My conferences like to tag-team; this hurts my brain, but I'm like 85% okay with that.
About two seconds ago, I was on the first floor of the newly remodeled Fargo Public Library wrapping up the "unconference" part of the annual GPACW conference (the Great Plains Alliance in Computers and Writing). Yes, an UNconference. It was happily semi-unorganized, but chuck full of ideas.
So... just like with TYCA last week, I have many things to jot down before they disappear forever. Forever.

Random Bits from the Sheets in my Folder:
9am Session Yesterday: "Students want to get to know their online prof." /// Put in feedback on quizzes; there are spots for it - use 'em! /// Survey students about online classes? /// New thing: Students are embarassed by taking online courses? /// Tips for Students: Tell 'em which browser to use and that they shouldn't be using WiFi for quiz work. ///

10am Session Yesterday: This was the session I presenting during. I got these ideas from the questions that were asked - I should use more "How are you doing?" emails in my online classes, Watch cultural euphemisms international students may not get.

2pm Session Yesterday: Google Scholar? What is that & let's look it up! /// Flickr Archives - NDSU has some & we should do that with our images! /// Library of Congress has a Flickr Archive? /// NDSU Digital Repository (interesting).

3pm Session Yesterday: Helvetica (is a movie and font) - The font "caused the Vietnam War"?

4pm Session Yesterday: Kevin had a great idea for online portfolios using WordPress and Scribd. Yay! Super useful handout! (Slideshare.net)

Today's UNconference: I had a lot of questions in our first unsession... Is my class structure/format "ancient" because it's mainly asynchronous? Should I attempt synchronous chat room times at like 7-8pm Wed and 7-8am Thurs? What is the point or goal of either kind (asynchronous vs. synchronous) in regards to flexibility and helpfulness and accessiblity? Some teachers have students on webcams; do mine have access and should that be required? Do I want them to love ME or love the COURSE? Popularity versus Knowledge, right?

Potential Tools and Ideas: there's a Flickr Set on how to create dry erase walls and boards, use icons in schedule to show what'll be used that week (TECH, TEXT, VIDEO, ART, etc.), more podcast usage in all classes?, text to speech software (Speakonia?), have a Dork Page that I can link 'em to when they ask silly questions (idea from Cindy! Love her!), foxit.com, Vue (similar to Prezi), Lulu (dot com?), Link to Library Database from eCollege, ... Revise the "What makes me controversial" CB in online 120 into a more formal topic sentence + back-up sentences product with color-coding! Oooh...

Second unsession: Peer Review = screenshot + Paint program + color code parts of rubric, etc. + Save As images and put into PPT before handing back to student writer; make it and other activities into games? (who wants to be Mayor of Revisionville?), another peer review idea was to incorporate Speed Dating-like format = have students bring up their papers on their computer screens in the lab + each student goes from computer to computer trying to find a particular item (time this) + at the end, the student returns to their marked-up paper! Cool beans!; the Speed-Dating format could work for many things like post-reading or brainstorming or even with P3 about a song (students could ask about their song and students would give their interpretation + the writer could then use the students as sources); ELI program - useful for Assessment, definitely, texter (uses text clips which are attached to acronyms for easy feedback), EMMA @Georgia?, "Lightening Lectures" = I like that title.

Upcoming IPOD Session on campus (got asked to consider doing one in November on pre-reading activities before I came to conference; it was fresh in my head, so I brainstormed): make flashcards = F/P Image Creation, Pre-Reading Self-Exam and Questions to Consider plus T/F?, Passport, Tweet from your Seat, Text Type Up (students re-type a piece of text) and then mark it up with highlighting and colors, etc., Animoto Video Trailer, Prezi, Visual Definition, Create A Quiz, Speed Dating CompLab or handout (ask a question per handout/computer and they move around to each one and answer it differently than the student before them), Screenshot of something related to the reading (then Insert into a Word doc and bring to class as a Passport), write up a "How To" or "Sybil Priebe on ..." that is related to the reading, Q&Q (quotes and questions: have X amount of each before discussion), ...

WRITE ON!

I just thought of the most demented assignment EVER.
After having students read something (by George Carlin or David Sedaris, in Eng110, or Chuck Klosterman, in Engl120), require them to create a list of things that one would say, "That's what she said," afterward. That would really make them have to critically read and think, right? I mean, it's crazy, but fun.

a) Ways to announce stuff to online classes:
--- Blabberize.
--- Animoto. Already have a few created!
--- Jigsaw Planet.
--- Prezi?

b) Options/Additions for products/projects/papers:
--- Presentations: Prezi, Slideshare, VoiceThread, SlideRocket...
--- Glogster.
--- Wordle.
--- Wikis or Google Docs for group work, online or on-campus.
--- ToonDoo (below) for Creative Writing.
--- ToonDoo (below) for English 105 assignments that show communication in the workplace or in their fake companies.
--- ToonDoo (below) for English 120 assignments to show argument.
--- Use PocketMod & CutePDF = "You can create a 7-8 page word document, convert it to a PDF (using a free service such as CutePDF) and then make your document into a small little book. Students can create their own content to tell stories, review terms and share ideas. Teachers can use it to deliver content, help students review vocab, science terms and math equations and much more. Teachers could provide the PDF on their class website for kids to assemble at home, they could hand them out at school, or the kids could create their own content and make their own books."
--- Use TimeGlider to create a timeline in Creative Writing of an author?
--- Use TimeGlider to create a timeline of an argument for an English 120 project.

c) To embed/use in English 120 Online:
--- Finding & Citing Digital Sources, a VoiceThread video created by others.
--- TED presentations. Find some!
--- Use Screencast-o-Matic. It takes video of desktop as I show 'em how to put in footnotes or search for blogs (for the GBP), etc. Or try ScreenJelly to do the same thing?
--- Use ClipNabber to take videos off of YouTube.
--- Use Newseum to see what's making the headlines in papers around the world.

More brainstorming:
I'm already thinking that students in English 120 could create VoiceThreads or Wikis or Animoto videos for their Shortfolios at the end of the semester. Creative Writing students (if we do a photo essay, here's an example) could create VoiceThreads too for projects as well as Wikis and Animoto videos.

Other tools:
Zamzar does free online conversion of files. Woot!

More stuff:
--- Have students sum up the chapter in a tweet-sized bite?

--- A wordle of the many, many web2.0 tools out there!

I had a thought. About something. Last night.
Now it's gone.
I even brainstormed about the brainstorming. Complained to Anne too.
Still have no idea what it was.

Perhaps it was the idea of creating an empty syllabus/document w/highlighted bits that would change in each class. Two charts (the daily schedule, essentially) would be in this document, one for spring and one for fall. So I could just plug in dates of class, conferences, and possible start/end dates for projects & papers. I don't think this was the awesome thought, but I did start on this sort of document today. In between my one class at 10am, lunch, and the Haverty Hall Social (cider & cookie overload!).

It also could've been the idea to collect & create 40-45 mini-essay topics; I'm thinking of having a mini-essay due at the beginning of every single English 110 class next semester. It'll take care of tardy students (they'll have less time, of course, since I'll give students exactly ten minutes to complete it), it'll help me keep attendance, and it'll give them even more writing practice. I'd like to do it in English 120 as well... "we'll see."

If anyone sees the idea, please report it to my lost & found box.

"Gimme gimme more, gimme more." Well, okay then, Britney. Calm down.
Idea #1: Mini-Assignments in 110 and 120 (and even 105 or 240?) . 250+ words. Every other week? Different topics (like the ones I'm getting from this book, What's Language Got To Do With It? - What words/phrases do you like to hear? How do you like to hear them? How is language going to affect you today/this week? Why is spelling important or isn't it? What are the different languages you know? Why do misunderstandings occur if we're all using the same language? Does texting have grammar rules? Is "texting language" different from "IM language" or from "Facebook language"?). Some will be visual assignments too like brochures or flyers?
Idea #2: More "projects" rather than "papers". Using PPT or visual products. [Implementing many mini-assignments could possibly add up to the total of 10+ pages of writing per semester alone...]
Idea #3: An activity called the SQR: Summary/Quote & Question/Reflection. 250+ words. Could be used in 105, 110, 120, and even 240. Sum up the piece in so many sentences, Quote what you liked/Ask 2-3 questions, and then Reflect on what you learned or how it can be implemented in your life or writing, etc.
Idea #4: Competitions. The student group to complete the best ____ will get 30/30 (for example) and 10 bonus points. The runners-up get 30/30. Third place, 25/30. Class votes?
Idea #5: New layout of eCompanion courses to aid me when I want to move around projects/papers/assignments. Reorganize Doc Sharing too?

[I like acronyms, don't I? GKL. SQR. P1. P2. P3. GBP. MW. CB.]

These "What Works For Me" sections in the TETYC (Teaching English in the Two-Year College) are wonderful. I've only read two (from two editions), and, already, I have a handful of ideas to use! Even with my writing conferences coming up next week!

> Apostrophobia: This will be an extra Geeky Knowledge Lesson handout & activity.
> First Days: Instead of having the students introduce themselves and then I stumble through the syllabus, this idea combines those activities by having students get in groups right away and come up with 5 of their own questions (less talking for me!)
> Conference Tickets: "Leading up to the days we have conferences I make the requirement clear to my students: you must bring a completed conference ticket in order to meet with me. Failure to complete the ticket - a preprinted sheet of paper distributed in class - results in a cancelled conference."
> Student Excuses: Essentially, students have to write up a narrative about their excuse and the class has to be persuaded to let them make up missed work.
> Grammar Games: Yet another extra GKL using the Eight Parts of Speech (put so many words of each part on the board - the group with the most sentences made out of those words wins).
> Parody & Poetry: Students take a poem (or song) and create a parody of it, using, as closely as possible, the same form.

It is amazing what one finds when one digs deep enough. I have had these big bulky binders in my possession for quite some time. I had chucked them in the filing cabinet... and I didn't really remember what was in 'em (filled them up while teaching high school)... and then I dug.

Found: Fahrenheit 451 notes/tests/vocabulary sheets (can use in Online English 120!), an open-book World Literature test, a handout on sentence patterns w/a sentence worksheet, a list of questions that could springboard writing assignments & essays, and a copy of Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour." 

One of my favorite devices near me (iBook) producing Sade's "By Your Side" (and other just downloaded songs) around my head via my massive earphones (the only way to get good bass, in my opinion) so as to not bother Roxie...

After getting treated to lunch today, I'll start on preparations for next spring... as well as reworking that Online English 120 class (may leave some of that for next week?). I have ideas, too many probably, so I just need to put them on the screen/onto paper. Much of the same is on the agenda for tomorrow's 10am to 6pm schedule.

At the office (gasp!) grading papers (gasp!). I think the rainbow-colored stocking cap is helping me concentrate. I say this because I am getting through the papers fairly quickly and also because I came up with an idea of calling the first few weeks of English 110 a "Building Up of Topics" unit. This unit would include an "All About You" packet where they create a few Top Ten lists of things they like, a list of "I believe..." statements, and the River Map idea (creating a river of your memories - got the idea at NCTE), etc. Additional idea - Within that unit and the rest of the semester, have "What's Wrong Here?" lessons/activities where students are shown a chunk of a paper and asked to figure out what went "wrong." WWH lessons. Better than the WWF!? I really like the idea of focusing those first weeks on 1) figuring out what they can write about well (what are they experts at), 2) an in-depth look at the process of writing, and 3) mini-lessons on grammar-based things as teeny tiny review... and 4) how writing/reading/researching skills connect to everyday life/"the real world."

[How crazy is the weather! It's like spring outside... 48 degrees?! This is North Dakota, right?]

I'd like to get to the point where I have lessons broken up either daily or weekly on a disk/CD/storage device. Handouts that go with the lesson, possible visuals either on the device or listed as to where they can be found online, activities... I have already started to create categories within my folders for English 105, Punk English 110, etc such as "Fall 2006" so the more updated items are together and I know when I used/created what.