SQUIRREL!

Been thinking about the squirrel meme lately. It started in the pixar movie UP! A dog is given a device that enables him to speak English. We like him and he wants to please, but every time he sees a squirrel he interrupts himself and completely loses focus. The train or thread of the discussion is lost.

A popular entertainer noted the corporate media tendency to give eccentric or ridiculous behavior way too much attention - moving from distraction to distraction rather than exploring any topic or issue in a meaningful way (it is here at 4:15 in). He compared us/ the media to the dog.

As a teacher, I've dealt with bats, a cobra, a wild dog and more insects than I can recall in the classroom. No real challenge to maintaining decorum; however, those with ADHD/ADD, autism spectrum disorder, and myself can get distracted by certain unnecessary or inappropriate images, behaviors and activities. These include but are not limited to:

• Walking in to class late while holding an uninterrupted conversation not related to the class.
• texting
• walking in late holding a fresh coffee.
  
• being consistently late (classic passive aggressive behavior - sends clear message to teacher and class)
• Sleeping in class.
• sexually inappropriate behavior (groping, disrobing, whispering, and any exchange of bodily fluid of any kind).
• ?

SO if I shout squirrel in class - I'm using a meme to express my distraction and loss of focus due to inappropriate behaviors that I can't train myself to ignore.

That will work, if we all share the same values, but do we? To what extent?

This is culturally laden. Blowing ones nose in Taiwan would send the class into hysterics. BUT I could belch really loud and no one cared at all. I used to enjoy that.

What behaviors should I add to the list?

image found at http://filesll.fluxstatic.com/01112D4701DE4E26000710FCFFFF/TN1/Jpg/B-1008/AR590x590,Resize/634200684000000000

the no sshls rule

Been thinking of boiling my course policies down to something short and clear. Something like the best selling book, The No Asshole Rule (written by Stanford business prof Robert Sutton - and winner of the 2007 Quill award for best business book - based on his popular essay written for the Harvard Review). I thought it was brilliant and funny. (buy here at amazon - and/or read additional review of text).

He makes a great case for using the A word, but not sure I can get by with it. But does jerkwad have the same impact? Isn't D-bag even more offensive and probably sexist?

If 3 to 4% of the population is sociopath (as scientists/psychologists argue) then we can't doubt jerkwads exist. Most of them aren't clinically anti-social so the percent of jerkwads is way more than 5%. In college it has a lot to do with maturity - and/or lack of it. Learning to think of those other than oneself is a big step - and considering the prefrontal cortex doesn't finish developing until the mid-20's - and that's necessary to see the consequences of actions.

Is one of the roles of / goals of/ objectives of college to recognize and avoid jerkish behavior? Should it be?

I say yes. It is addressed in comp student learning objectives as: tone, audience awareness, peer work and collaboration and effective communication. When one is a jerkwad - that is the only message received by one's audience. Any other intention is rendered moot.

To that effect, rules about use of cell phones, sleeping in class, tardiness and all other passive aggressive and disruptive behavior should be consistently applied....but...

It gets wrapped up in power or control, doesn't it.

questions for classes

• What behaviors in class qualify as jerkwadish? Why? How do the affect the class?
• Does every class have jerkwads? What percent of the school population in general are jerkwads?
• What about teachers? What behavior have you seen in instructors that qualifies as jerkwadish?
• Is it merely manners? Are manners related or not and how or why?
• 
  

course policies

I've had a policy against high fives - which I reconsidered my first year hear at my current school.

That turned out to be a mistake once. Won't go into it here - but ask me in class and we might role play it (or not).

Expectations

I always have great advice at the end of a semester, but at the begining of a semster I want to build group dynamics and assess.... next semester I plan on having students read all my posts labeled "advice" and do an annotated bibliography.

Re: ANGEL. to recap my syllabus, my courses are neither self-paced nor online. Most material is online, but we work in classrooms and attendance is mandatory. ANGEL hates Macintoshes. If you work on one at home you should plan on uploading your papers on campus on a PC. Upload in MSword. Turning in wps. is files antisocial and passive aggressive. It never pays to be like that to an instructor.

You do not need to own a computer to take my class - but in the real world we write on word processors of some sort. No one on a college level - in the United States - has accepted handwritten work for 50 years - and good luck finding a typewriter. My classrooms next semester have computers and there are ample labs on campus. If you don't do class work in class don't expect me to accept it for participation points if it's turned in late. Sometimes I'll say I'll accept work for the next 12 or 36 hours - but that's on you - and if it gets turned in. If a computer doesn't cooperate - or if you submit an unreadable file... that's on you. Excuses are irrelevant. Had it been done in class it would have worked.

To quote the Yoda, "You either do or do not. There is no 'try.'"

And don't expect me to hound students about missing work or showing up on time, or even just showing up. I notice. I keep records. It affects grades. It's up to each individual student to keep their own records and discipline themselves.

On File Names and formatting

I learn a lot from seeing student digital work, as opposed to merely the paper end-product. We in composition intruction may assume a great deal more word processing skills than students have. Yes, today's students have keyboard skills far superior to those commonly found back in the 80's and 90's, but word-processing and file management skills haven't come far yet. Students routinely use the space bar instead of tabbing or using the center command located in the toolbar. They hit hard return at the end of a line instead of letting the computer wrap words automatically. Sure, it may look CLOSE to right in format on the paper copy, but if one has to edit any of the information it messes everything up. Also for someone who reads papers for a living, close is not the same thing as correct.

Page #'s should also be put in the header, so that they float, and if you take out a paragraph or add content it won't mess up the location of the page numbers. Placing Page numbers in the header also keeps margins the right size and location.

Because a digital file will be moved around and used by people other than one's self it should have a file name that will benefit others. That file-name should include author's name (last name and first initial) and a short and/or abbreviated description of the assignment. Many applications can't handle a space so jam words together or separate with an underline or period. I highly recommend inserting a date or number to designate a version to help distinguish early drafts from late drafts. For an annotated bibliography of a textbook, I'd name it dixong_AnnoText the first time I save it and I'd add the date whenever I saved to a new location - dixong_AnnoText.10.22.10 Editing changes the date modified if you use windows explorer (which everyone should. It's visual, intuitive, quick and convenient), so it is important to keep track of what is the latest revision of your work.

Save multiple copies in multiple places and save often. Those of us who can remember before autosave learned this the hard way. Email a copy to yourself, save it to your home computer, invest in several cheap flash drives,... even most portable media players can simultaneously work as portable storage.

on texting ettiquette

With any new social phenomena, we adjust and rules and manners evolve. Texting in inappropriate situations is a contentious issue for people of just about all ages. Texting's turned out to be more dangerous when driving that drinking, and spring this year has brought with it a recent rash of texting in my classes.

Slate Magazine just surveyed it's readers and came up with a short, simple rule for determining ettiquette.

a concise, easy-to-remember rule that we could all consult when deciding whether to reach for our phones. More than 300 thoughtful comments poured in, the overwhelming majority from people who believed that there's too much texting in public. I expected to find a clear generational divide, with younger readers expressing less angst about looking at their phones. Surprisingly, though, young people had some of the strongest feelings about texting—they were annoyed at their phone-obsessed friends (Jump to source)

It interests me that they use a scatological analogy; I've said before that scatological analogies work really well for the interwebs (It may be one of my funniest posts ). I don't like their solution because I don't see how it can help for my classes, but the goal works in most situations:

NOTE: for the record - my syllabi clearly details an etiquette that if violated after one warning - results in a record of non-engagement which counts toward your grade as would an absence.

Facebook policy

Does using Facebook help students or hurt them? Research has been going back and forth. See links. The last school I worked at blocked campus access to the site - except for the police department who used it to check out job applicants and people who may have become an issue.

My policy has been to friend any student who requests it - but not to initiate the connection with students. Other teachers - particularly the female and high school or middle school teachers I've discussed this with, only friend students after class is over.

My class last semester created groups - that we used to some effect, but I'm not an expert on facebook.

I consider Facebook a form of online e-portfolio and have read arguements that creating e-portfolios is a skill students will need in future work environments. The topic shows up frequently in teaching journals and is hotly debated. What do you think?

Course Policies - filling in the gaps

In case you missed it in class discussion, there are some issues not addressed in the official course policies that might be of interest.
You are the best judge of whether you need to use the bathroom. I may have shared the experience of a former classmate who was denied access when he had explosive diarrhea. It doesn't have to be medically validated for you to leave the room. Most people tend to get real gassy when they need to move their.... Remember the categorical imperative. What would happen if everyone did, or did not do, a behavior? That said, if you can't go 75 minutes without a nicotine break, quit the habit.

And again, if you have a fever stay home until you go 24 hrs - drug free - without a fever. I don't require explanations for absences - after the fact - unless you think you might have the swine flu. In fact there are certain personal details I don't enjoy, including that mentioned above.

Use your classmates as resources. Every college teacher I know has a major issue with students who miss class and say something like, "I missed class. Did you say or do anything important?" Teachers tend to think everything they say is important and can be real touchy given their inflated sense of self worth, but fellow classmates can a better judge of what happened in class. Consulting classmates has the added benefit of not reinforcing for the teacher that you missed class. By Friday I'll have a course schedule/ daily lesson plan up on ANGEL. I'll also post a forum for what we did.

Information and communication is important - but not more than honesty. Again, don't kill off relatives or say you're sick if it is not accurate.

Need to discuss acceptable/ appropriate language

Copyright issues and The "P" word

Plagiarism issues come from: not broaching the subject early, confusion, and the changing nature of the legal question. Maybe also students are lured into a false sense of unaccountability by teachers who don't call them on it. Sometimes if you ignore problems, they go away (or become someone else's problem). Students believe a blase treatment of citations is standard practice (good question). Then you get an instructor who takes citations seriously. The prof. sees violations as an insult, "What! Do you take me for a fool?" he, or possibly she, ruminates. Accusations fly....

Some English teachers downplay or ignore the issue out of fear we are abusing our authority, but schools ARE holding students accountable for downloading media - with arguably draconian punishments. How is it different? How is it the same? Or is it as they say in Tinglish, "same same, but different. " More on that in a podcast to come.

My advice: chill. With common sense (if you aren't trying to game me) there won't be problems. Just be conscientious and cover your assets.

Start with these awesome animated videos produced by Rutgers U. They are fun, short and amazingly informative.

• Video - - what is plagiarism
• video - - plagiarism real life examples
• video - - anti plagiarism gameshow