Hooked on Phonics Doesn't Work for Everyone

Howdy! It seems I am always one of the last ones to post for the week...hmm...Anyway, after almost each class, I come out wanting to take on a new profession--one week I wanted to interview people about their passion for motorcycles, and this week, I thought it would be pretty darn cool to go into teaching. But then I remembered my "fun" with tutoring a 3rd grader for a year using "hooked on phonics". Neither of us were really hooked on it. Nonetheless, I agree with many fellow students saying that they didn't realize health literacy was a problem. For me personally, I had never really thought of health literacy as being a subset of literacy. Now these past few days when I look at an ad, billboard or read an article of some sort, I try to mentally put it into the SMOG thingee and guess what level it would be. For our questions to ask of the Walking School Bus parents, I found my self wondering if they would know what "walkability" means---similar to Jamie D's braniac neighbor not knowing about BMI.

Yes, Laura, I think we should put our theses in and see what grade level comes up....do we really want to know?

As for Module II, it was really hammered home that in order to be effective we really must pick some group, narrow it down--we can't save the entire world in one campaign. And I still think PRIZM is pretty keen---I know what I'll be doing over Christmas break in Salt Lake City with the folks...the fun never ends in Utah!

Wish us luck tomorrow with our PTSO meeting! Hope all is going well with everyone's projects!

Are any professional athletes really clean?

As I was stretching post-run on Friday, I was watching the news and up came the cruddy story about Marian Jones and her confirmed drug use during the Olympics. This made me sad as she is just another athlete in the recent history to be connected to performance enhancing drugs. Here's a clip of her that I found :( It has yet to be determined if she will lose her Olympic medals and possibly face jail time.

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3693215&affil=kgtv

My Runnin' Buddies

And they're off!! Two of my close friends, Lindsay Amberg and Kristin McGinley are running their first marathons TODAY in Portland and Chicago, respectively. To track them go to:
http://www.liveraceresults.com/live1/ (Portland) and http://livechicago.mikatiming.com/ (Chicago). Type in their last names and up comes their race splits! Received a text from Linds 10 minutes before her start that said it hadn't rained yet--phew! Spoke with Kris last night and she said it was going to be near 90 and humid--yikes! No worries, both will do just great! Keep on keepin' on!!!
And congrats to my Utah Locomotion friends who ran yesterday's St. George marathon! That's a fun one!!! Race results: http://results.active.com/pages/searchform.jsp#hot_links

What does the N on the helmet stand for? "Nowledge"

I must confess, I went a little nuts with the PRIZM website! It's amazing what you can find to do when you don't want to work on your thesis! I have lived in 4 different areas of the world which have stereotypes attached: Nebraska, Utah, Moldova (Russia) and now California. I guess everywhere has it's stereotypes, but anyway... There were no zipcodes for my Draguseni, Moldova, but I still got a kick out of the differing results from western NE to eastern NE and northern UT versus southern UT. Although I would find this quite useful in learning about my target audience, I wouldn't put my entire energy in this method--similar to astrological signs and Cosmo surveys :), PRIZM only gets a certain part of the person. As with any stereotype, there is always exceptions to the rule--more often than not (but yes, I have shucked corn, had many a hay rack ride, say "howdy" and "tuckered" and LOVE the Cornhuskers...however, I didn't milk my first cow until I was in Moldova.)
The VALS survey reminded me of a certain personality test that my boss ADORES--can't for the life of me remember what it's called, but you end up with four letters such as ESFJ or something of the sort. I have taken it about six times now at staff meetings--a little annoying but not as bad as the MMPI--sheesh!
Group project--yeah, kind of stressing me out as we are having some slight difficulties in reaching our target audience. Also, it seems that the majority of kids already walk to Montgomery Middle School. Hmmmm....
On my blog (or in a couple hours) will be the links to follow fellow grad students Lindsay Amberg and Kristin McGinley as they run their first marathons in Portland and Chicago, respectively. You can track them at various kilometer marks throughout the course! Good luck guys!!! I am proud of you!!!

Inspirational Ironman Video

I was going to try to find a cool video related to health communication, but ended up looking at running and tri videos instead like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZNM4c6eZnE. I'm usually not one for sappy stuff, but these two guys are awesome! I guess in a way, this is health commuication, too.

I really don't like sushi

Returning to the topic of personal relevance...the marketing video really made my head sort of spin in the way that people research their target audience---for something (I perceive) as unimportant as motorcycles. Ok, ok, I know there are many Harley Davidson owners who might perhaps disagree a smidge with me. I was talking to my friends after class and brought up the fact that I had NO idea there was an entire separate profession for psychologists in marketing. I wonder if anyone who is first beginning to study psychology thinks about this type of job. But now that I have been exposed to this aspect of marketing...I can imagine this kind of work going in to almost any product (Spam anyone?)
I really enjoyed the segmentation activity--well, both the actual exercise and the chance to get outside and move around. I don't think I've gone outside for class since my German professor used to lecture outside at undergrad. Why don't more teachers do this? I get sleepy if I sit for too long...something to keep in mind if I ever conduct a focus group.
Ok, because I lived in this part of the world for 2.5 years, I found this particularly interesting. A mom in Siberia gave birth to her 12th child at a paltry 17 lbs! Here's the link to the story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20995289/wid/11915773?GT1=10412. Don't worry about the blue stuff-it's called zilionka and it's used sort of like our Neosporin-type topical ointments. I had many a student come in with blue stuff on hands, faces, legs...they even put it on broken bones--good times.

Will This Ever Be Reality in America?

Howdy! When you get a second, please watch this 7-ish minute video called, "A Fat Rant." http://youtube.com/watch?v=yUTJQIBI1oA I'm sure many of you have seen this clip before, but the first time I saw it was in a group called "Body Image Psychoeducation" at UCSD's Intensive Outpatient Program for eating disorders this past summer. Our reactions were mixed--ranging from "Gosh, that's empowering!" to "She has a lot of nerve to make this video." While I got a warm fuzzy feeling in my heart that there are people out there who accept themselves and all bodies of all sizes, my realistic (though pessimistic) view is that, sadly, this kind of all encompassing acceptance will probably never exist in America, and well, that kinda sucks. My question to you all: do you think our society will ever fall in step with Joy Nash's "ranting?" As I am currently in the library I can watch, though I can't hear, the multiple clips posted in response to "A Fat Rant." I shall watch them later to see what those folks think (who are more technologically-advanced than I). I realize that my fellow IOP-ers and I have a slightly skewed vision of body image, so I am curious to hear comments from people "on the other side."