*Idea for 1pm class: Scavenger Hunt. In groups of 2-3, go and find 3 arguments on posters, etc around campus. Report back. Before that, we could do a brief discussion about phrases we are offended by… I should have them read Chapter X (the one about religion) for Thursday with some small assignment… or that could be due next Monday?

Rogerian Argument = bring up the other side of your issue to bring in more readers
Versus
Toulmin Argument = uses claims that are typically controversial and has three pieces: claim, evidence, and warrant.

And is this video correct (Which came first? The Chicken or the Egg?)?
The third party piece necessary for this argument to be solved is religion?
It would be a cool debate for my students.

  I asked students, for half of their required discussion board entry/class blog entry, to find an image on Flickr (again, hopefully from the Creative Commons area) that related to something in our reading this week (out of the book: everything’s an argument) and then place a quote they liked on the image using Pixlr.com. Here are a few neat ones.

To put it bluntly, when a student claims that he/she was gone for an excused absence but then can not show documentation of the absence, I automatically assume the worst. I frown in suspicion. The student perhaps is lying or hoping I forget that I haven’t seen the documentation, etc. Apparently, my syllabus’ rules hold no value.

In reflecting further, I’ve noticed that students really haven’t come up with any new argumentative strategies when it comes to arguing their excuses since I started teaching. It’s the same arguments over and over. And my go-to point everytime? It’s in the syllabus; I need proof. No proof, no assessment.

Items to note about the Red River Valley Research Corridor Summit yesterday in Fargo: a) I am no sciencer, but I can definitely try to light the fires in my students that makes them want to be innovative and go into the science & technology fields. b) NDSCS wasn’t mentioned too much (one dude fumbled over the name & on the video we were NSCS), which was a bummer since we were a sponser of the dang event. c) I got to meet Byron Dorgan who is shorter than I am in my heels which, for some reason, I found oddly amusing. d) I watched Kristi work her networking magic in getting a company interested in our students. e) I talked to our own president about the upcoming measures (Vote “No” on Measures 1 and 2, people! Don’t make tuition increase!) and election. f) The money & BRAIN POWER was enormous in that very cold banquet room. g) The very cool first speaker, Dean Kamen, and Dorgan have been on the Colbert Report – gotta find the YouTube clips of that a.s.a.p.

Gotta love smart bloggers. He “found” this or created it or whatever:

He also says, “As I’ve gotten older, however, it’s been getting harder and harder for me to distinguish fact from opinion. For example, if someone told me my shower is the most abhorrently filthy shower in the tri-county area, I would be hardpressed to find any evidence to suggest otherwise. I mean you’d think one’s judgment of my shower would be opinion, but it sure as hell is a fact that it’s time for me to get on my hands and knees and scrub that bitch.”

I feel he’s tipping toe-ing around a possible activity/assignment for my English 120 students… there’s a cool assignment in there. Maybe they could create their own document like the one above with facts that could be opinion and vice versa? It’d be interesting, that’s for sure.

A few of my students have learned this, as have I. Sometimes, when arguing, both parties just need to “cut their loses” and move on. Agree to respectfully disagree, basically.

I have the same exact arguments with particular people over and over again. A quarter of the way through them, I start frowning. I start strateger-izing as Wade calls it. Only I strateger-ize differently each time, hoping to “win” the argument once and for all. It never works. Verbally, I lack resources and patience and I typically just sigh a lot. Maybe I need a Snickers?

On paper, I can argue my case much better, usually. When it comes to arguments of the heart (say, an argument between my signifcant other and I or a family member and myself or an argument that actually argues where the heart is or who has a heart), the wording gets trickier. I mean, I can argue why I’m pro-choice better than why a certain someone is technically giving me a guilt trip, for pete’s sake! I’m sure there’s a reason for this madness; I’m sure that arguments are a part of life (heck, my English 120 book says so: everything’s an argument, so there!), but I wish they could be won like baseball games. Extra innings or not.

I’d announce them on the evening news: “Sybil is behind Jan by 2 1/2 arguments but there are 10 more arguments to go this season. Maybe she’ll make a comeback?”

I need to revise the 120 paper rubric. Right now, the student only loses 10pts for an unclear argument. That doesn’t seem “right”; if they don’t have an argument, then it’s not an argumentative paper, and it doesn’t fit the required assignment.

*I’m shooting for five papers per section of my online 120 (ten a day); today was day one of that.

ARGUMENT IS ALL AROUND US, KIDS.
Is my blog an argument? Perhaps.
Our campus website is, for sure, with that new slideshow thingie.
Is my office an argument?
“Got Blog,” Gandhi, The Office, SATC, The Scream, Happy Bunny (I’ll Be Nicer When You’re Smarter), famous quotes, image with text: “Keep Your Coins, I Want Change,” and, of course, good ol’ Albert Einstein with his tongue sticking out (best argument ever – seriously smart people can be goofy and have hair issues).

Spunk: Listening to Britney’s “Piece Of Me.”
Yes to Obama.
Be good. For karma’s sake.
I have a savings account.
Lights, or lack thereof.

Write it, draft it, do it: an alphabetical account of who I am & Creative Nonfiction: Essay of Place.