Public Scholars & Public Scholarship
In reading Jennifer’s first blog entry in our reflection on public scholarly acts I’m reminded how much our scholarly identities impact our what we do in the classroom as teachers. Although we have scholarship that discusses how and why students might better engage with their writing when posting in a public venue, Jennifer still has decided to keep her students’ work relatively private. Based on the recent news from Georgia Tech, she might be on the right track (however, I …
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| November 20 2011 | CommentsPosted in
Public Learning & Identity
I want to start by thanking @rhetorjjb for her twitter post that kicked off the need to do this reflecting.
@rhetorjjb and I have decided we want to explore this topic a bit more. Based on the topic itself, we decided we would do our thinking and researching and reading publically. I hope we weave our way through some reflecting and maybe some research and reading.
I have been “requiring” that my students “publish” their work on the …
| October 11 2011 | CommentsPosted in
Revising My Teaching Philosophy, Part II
Whereas teaching philosophies generally develop from your experiences as a teacher, my revised teaching philosophy has emerged from my experiences facilitating various professional development activities and working one-on-one with faculty designing, developing, and/or revising their courses. I found myself needing a way to get folks to think about how and why they were designing research & writing assignments as well as using technologies in their courses. In short, my teaching philosophy is now:
Courses need to be organized in modules that provide a variety of content delivery activities, content …
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Posted inRevising My Teaching Philosophy, Part I
Last January, instead of rereading and revising my teaching philosophy that I wrote while in grad school (really, who has the time?), I decided I would make a Wordle (word cloud) of it and see if I still "jive" with what is emphasized based on word use.
I like that the word "Students" and "Student" are some of the biggest words there. I’m happy "Learning" and "Learn" are larger; however, I now feel like my emphasis is more on learning that students (although, honestly, they are flip …
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Posted inWhy I failed the Quality Matters Peer Review
At the end of the spring 2009 semester my online ENG102 course was submitted for an official Quality Matters Peer Revier; I failed! Now, thi sis actually not surprising. Most people fail the first time their course is reviewed; however, the process is set up to account for this first round of failure. In other words, the review process allows the course instructor-designer to revise his or her course based on the first round of review. As a person who teaches writing, I appreciate this process. So, my review …
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Posted in MCCA Synthesis of Course Evaluations, Fall 2008-Spring 2010
Since the Fall 2008 semester I have collected all my course evaluation data using Google Spreadsheets. I ask the basic questions from the English Department’s Course Evaluation Form that asks students to respond on a 1-5 scale (1 = does not apply to this course and 5 = Excellent). The Fall 2008-Spring 2010 results of those questions are:
- Course Objectives: course objectives are clearly defined: 4.41
- Course Organization: Course syllabus, outline, and other materials are made available.4.23
- Time in Class: The full class period is used effectively: 3.74
- Instructional Materials: The … ...Continued
Posted in MCCDeveloping a Writing Certificate Program
I admit it, I thought we could produce a proposal for an Academic Writing Certificate pretty quickly...and we did during the 2007-8 academic year. At the beginning of Fall 2008 we took our proposal to the English Instructional Council (EIC). Our proposal basically allowed students to take ENG101 and ENG102, take a few more writing courses and call it an academic certificate.
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Because one of the other colleges had recently gone through some bad experiences with another academic certificate, the …
Posted in MCCOh, What a Wonderful Day in San Jose
I’m sitting at San Jose International Airport waiting to go home to Phoenix after a full day at San Jose State University. The director of their Center for Faculty Development asked me to keynote (present a one hour presentation and a one hour workshop) for their Spring Forum (see the program attachment below). Thanks “super-secret” nmc folks for suggesting me! Ultimately, I had a blast and it feels like most of the participants had a good time and will be playing with a few …
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Posted in WorkshopsCan You Digg It? at Cengage English Event in San Antonio
Cengage, the publisher of The Wadsworth Guide to Research (the textbook Susan & I co-authored), hosted three English Professional Development events during the Spring 2010 semester: Orlando, San Antonio, and Phoenix. These two day events brought together "local" English faculty with Cengage authors (and a few others) who presented about various topics and issues in English, specifically Composition. Susan presented at the Orlando event, while I covered the San Antonio and Phoenix events. (Although I miss Susan terribly, sometimes it is handy to have us on different …
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Posted in WorkshopsCan You Digg It? Alternate Search Engines & Media Repositories Webinar
I was very excited to start the Can You Digg It? Using Web Applications to Facilitate Research and Writing: Webinar Series this spring at LearnCentral. The first webinar about Alternate Search Engines & Media Repositories was great! We started off with my current favorite poll (done in PollEverywhere) asking participants to "fess up" and admit whether or not they too use Google and read Wikipedia. This poll will definitely be recycled throughout the various Can You Digg It events this spring.
I …
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Posted in Workshops
