Fake Assignments? What?
Yes, it's true. I have an idea. *gasp* What it entails is this = Basically, putting citations together is like a dissecting an alien for students. Maybe some would do better at the dissection, especially if the alien's brains look like the frogs we played with in high school Biology. Anyhow, it's a foreign freakin' concept to everyone but me, or so it seems. I think, and I assume, that students really DO know and COULD know how to maneuver these suckers if they had the pieces in front of them. They are sometimes too lazy *double gasp* to look for the pieces. So, what if the pieces came from their own heads AND they got to be CREATIVE with the pieces? Hmmm... It might work, and it might blow up at me, but I'm going to try *drum roll please* having the students create Fake Sources and, therefore, Fake Works Cited Pages. Yes. All related, of course, to their P2 Topics (in both classes - English 110 & English 120 - maybe?).

The assignment would require students to create 10 Fake Sources*:
1-An article of some kind (journal, magazine, newspaper).
2-A book.
3-A web site.
4- A web page within a web site.
5- Dictionary definition.
6- Personal interview.
7- TV show.
8- Movie.
9- Email message.
10- Map or Chart.

Point Breakdown: 3pts per correct source citation creation (30pts) + 5pts for placing it all alphabetical = 35pts.
*And I'll hand out an MLA/APA guide for this assignment too, but they can always use the "interwebs."

Okay, so I'm teaching Online World Lit 240 next fall & I need to advertise it in March; students register at the beginning of April.
In the past, I've created signs, to advertise the course, that say stuff like "Dead White Guys Suck" or "57% of People Don't Like PB&J" (and then the small writing on the poster informed them of the class - attention getters are EVERYTHING with posters on campuses, man!). I think last year I printed off massive maps and had the "punchline" of "Hey, TRAVEL somewhere in your PJs this fall!" By reputation alone, I think I get students in that class... last fall, I had over 10 but it wasn't quite 20. I think 17 is the lucky number in any class; it's intimate but still a wee bit big... heck, in my composition classes, I'd be happy with 23 (and, yeah, not 27). Anyhow, this time... I want to try something new (again!) when it comes to advertising the course. I just saw this via a blog on my Google Reader list - those signs with little pieces that people can take. That is ONE cool idea. Hopefully, I'll collect more before I have to (or my workstudy has to) create/print off some.

IDEAS:
--- "Tear off a Piece" sign?
--- Little teeny poems to put in a row on the walls?
--- Connect-the-dots?
--- Word Find sheet?
--- Little teeny words that make a sentence on the wall?
--- Something Like This?
--- ?

http://www.qwiki.com/ = New search engine that supposedly knows everything about everyone.
http://frid.ge/ = A private social network? Useful for online courses?
http://www.quicklyst.com/ = Make an outline here...?

I've wondered a lot of things lately...
--- Who To Challenge?: One would be that I fear I'm catering my classes to those who "clearly don't care" rather than those who "somewhat care and want to be challenged." Oddly, the first group, right now, is typically males making the latter female. And, during this semester, I've noticed 2/3 of my on-campus classes contain talkative females = another oddity.
--- Spoon-Feeding: Do I somehow give students the option to not think? When they email me questions, am I giving away too much? Should they be trying to figure out more of it on their own? I mean, I give a lot of details - some students have said my handouts are too detailed. So, essentially, the information is there, man. Read it. Read it again. Then read it to your parrot.
--- Spicing It Up: I've been really using up those Reading Activities I created, and I'd like to think they are working. I think my students are reading the material more than students have in the past when I've just said, "Read X" and not given them an accompanying reading activity. I think. It's only a hunch. Since I didn't quiz everyone before, I have no statistics to compare the current reading activity grades to.

I like the speaker's energy in this TED talk; she drives home the idea that students have to fail once in awhile,
and that that's okay - we have to give them the chance to fail and not feel like they have to spit out right answers all the time.

"Am I preparing my students to be lifelong learners?"
And I like the doctor/teacher + 100 years ago quote. That's very true, sadly.

China's own version of "Facebook" has
more users than Facebook.
Did I read that correctly? Wow.
More videos are available here.

In trying to look through all my little notes to myself, I've come across some possible revisions to my English 120 Shortfolio. I wrote down that maybe it should be split into two parts... and that maybe the 4of8 goals (Part 1) could utilize Glogster or Animoto. These are things to think about for sure. And, well, this popped into my head too - what if I just asked the student what they'd like their last project to be? Would that be too crazy of an idea? I don't know. If I told them I wanted it to be brief, yet complex, would they come up with something cool and interesting? Maybe.

From Faye:
I for one think, you should do two collages instead of one for I feel it gets the students to really rack their brains and think and learn new stuff. I think that having things due on two different days per week is a great way for students to stay on top of things. It entices the students not to have the worry of being stressed out as much.
[...]
I don't think any of the  author's should be taken off this course reading list, I feel they are all good. If a person could read more authors from different countries like Africa and Australia and maybe phillipines, I think that would be ok I do not believe that any of the course should change, I think students enjoy it very much the way it is. It takes a great Instructor to teach this type of English course, and Sybil you are that one. Great job. Happy Holidays to one and all. MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR.
From Sarah:
I really enjoyed this class.  I liked how assignments were due twice a week as that worked out really well with my schedule most of the time.  I really enjoyed how at the beginning of the class, you told us what to write about in the class blog.  But then towards the end of the class we could choose to discuss whatever aspects of the reading we wanted.  I thought that was a great idea.  I also enjoyed having alternatives, such as making the videos or word clouds, for the blog some weeks.  And as much as I initially wasn't thrilled with the My Words stuff each week, I think it was good as it forced me to actually look up words I don't know instead of just thinking that I should look it up then forgetting.
From Kim:
Honestly this was probably my favorite class that I took this semester.  I liked the way that the class blogs were set up it so it was easy to understand what was to be expected of this class from the start.  I thought it was going to be difficult having this class online especially after having Sybil for an actual class not just online, but it was relatively the same aspect.  The toughest part for me was probably commenting on others blog posts.  It was always easy to see my point of the stories, but at times it was hard for me to see where the other individual was coming from, but as the class went on this was something that I did evaluate better.  One thing that I really liked was in how the book it gave us a background of the authors and not just there pieces.
From Tristan:
I am going to be completely honest.  I was DREADING this class when I signed up for it.  Dread is probably being kind but with it being finals week, my brain is on overload and I think has already checked out.  I wasn't interested in half of the reading assignments, but like you indicated in the syllabus, you didn't expect all of them to interest us.  I really wish more of Ghandi's work was represented.  I don't know if I wish that because he is so well known, or because he is so inspirational and influential, but I do wish I was able to read more of his works.  As I've stated many times, I'm not much a poem girl, so the poems were about as bad as poking my eyeballs out with a ball-point pen.  I have a really hard time interpreting them, and that could very well be why none of the poems gave me a "home run" feeling, if you will.  The course contained a lot of busy work, but none that I would consider to be too challenging or over the top.  It was enough work to prove that we, as students, were keeping up with the course and as long as we did what was asked, I think it's impossible to get a failing grade---which I would hope isn't what you set out to do. LOL!  I also think there was just the right amount of "my words" assignments.  They got to be tedious, but at the same time were helpful, if that makes any sense at all.  

From Chelsey:
As a visual learner, writing papers makes me a bit nervous, so the projects were really great in making me research and put interesting things together rather than trying to explain topics for the whole assignment.

Yes, I met him. The TIES conference has not failed me yet, and this year I drove down specifically to hear and meet Sir Ken Robinson. His talk at 8am was awesome (I wish I could be that inspiring at 8am), and his Q&A session was even better. I got to ask the second question, and I think I figured out that it's not my cool projects that need revising (although there's room for that always), it's my approach. The path to the introduction of said projects needs to be tweaked. He gave an example of paragraphing that'll stick with me; basically, he had the students think of soap operas and the formatting behind the scripts there. THEN he brought in paragraphing going so far as to take out the paragraph breaks and having the students put them in... very interesting. Could even be useful for Peer Review. Anyhow... I wrote all over my conference booklet, as usual, so I'll post more notes in a wee bit. I'd like to catch up on some assessment first.

Oh, and.... an article in
shows that we're kind of cool around these parts.
"COLLEGE HAS STRONG WORKING RELATIONSHIP WITH COMMUNITIES
The North Dakota State College of Science is one of the educational components that helps the two communities thrive. The two-year college has historically been associated with Wahpeton and Breckenridge since 1903. Now, it offers three components – Career and Technology Education programs, transfer programs, and workforce training across the state of North Dakota. “We really see ourselves as a state agency graduating and placing students in the state,” says Dr. John Richman, President of the College. “We are listening to their workforce needs providing customized, short-term training that an employee might have.” More than 2,800 students attend the 125-acre campus with 38 buildings, including a $5.7 million renovation of Horton Hall, which is one of the largest instructional facilities on campus. There are 300 fulltime and 300 part-time employees. One of the largest challenges is with the heavy emphasis in career and technological education, the school requires 8-10 times more resources than the college’s transfer programs. This includes physical space, equipment, the cost of training, and remaining certified. What has helped in all aspects of the college is the strong working relationship with Breckenridge and Wahpeton. “We share resources whenever possible,” Richman explains. “We look for partnerships and collaboration.”