MLA documentation

Hopefully you've checked out what I've posted before on documentation in general. It looks like people are doing google searches for research - even though we found great research in the library using the database. I'm seeing sources that don't impress me and don't lend anyone credibility. Anyone can get a web site and say anything. If you want to do a web search use Google Scholar. It provides much better sources. Best bet -though - is the library database.

Norton has some resources on how to document sources in MLA format. they even provide a free PDF of the MLA updates - and IT CONTAINS A SAMPLE PAPER! (go to page 40). It's amazing how much I can tell from just a superficial glance at the physical format of a paper. Look at a sample paper.

I also recommend Citation Machine. Click MLA and follow directions.

We should all cite the 4 C's statement that we are responding to. You can find it several places. I put a phrase from the statement in quotes and entered it in Google Scholar. One site quoted it in its entirety - it's full text through JSTOR. I took info from that page and entered it into citation machine and voila!

Gilyard, Keith. "African American Contributions to Composition Studies." National Council of Teachers of English. 50.4 (1999): 639. Web.

It doesn't have the hanging indent - which is tough in electronic formats like blogs, web pages, etc. but otherwise it's solid. Notice you don't need or want "volume" or "Vol." or "page" ... if everything is in the right place I know the volume 50, the number is 4 and the page is 639.

Facebook Sites

JCCC Facebook Pages

The Greg's 8am Comp 1 class: http://tinyurl.com/JCCComp1

the Greg's 9am Comp 1 class: http://tinyurl.com/JCCC9am

The Greg's Comp 2 class: TBD

Johnson County Community College http://tinyurl.com/n5uzvk

Billington Library (JCCC) http://tinyurl.com/kkkgkv

Center for Student Involvement http://tinyurl.com/mar4ma

ODEI – Office Diversity, Equity and Inclusion http://tinyurl.com/l4f8fw

Performing Arts Series at Johnson County Community College http://tinyurl.com/krg2wu

Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art http://tinyurl.com/m9pv9v

ECAV Radio http://tinyurl.com/nejadg

Source: “Check Out Social Media at JCCC,” Infolist article posted at http://tinyurl.com/n2trsz

What Kind of Car Would I Be?

In my teaching demo, and in classes this semester, as an icebreaker, I've asked students, "if you were a car, what kind of car would you be?"

In both cases I avoided questions about my answer. I had a pat answer that was no longer valid, and I recognized that my identity had changed but hadn't had the time or motivation to find a more accurate response.

So, new answer: I'm a 2006 Honda Element. Atomic blue. The vehicle tends to defy classification, but generally gets lumped with SUV's. The height and shape make it stand out. The design is thoroughly practical. The rubber floor and walls can be hosed out. There are minimal buttons, lights and switches. Fewer things to break. The most amazing part of the on-board computer may be that you don't realize it's there - but it makes decisions re: power supply, time for maintenance, etc. It's also functional. The rear seats are ingeniously designed to fold down, fold up and out of the way for a van-like experience, or come out: all with no tools and minimal effort. Perhaps most importantly, you can depend on it. It's reliable.

Some things might be unpleasantly analogous to my effect on students. The unusual styling grows on one - but first impressions tend to be negative, and the suicide doors look cool but are a bit pretentious. It isn't made for off-roading but it looks like it ought to be.

I heard a funny story about the marketing of this car. Forbes mag notes that it was very intentionally created for the active 20-something market. Looking around at owner fora (forums?) the mean age seems like 43. Owners are unemployed adolescents or much older, and.... Something unexpected happened. It appealed to a different demographic more than it appealed to the demographic it was designed for.

FYI: the slogan from the Honda website = "Unorthodox: built for those who live their own unique way." I do challenge orthodoxies on a daily basis - pretty much can't help it. Real character flaw in polite society.

[photos from http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z10764/Honda-Element.aspx]

On Disasters: H1N1, earthquakes and outbreaks.

The flu has turned up in several of my classes, but in one, there have been 2 reported cases of the illness formerly known as swine flu. One purported to be confirmed by a doctor, and the other of a student who fell ill immediately after a sibling had been diagnosed by a physician, and with identical symptoms. This reminds me of a funny story.

One of my favorite professors ambled in to class during one of the annual Mumps outbreaks in the dorms of a state university. He said he hadn't been to a doctor yet, but he was displaying all the symptoms of the mumps. He asked the class to decide if he should teach that night. There was a long pause for reflection. I'd just gotten married. The potential offspring topic had been shelved, but I wanted that option left open. The mumps can do mondo-bad things to men after puberty, and I had been 29 for a while already. A male relative lost something supremely near and dear to him...

The teacher asked us to make a decision. Was maintaining the impression that grades or the class were more important than my health expected of a grad. student? Luckily nurse working on a Ph. D. put on their official mien and asked us all if we were insane.

But disasters demand common - sense adjustments on everyone's part.

Monday, 9.21.9 is the anniversary of the big Taiwan earthquake of 1999. It hit at 1:47 am. I couldn't turn off a movie and felt a little guilty for being up so late when it hit. Richter scales as far as California measured it at 7.6 or higher at the epicenter - about 30 miles from my house in the mountains of JuDong. Over 3000 dead. It wasn't the weirdest disaster I've dealt with in a class - but it took the highest human toll. Rolling blackouts and aftershocks for months. I later heard "September" by Earth, Wind and Fire and listened to the words for the first time (lyrics, see video) in a really gritty dive and freaked mildly out. Maybe it was all the candles and flashlights. Maybe it was the way we recognized temblors by the sloshing bottles behind the bar. Betel nut and Whisbih may have been involved.

And don't get me started on SARS. My wedding anniversary is on the hottest day of the Kansas summer because of SARS.

The point:

• stay on top of your student email,
• log in to ANGEL often,
• read your announcements,
• communicate with your classmates.
• Let me know if you have flu-like symptoms - by email or phone, im whatever.

Prepare. If you don't have a home computer but your cell phone is important to you - set up a calling tree. We will adapt.

Active Learning - ad campaign:

Many students mentioned a preference for "hands on" learning. Some called it by different names. Several students called it Visual learning. Dewey might have called it experience based learning. In Comp 1 we will start an activity either Friday, 9.18.9 or Wed. 9.23.9, that has been successful in my classes. Details and handouts are available online. Monday (9.21.9), we tour the library, and it might be useful to find some car related literature, such as reviews, promotional copy, etc.

I used this for my teaching demo, in the interview that landed this job.

Students Right to their Own Language

Perennial old-school curricular curmudgeon Stanley Fish has recently published a series of blog posts on composition instruction (see also part 2, part 3). He speaks directly to a writing prompt I've given one of my classes. As something of a coup de grace of rhetorical flourish he concludes,

First, you must clear your mind of the orthodoxies that have taken hold in the composition world. The main orthodoxy is nicely encapsulated in this resolution adopted in 1974 by the Conference on College Composition and Communication: “We affirm the students’ right to their own patterns and varieties of language — the dialects of their nurture or whatever dialects in which they find their own identity and style”[hotlinks mine].

His post is a fairly lengthy response to my prompt; he just didn't know it. Personally I feel about his ideas the way I feel about my grandma's rendered pork cracklings: way salty, good with beer, and satisfying, despite the fact that you can feel your arteries hardening. We're talking a serious fat and cholesterol cocktail of epic proportions. Everything has consequences.

His comment, on the advisability of dialogue with students re: linguistic systems and democratic values, gives me pause for thought. Have we not done that in class? Has it been successful?

Acceptable Language revisited

Twice this semester I've heard the phrase, "that's so gay." I've made it clear I don't like it and haven't heard it since. At the big to-do on campus last friday I saw these posters, and they made me think.

At first blush they seemed cleverly ironic and effective. So I went looking for the images online and found them at the think before you speak campaign website.

The looking around and found an opinion that profiled the typical user of this phrase. Their idea was that people didn't use the phrase by accident, but because they want to be mean. They criticized the campaign because it seemed to endorse snarky or demeaning behavior but found fault with specific words. Banning words, they argued, won't work because people will find new words.

This made me think of what neuroscience has said about the brain development of the adolescent.

I'm pretty sure many people mature later than that, if at all. Is it words or behavior we should be addressing?