Class 9/18/08

Today's class was very helpful in getting an understanding of how to try and seperate judgements from observations. As I watched the board meeting of a charter school being up for approval, there were many things I witnessed that normally would translate into opinion. For instance, when one lady was speaking, I noticed numerous "um" and "like" in her speech. It would be easy for me to make judgement and say this lady was nervous, but for when observation begins at Newark, just saying somebody was nervous or bored doesn't tell a lot. The actions that lead to you thinking they are bored or nervous have to be taken down as well to show why you made that assumption.
Something that was not discussed in class but really caught my interest in the reading was the Aldridge text on page 4 where he discusses how numerous high school students who are preparing to take their SAT's are trying to get diagnosed as disabled. If a student has a disability, they will be allowed time and a half, or even double time on their exam without the colleges finding out. So what is happening is that some students who are perfectly fine, will still get diagnosed with a disorder, and get a lot more time to complete their test. These students will likely be able to score higher on their test, allowing them to potentially get into a college over a student who had normal time. To me, it is very important that a college should have information if a student took the exam under different circumstances as somebody else.