Go Post 1:

Reflecting on the Deresiewicz and Brooks articles, what does it mean to

have moral imagination and moral courage? How are we taught (or
how do we learn) these qualities? What stands in the way of us
learning and embodying them?
Deresiewicz and Brooks define moral Imagination as the ability to
make self-innovating choices, meaning the aptitude to stray from the
established path to obtain eulogy virtues as defined by Brooks. Moral
imagination is not making a choice that is morally good over
something that is not, it is making the choice of something different
over what the system wants you to do. Both articles seem to put the
brunt of the blame on the education system, saying that it creates
egotistical drones who simply follow the path laid out for them by their
hand-holding teachers and parents. Moral courage is simply defined as
the virtue necessary to follow through with morally imaginative
choices. It is what is needed when everyone else tells you that what
youre doing is crazy, but you should stick true to your values and
desires and act on those.
I understand the appeal and benefits of what both authors are
trying to say but I have a large number of grievances with both articles
and the point they are trying to make. The first is how are we
supposed to accomplish this moral imagination (just like Natalie
mentioned her post above)? Neither article really provides a tangible
means of obtaining this type of moral enlightenment. Mostly, the
articles simply state that moral imagination and moral courage should
be something everyone strives for because it will drastically improve
your life. The ideas that are suggested seem both radical and
impractical. Theres a reason that very few people in the world are
professional artists and musicians: because its really hard to get good
enough to make a living off of it. Most people dont have the support
to dedicate a large chunk of their life to potentially becoming a great
artist with wonderful morals. Lets look at it this way; I can spend four
years a university, get an art degree and go into the world where I
wont get paid, or I could spend six years at university getting both an
arts and science degree, and have to use the science degree to pay off
all the money I spent getting my art degree, or I could get a science
degree in four years and be able to support myself and my family. And
theres a lot of things that make the system the way it is, like people
not needing art majors, college costing a lot of money, and other
things but in todays society it simply doesnt make a lot of practical
sense to take the time and money to fully explore the concepts of
moral imagination and moral courage in that manner.
Now thats not to say activities besides making money and
building stuff are completely obsolete in our society. Skills built in
activities such as band and sports are key to being able to get those

eulogy virtues and I believe that one is able to achieve moorage

courage without making radical changes. Something that both articles
touched on that I really liked was the idea that failure is what improves
our moral imagination and builds our moral courage. Being able to be
wrong and be bad at certain aspects of life (job, family, whatever) is
what drives us to make new and different choices down the road.
Deresiewicz says that we should Resist the seductions of the cowardly
values our society has come to prize so highly: comfort, convenience,
security, predictability, control. These are things that people all
around the world strive for! Why should I give them up? Deresiewicz
then continues to say, Above all resist the fear of failure, and here I
agree. I think that it possible to resist ones fear of failure, to strive to
get better, to be better, without giving up the control and security that
most people seek in their life. Do to this one simply needs to give up
those luxuries on small things like upping/changing ones workout
routine, stepping outside of their social comfort zone, or actually
setting moral goals (like complimenting and helping people), not life
scale decisions such a profession or breaking established family
relationships.
Those are my main problems with the articles, but on a side note I
didnt like how Deresiewicz called us the post-emotional generation
and said that we prefer to avoid messy and turbulent and powerful
feelings. If youre trying to convince a specific group of people to
agree with everything you just wrote, my suggestion would be not to
call them shallow, timid, and brainwashed a the end of your article.
Go Post 2:
What did you learn from the the mini-teach? What did you do that
worked? What would you change to improve the experience? What did
you see a peer do well that you would incorporate into your teaching?
The biggest thing I learned from the mini teach is that not all of your
students are going to react the same to what is being taught. When I
gave my little spiel to some friends earlier in the week, they were both
very excited and eager to learn the basics of juggling. When I got into
my working group, they all seemed a little shocked or stunned or
something, and werent as eager or ready to learn and practice. The
other main thing I leaned is to not try to do too much. Obviously trying
to teach people to juggle in four minutes was way to ambitious, but I
only realized that as the teach was happening. So I learned to plan
according to the time you have and not try to do too much in a small
time span.
The biggest thing I saw that worked was when the lesson was being
taught in a way that people with different learning styles could all learn

in the way thats best for them. Anna did a great job at this, and
provided different ways for people to learn how to make her little
snack. For auditory leaners, she explained how to do it using her
voice. For literary learners she had instructions, for visual learners she
showed us how to do it. Then for the kinetic learners, we actually did
it. Being able to create a lesson plan that everyone is able to follow no
matter how they learn worked really well. I also, liked how Emily had a
short quiz at the end of her lesson, so we were able to evaluate how
much we learned. Being able to assess the amount of knowledge you
gained is key to internalizing that knowledge and knowing if theres
more you need to do to truly understand the subject.
Go Post 3:
After doing this week's readings, reflect on high-impact practices in
your own education thus far. Choose 2 practices youve experienced
and discuss how you envision them impacting your life (both
professional and personal) in the future.
So far in my college education Ive experienced six out of the ten
High Impact Educational Practices, and will experience at least two
more by the time I graduate. Undergraduate Research and Service
Learning are the only two that I may or may not do, but all the others I
have or will for sure experience. What I find interesting is the
incredible amount of variability in the impact each of these has had on
me and on my educational experience. The least impactful of the six is
probably writing intensive courses. Its not that I dont have to write as
an engineer, I just dont have to do it in the format that was taught in
my English 131 class. Also lower on the list are learning communities
(no offense to honors) and surprisingly Global Learning. I had high
hopes for my study abroad last summer, but I simply didnt explore
cultures, life experiences, and worldviews different from [my] own in
the way I was expecting and had done on previous trips abroad. First
year programs is probably in the middle of the list but Common
Intellectual Experiences and Collaborative Assignments and Projects
are one-hundred-percent the top two most influential practices on the
list.
All pre-engineering majors are essentially required to take the
same 12 courses in their first two years at the UW. I didnt always
have class with the same people every time, but I still built
relationships with people in engineering. People I had met outside of
class were in my engineering prerequisite classes and some people in
my major I recognized from my classes but had never really talked to.
Having gone through the same intellectual experiences as these
people helps bond and build relationships with them. I expect that I

will see these people and potentially work with them when I graduate,
and to have a shared set of classes with them helps bring us together.
Collaborative Assignments have been the core of my learning at
the UW. This style of learning applies to both my engineering and nonengineering classes and I believe being able to work in groups is an
incredibly important skill to succeed in college and in the real world. I
think every quarter at the UW I have had at least two group
assignments, whether is be labs, projects, or homework. Group
learning not only works on solving problems by integrating multiple
ideas and points of view, but also interpreting social cues and customs.
Learning and working in groups is something I expect to do on a daily
basis once I graduate and Im very happy with the amount of practice I
have gotten at the UW.
Go Post 4:
Reflect on your group teaching experience. How did your teaching
session go? What surprised you about the experience? What went well?
What would you do differently if you were to teach the same lesson
again? How does it compare to your mini-teach and your reflections on
that experience?
Our group teaching session went well over all. It was difficult to
gage the effectiveness of our teaching partially because we had to
rush through things (because we were running late) and because the
audience was supposed to know everything we were teaching. I think
that in the section I teach in the fall that I will be constantly asking for
feedback on how Im doing as a teacher and as a peer, in an effort to
make the class as fun and informative for the freshman as possible.
Its not always easy to read how well a class is learning or what they
are feeling directly from the lesson so to ask for feedback is critical.
The biggest thing that surprised me was how fast all the
activities went. Even though we were cut short on time, Im not sure
that we would have been able to use our learning tools to their full
potential in the time allotted. Thus when creating my lesson plans, I
gave more time that I previously thought was necessary to really have
a meaningful activity.
Compared to the mini teach, I felt a lot more connected to the people I
was teaching. I felt that in my mini-teach I was basically just telling
people what to do and having them do it, while in the group teach I
was actively helping them learn and do what they needed to do to
learn.
Go Post 5:

Reflect on our retreat. What did you learn about your leadership style?
Additionally, share one idea or suggestion from the PE community that
you now want to incorporate into your class in the fall. Feel free to
share any other thoughts you have following our time together.
I had a really good time on the retreat. I learned a lot about myself
through the activities we did and had a great time bonding with my
fellow peer educators. The biggest thing I learned is that my style of
leadership is very emotionally driven. As soon as that was an option in
the four-square activity we did, I immediately identified that as my
style of leadership. Also, when we were describing a good experience,
I realized that most of my leadership on the frisbee field was
emotionally driven, and thats because I have a lot of passion for the
game and my team. I think it will be a challenge for me in the future to
lead things Im passionate about (like 100) without letting my emotions
completely control the situation and my style of leadership. One thing
we discussed doing that I would like to incorporate into my lesson
plans is the idea of asking a question or giving a statement, and going
around in a circle and everyone saying something on the topic and
then possibly open it up for discussion afterwards. This way everyone
is required to share, but the people who have more to say on the topic
also have the opportunity to do so.
Go Post 6: PE Profile
Hi! Im Jonathan Shuster, but you guys can call me Shuster or Shu or
whatever really, it doesnt really matter to me. Here are some fun
things about me:
Im a senior in Civil and Environmental Engineering, with a focus
in transportation. Im extremely interested in the movement of
goods and how that effects traffic as well as just general
congestion and signal timing. So once you live in Seattle for a
little bit and cant stand the traffic, Id love to talk about it.
I grew up in Seattle, and went to Roosevelt High School, which is
like 3 minutes from the UW campus. I love hiking and camping
and the mountains (my favorite is three fingers, look it up, its
really cool).
I spend most of my free time playing ultimate frisbee. Im on the
UW club team and traveled to north Carolina last spring to play
at college nationals
I also enjoy salsa dancing, and was a dedicated member of the
UW salsa club before frisbee took over my life.

I didn't have a great first quarter at the UW and my main

motivation for being a peer mentor is to try to make sure that
doesn't happen to as many people as possible.
Im a big Game of Thrones fan (books over TV show any day) and
am always down to place bets on when George RR Martin is
coming out with the next book.
Im a big Mariners fan (bless my poor soul) and played baseball
for the first 15 years of my life. The dream lives on through IMA
softball, even if were not good enough to win a t-shirt.
I eat a lot of food. If you need a place to eat Im your guy, but
really I just like cooking and baking new things. So if you have a
favorite recipe, feel free to let me know and Ill probably give it a
try.
Im extremely excited for this opportunity to impart my three years of
college wisdom on incoming freshman, and help them make their UW
experience as great as it can be.