fine, nothing major.

Through all of this, the only thing I can think of is how grateful I am for all the little things that Heavenly Father blessed us with yesterday. I didn't go with Vili because I had missed work Monday with the flu. I figured he would be alright because he was just going for a check up. Darl asked to go with him and I told him no because he has missed too much school already - when we dropped him off at school, he called and begged to go. I relented without much opposition because for some reason I felt it would be OK for him to go. If Darl had not been there, I know Vili would be dead! Also, I had told Vili to trade and take Latu's Durango because it was bigger - he decided not to and took Pene's car instead. If he had taken the Durango, they would have rolled because it has too high center of gravity, and they would have both been hurt. I am grateful they were both wearing their seatbelts. I am grateful we had insurance, albeit only liability, but we have not always had insurance. I am grateful we had not fixed Pene's leaking radiator (or water pump) yet, because it would have been an entire waste of money. I am grateful Mason did not go with them!

Darl wouldn't go to school today - but that is OK, also. They are both alive, and no one was seriously hurt. I truly have so much to be grateful for!

Out of the mouth of babes

2008-12-29T12:42:00.003-07:00

Ok, don't ever tell Darl I called him a baby - he may never forgive me. I just wanted to share Darl's words of wisdom. I write the day and date and a quote on my whiteboard everyday for school. I was putting up my new bulletin boards yesterday and Darl told me he wanted to write the quote of the day for me. I told him sure. Not only did he write the quote, but he made it up! This is his quote: "The choices we make are not only a reflection of our earliest teachers, but also the strength of our minds." I was so impressed! He really is wise beyond his years - but again, don't tell him I said that or I'll never hear the end of it! ;)
Julie

I Learned an Important Lesson Yesterday...or How to Jump the Line

2008-12-19T17:32:00.002-07:00

I learned the secret to jumping the line yesterday! I was in my classroom, I sat down at my desk to take roll, when--pop! the back two chair legs broke off my chair and I found myself flying backwards. I remember trying to find something to hold on to and then realizing that it was useless, I just relaxed and let myself fall. I hit my back, then my head, then my hand on the bookshelf behind my desk, (oh the hazards of being an English teacher!), and then I just lay there while the girls freaked out and came running to help me. All this occurred in probably less than two seconds, but it seemed like slow motion while it was happening. Our minds are wonderful things! Anyway, I stopped the girls and told them just to let me lie there for a minute because I was too embarrassed to get up. Soon, however, my head was hurting so I got up, put my hand on my head and felt warm sticky stuff! I pulled my hand away to find blood running down–oops, sorry, I forgot to warn those of you with weak stomachs!—the girls freaked for real this time. One of the girls ran to the school desk to get the nurse, and she came back with paper towels one wet and one dry, she also brought one of the teachers with her. The nurse came down and told me I would probably need stitches and I needed to go to Work Care, but she wouldn’t let me drive, so I called little Vili to come get me. By the time I got to Work Care, I had blood dripping from my fingers, down the front and back of my shirt and all through my hair. They took one look at me and took me straight back to the operating room. I ended up with 9 stitches, lots of bruises, and a sprained wrist. It wasn’t until I went back today to have my stitches inspected that I realized the secret. There were 5 people there today, one came in with a sprained ankle, another with some cough or something, and I’m not sure about the rest, but they all had to wait in the waiting room. The ankle lady was given a bag of ice to put on her ankle, but she was still there when I left. What they didn’t know, that I learned, was you need to have blood dripping everywhere and just like magic, you get to go straight to the head of the line!!!

Following in the tradition of greatness...

2008-09-14T19:16:00.002-06:00

After reading Pam's, Stacie's, Chandie's and Jenna's blogs, I decided I needed to write a few "Mason quotes".

Me: "Mason, get over here now."
Mason: ahma (gramma)- "bye bye"
Mason: with a sideways glance to see if I'm listening - "go house!"
Me: "Did you just tell me to go in the house?"
Mason: running to the sidewalk laughing wildly!

I am woman--hear me roar!

2008-05-20T19:32:00.004-06:00

Yesterday some old friends stopped by to say hello. Sila was working on Latu's Durango and Vili and the rest of us were hanging around. While we were talking, the noise got louder and louder across the street. There were four guys and two girls and they were arguing. We ignored them, but all of a sudden Pene said "Mom, he hit her!" I turned in time to see one of the guys hitting one of the girls, he had her down on the ground and was about to hit her again when I yelled "HEY! STOP THAT!" No sooner had I yelled, when my tall strong son, my tall strong husband, and our friend started across the street. You can imagine what would happen if you saw Sila, Vili, and Ron coming across the street after you. They all dissipated except for one of the guys who lives upstairs, (we have a good relationship with them, the other guys live in the basement apartment), who came to tell Vili sorry. The girls took off down the road, but soon they were fighting each other--I have no doubt the girls instigated the whole thing--so I called the cops. I realized how much I have taken for granted my whole life that if I roar--as I am oft to do--my dad, or brothers, or husband, or sons, or friends will back me up. I have no fear, but I might not feel that way if I didn't have the men in my life that I have. As my "men" came back across the road, Ron said to me, "Boy, I wouldn't want to mess with you!" Just a side-note. Pene told me that one of the girls, (not the one who was hit), is her old friend from grade school named Sara. I forbade Pene from playing with her and Pene was furious at me for a while. Now she says, "I'm so glad you didn't let me play with her. She has 3 kids, I don't think she is married, and she is running after guys and in trouble."
R-R-R-O-O-A-A-R-R-R!!!

Whoa!

2008-04-02T20:43:00.002-06:00

Life keeps coming way too fast! I just want to pull on the reins and say WHOA!!!! Not only am I getting older, but my kids are too! (and grandkids!!!) That's not fair. OK, so life isn't fair. But if I have to get old, I should at least be able to figure out how to manage school, work, family, and church. I just keep dropping things I can't do and I'm too old to bend down and pick up my life. Anyway, I promised Pam I'd blog, so here it is, but now that I've read it I sound like a complainer...which I guess I am in a sense...so in keeping with my resolve to be more grateful, I am so grateful for the family I have. You have put up with so much of my stupidity and you still love me. I think of each of you daily even though I don't call or write. I miss my mommy! But I'm glad she isn't suffering and I know she's happy no matter how trite that sounds.
Gotta go!
Love you all!
Julie

Maybe this is my answer

2008-01-13T18:57:00.000-07:00

I have been struggling with just about every aspect of my life lately. I can't seem to "de-stress" enough to keep me going, so I do nothing. Nothing gets finished, nothing gets done, nothing gets resolved, and my stress keeps piling up and up. I have tried to put it aside, but it seems like every time I do, something new comes up. Now I sound like I'm whining, but I really just wanted to say that I haven't done the things I know will help me the most. I haven't turned to prayer, I haven't exercised more, I haven't taken time for myself, and I haven't done any writing. This Saturday, Pam and I went to lunch for her birthday, and while talking to her I realized that I need to get back to basics. I need to do the things that have always brought me joy...and I need to allow myself to grieve for my mother. I've been trying to be tough these last few years, because I was afraid that I would lose what little control I have if I let go. What I really accomplished is that I am not in touch with me, and in doing that, I've distanced myself from my family and friends. I'm afraid to show emotion, because that seems weak. But it was great talking to Pam and renewing our friendship. I realized I need to be grateful for what I have. I am so blessed with such a good family. I have always had unbelievably good parents, grandparents, and siblings. I have such good children, and a husband who is proud of me...and I have the most beautiful grandchildren in all the world. (sorry guys, but that one is not negotiable!) I have a job that I love and I have opportunities just waiting for me.
I need to follow my mom's example and learn to be grateful for what I have, and not focus on the bad. I was thinking the other day about Christmas my senior year of high school. I wanted to make a poster of myself (only a little narcissistic:) for Mike (hs boyfriend) and so my dad went with me to the park to take tons of pictures of me swinging and sliding so I could get the right "fly-away" on my hair. I was thinking - "what other father of a teenage daughter would do that for her to give to her boyfriend" I tried to tell dad how much I appreciated that he was always there for me - and all of us - even when I was being a total dork, but I couldn't tell him without crying, so I didn't. But, we have all been blessed with our family. Anyway, I love you all! Even my little great-nieces and nephews :) and if I have learned one thing in all my too-many years, it's that no matter how often the down times are; there are always up times you just need the patience to be ready for them.

Sorry!!!

2007-09-28T14:28:00.000-06:00

I told you I wouldn't always be able to write. It is end of level (we have 4 levels per term, 2 terms per semester, and three semesters per year) and I am swamped. I haven't even read my email for 3 days...sorry to all of you who wrote me. I love my job, but the first year is stressful with a lot of extra hours put in. I was here until 11:00 pm on Wed. I'm getting better though. Once I'm completely organized I'll be OK.
Love to you all!

...and round and round and round it goes...

2007-09-23T20:14:00.000-06:00

I have never blogged before and I can't promise that I will keep it up, but I do want to author a book one day and I know that the best way to hone the skills I will need is to write every day. (How's that for my first run-on sentence?)
Anyway, I was reading Latu's blog about "small brother" and it reminded me of Chris, and me, and Pam, and...well, just about all of us at one time or another. What I really wanted to write about was another "Darlism." Friday night, Latu was at the house downloading church hymns to her i-Pod and she had on the song Come, Thou Fount sung by BYU Combined Choir. Soon after, Darl asked her if she could download that song to his i-Pod. Latu was touched and said "there's hope for him after all!" I just laughed knowing that there always has been hope :) Anyway, last night Vili asked me to get his clothes ready because he was going to church today. Darl's response? "Oh Dad, I'm so glad you're going to come to church tomorrow, because I made a life-changing decision last night. That song just...I don't know...it just touched my heart or something and I decided I am going to be a Mormon and I didn't want to go to church without you." I laughed and told him he already was a Mormon. He told me yeah, but now he was going because he wanted to. Needless to say, I had to turn away quickly so he didn't see the tears. I said a quick, silent prayer of thanks to my Heavenly Father for continuously blessing me even when I don't deserve it. (Later I asked Him to thank mom, grandparents, and Lile also)
It also made me sad, because my second thought was that I wanted to call mom and tell her. Then I realized I couldn't and I couldn't breath for a few minutes. I miss you mommy!