Month: April 2013

  • Diversity & Equality Video(s).

    Things to Consider:
    --- What makes you different on our campus? Sex, age, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity?
    --- Have you been discriminated against?
    --- Have you seen racism on campus?
    --- Have you seen sexism on campus?
    --- Have you seen age-ism on campus?
    --- Have you seen discrimination happen to those who are disabled (mentally or physically)?
    --- Is diversity more than ethnicity?
    --- What can be done about racism, sexism, and ageism on our campus?
    --- What will diversity mean to you out in the workforce? Or when you transfer to a different college?
    --- Are you uncomfortable interacting with people who are different from you? Why do you think that is?
    The Town Hall Meeting (6pm, April 25 at the Cultural Center) will focus on students' concerns and questions about diversity on our campus; the teachers who are facilitating the event (Ms. Melissa Naslund and myself) will not be there to "correct" students, but rather to encourage discussion about the students' concerns. We don't know what students see on our campus; we want to know your views.
    Please consider attending. 
    There will be a door prize.

    Sidenote: How does diversity connect to Paper 6? The one where you are answering, "Who Am I?"

  • Who Are We?

    Project 6, that my students are working on right now (well, my Eng110 students anyway), is all about answering the question "Who Am I?" with one answer and many genres (5+) to back up that answer with. To me, this connects to Existentialism. I want to find videos to show while they work on this project this week (it's due Friday; I'm giving 'em a week to dive in and complete it)...

    So, here are my first attempts. If anyone's reading this, and they know of a cool one, shoot it my way. Gracias.
    Video #1 from TED.com:

    "Oxford philosopher and transhumanist Nick Bostrom examines the future of humankind and asks whether we might alter the fundamental nature of humanity to solve our most intrinsic problems.Nick Bostrom, director of Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute, specializes in the big questions: What does it mean to be human? If we could live forever, would we choose to? Can we improve our human nature with technological enhancements?"
    It's quite lofty and full of statistics. Might lose students' attention with this one?
    Video #2 from YouTube:
    This guy is much more the speed of my students, I think.
    Video #3 from TED: The idea behind this one is cool:


    I could have the students watch it and then sum up their lives, or themselves, in 6 words. Whoa!

    Video #4 from Youtube: AND then there is the female student version that I could show:

  • Make the bombers run 26.2 miles 26.2 times.

    Students have been failing my projects left and right lately. Ya know what I'm going to do about it? Nothing. Because this is college, and I give out plenty of samples and my instructional guides are pretty... instructional. Like they are supposed to be. The only thing I can think is that everyone got a wee bit lazy. The 12-week class I wrapped up last week = lots of final projects that were just YUCK. It was as if they didn't even read the instructional guide; I can say the same for some of the projects coming in from my online classes, too, right now. The only thing left for me to do in order to see awesome projects? Do them myself. Yeah. So, I think I'll do the opposite. I'm going to delete a few samples & put the instructional guides on a diet. No one is looking at them, and no one is reading the guide anyhow. Plus, I've been meaning to make them all consistent in their layouts, and concise in their wording, etc. 


    I guess all this is a distraction from what happened in Boston yesterday.
    I've been looking forward to healing from my surgery, so I can start running again, and this whole event just scares me. These people were just running or these people were just cheering on runners. Such a great day filled with accomplishments. So sad. And an eight-year-old was one of the ones who passed away? 

    My demented mind hopes they find the people who did this and make them run 26.2 miles 26.2 times without water. Without shoes.

    I've joked that running was an acceptable form of suicide... I never wanted that to be true, ever. EVER.

  • All they wanted to do was run.

    image

  • And then. And then. And then.

    I had originally canceled my classes because I was going to help out with SKILLS USA on campus (the 10am class is over & the grades are in Peoplesoft; the 1pm class wasn't uber affected by Skills, but my 3pm students were going to be participating anyhow) by heading a Speech competition; THEN due to the storm, they delayed SKILLS (via email yesterday afternoon) to start this evening... THEN this morning, they canceled the high school-based competitions which included mine/ours. So, I walked up to campus for the exercise, and I'm grading things I would've graded yesterday. At least I'm getting a jump-start on a few things. 
    For the most part, I'm just trying to be positive because I'm very tired; I need a nap. 
    I didn't sleep well, I'm sick of people complaining about the weather, and I don't have a ton of motivation at this moment...
    I DON'T REALLY NEED TO BE HERE.
    Maybe the bonus to myself will be to grade stuff from home tomorrow? I don't think I have anything else to do... no meetings, no class...

    FJ, Saturday: Up at 11:30 after a night at Dream$ Auction... (Brunch) El Toro? (D) Peanuts? (wasn't super hungry)...

    FJ, Sunday: (B) Toast and coffee? (L) Pizza Ranch. (D) Chili from crockpot (small portion) + brownie heated up with caramel topping & whipped cream.
    FJ, Today: (B, 6am) Cereal. (B, later) Brownies heated up, etc. (L? 2:30pm) El Toro soup leftovers. (D) Chili again?

  • Are You A Genius?

    GENIUS HOUR, a great combo article; Genius Hour on Pink's blog; Genius Hour on another blog...


    This idea/movement is very similar to the 20% Project that Google has been known for...
    And I've emailed some administration about this because I think this idea goes beyond the students into what the teachers and staff are doing at schools/colleges.
    ---What about one less meeting and we have a genius hour instead?
    ---What about me showing my students how they can make money by writing (could end up being part of our genius hour projects)?
    ---What about leaving information-sharing for email (people can read) and letting meetings be genius hours = a meeting of MINDS?!

  • FJ: (B) Burger King muffins (one with sausage, egg, cheese, 1/2 bun; one without sausage) + coffee + vitamins. (L) 1 leftover buffalo burger + Coke Zero + strawberry protein muffins. (D) pork chop + beans + skinny cow thingie.

  • Should you be writing?

    Found on Pinterest, of course.

  • FJ: (B) found extra raisin walnut bread, so I had two normal pieces with the small butt pieces (2) with butter/honey + coffee! and vitamins. (L, 2pm) porkchop & noodles + concoction + ten M&ms. (S) strawberry muffin batter (lil scoop). (D) beef nachos + concoction + water + strawberry protein muffins w/whipped topping.

    [dinner = very high protein = been trying to end the day with protein & using lunch as the last place to have carbs...?]

    This Week: one mtg Wed & one mtg on Thurs...
    The 10am Ag section ends tomorrow, as far as f2f stuff goes; I need to assess their P6s, etc. so I'll be busy with that... and other general assessing. :) I'm sort of rewarded with the Dream$ Auction Friday. It might be our last time hitting up that "party."

  • Defiance.

    I get the feeling, when it comes to my students' political leanings (especially the ones who are "fresh off the farm" or "fresh out of high school"), that sometimes they are just regurgitating what their parents have said. And maybe I feel superior to them, but not JUST because I've researched my opinions, but because I rebelled against (and still do) what my parents told me or wanted me to think (especially with my mom & religion). I don't think this was even because I thought they were wrong, I just had to figure it out for myself. And I feel superior to my students who are parrots of their parents for that reason. Even if their dad is a Democrat, I don't want them regurgitating those thoughts even though I agree with them (probably). I want students - everyone - to think for themselves! 

    And I can appreciate when people are well-researched, and have thought through things. I can also appreciate when they don't say, "Well, you're wrong," or, "But the Bible says," because they know that I come from the viewpoint that we are all probably correct and incorrect in our opinions... all time (possibly). And the Bible to me isn't fact. It is literature. If people are going to throw Bible entries at me in order to argue a point, I will A) bring up the crude things in the Bible (women as possessions, etc.) that no one wants implemented (okay, 99%) and/or B) I'll start quoting Carlin's book as my Bible.
    ---Am I absolutely positive that abortion isn't murder? No. But that's not for me to decide; it's for a higher power to decide. People don't want us "playing god" when it comes to cloning, but they are sure willing to "play god" when it comes to other things. Sheesh.
    ---Am I positive that taxes are a good thing and that helping the poor is right? No. But I feel better about myself to give to others, even if they secretly don't "deserve" it. The deserving part, again, isn't for me to decide. And, really, if I end up in that spot, I'd want help, too.
    ---Am I absolutely sure that Obama is doing a fabulous job? No, but I do highly doubt that McCain or Romney could've done better. After Bush, I'm just glad we have someone who speaks well (I mean, I am an English teacher!).