January 2004
Saturday 31 January 2004
- Unlearning - I came across an interesting article by Tina Blue recently, called "AP English Blather". Blue writes about the difficulties of teaching freshman who resist learning because they've been rewarded for weilding oversimplistic writing skills so well in high school. Such students need to let go -- to unlearn -- what... (15:19 | 0 Trackbacks | 7 Comments)
Friday 30 January 2004
- True Teacher Training - Even today as a middle-aged adult eight years into my high-school teaching career, I easily recognize certain early experiences that stand out as epiphanous in terms of the teacher I would become. -- Jennifer J. Montgomery, "The Ongoing Process of Becoming a Teacher" Montgomery discusses how, by age six, her... (10:20 | 0 Trackbacks | 0 Comments)
Wednesday 28 January 2004
- Faculty Time Savers Handout - On Monday afternoon, I led a discussion on "Faculty Time Management" for our campus' Teaching and Learning Forum. Some of the handouts I distributed were tips for saving time in regards to teaching, scholarship, and service. They only scratch the surface in my opinion, but you can download the MS... (18:05 | 0 Trackbacks | 2 Comments)
Sunday 25 January 2004
- Teaching as Organizing - I've been mulling over the definition of the word "teacher." What does it really mean? The dictionaries I've peeked at simply say "one who teaches." I hate circular definitions. What is teaching, then? The concept is very complicated. I can't answer it here, but I can contrast two sources that... (12:14 | 0 Trackbacks | 1 Comments)
Saturday 24 January 2004
- Time Management Revisited - On Monday, I'm leading a talk in our campus' monthly "Teaching/Learning Forum" entitled "Faculty Time Management -- Secrets for Sanity." I'll be posting links here to relevant online materials as I find them. Lee McClain's Lessons in Time Managment Ailamaki and Gherkhe's Time Management for New Faculty (*note: pdf file)... (01:13 | 0 Trackbacks | 0 Comments)
Thursday 22 January 2004
- Working the Huge Room - Tips for Using Questions in Large Classrooms by Daniel J. Klionsky is a great essay in working a huge room (in Klionsky's case, a bio class of 300 students!). It's all about setting a comfortable tone, getting past the sort of "groupthink" that produces silence and fear and horseplay, and... (11:19 | 0 Trackbacks | 3 Comments)
Monday 19 January 2004
- Political Promises Begin - The democratic candidates have begun taking stances on issues in higher education, as reported in a new (free!) roundup article in The Chronicle. I don't have a personal favorite, but I did like reading about the incentives for getting more students to teach (similar to the imaginary "No Teacher Left... (21:16 | 0 Trackbacks | 0 Comments)
Friday 16 January 2004
- Two Tips - Just some thoughts I had after a full day of teaching yesterday.... Let the Cat Out of the Bag Because it is the nature of our jobs to preplan, we often "hold back" material that we've planned for later in the hour or later in the term or later in... (11:45 | 0 Trackbacks | 7 Comments)
Wednesday 14 January 2004
- First Day Fun...Everday - Our Winter term has officially begun and I've distributed the syllabi and led the opening discussions for all my courses this semester. The first day a new class meets is always a thrill for me -- I love the "tabula rasa" feeling of the class, even when I have a... (11:07 | 0 Trackbacks | 2 Comments)
Saturday 10 January 2004
- Bending to the Bookseller - Dr. Arnzen: I'm sorry to inform you that your textbook, _____, is out of stock til May 2004. It is being revised. -- The Bookstore YIKES! How would you respond if you got the above message in your e-mail inbox...two business days before classes begin?! After pulling out several fistfulls... (19:02 | 0 Trackbacks | 5 Comments)
Monday 5 January 2004
- Fear of Boredom - People ask me all the time why I choose to write bizarre fiction and poetry, and an answer I find myself routinely giving is that I'm deathly afraid of being boring and while horror fiction is a lot of things, good and bad, it's rarely boring. This fear of boredom... (17:26 | 0 Trackbacks | 4 Comments)