Responding to Blogs

I'm not sure how many of you are currently working with blogs in your class, but I've always struggled with giving adequate feedback on my students entries. However, I found this article from the Chronicle of Higher Education to be extremely helpful. How do you respond to your students' blogs?

Beloit College's Mindset List for the Class of 2014

As we prepare to return to our classrooms next week, here are 75 interesting facts to help you get to know the class of 2014 (via.) Best wishes for a great semester, especially to the new GIs!

Most students entering college for the first time this fall—the Class of 2014—were born in 1992.
For these students, Benny Hill, Sam Kinison, Sam Walton, Bert Parks and Tony Perkins have always been dead.

1. Few in the class know how to write in cursive.

2. Email is just too slow, and they seldom if ever use snail mail.

3. “Go West, Young College Grad” has always implied “and don’t stop until you get to Asia…and learn Chinese along the way.”

4. Al Gore has always been animated.

5. Los Angelinos have always been trying to get along.

6. Buffy has always been meeting her obligations to hunt down Lothos and the other blood-suckers at Hemery High.

7. “Caramel macchiato” and “venti half-caf vanilla latte” have always been street corner lingo.

8. With increasing numbers of ramps, Braille signs, and handicapped parking spaces, the world has always been trying harder to accommodate people with disabilities.

9. Had it remained operational, the villainous computer HAL could be their college classmate this fall, but they have a better chance of running into Miley Cyrus’s folks on Parents’ Weekend.

10. A quarter of the class has at least one immigrant parent, and the immigration debate is not a big priority…unless it involves “real” aliens from another planet.

11. John McEnroe has never played professional tennis.

12. Clint Eastwood is better known as a sensitive director than as Dirty Harry.

13. Parents and teachers feared that Beavis and Butt-head might be the voice of a lost generation.

14. Doctor Kevorkian has never been licensed to practice medicine.

15. Colorful lapel ribbons have always been worn to indicate support for a cause.

16. Korean cars have always been a staple on American highways.

17. Trading Chocolate the Moose for Patti the Platypus helped build their Beanie Baby collection.

18. Fergie is a pop singer, not a princess.

19. They never twisted the coiled handset wire aimlessly around their wrists while chatting on the phone.

20. DNA fingerprinting and maps of the human genome have always existed.

21. Woody Allen, whose heart has wanted what it wanted, has always been with Soon-Yi Previn.

22. Cross-burning has always been deemed protected speech.

23. Leasing has always allowed the folks to upgrade their tastes in cars.

24. “Cop Killer” by rapper Ice-T has never been available on a recording.

25. Leno and Letterman have always been trading insults on opposing networks.

26. Unless they found one in their grandparents’ closet, they have never seen a carousel of Kodachrome slides.

27. Computers have never lacked a CD-ROM disk drive.

28. They’ve never recognized that pointing to their wrists was a request for the time of day.

29. Reggie Jackson has always been enshrined in Cooperstown.

30. “Viewer Discretion” has always been an available warning on TV shows.

31. The first computer they probably touched was an Apple II; it is now in a museum.

32. Czechoslovakia has never existed.

33. Second-hand smoke has always been an official carcinogen.

34. “Assisted Living” has always been replacing nursing homes, while Hospice has always been an alternative to hospitals.

35. Once they got through security, going to the airport has always resembled going to the mall.

36. Adhesive strips have always been available in varying skin tones.

37. Whatever their parents may have thought about the year they were born, Queen Elizabeth declared it an “Annus Horribilis.”

38. Bud Selig has always been the Commissioner of Major League Baseball.

39. Pizza jockeys from Domino’s have never killed themselves to get your pizza there in under 30 minutes.

40. There have always been HIV positive athletes in the Olympics.

41. American companies have always done business in Vietnam.

42. Potato has always ended in an “e” in New Jersey per vice presidential edict.

43. Russians and Americans have always been living together in space.

44. The dominance of television news by the three networks passed while they were still in their cribs.

45. They have always had a chance to do community service with local and federal programs to earn money for college.

46. Nirvana is on the classic oldies station.

47. Children have always been trying to divorce their parents.

48. Someone has always gotten married in space.

49. While they were babbling in strollers, there was already a female Poet Laureate of the United States.

50. Toothpaste tubes have always stood up on their caps.

51. Food has always been irradiated.

52. There have always been women priests in the Anglican Church.

53. J.R. Ewing has always been dead and gone. Hasn’t he?

54. The historic bridge at Mostar in Bosnia has always been a copy.

55. Rock bands have always played at presidential inaugural parties.

56. They may have assumed that parents’ complaints about Black Monday had to do with punk rockers from L.A., not Wall Street.

57. A purple dinosaur has always supplanted Barney Google and Barney Fife.

58. Beethoven has always been a dog.

59. By the time their folks might have noticed Coca Cola’s new Tab Clear, it was gone.

60. Walmart has never sold handguns over the counter in the lower 48.

61. Presidential appointees have always been required to be more precise about paying their nannies’ withholding tax, or else.

62. Having hundreds of cable channels but nothing to watch has always been routine.

63. Their parents’ favorite TV sitcoms have always been showing up as movies.

64. The U.S, Canada, and Mexico have always agreed to trade freely.

65. They first met Michelangelo when he was just a computer virus.

66. Galileo is forgiven and welcome back into the Roman Catholic Church.

67. Ruth Bader Ginsburg has always sat on the Supreme Court.

68. They have never worried about a Russian missile strike on the U.S.

69. The Post Office has always been going broke.

70. The artist formerly known as Snoop Doggy Dogg has always been rapping.

71. The nation has never approved of the job Congress is doing.

72. One way or another, “It’s the economy, stupid” and always has been.

73. Silicone-gel breast implants have always been regulated.

74. They’ve always been able to blast off with the Sci-Fi Channel.

75. Honda has always been a major competitor on Memorial Day at Indianapolis.

The All-New GI Google Calender

Going back to that high-school-versus-college thing

From the page where the college chair dialogues with the high school chair, I was happy to find a link to more info about how the academy explains to the 'little leagues' what they do. (Of course, since it's a 1997 conversation at stake, I wonder how much things have changed.) Anyways, the final sentence of said explanation highlights the goal of writing: "to keep the readers reading".

I like that thought. It's as simple and insightful as the line "a writer writes" by Anne Lamott...or whoever that was. The idea of keeping the reader reading probably stands out to me b/c today in 20803 we talked about how the first argument you have to make is, "Hey--you should listen to what I have to say here."

And assuming you get that far (assuming I've gotten that far right now), then it's the perilous trek of keeping that attention, directing it to what you hope will convince. How do you keep the readers reading? Maybe the grant-writer-special-speaker tomorrow will have the silver bullet.

eCollege Emergency Number--Answered 24 hours

Today I discovered eCollege has a 1-800 number that is answered 24 hours a day!!!  It is 1-800-826-1665.

Respecting your students' high school education.

Have you guys seen this webpage? Letter to a high school English teacher.

It is a letter from a high school teacher to an English dept chair, complaining that his/her students tell him/her that their college instructors tell them to forget all they learned in high school.  Then there is the Chair's response letter.

A friend posted it on FB; I am trying to figure out how to incorporate this into a discussion question for my students.

Prezi

I have discovered a wonderful online tool to replace the snooze-inducing powerpoint: Prezi. It's awesome. After a small learning curve, I managed to make a pretty snazzy presentation on rhetorical analysis, based on the EA text. There is essentially an unlimited screen area, and you can drag and drop and move about objects and whatnot. This is my first stab at a Prezi, and I know I will be working with this tool a lot more for class. There are some wonderful tutorials on the website to help you get started - I am truly a geek, because this is how I spent my Saturday night.

Helpful Software

I am a software/online/GTD/organizational geek. I am terribly excited by the concept of a store full of empty boxes, and think that whoever dreamed up an organizer for a drawer of socks is overdue for that Nobel Peace Prize. I might add, however, that this fascination with all things organizational does not carry over to my real life as much as I would like. There are, though, a few things which I have run across recently that caused me to think SERIOUS FROG FODDER.

I am attempting to be more tree-friendly, and really want to cut back on my wild and unchecked printing practices. I am, though, one of those who likes to write on my reading material - even if I just want to appear to have read the articles assigned for class versus making any intelligent commentary in the margins. My habit of noting things in the margin, highlighting, and otherwise marking up my texts was at odds with my desire to avoid being the Dick Cheney of the woodlands, and this caused me great pain. Fortunately, there is Skim. From the website: "Skim is a PDF reader and note-taker for OS X. It is designed to help you read and annotate scientific papers in PDF, but is also great for viewing any PDF file." Why they specify the papers must be scientific, I don't know - as I am learning in Carrie's "Writing for the Professions" class, we literary types can get pretty crazy with our marginalia.

Another really handy and excellent tool that I have run across is called Free Mind and is mind mapping software. I played around with it thinking that I would use it as I worked on a paper last semester, but as is typical, I ran out of time and was forced to just woman up and write the paper already.

Finally, here's a free file converter that I have used when my students insist on sending me documents with the dreaded ".wth" extension. The online file converter has been a godsend for me many times. It will even translate a .pdf into .doc if you ask it nicely.

I am hoping that my spring semester is well organized, neatly highlighted and well mind-mapped out, and I hope yours is as well.save

Resource for Teaching Literature

I know that most of us teach composition most of the time, but if you're thinking about teaching Literature any time soon, you might consider creating a University Reader. I used one this semester for my Major American Writers course, and I'll be using their services again in the spring. It just couldn't be easier.

University Readers (UR) is a course-readers creation, printing, and publishing service. You simply select your readings, send them to UR, and direct students to the easy-to-order site. UR takes care of all copyright issues, allows you to proof all versions, and you can even design awesome covers for your reader using their (again) easy-to-use site. If you don't want to upload digital versions of your texts, UR will send you a FedEx label and you can ship hard copies of your texts free of charge. And the best part: while students are waiting for their URs in the mail, they can access the first 20% of the texts free online as .PDF files.

I swear I don't work for this company. I have just had an excellent experience and thought I would pass along the fun and frivolity. I should admit, though, that I did not discover UR on my own. Megan Griffin and Dr. Gaul both suggested the service, so I'm publicly passing on the good advice. If you have any questions or would like some more information, feel free to email me. And you can always check out the UR website: http://www.universityreaders.com/.

Happy end of the semester!!

Child Care Survey - Please Respond!

Just in case you missed the email GSS sent out recently regarding child care, I wanted to post it here as well...

GSS is trying to determine how we can best help TCU grad students who are also parents - and we know that child care is a massive issue facing this community. We have put together a very, very short survey to help us determine how we can best serve the TCU grad students/parents, and I do hope that if you are a grad student, and a parent, you take the survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=ncRoqlTPWm9ZSpxQ_2f5uTpQ_3d_3d


Any questions? Comments? Complaints? I'm all ears...

Senatorially yours,

Laura the Treasurer

In Which I Get All Existential and Attempt to Blog While Driving*

So I’m having my brunch and thinking about all the stuff I have to do, and I’m surfing the web as I do it. I’m multi-tasking, as they say, doing four things at one time (the unspoken one, or the warrant, as I have been attempting to teach my students, is that I’m also trying to keep crumbs out of my laptop), and I ran across this video. I’ve seen this video before, and not terribly recently, so I’m thinking it’s not super-current. The numbers, in other words, can only be higher.

I’ve been thinking (as I have also been attempting to teach my students) that words matter, and what we say as well as how we say it, matters very much.

On the Web site where I located this little gem of a video, was this short article. The interconnection I’m thinking about here is that we are generating massive, incredible amounts of information – and it all matters – and what are we doing with it? What are the repercussions of this generation of information? This is a series of questions that I’m not sure I’m capable of answering. Okay, I’m sure I’m not capable of answering them, short of slipping in the bathroom a la Doc Brown and his Flux Capacitor epiphany.

What concerns me is the short article regarding the laptop desk for the car. Now obviously this is meant for something other than laptopping while driving, and the reviewers over at Amazon.com have had a BLAST with it, but at the same time, I think it’s more important than just a desk. In a car.

I'm thinking about my syllabus for next semester, and I'm also thinking about our 20803 roundtable meeting. I am likely to cut back on my assignments next semester, but increase my focus on helping the students to really concentrate on the import of the ideas they are generating. I'd like to create some assignments that matter - although I suppose that the best I can do is come up with something that might matter.

I don't want to think that I am enabling students to go forth into the world and occupy jobs where they think that having a desk in their car is a good plan, or that working on the weekends is necessary, or that just one more raise will make their lives perfect.

How do we make our assignments matter? How do we ensure (as best we can, anyway) that we help our students learn all they need to know to best live their lives, while not making them feel like they need to have a desk in their car?

*I am, of course, driving at 88 mph.

At the risk of sounding like I am standing on my porch, waving my cane and telling those darn kids to stay off my lawn, I wanted to post this article. I remember Dr. H mentioning during the pre-semester workshop that TCU students are incredibly polite, and that at the start of each semester, I could expect at least one or two of them to approach me, shake my hand, and introduce themselves. Each semester, without fail, at least one does. One of my students this semester even stays after class and opens the door for me – without fail – each day we leave class. My students are, in general, polite, deferential, nice kids.

But I do see the cell phones in class, and I suspect that some of the girls in class might be headed to the gym later, judging from their attire. I see gum, hats, and once, even dip. I always see students leaving trash and whatnot behind after class. But is it as dire as Dr. Benton believes?

Apostrophe Guide

Hi All,
Just saw this great sign posted on Facebook from our own alum Drew Loewe about how to properly use apostrophes. Might be fun to pass out in class and/or post to your eCollege or course website.

The Commodification of Lore

Upon opening my Sunday Dallas Morning News, I discovered a very interesting article about the recent emergence of lesson plans for sale on sites like craigslist.com. Coincidentally enough, the article had been purchased by the DMN from the New York Times, another occurrence of purchased intellectual property. The article addresses several viewpoints in the debate: 1) should we share teaching materials with each other? 2) is it ethical to sell these materials to others? and 3) should the teacher's institution get some of the profits from selling these materials?

Obviously, I'm grateful to be at an institution that graciously shares teaching materials among peers, but at times, I do feel guilty for assimilating somebody else's assignments or exercises into my own lessons. So what do you think? In case you missed the link up top: Selling Lessons Online Raises Cash and Questions

In Which I Decry the Electronic Age and the Death of the Fountain Pen

During a (relatively) recent conversation with Sarah Jewell about students and communication, I mentioned that a friend had sent me a blog entry intended to provide pointers for effective communication with professors. Sarah said I should post it here, which I thought was a great suggestion. I then of course immediately forgot her excellent suggestion, going blithely about my day/weeks/ahem, month or so . . . until, that is, Kelly mentioned that a few Frog Blog entries might make up an hour of service time. Seeing as how I just happen to have an hour of my time freed up every week due to the season ender of “Mad Men,” I found myself hit with the dire need to blog. For approximately 10 entries.

I don’t specifically discuss Dr. Leddy’s tips during class time, although his entry does offer up quite a bit of excellent opportunity for class discussion (audience, for example, and why it matters to think about this). I have found, though, that when I bring focus to this topic, subsequent emails I receive from students are much easier to read. Having worked as an adjunct simultaneously at two different schools, teaching the same topic, it was darned difficult to know whether I was emailing with a UNT student or a TWU student, especially as so few of them used their school email account. I begged, pleaded, and cajoled my students to include their class number in the email re line (especially so that I could get those darned filters to work that I spent so much time setting up!) but had no luck. No regular luck, really, but some occasional, seriously sporadic luck. Once I brought focus to this particular blog entry, though, the students began to take some heed to what I was asking them to do.

I think what appealed to them the most was that they were getting some sort of secret information. "Here's some tips - from a professor! - about how to successfully email with professors!" I wasn't saying "Do this because I say so," but instead just put the information out there for them to make use of if they chose to do so. Obviously they didn't all do so (see? I still have bald spots where I pulled my hair out), but I got the definite impression that the students who DID do so felt like they had a leg up.

I think my next undertaking might involve another one of his entries...I'll let you know if I enjoy an outbreak of Emily Post Syndrome in either of my classes.

Questions about Professional Development

At yesterday's 20803 Teaching Roundtable, a lot of questions came up about the five professional development hours required for graduate instructors each semester. To refresh your memory about what counts as professional development, refer to your teacher's guide: it's in the appendix. Also don't forget that it is also posted on the wiki.

While the information in the teacher's guide is pretty clear, it is not exhaustive, so if you have any questions, see me or Charlotte. A couple of things came up yesterday that were not on the list. For example, 10 Frog Blog entries would count as one professional development hour. Observing a fellow GI's class and writing him or her an observation letter (this would be in addition to the faculty observation letter required for all GI's) would also count as one professional development hour; however, simply asking another GI to observe your class would not count as a PD hour. One idea - partner up with another GI and trade-off observing each other's classes.

Another important tip: continually write down what you've done throughout the semester. Life gets busy, and you are liable to forget. Some activities that you may have taken part in that count as professional development include serving on the composition committee, co-facilitating Teaching Circle, and leading a session at the pre-semester GI workshop.

Friday will be held on Wednesday this week. Got that?

Just a note to let you guys know that I'll be holding the office hours I normally hold on Friday on Wednesday. So, I'll be in my office from 10-12 on Wednesday, Oct. 28, rather than Friday.

Hi, everyone,

I'm back from the Feminisms and Rhetorics conference, where I gave my paper on Frances Power Cobbe, Harriet Martineau, and Maud Gonne, all women writers commenting on the Irish Question within the Victorian periodical press. Michigan was very lovely, with all the fall colors, and I left even more convinced that I want to get back to the upper-Midwest as soon as possible.

Highlights of the conference were panels on feminism and writing program administration, and visual rhetorics in the Victorian press, two topics very close to my heart. Not a lot of big names this year, but the event featured a lot more diversity.

I highly recommend the Feminisms and Rhetorics conference to anyone interested in women and communication: one needn't be a composition and rhetoric scholar to fit in with this crowd. And it's a very friendly atmosphere, not at all agonistic. I got good advice about the job hunt just by striking up conversations with people at lunch, in the airport shuttle, etc. The next conference will be held in 2011 at Minnesota State University Mankato. (Hopefully, by then, I will be close enough to drive ;)

Oh, and to somewhat make up for my absence last week, I'm holding office hours today. I'll be here until 11, and then back from 1-2.

Hey everyone,

Just a reminder that I'll be out of the office starting Wednesday and for the rest of the week due to the Fems and Rhets conference in Michigan. I'm looking forward to some authentic fall weather, not this 80-degree faux autumn business we get down here. I hope I don't get snowed in though; in Michigan, that could definitely happen.

Have a great fall break!

The next step in digital

It seems to be generally acknowledged (if not embraced) that digital media are worth some mention in the comp/rhet classroom. The next question then is "What about the rhetorics of wearable technology?"

"sixth sense" wearable tech

I don't buy the slogan of this micro-computer as a 6th sense. (I'm holding out for being able to see dead people.) But this video clip is an interesting comment on where things may be headed.