<p>Oh, Modadunn… if there is anything less explicable that college admission decisions it would be Ice Dance judging. Usually they never even show compulsories on TV, so I was really surprised that they did this time – probably because 3 NA teams are seriously in the medal hunt, and they finished 2, 3, and 4th yesterday after compulsories. Dancers knew that one of two dances would be drawn this season (a waltz or the tango romantica) and the Olympic draw turned out to be the tango. The ISU has a (terrible) CD with all of the compulsory music on it, and there are five slightly different versions of Tango Romantica music on it. The first couple in the group gets the first version – they do a little startup part (that isn’t judged and is for the crowd’s enjoyment), then skate two patterns of the dance as specified step by step in accord with the beat of the dance, then finish with a little flourish (also unjudged and left up to them.) So the music does just tail off when they finish their flourish. The next couple gets the second track of Tango Romantica, and so on. The first couple in the next group gets the first version again. Judges grade each quarter of the pattern, looking for accuracy, deepness of edging, speed, power/size, and feel for the rhythm (think of the lilt you should see in a waltz ONE two three, ONE two three) and they’re looking really hard for places where any of the skaters didn’t follow the specified moves, lost balance & had to grab their partner, or fell, and they’re looking for a second pattern that is just like the first. Very hard to watch on TV because you probably don’t know the required steps, can’t judge the speed, often don’t get the right camera angles to see the edging, and aren’t noticing the subtle timing issues. </p>
<p>You’ll probably like the Original Dance (OD) a whole lot more. These are short dances that this year follow a folk music theme, interpreted very, very liberally. Always lots of excitement and politics in ice dance, and as long as you’re not a die hard fan of some particular couple, really fun to watch. There will likely be a lot of movement from the rankings in the compulsories because the leading couple is known for excellent compulsories but hasn’t done well with their OD this years, and several of the others have slammed home runs out of the park. Davis and White’s Bollywood routine is typically amazing.</p>
<p>arabrab: I just learned more about ice-dancing in reading your post than in several hours of watching it over the last few Winter Olympics. Thank you!</p>
<p>Does anyone else listen to the announcers and wonder “How can anyone talk so much and communicate so little?”</p>
<p>I tried watching curling yesterday. I really tried. I watched for about half an hour, and although I understood each of the words the commentators used, I had no idea what they were saying . Who knew there was so much curling-specific terminology?</p>
<p>I was frustrated, I thought I’d be able to figure out basically what was going on, but no luck!</p>
<p>So I went back to something I do understand: speed skating (must be my Dutch heritage ).</p>
<p>I have suggested he get a tutor and make sure he learns the material with or without the professor because he will need this for subsequent courses. I haven’t heard from him today so not sure how he is feeling, but will call him tomorrow and talk to him about a tutor. I don’t know a thing about CS so no clue what the specific issues were on the test. He is doing well in calculus and engineering. He was disappointed in how he did on his physics exam but said that was his fault. The exam was right after the CS exam and he was so upset he missed things he shouldn’t have. That also might have caused some of his upset with CS. I think he likes CS so should be motivated to master the material.</p>
<p>arabrab… who the heck do you know all that? And I agree, I learned more about Ice Dancing in one post than I have ever learned in how-ever-many-years I’ve been watching the olympics - and I am one of those people that love to watch the olympics.</p>
<p>And yes, I do wonder how some of these announcers can talk so much and say so little. However, I am now a HUGE fan of Evan Lysacek and believe it’s figure skating and not merely figure jumps. I felt his performance had much more depth than any other competitor and I thought in interviews asking what he felt about others (including his major competition) calling him out, he handled himself completely thoughtfully. Very impressed.</p>
<p>I just got a text from son saying he got cut. He said he was fine but that he wasn’t too happy about having to answer the question for the next three days. I feel badly, but am so glad he gave it his best effort. We knew it was going to be tough as they only graduated one senior in his position last year (so in that regard, I was curious how many of the recruits they even kept). Actually, I will definitely be interested as they post the roster and compare it to the recruited list to see how many they kept. I know he’s bummed, but at the same time, he has loved the school academically and socially from day one, and now it will just be a matter of what he does in an extracurricular way going forward. Wish they had a club team, but they don’t. :(</p>
<p>Thanks! I’ve spent a lot of years watching figure skating practices and going to international competitions, but I’m a lot better with men, ladies, and pairs than I am with ice dance. On the figure skating boards we spend a lot of time going “aargh” at the inane things commentators say and NBCs broadcast choices. A lot of times I watch the Euro or Chinese feed because there is either not much talking or it is in a language I can’t understand and thus doesn’t interfere as much! I’ve been lucky enough to see all but a couple of the major competitors at this Olympics at prior competitions, so it has been fun. </p>
<p>The most surprising things people notice when they go to a live competition is how incredibly fast these folks move over the ice (you just lose that on TV), and, with the exception of a few guys like Evan, how very tiny most of these folks are – especially the female pair skaters, who probably average under 100 pounds each.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, this may be typical for that CS class at that school. I earned a C in my 2nd majors programming class and figured that placed me in the upper 25% of the class (half dropped, and when grades were issued, half were Ds and Fs). This was decades ago, and I hoped that CS departments had gotten beyond such demoralizing grading.</p>
<p>D1 is in her second semester of a PhD program in CS. She finds the classes extremely challenging; and said she spent almost 20 hours on one homework assignment. She simply didn’t want to admit she didn’t get it. Finally, she trudged over to the professor’s office for office hours – where she discovered half the class waiting to talk to him. </p>
<p>So he readjusted the assignments and class schedule in order to cover more thoroughly what was clearly difficult for all of them. Kudos to that professor.</p>
<p>As a professor myself, if I had half the class come in with failing or near failing grades, I would probably assume it wasn’t a good test. I’d have to have a pretty compelling reason to blame the students. At least I’d want to find out what happened and hear their perspective.</p>
<p>“As a professor myself, if I had half the class come in with failing or near failing grades, I would probably assume it wasn’t a good test. I’d have to have a pretty compelling reason to blame the students. At least I’d want to find out what happened and hear their perspective.”</p>
<p>Well, I would too. But there are a few other dynamics going on in intro CS classes. People know organic chemistry is hard, and unless you’re a chem, bio or premed student you probably won’t take it. When you do, you know you’re in for a hard semester. For whatever reason, students come into the intro CS programming class without the understanding that it is hard, and some faculty teach it with a much more theoretically based approach that many kids find hard to understand. But too many classes do not have an instructional model that helps students build the scaffolding they need to understand and be able to use the concepts, and too many students fail to allow enough time for what ends up being an experiential learning process. Many also rely upon friends to help fix broken programs, and thus never end up really learning the material, and that kills them on later labs and on the tests. One of my old college buddies teaches large lecture classes in lower division CS classes at one of the big UC campuses, and he does a great job in part because he is intrinsically a fabulous teacher and has developed a great system of training TAs to support students. Most of his colleagues are brilliant people, but not necessarily really good teachers. </p>
<p>Many years ago I took a math class where we were expected to do proofs by induction. I banged my head against the wall for the longest time until I found a T.A. who finally explained that while it seemed like a formulaic method, you still needed to have a pretty deep understanding of the problem on which you were working and find the right case upon which your proof could be built – then it is just a matter of slotting it into the formula. We worked through more than a dozen examples over a couple of days, and I finally got it. Intro to CS has got an unfortunate number of concepts that work that way – really different than learning to apply basic principles of physics, or finding the clearing price in economics, or discussing the origins of the cold war in a history class, and a lot of students are just unprepared for a subject that requires this kind of learning. (In the same way I noted that my daughter’s calculus class had no proofs required, though the instructor certainly showed them some – it was much more focused on practical applications of the calculus, and I don’t think their textbook even had the delta epsilon proofs that made my life miserable as a freshman. If she was asked to do a proof on an exam she would not have a clue as to where to even begin.)</p>
<p>I am sorry moda-son was cut (although I am too far behind and do not know from what - I assume a sports team) I hope he takes it well and allows you to comfort him at least obliquely.</p>
<p>Sorry to hear about moda-son being cut. Sound like he took it well. Hope the next few days aren’t that stressful for him. Sounds like he enjoys the school. Perhaps he can find a different club team or intramural that would interest him?</p>
<p>Too bad Modadunn. On a positive note, however, HE DID TEXT YOU!!
I hope he’ll find a group, club, etc. that he can enjoy. Sounds to me like he needs/wants a sport. There must be tons of sport clubs there. Good luck!
oooh - all this talk of CS sounds great and I hope all the interested students work their way around it but I have no idea what you’re talking about.
Actually, H was an econ/CS major at Lehigh. He said the median grade was generally 16-32 on exams. Thankfully, it was curved.
D is taking stats for the first time and it is certainly giving her some grief. H’s idea of support is to tell her that he failed it twice before getting an A! Now there’s inspiration for you…</p>
<p>Moda, how dare they cut him! I think the bus of moms needs to come up and tee pee that coach’s house!</p>
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<p>Yesterday was a crazy day (both cheer and dance competitions) so we only watched a few minutes of Olympic coverage. But I agree that the commentators, for the most part, don’t provide useful information. In bobsled, it was of the nature of “look at the wheels! look at the rudder!”…Okay, I’m looking. What am I supposed to be seeing?</p>
<p>Back to academics, it makes me nuts when a whole class does badly and the teacher acts like it is the class’s fault. When D was a freshman, her pre-AP geometry teacher was terrible (you may remember my posts). I’d go on the computer and more often than not, the class average for tests was between 65-72. This was the pre-AP class, so they were the more advanced math students and the class average was always failing or a little above. Did the teacher ever once consider that he was not adequately explaining the subject matter?</p>
<p>Ahh Missy… he’s disappointed for sure but we’re assuming they had TOO much talent in his position (not graduating but one senior will do that) and so it’s just mostly important that he loves the school. He’s already made a ton of great friends and will just be a matter of time before he reinvents himself as something other than a student athlete. How would you like to be the kid who was actually recruited and then cut? I think making the effort speaks to his character and willingness to put himself out there, regardless of outcome. He doesn’t always take the safe route and for that I hope he is very proud of himself.</p>
<p>I am also waiting for the request for funds to go to Cancun or something for spring break. :)</p>
<p>The talk about programming and the rest is clearly over my level of knowledge. But then so too was ice dancing. So what good am I?</p>
<p>Olympic’s get off today with this downhill ski cross (or whatever they’re calling it)… It looks crazy. Also… I am forcefully reminded that it’s been 30 years since I was a freshman in college and the Miracle on Ice. Man that was a fun time. We had so so much fun celebrating.</p>
<p>Sometimes it’s a poorly designed or administered test that’s the problem. When D1 had Algebra 2/Trig, the teacher wrote super hard and long tests – and refused to use the “block periods” to give them. Most kids who regularly got As in math (and who went on to so do in Pre-calc and calc) struggled to get into the B range. Of course this could have been related to the fact that the teacher didn’t really teach much. Some parents hired tutors simply to teach their kids the math that the teacher didn’t. So frustrating for all even though it’s only one blip on the screen …</p>
. Who knew there was so much curling-specific terminology?</p>
).</p>