PEDABLOGUE - March 2004 Archives

March 2004

Writing Workshop Dogma - Last weekend I attended the 25th annual International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts and though I'm scrambling to catch up with grading and other work, it was well worth the travel. One of the best panel discussions I watched was entitled "Writers Teaching and Teaching Writers: How Writers... (23:17 | 0 Trackbacks | 3 Comments)

Wiki'd (not Wicked) - Taking a break from writing a conference paper to update Pedablogue. In the process, I'll take this opportunity to reflect on the blog...so file this post under "Pedablogy".... + I updated my "Sites that Cite" page by running a Copernic process...and imagine my surprise when the number of results DOUBLED... (10:42 | 0 Trackbacks | 3 Comments)

Teaching Portfolio Tips - This afternoon, I gave a little talk to first year faculty about how to prepare the tenure portfolio and how to perform the annual self-evaluation report that all faculty are asked to do at SHU. In my planning for this, I came across several sources, which I thought I'd note... (20:17 | 0 Trackbacks | 7 Comments)

Getting Some Perspective on Your Teaching - I have just taken the online "Teaching Perspectives Inventory" -- an excellent self-evaluation questionairre that determines what your perspectives are on the goals of teaching. It gives you some sense of how well you are fulfilling them, too. The primary teaching perspectives are seeing teaching as a form of: transmission,... (14:04 | 0 Trackbacks | 2 Comments)

No Fear Shakespeare - "I know how they think, and I understand why they're doing this." (trans: "Tut, I am in their bosoms, and I know wherefore they do it." -- Julius Ceasar, 5:1). Hey, dude -- Brutus?... (19:04 | 0 Trackbacks | 5 Comments)
Lazy Thinking is Hard-Wired - The blog at elearnspace contains a short post about new research from Duke University that suggests that the brain will "cheat" rather than think when responding to new problems. It seeks out the neural path of least resistence, searching out rote responses that have worked in the past first, rather... (18:57 | 0 Trackbacks | 4 Comments)
The Laughing Fit - I've mentioned the positive role that humor can play in the classroom before, citing research that advocates taking a "Patch Adams" approach to learning. But yesterday I made a comment in class that somehow made me break out in a fit of laughter -- one I was unable to stop... (12:24 | 0 Trackbacks | 4 Comments)

Uncanny Teaching - I'm reviewing Nicholas Royle 's surprisingly playful study of Freud's "Das Unheimliche," -- The Uncanny: An Introduction, for Paradoxa: Studies in World Literary Genres. Freud's essay is also the essay I'm teaching tonight in my Literary Criticism course. Such synchronicity is uncanny, no? One might even say it reflects an... (10:45 | 0 Trackbacks | 2 Comments)

The Right to Fail - "Forging that new ground requires extra protection, an assurance that pushing the envelope will not be punished. �The great thinkers are also the ones who come up with lots of ideas, many of which fail,� says Coles. �They have earned the right to fail, to have a multitude of ideas.�--... (18:50 | 0 Trackbacks | 0 Comments)

Writing Recommendation Letters - This morning I wrote a recommendation letter for a graduate student who is seeking a scholarship to help fund his studies. It was relatively easy for me to write -- not only because he's so good at what he does that singing his praises was simple, but also because I... (10:22 | 0 Trackbacks | 5 Comments)