Woolf

Virginia Woolf's brilliance still shines out through the Hollywood hype that's become her life story: a testament to her genius. Although students wanted to know if I thought Woolf was bi-polar (why does it matter, I asked back), they also wanted to wrestle with her formidable imagination and intellect.

We talked about "A Room of One's Own" today, and despite the students' insistence on talking *way* too much about the title's significance (yeah, duh), the conversation did turn around to her important honoring of the legacy of women who wrote despite *not* having that room (Austen, Bronte, Bronte, Eliot, Cavendish, Behn).

Her work gets better every time I read it: at 20, I didn't understand much but knew I liked her non-fiction more than her fiction. Now I think Mrs. Dalloway is one of the most *true* novels I've read.

What a great opening line: "Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself."

Data!

I've just found out about a couple of pretty amazing websites:
"City-Data.com" -- type in your zip code to find out TONS of information about where you live
"Wolfram/Alpha" -- type in names, dates, equations, you name it

The web is becoming a space/place where we can find out almost any countable thing . . . which means we have to remind ourselves of a sign hanging in Alfred Einstein's office: “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts."

This sentence is reversed at a terrific website: Philanthropy Potluck, the blog of the Minnesota Council on Foundations.

MIA

This morning's class meeting held some surprises for me: the good one was the *excellent* activity our facilitators devised for discussing Jane Austen's "Love and Freindship" (a parody Austen wrote at age 15!). They had pairs of students write *response* letters to Laura, imagining what Marianne might write. Most of the young women students were *really accurate* in their Marianne voices: a pleasure.

The not-so-good surprise had to do with the presence of three students who haven't been to class in a l...o...n...g time:

• One had only attended the first day, May 26, and has missed the last five class meetings (out of 17 total meetings).
• One emailed me yesterday to say she'd had strep throat AND had just moved (ahem) to explain why she's missed the last three classes. I read and responded to that email yesterday afternoon.
• One emailed me last night at 1:00 a.m. to say she'd been in Chicago (her brother was injured and her parents, who are on vacation in France, asked her to go check on him) to explain why she's missed the last four classes. I read that email after class this morning.

Now I'm not quite sure what to do. I thought they'd all dropped! None of them has posted on the class discussion board. They don't seem to have read the attendance policy for our course, and when they asked about it, I couldn't remember the nitty-gritty details myself (I tweak my policies for every course, depending upon the time-frame and subject matter, but the overall idea is that I allow a certain number of absences for any reason before consequences kick in).

Evidently, my attendance policy this summer semester (for a six-week course that's supposed to be the equivalent of a sixteen-week semester) isn't clear -- here's what the syllabus says [emphasis in original]:

"You can earn up to ten (10) attendance points per face-to-face class period, which I determine based on your attendance and participation, for a total of 170 possible points. If you must miss a face-to-face class meeting, you can recoup some of those lost points by contributing a substantial discussion board posting within 24 hours for the class period you missed (by 8:00 a.m. on the day after the missed class). This posting can earn you up to five (5) points. Missing two class periods without posting to the discussion board will cause your final grade for the course to drop by one whole grade. Missing four or more classes without posting to the discussion board will result in an automatic F grade for the course. Missing four or more classes even with posting to the discussion board will cause your final grade for the course to drop one whole grade."

I suppose all that is confusing when you look at it in a big block of prose like that -- I should format the information in a box/chart/table or something. But the numbers seem pretty clear to me, and we note this paragraph on our first day of class when we review the course policies.

Also, I guess it's just fine for students to attend a course that they've already earned an F in . . . some learning can still take place (not that taking a class has anything to do with learning for most summer students -- ouch, I'm cynical!). But most of the students said they were taking this summer literature course because it "was cheaper" (two students are earning master's degrees at two of our local private colleges, and this 200-level community college literature course somehow fulfills requirements for them!).

Hmmm. Thoughts?

Frankenstein

Video clip of the 1994 Kenneth Branagh movie: much more faithful to Mary Shelley's novel than the Boris Karloff versions! Although the relationship between Robert and Victor isn't quite right, at least Robert Walton shows up -- as does the icy North Pole!

Really Great Workshop

I'd been nervous about giving a three-hour workshop on our college's Common Book (The Latehomecomer) to my colleagues: what if I bomb? What if they've just signed up to criticize? But all went well.

My partner was easy to work with: professional and approachable, sincere in her willingness to share what she's done with the Common Book. My colleagues were colleagial, sharing what had worked for them and inventing new ideas right on the spot.

We received compliments all around: one person even said she admired the way I demonstrated the techniques I was teaching about. All in all, a nice afternoon.

How I hate

Hate, hate, hate our governor's attitude: in today's press conference, he called us higher education folks "whiny" and "complainers"! He *consistently* disrespects us public servants -- especially in public, in the media.

Good News

Here's a Google News site that just posts good news! It's a great resource for students . . . for showing how a fake news site can look legit.

Wouldn't the world be good if this site was NOT a fake?

How can I already be behind?

We're three days into the summer session -- I'm caught up on reading for my class, but you may be asking why do I have to *re*read everything every semester? Don't I already know the Julian of Norwich/Margery Kempe/Aemilia Lanyer by heart? (yeah, well, the outlines of the narratives, the significant scenes/conversations/images, yes -- but not the nitty-gritty details)

But being caught up with reading doesn't mean I'm caught up with creating quizzes, figuring out good classroom activities, clearing off my office desk/table. Last semester's files still piled up!

Leftover student sentence

Did I post this gem? (I'm cleaning up my office.)

"She is known as a maniac depressant."

Can't remember to whom the students was referring . . . but a gem, nonetheless.

Everything takes longer

Why is it that tweaking a syllabus takes four hours instead of one? Maybe it's the three-day-a-week schedule. Maybe the new edition of the text.

Maybe the fact that I have to figure out how to schedule a chronological list of authors/readings over a compressed semester (sixteen weeks down to six!).

I've got Mondays for novel-length texts (Wollstonecraft, Shelley, Bronte, Woolf), which I hope works!

(From that author list, can you guess which course I'm teaching?)

Just lost

One of my summer courses has been really underenrolled, and the dean just called an hour ago to say it was being canceled.

Sad, especially since it's the Intro to GLBT Studies course that partners with the Twin Cities Pride festival . . . a *real* service learning experience. :-(

Wake up to homophobia

Every year, I organize the volunteers for our college's table at Twin Cities Pride. This task should rightfully be the Admissions office's responsibility, but they don't think the event has a big enough "yield potential for the college" (more than 400,000 people attend the two-day festival, so I'm just not sure what kind of "yield potential" the Admissions people need).

At any rate, yesterday I sent out my usual invitation for volunteers and woke up today to a half-dozen emails in response: five were "Yes, I can volunteer for a shift!" but one was as follows:

"Julie,

"I am NOT interested in this at all.
"Please remove my name off of your list for functions that pertain to this issues."

I wrote back, thanking her/him for the message [my inner good-girl coming out here], and noting that I did not know how to remove a single person from the "everyone" email ist I used: did s/he know?

I'm especially concerned about this situation because we've had some weird discussion on our campus about the "everyone" emails. Some people, evidently, hate them and are causing enough noise for our college to send out a survey asking about the use of "everyone" emails.

When I completed my survey last week, I couldn't imagine why anyone would object to the "everyone" emails -- if the message doesn't apply to you, just delete it is what I think! I personally like getting them because communication at our college is SO TERRIBLE that the "everyone" emails at least give a person the chance to know something about what's going on.

Since I couldn't figure out why anyone would object to the "everyone" emails, I brought up the topic at our department end-of-the-semester meeting last Friday. Two of my colleagues - one a long-time faculty member and one new-ish - railed against the "everyone" emails! They "hate" them because they go to class and come back to find "tons" of messages in their inboxes. The information "never" pertains to them. They "hate" them!

I was stunned by their reaction at first, but they are two very lazy colleagues, so it seems as though that characteristic may apply here.

The point related to the homophobic response, though, and the thing that makes me concerned is that our intensely incompetent and arrogant IT director will probably lock-down the "everyone" email option (currently, anyone can send an "everyone" email, which is just fine I think in terms of communication freedom). This man has come in and *wrecked* our IT infrastructure (and hired folks who are terrible, terrible, terrible -- the purple email above was from an IT person, coincidentally).

Anyway, it's now summer, and I should let go of the problems at work -- but I'm teaching summer school, including an Intro to GLBT Studies course, so maybe this homophobia will be a "teachable moment" for me. We'll see.

Avoiding

Don't want to check my college email because I think it'll be full of students asking, "Where are my grades?" which aren't due until Tuesday. I had such high hopes of grading during finals week, but I gave two finals (had to create one from scratch) instead -- and also traveled to Chicago twice for my own college-student-daughter's final performance.

I hate grades.

The last day

Today is the last day of classes, and yesterday a student asked if s/he could meet to talk with me about something. S/he had to leave right away, so we agreed to an online "chat" today . . . which we are in the middle of right now as I'm typing this blog post. [*Edit: we ended the conversation right as I typed up the last paragraphs below.*]

S/he wants to know if s/he can change the term paper topic because of "issues" with the first topic chosen. (Note: this essay was supposed to be turned in at midterm time, when I comment heavily on it so that students can revise for a better score. Our class is "writing intensive," so the students MUST get writing instruction and MUST revise.)

Whoa. A change on the last day of the semester. An assignment that was supposed to be done over the entire term.

Turns out that the student never turned in the assignment at midterm time. S/he is also missing another course essay (gave it to me yesterday with a bunch of other things, but it was due April 4). S/he's also missing another major assignment, although done relatively well on the "reading journal" and the course participation.

You've probably figured out the inevitable question posed on the chat 10 minutes ago: "Do you think I'll pass your class?" Hmmm. My guess is that it'll be really, really tough The final exam is next week, so there's a possibility of earning points there (the midterm exam was poor, so students can replace a poor exam score with a higher one).

But what's especially curious to me is the pronoun use in the question: "Do you think I'll pass your class." These indicate that the student hasn't gotten one of the things I hope to instill: that a class is a community of learners, that students should "claim their education" (we ever read Rich's essay this semester!).

The pronouns indicate I've failed in that goal. Dang.

Context is everything

This video from a Lawrence Welk show points out how important the milieu is for understanding the intent of a communicative act (like a song). These singers do not understand the words they're singing, but they *think* they understand them: "One Toke Over the Line, Sweet Jesus" is a "modern spiritual" according to mc Myron Floren.

Found because Andrew Taylor showed it to me on BoingBoing.
Enjoy!

Rhetorical sophistication?

This semester, I have had to apologize to my students about getting behind with grading: it seems to me that honesty is a good policy, and I wanted them to know I was working on their writing, but I wasn't finished with assessing/evaluating/grading everyone's work at the same time.

Now I have two students who are using my apology as a weapon by telling the dean that they "didn't know how to improve" because I "didn't give them any feedback." *Sigh*.

Aristotle defines rhetoric as "finding the available means of persuasion." I guess I've made a means available to these students. This morning the dean called to tell me what arguments my students are going to have "against me" when we meet later this afternoon. The dean counsels me not to say something like this again . . . maybe she's right?

It's that time in the semester

Some students are finding out that they've learned a LOT this semester, and they're surprised (and impressed!) with themselves. I, too, am proud of the strides they've made as they've taken the opportunities I've provided for learning.

Some students are feeling stressed, pressured, unhappy: various reasons, of course, but most of the reasons seem to be related to something I've done wrong. One needs me to meet with the dean *and her mother* to get her money back because somehow I didn't "treat her fairly" in the course.

Hmmm. This student got a job midway through the semester and stopped coming to class after spring break. Last week she contacted me . . . surprising me with her email because she'd dropped completely off my radar. Evidently, though, she's on her mom's radar!

We'll see how Monday goes . . . !

Not ironic

Found at the bottom of an email announcment/solicitation from a colleague (and I don't think s/he was being ironic):

"Please feel free to print this e-mail - it provides jobs at nurseries, the forestry department, logging companies, and paper mills and it can be recycled!"

At least the *font* was green.

Logical contradiction

I am SO TIRED of the crap spewed by the political leadership in our state: the current state education commissioner Alice Seagren (who has a degree in marketing, not education) is speaking on MPR right now, and she chastizes teachers and students for not being able to do what they need to do, such as meet standards or evaluating sources.

Yet she does not examine her own logical contradictions: in one breath she says that "students need more time on task" because it will improve students' "performance" in some way, presumably on tests. In the next breath she says that Minnesota has one of the "shortest" school years in the country. Her logic is that Minnesota has to lengthen the school year because other states have longer school years.

HOWEVER, here's the logical flaw: Minnesota is at the TOP of the national rankings in terms of education (on many, many measures, including number of students who graduate from high school, test scores, etc.) So if we're at the top but we have fewer class days than other states, why would students need more time on task?

There's not a positive correlation (or maybe there's a negative correlation!) not to mention causal relationship between the length of the school year and the educational achievement of students as measured against other states.

One big caveat: in some national rankings, Minnesota has *slipped* during the Pawlenty administration. For example, in 2005-06 MN was listed as #6 on the "Smartest State" ranking by Morgan Quitno. By 2006-07, we slipped to #13! So perhaps we can see that the policies by our current conservative, education-punishing administration are really condemning our state's educational system to a lowest-common-denominator: yuck.

On a related political note: this website correlates state's educational rankings with the "blue/red" characterization. Although the website doesn't say when these rankings were made, it *is* curious that the highest educational rankings correlate with blue/Democratic states. Hmmm.

More student writing

What is literacy these days? I'm wondering as I read emails like this one a student sent today (copied *exactly* as I received it, the big chunk of text that you see below) (P.S. I think "flustrarted" should be a word!):

hey Julie, ( i ment to write back but some how i sent it to myself? im not to good with computers, so this messages is actually from last wednesday april 15th)

I dont think im making sense threw email for you, Im really sorry. The essay project i picked out of the syllabus under the "essay project options" im not sure if thats what we were suppose to do now because i read somthing saying you had to sign up for a topic ( which i never did) so i became very confused. And now today i seen a list under content for topics that didnt match the ones in the syllabus and only had four peoples names in it. Another thing is i turned my essay in online under late work i dont know if you seen that or not and i read in the syllabus that you wanted our name on the back of the paper and of course i followed Mla standards like i do for my composition class. what worries me is not following what you wanted because it says here i will earn a zero. Im very flustarted with myself and want to achieve a good grade. I bombed the Test and will hopfully redeam myself on the final. For the quizes will i just be out those point thats say zero out of zero.. or is that just my computer that is saying i got zero for the first three? im crossing my fingers but i have bad luck so i wont be surprised if they just say zeros for you as well! im sorry i just wrote you a novel i hope i make better sense now then i did before. see you tommorrow