doldrums and the kracken

It's that time. Students who can afford to relax - don't; some come to grips with academic and personal goals for the first time; and some need help getting out of bed at the crack of noon.

I feel it - but you can't step in the same river twice (Heraclitus), and the water's different for everyone.

Teachers hustle to keep up with grading - and judging/evaluating takes its toll - and can result in little patience for ... how do real people say insouciance? Where can we find motivation?

Needing empathy, I started my own iSearch. I forgot that databases tell you were to find info - but often don't have direct link/ download. It can make you feel like you're in over your head.

Check google scholar if your school library doesn't have a journal or source you need - and if that fails interlibrary loan is pretty quick - talk to a librarian. I should walk the class thru it. The process for tracking down sources changes every 6 months, but once you get the hang of it, you can figure it out and it can be fun.

The important thing: try something new. Look in new places. Have fun.

Perhaps we should collectively reassess our goals and objectives. Please check out the video. I especially noticed the phalanx at 2:30... the paramilitary utilitarian outfit and choreography had to influence Public Enemy. They make a statement on the paradox of fitting into a system that encourages uniform expression, while discovering one's own voice: intense emotional engagement while simultaneously detached and objective - or cold and mechanical.

It's performance art/punk rock at its finest; Devo flourished in the shadow of disco - and made a bigger impact in Europe and Japan than in the Midwest, tho they did help pioneer the music video. Mark Mothersbaugh - front man - you may know from The Rugrats, or any of a bunch of movie soundtracks. That dude can compose: visually, musically and lyrically.

Another of Devo's songs could sum up my andragogical theory, our course objectives, and the idea - or more accurately a reaction to an idea, that explains most decisions I made up until 2002. Haven't reassessed my life re: said song since. The message is in the vein of Lloyd's dinner party speech from Say Anything.

I'd probably get in trouble for showing you the music video in question - or even using it's name in print.

BTW anyone else want to read Punk Power in the First-Year Writing Classroom? It'd better live up...

Concurrent assignments.

I promised my comp 2 (122) students I’d survey other teachers on an issue. In class I outline the major papers and provide written assignment prompts with the syllabus on the first day of class. I also provide a “grade tracker” with due dates, points for each assignment, etc.

Before the final draft of the first assignment is due, I introduce in class the second paper in class and begin work - including posting topic choices and tentative thesis statements. After collecting the first paper, but before completing the process of writing the second paper – we address and start the third paper. We always start the next paper before completing the current assignment.

A former boss and professor got me started doing this - and I remember talking then about how this will likely be new for students and they may push back against it, but that it pushes the onus of time management from the teacher to the student, it more transparently communicates with the students, etc.

One of my classes pointed this out and questioned the practice - and it impressed me that they noticed an intentional andragogical decision. I'd forgotten that this may be new an challenging. I promised to survey other teachers at this school and perhaps other community colleges and question the ethics, relevance an merit . That practice (of concurrent assignments) started in a four year school - and reflected the educational theory and beliefs of that teaching community. It's time for me to reassess the practice for the current student community.

If you teach composition 122, please take a moment to vote in the survey to the right.

Lessons from Master Teachers

At the KCPDC Master Teacher Retreat this year, 20 of the best teachers from colleges in the KC metropolitan area generated a list of axioms or teaching truths: philosophy they teach by, such as:

• Teachers should violate expectations of the students (regarding bad, or no longer appropriate, andragogy).
• Teaching isn't talking, and learning isn't listening. Good teachers don't tell their students what to do, but engage in a conversation about learning.
  
• Bad teaching is answering questions that haven't been answered
• Teachers have to be authentic or transparent in their motives and goals. This means having discussions about pedagogy/ andragogy.
  

We further discussed the importance of talking to students about striking the right balance between: home, work, school and health.

Inquiry-based Service Learning project

At the 2010 KCPDC Master Teacher Retreat, I had the privilege to sit in on a group discussion where several teachers shared success stories of a service learning projects informed by inquiry-based learning pedagogy. This pedagogy / andragogy works for students of any age - but unless you've gone to a Montessori school, you may not have had much experience with it.

The process is fairly simple.

1. Choose a problem of global or campus wide significance that is relevant to our community.
2. Research the problem.
3. Inform the community.
   

In this project the students keep the following rules/ mandates in mind.

• Every step of the process must be ethical
• No one can get hurt
• The students have to live with the consequences
• the community has to have the chance to respond.

As one professor put it: pick a topic, tell us the truth, explain how we know the truth and pose possible solutions.

These teachers described profound learning, with students generating funds for charities, making proposals to student senate, and generally making their world a better place while meeting the objectives of the class as listed in the syllabus.

The students make the decisions and choose the directions, and the instructor acts as a coach, mentor or guide - which is a more realistic role if we want what happens in class to compare or prepare students for real life and the workforce.

A Rose for Emily

In addition to traditional discussions of race, gender and sexual orientation, classes today broached the topic of domestic abuse and potential incest. The 11 am class also speculated that today Emily would be diagnosed agoraphobic.

The 12:30 class discussed race more in depth and decided that despite the dated language, the text should not be bowdlerized.


Link to summary and study guide
Link to wikipedia on the story
link to cliff notes analysis
Essays online to facilitate plagiarism, see also http://www.echeat.com/essay.php?t=30552

Teabonics

I'm hijacking images from a post from Boing Boing ( since I use links - it's legal).

How do these images apply to our discussion of students' right to their own language?