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  • Goosebump-inducing Daydream…

    In my giddiest daydream about how my teaching can affect students, I dream that they see writing as fun and not something they are incapable of. In addition to that, I dream that they find a book, an author, that they look forward to reading every day or every week. In that goosebump-induced dream, I don’t even care if they only like to write erotic poetry or read about serial killers or research anarchy. The dream doesn’t even include them putting down the Crackberry or logging off Facebook; it’s just an addition to their lives. They read The Onion, perhaps, via Facebook and laugh. They read from a slang dictionary to their friends over lunch. It doesn’t have to be boring, and it doesn’t have to be appropriate. Language and books and writing spans too many genres and generations to limit what I want them to do, love, and learn.

    Just writing that made my day start off … on a lighter note.

  • How Much Of My Class Should Be Accessible?

    So, I just discovered that students have to log into Scribd.com (with their Facebook account or they need to sign-up for a free Scribd account) to be able to download the handouts I have. Automatically, I feel bad; BUT, why do I place these documents online? So students who weren’t in class can view them… well, why weren’t they in class? Some have reasons, legitimate ones at that, but some don’t. Now, students lose documents. I get that part, but…

    *BIG SIGH* Oh, what did we do before the internet? We had to go to the teacher’s office and ask for a handout. Yep. Or just miss out on the points.

    I find myself asking how much of my stuff should be online anyhow, particularly with an on-campus class. For one, it makes them too dependent on the online stuff – thinking they can miss class and just go online to grab the goodies. I suppose that by blogging about what we are doing in class, I’m setting myself up for that attitude, but I also like to reflect on what we did and when and I think this whole “what you missed” tagging will aid me in future preparations for classes.

    They may be too dependent on email and Facebook and my blog and Scribd.com, but I can do something about all that, too. It’s not something I can only complain about; I can do something about it. Less info out there in never-never-interweb-land and more info given out in class.

  • The first week of classes has almost come to a close. As of right now, I feel like it has gone better than the fall’s first week (getting students on eCompanion, how to introduce my new theme in English 110, attendance, attitudes, my attitude, etc.), so maybe I’m slowly getting a “hold” on how I want to “run things”? It’s possible. I’ve been at this for ten years now (and a student said to that, “And how old are you?”); I should know some stuff.

    And speaking of getting students on eCompanion… yea. I gave out instructional guides (very brief instructions on how to get on, what to use as a login/password, etc.); as it turns out, almost no one read them. One class in particular had a handful of students who stayed after our lecture/activities for me to verbally give them the instructions. Had they read my handout? No. Again, not all students had failed to read, but I frowned a wee bit when I got asked, “So, what do I do?” and they weren’t even on the NDSCS homepage or the NDSCS online homepage.

    They’ll read a zillion text messages… hundreds of websites and Facebook wall posts, but one handout from me gets no attention. Errrrggggg. I guess I should text them my instructions?

  • i’m feelin’ creative & a bit goofy…
    here are some possible holiday postcards
    that I may make using moo.com.
    whatdya think?

    they were designed using
    the picnik application in Facebook.
  • Friend Filters…
    When a request comes in from someone who wants to be my “Friend” on here (yes, Xanga has friendships too) as well as Facebook, I have a hard time determining the criteria for declaring said person as a “Friend.” On here, it’s easier than on Facebook because I have oodles of pictures there and other stuff.

    Anyhow, my question o the day is: How do YOU determine who is a “Friend” on Xanga or Facebook or MySpace? And, as a sidenote, how do you determine who gets the “Limited Profile” stamp (meaning they are your “Friend” but with less access)?

    And the other side of the coin, then, is how do they figure out if I am their “Friend”? Last night, I got a little Add as a Friend-request-happy… it’s like JUDGMENT DAY. Will they ACCEPT me? This social networking stuff is like Survivor for Real Life. Or the internet version of those little notes in class: “Do you like me? Check Yes or No.” Part of me doesn’t want to care, but the insecure geek does.

  • I like picking on students whose names I’ve figured out. Does that make me a bad teacher? I’m going to go with “no” on this one.

    Me: “I need to make a quick announcement. I need to know who hasn’t take the quiz like *cough* Kris *cough*.”
    Kris: *rolls eyes*

    Thanks to Kristin & my Facebook wall, I was able to devise very cool assignment(s) (dealing with the “bad” arguments and “bad” essays) & very cool lesson ideas (Vanna White). And people think Facebook is a waste of time!

    Oh, and if I have to resort to using my sign-in sheets again with my English 105 classes, fine. I also attempted another “fun quiz” in my English 110 class until I realized students were waiting outside the classroom for 5+ minutes; come on IN, kiddos!

  • I think I’ve officially done to my body what I’ve done to my brain many times before. Exhausted it beyond belief. I feel like I used to feel after the first week of tennis practice back in the day. Sore, sore, sore. But I’d rather be sore than not sore/not exercising, so… plus, when one is sore, they know they did something to some muscle that hadn’t been done in awhile. If I have to have sore quads and hamstrings for the rest of my life, so be it. Let’s just say interval training is kicking my butt.

    And so I go from high intensity out on the bike or on the running paths, to sitting atop my exercise ball on the internet/computer dinking around for too much of the day. I’m starting to feel like I need to take a break from sitting in front of that thing/this thing (even thought that iMac is so cute). I’m addicted to checking my email or getting on Facebook. Daily. I mean, yes, I should check in on my students, but I should be doing summer things too. I should be conducting more blog research. I should be out on my balcony taking in the lovely afternoon w/a book.

    I finished the second Chelsea Handler book; I laughed out loud many times. It was the perfect bedtime book; I’d read a chapter or two, and then fall asleep with a smile on my face. Now I need to move on. I’ve been doing better than expected with my reading this summer (in comparison to last)… I’ve gotten through Klosterman’s book, two of Chelsea’s, got back into Ken Bain’s for a chapter, and dabbled in some philosophy books one day. If I could just get into that pile of Deb Tannen books during the day, I could read Rushdie at night. Yes, I have piles of both authors; they are an odd combination, aren’t they? For some reason, though, I feel like reading all sorts of different authors and books this summer. Those Tannen/Rushdie piles will be there forever. I still have a biography about Madonna that I haven’t gotten to or any of those odd books I “stole” from Errol. Huh.

    Well, I feel like a trip to the library is in order… and then it’s lunch and reading time for this camper.

  • Ready or not, here it comes. The Marathon Relay, that is. Yeppers. I’m ready, I’m freaked out, I know we’ll (I’ll) do fine, and in about 48hours, I hope to be starting (or already have started?) my route through north Fargo. Sure, I’d like to do my leg in about 75min (ran the 10K at Homecoming in that amount of time, and 10Ks are .5 shorter than my leg Saturday), heck, I’d like to do it in an hour, but really, I hope to enjoy myself. I know that feeling of enjoyment won’t hit until about mile 4, but I’m okay with that.

    With that said (or written… whatever), I’m going to do some basic things at the office and then call it a day. I should’ve just taken most of this week “off” from coming to the office (to refresh the brain cells, etc.), but I am a little OCDish when it comes to checking email and blogging and Facebook-ing.

    *So, when I developed the Creative Writing course, I put together (using the lovely Publisher program by Microsoft) a catalog of possible projects & their instructions. A little colorful booklet that was separate from the syllabus. Well, I liked that layout so much, I’ve decided to implement the same design strategy with my other classes. Yeppers.

  • Been here for over two hours. What have I accomplished? Drinking my Vanilla Chai Soy Protein drink. And some online shopping for shoes. Oh, I did check my email inboxes and Facebook’d for a bit. Yep. It’s been a rough morning. *sigh*