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January 31, 2006
Writing the precis papers
Greetings, everyone! This post is directed primarily at the students in EDUC 600, although you undergrads out there may find the writing tips useful as well.
I wanted to give a little more guidance on the précis papers. I realize that these précis papers are a bit different from other “reflection” pieces you may have written for other professors, so what follows is a distilled, focused version of what I was saying in class Monday.
An excellent précis paper demonstrates all of the following five qualities. Above average papers may not demonstrate some of the qualities as well as an excellent paper, but all of the qualities are still present. Average papers may fail to demonstrate one of the qualities at all, or may lack significant demonstration in several areas. Below average papers fail to demonstrate more than one of the following qualities. The qualities are listed in rough order of importance.
1. Engagement with text and/or ideas presented in class.
Your paper should deeply engage an idea or ideas the reading has presented. You should demonstrate an understanding of the idea or ideas that are the focus of the paper and why those ideas are important. While it’s fine to present more than one idea in the paper, the paper should not loose focus (see below). Remember that these papers are supposed to show your involvement with the ideas of the course. This is the part where you demonstrate your understanding of those ideas.
2. Presence of student’s views, perspective, and/or argument, with evidence for those views when appropriate.
This is the part of the paper where you demonstrate your thoughts on the presented idea or ideas in a clear manner. You interrogate the idea, smack it around a little, and see if it talks. Ask questions of it. Present your own views, but bring evidence and reasoning with those views. Connect that idea to other ideas or concepts the text discusses or we’ve talked about in class. I want to know about the ideas and concepts, but also want to know what you can do with them.
3. Focus
You only get two pages, so use them wisely. I know – there are a lot of ideas out there that are just asking for it. You’re not a super-hero, though, you’re just one lone graduate student amidst a see of ideas, so pick your battles. Better to take on one or two and finish the job than to try and take down the whole Family, wound a couple, and have them come back and get you in the end.
4. Originality
We’re talking about American education, so it’s no surprise a lot of people have been here before. That doesn’t mean you can’t contribute in a novel way. Make a connection that the text doesn’t explicitly make. Make an argument that isn’t obvious. Sin boldly, as Martin Luther exclaimed.
5. Writing skill
You are graduate students. Write like it. Complete sentences. Use appropriate punctuation! Avoid superfluous and extra adjectives. Use adverbs sparingly.
Construct quality transitions.
Remember also that style is important, but readability is essential. And, of course, don’t follow my example here. :)
Note that it’s also possible to use a précis paper to explore an idea you are still struggling to understand. You still demonstrate what you think the idea is getting at, then use the rest of the paper to interrogate the idea and your own belief/assumptions about it. You “bring the idea in for questioning,” even if you are not quite sure it’s guilty.
Posted by Nakia at 06:51 PM | Comments (1)
On Fantasy
George R. R. Martin sums up the appeal of fanstasy stories (to me at least) quite well:
I've put this one up on the wall.
Posted by Nakia at 11:18 AM | Comments (4)
January 25, 2006
Bill for More General Diffusion of Knowledge
The University of Virginia (my Ph.D. alma mater and home to all things Jefferson) has digitized and made available for public use most of Jefferson's writings. Below is the link to Jefferson's proposal to the state legislature for publicly funded schools in Virginia.
Bill for More General Diffusion of Knowledge
A few things to note:
1. Jefferson's views on democracy and the link between education and democratic government. (the first paragraph)
2. The system of primary and grammar schools. Who advances from one to the next?
3. The importance of merit for advancement and selecting those who govern.
4. Vestiges of elitism. Does Jefferson really think everyone has an equal chance to achieve higher education and, then, deomcratic rule? Or are some more suited than others?
5. Who is not included in Jefferson's school system?
If you have some time, explore the etext versions of Jefferson's other writings. Education was something very important to Jefferson. It's interesting to see how he embodies both equality/democracy and elitism/racism.
Posted by Nakia at 09:40 AM | Comments (2)
Teacher Requirements, circa 1923
The following document was forwarded to me by a graduate student.
What does everyone think about these? What kind of expectations do they convey toward teachers? Why do you think these rules existed?
Posted by Nakia at 09:34 AM | Comments (2)
January 24, 2006
Summary
Summary post of the last flu days:
Saturday: NC Game day in Raleigh. Having fun!
Sunday: Back from Raleigh. Good to be home. Panthers getting killed by Seahawks. Begin to feel ill, not just from football team's performance. Go to bed feeling really bad. Wake up numerous times during the night, unable to swallow.
Monday: So much stuff to do, but achy and generally feeling crappy. Stay home all morning and sleep, but have to teach from 2 until 8. Buy and take Day-Quil. Let's hear it for pharmaceuticals! Teach my classes while sitting down, asking my students to call 911 if I pass out. Then they can leave. Monday night -- KFC mashed potatoes for dinner. Go to bed by 10.
Tuesday: Wake up numerous times during night. Wish I had purchased the Day-Quil/Ny-Quil combo pack. Wonder if the Maker's Mark in the cabinet will work just as well. Check email at 4:30 AM. Go back to bed and sleep through my office hours at work (but had let the secretary know I probably wouldn't be in during my 4:30 AM email session). Get up by 10:00 and feel a little better. Only one class today, so I'll teach it and go home to nap. Getting behind on the work, but what are you gonna do?
Posted by Nakia at 01:27 PM | Comments (0)
January 20, 2006
The Genius of Steve Perry
Breakfast conversation at the Pope house yesterday:
Sarah: "I have this damned song stuck in my head and I don't know why."
Nakia: "What song?"
Sarah: "That one, you know -- 'Just a small town girl . . . took the midnight train going anywhere.'"
Nakia: "Journey? 'Don't Stop Believin'?"
Sarah: "Yes!"
Nakia & Sarah, singing: "Don't stop believin', hold on to that feeling"
Nakia: "Dammit! Now it's stuck in my head. . ."
The only solution there, of course, is to play the song that's stuck in your head. Fortunately, we have Journey's Greatest Hits, so we spent the morning rockin' out to "Don't Stop Believin."
Of course I woke up this morning with "Lights" stuck in my head, so we just gave in and played the whole damn CD.
The power of Steve Perry.
Did you know that "Only the Young" was from the soundtrack to "Vision Quest"?
What, exactly, are we supposed to not stop believing in? What is "that feeling"?
Well, gotta go. They wheel in the sky keeps on turning and I don't know where I'll be tomorrow.
Posted by Nakia at 08:39 AM | Comments (7)
January 18, 2006
Geek Malaise?
For the past month or so, I've been decidedly uninterested in most things geeky -- comics and RPG's in particular. I noticed in before Christmas, when I was heading to Heroes Aren't Hard to Find to pick up my comics. En route, I realized I had little to no interest in actually getting and reading the comics. I was just going because I needed something to do and didn't want my stack of saved comics to pile up. Some of those comics are still sitting on the floor of my study, unread. My RPG desire has simialrly waned. I haven't bought any new gaming material since November. I pretty much gave up trying to find people here to game with. I didn't make the requisite visit to some very good game stores in Dallas when Sarah and I were there over the holidays.
I'm not really sure why all this has happened. It could be the lack of contact I have here with geek-minded folks. I don't have any comic or gaming realted friends like I did in Charlottesville. It could be the pressures of a new job and new living situation. Lots of changes going on for The Popes and something had to give. It's probably both of those things, plus others I am not even aware of right now.
The geek malaise disturbs me, because things like comics and gaming have been fairly constant sources of enjoyment for me since high school. Both were intermitent in college, but gaming, especially has been consistent over the past eight years or so (and, honestly, has been more important to me than the comics). It scares me a little that my enjoyment for something like that could just go away.
I'm not saying it has gone away, yet. Tim is doing some cool things with Risus that keep me interested at Risus Monkey. I'm on the listserve for a Winthrop gaming group; I keep thinking I should send out a post and try to recruit players. And, this weekend, I'm going to NC Game day in Raleigh to hang out with Rich and some ENWorld folks and game a bit. I see this weekend as a bit of a litmus test for my gaming enthusiasm. It may rekindle the fire. Or I may go, have a pretty good time, but still not be terribly interested in gaming when I return. We'll see.
This may just be a consequence of me getting older. I turn 30 in two and a half weeks. If so, it's a crappy consequence. Give me all night D&D sessions in John's garage and a case of those fake kool aid drinks in the little plastic jugs!
Has this happened to anyone else? Something you enjoyed for a long time just stopped giving you enjoyment?
Posted by Nakia at 11:23 AM | Comments (5)
January 17, 2006
Reading and Studying the Textbook
Starting this week, I hope all of you begin reading chapter three in Exploring Education. We'll begin our discussion of the history of education next week. Before folks get too far into things, I wanted to give some tips about how to process the text.
I'm giving these tips, in part, because I do not give out study guides for exams or reading guides for texts. Higher education is about much more than just learning new "stuff". It's about developing skills in reading and interpretation that allow you to continuously learn from your encounter with texts and other materials. Giving out reading or study guides gives you a shortcut to some "stuff" but robs you of developing the reading and study skills which are essential to being a successful college student and a successful educator.
1. Read in small chunks. It's better to read 10-15 pages in 4-5 sittings than it is to try and cram all 48 pages into one reading session. If you try the "read it all at once" approach, you'll get bored and end up missing out on a lot of important information. By setting aside several smaller chuncks of time to read shorter amounts, you will be able to focus better and process more between reading sessions.
2. Pay special attention when the book emphasizes something. The book puts words in italics, creates numbered lists, and quotes certain authors at length. It does that for a reason. Make a note of those things.
3. Make the headings your study guide. Each chapter is broken up into larger section headers (with BIG BOLD TYPE) and topic headers (with Smaller Bold Type). Make questions out of each of those headers; then read to answer the questions. Answers to the topic headers will contribute to the answer of the section header.
Here's an example:
Page 65 ends with a section header: "The Age of Reform: The Rise of the Common School." You can turn that into a few questions, like When was the age of reform? Why is it called 'the age of reform'? What is the common school? How did it rise?
Within that section are smaller topics: "Opposition to Public Education" and "Education for Women and African Americans". First, make those into questions as well: Why were people opposed to public education? Who was opposed? How were African Americans and Women educated during this time?
Formulating questions from the headers offered by the book and then reading to answer them are good ways to generate your own study guides.
4. Read and study with other people. I really encourage group exploration of the topics in the text. It helps to get other perspectives of the reading. Someone else may have generated different questions than you. Others may have answered the same questions in a different way. The more you can talk about your reading and explain what you have read to others, the more you will have to process the material and put it in your own words. This is key to constructing your own meaning of concepts.
5. Constantly ask yourself what you think about what you have just read. Remember, two of our course goals relate explicitly to application of material to your experience and professional situations. Figuring out what you think about the common school (was it a good thing or a bad thing? How could it have developed differently? How did the development of the common school influence the current school situation?) tests your own ideas. Exams don't just measure whether or not you memorized terms; they measure your conceptual understanding of the material and your ability to apply it.
Posted by Nakia at 01:03 PM | Comments (0)
January 13, 2006
Quick Note and Virginia Coalition
Just a quick note to the readers:
You may have noticed posts on the blog that are clearly directed at my students. I'm trying to use the blog as a teaching tool; it's a bit of an experiment. My students will only be able to see entries that are listed under the "Classes" Category, so they won't be subject to my ramblings about movies or gaming or whatever. I'm still working on a way to keep that category hidden from everyone else, so everyone else won't have to read about stuff for my classes. Until then, if folks NOT in my class would refrain from leaving comments under entries for my class, I'd appreciate it.
Last night, Sarah and I took our date night and ate at "The Master Chef" -- a walk up greasy spoon I drive past every day on my way to work. Good burger and really good curly fries. Then we went to see Virginia Coalition at Tillman Auditorium on campus.
VaCo was lots of fun, even for the small crowd that came. They are Barenaked Ladies with more funk with some John Mayer and a lot more percussion. Popy, a little funky, and a little jammy. Good, good stuff.
Big props to Boyd Jones and the Dinkins Student Union for getting VaCo. I'm impressed by the quality and quantity of events the DSU crew bring to campus.
Posted by Nakia at 10:52 AM | Comments (6)
Merit Pay for Houston Teachers
Is it a good idea to give teachers bonuses and incentives based on the test scores of students? The Houston School District, with over 200,000 students, seems to think so.
Houston to link teacher pay to test scores
What do you think?
Posted by Nakia at 08:35 AM | Comments (5)
January 12, 2006
Evaluations
I recently received my student evaluations for the Fall 2005 semester. There are all sorts of issues surrounding these things. First, as a research instrument they are pretty unreliable. Lots of research on student evaluations has shown the substantive questions on them are unduly influenced by whether or not the student likes the teacher. In other words, the evaluations tell more about whether or not the student likes the teacher than whether or not the teacher is a good teacher. These limitations of student evaluations are well known.
My university places considerable weight on teaching, a fact that attracted me to the university in the first place. While student evaluations are not the only means of assessing our teaching, they are an important piece of the promotion and tenure process. They are also an important piece of how we go about improving our teaching skills; we see what works and what does not and modify if necessary.
On a personal level, I tend to take these things pretty personally, although that's getting better as I teach more. I'm a little insecure, still a new teacher, and still growing at my craft. The trick is to be responsive to my student evaluations while keeping a thick skin about them and realizing they are only part of the data I should use in evaluating my teaching.
From my evalations, it seems there are three areas of my teaching that need improvement. I received lower scores than I would have liked on "selection of instructional materials," "communication of subject matter," and "demonstration of enthusiasm."
The materials thing is easily explained and easily remedied. I was using a bad textbook. Teaching to Change the World has good ideas and a unique perspective, but is structured poorly and tries to cram too much information in its pages. My students had a really hard time separating the wheat from the chaff in their reading, which carried over in their preparation for the exams. On the free response portion of the evaluations, many students indicated they wanted study guides. I am anti-study guide, especially when I put my Powerpoint presentations on line for my students to download. But, given a confusing text, I can understand the student need for help in figuring out what in the reading was important. I'm using a different textbook this semester, which I hope will fix this problem for my students.
The communication of subject matter is a bit more troubling. Some of it is related to the textbook. My students felt a disconnect between what I was talking about in class and what they were reading. I wasn't "going over" the reading, I was elaborating and expanding on it. I'm still figuring out how to navigate this road. I don't want to parrot the textbook, but I do want to make sure my students understand what they have read.
This communication part also, I'm guessing, refers to general classroom technique -- how I teach, lecture vs other activities, etc. I'm still working on this and believed I got better as last semester progressed. I was using powerpoints for the first time, incorporating more group activities, and trying new stuff out. Some of that is effective, others not so much, but I did learn from both. It's too bad some classes are my guinea pigs.
The final piece of the subject matter thing is just, well, the subject matter. I'm talking about history and philosophy of education from a critical perspective here, which is not something most of my students have encountered before. It's not easily put into a box they already have, so it's probably a little more difficult. Add to that they are mostly freshmen and are still learning how college classes are different from high school classes, and you have some disconnect between what I am trying to do as a teacher and what they expect as students. I can do more to help with that transition, I think. Maybe they do need study guides. . .
The enthusiasm issue is the most troubling to me because it seems like just a personality thing. I like my subject matter and am happy to be teaching it. I'm not, however, a jump around and wave "yipee" kinda guy. Some would say I'm "reserved" or "laid back" or whatever. This type of issue has come up before. I remember when I was pledging the fraternity, I got some serious flack from some brothers because they thought I "wasn't committed". Well, I was committed and serious about what I was doing. I just expressed that commitment in a different way. Those who knew me better knew I was committed and enthusiastic about the fraternity; I just didn't demonstrate those feelings in a patently obvious way. I know it's a two way street -- people need time to learn my mannerisms and personality and I can do more to convey my enthusiasm. I'm just not sure how to do that, exactly.
Wow, long post. Some of this will end up in my annual report for the university, I think. Comments are very welcome.
Posted by Nakia at 09:50 AM | Comments (4)
January 11, 2006
Welcome!
Welcome to professorpope.com and our weblog (blog) for the Spring 2006 semester. I hope to use this blog as a space to communicate with students about course work, class discussions, and other items that I find that may be useful and interesting to our classes. It's also a space for my students to ask questions and make comments about what's going on in EDUC 100 and EDUC 600.
As a public space for discussion, I'd ask that you use the same guidelines for discussion that are outlined in your syllabus -- be respectful of others, but don't be afraid to ask questions and challenge opinions.
Much more will be coming in the future, but for now -- welcome!
Posted by Nakia at 01:00 PM | Comments (2)
Morning productivity
I'm a morning person. If I go to bed at a sufficent hour and get the recomended 8 hours sleep, then I'm all about getting up early and getting things done.
I tried to do that today; I went to bed by 10:30 and was up at 6:30 or so, showered and out the door by 8:00. I was in the office before the main office even opened and feeling good about knocking out a lot of work before class at 2:00.
My general routine is to first check my email, beginning with my school account. This morning, I had eight emails from advisees with assorted questions about courses, transfers, and others things that adivsees have questions about. Here, I made my first mistake. I did NOT follow the GTD "two-minute rule" and responsed to all the emails before I did anything else. This took awhile and sapped my momentum. As a new professor, I had to look a lot of stuff up in order to answer the questions my advisees had. (My advisees could have looked the stuff up as well, but that's not such a big deal. Advising is part of my job). So those eight emails took almost an hour. Worse, they sapped my valuable morning energy that should have been used for reading and writing. Finding out the answers to my advisee questions could easily have been done this afternoon, when my energy had shifted a bit. Now, it's almost 10:00 and I've gotten no reading or writing done and have all sorts of other stuff cluttering my mind.
Some of that stuff on my mind is my student evaluations, which I received this morning. That, however, is another entry.
Posted by Nakia at 09:36 AM | Comments (0)
January 09, 2006
Beginning the semster
Today is the first day of the spring semester here at Winthrop. I'm pretty excited. I teach three sections of "Teachers, Schools, and Society" (the same class I taught last semester) and one section of a graduate class called "Teaching in a Democracy". The content for both classes will be similar, even though expectations and assignments will be different from the undergraduate to the graduate class.
I feel like I've gotten my stuff together and am ready to go.
In developing my syllabi, I gave some serious thought to what I wanted my students to get out of the class and did my best to match my assignments and assessments to those goals. I'll throw the syllabi up here for people to peruse. While both classes use the same textbook this semester, my plan is to teach more primary source material in future graduate classes. I generally don't like textbooks for grad classes, but am using one this semester to (admitedly) make things a little easier on myself and my students. No one wins if we are all overwhelmed. Once I get this course under my belt, I can change the readings up a bit.
Download file">Teachers, Schools, and Society Syllabus
Download file">Teaching in a Democracy Syllabus
Posted by Nakia at 11:12 AM | Comments (0)
January 07, 2006
The end of boredom?
Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and business gadfly, has an interesting blog at blogmaverkick.com. In this post, he talks about how the increasing portability of media, especailly video, is leading to the end of boredom.
I'm curious as to what people think. My gut reaction is that he is dead wrong. I don't think boredom is the product of lack of available media. Boredom is more of a state produced by the intersection of individual psychology (motivation, interests, etc), social forces (what activities are accessible, what activities are permissible and accepted) and avaliablity of stimuli (video, print, whatever).
I find myself bored sometimes at my house, especially if Sarah isn't around. This is despite the fact that I have 75 channels of TV, boradband internet access, hundreds of books, thousands of comics, and LOTS of tasks around the house that still need to be completed (still need to hang the new shower curtain rod that we got for our housewarming back in November).
Even if boredom is dying, should it? Is there some connection between boredom and creativity? What's the difference between boredom and peacefullness? One man's monesstary is another man's temple of boredom.
Just some thinking on this Saturday morning.
Posted by Nakia at 11:17 AM | Comments (3)
January 04, 2006
HFC Moment of the week (archive.org)
HFC = Holy Freakin' Crap, used when you find something that is almost unbelievable.
In this case, it is archive.org, an internet repository of public domain media. They have texts, films, music -- if it's digital and public domain, it's in there.
Why is this a HFC moment? First, there is the music. All kinds of live shows, from Greatful Dead stuff to a David Gray concert to Rose Hill Drive's set from Asheville, where I saw them open up for Wilco. (You can find their set here. Then you can download it, listen, and see why Sarah and I had to wait in the lobby for a while.) The music on the site is cool, especially if you are into jam band sorts of music.
It really excites me from an educator's point of view. I can download clips and newsreels, edit them with iMovie or whatever, splice in Powerpoint slides, put different clips together, and do whatever else to create a primary-text multimedia presentation. If I am a history teacher and we are going to learn about WW II, there are newsreels, speeches, and all sorts of other material in archive.org that would be an incredible resource for my students.
The educational possibilities make me just go HFC!
Posted by Nakia at 03:01 PM | Comments (0)
January 03, 2006
Back at it
Although it is not Monday, this is sort of a Monday update -- a catch up, catch all, catch 22 post.
The most consistent piece of writing advice out there is "Write Everyday". This blog should be my space for that. What goes along with that, however, is that one writes a lot of crap that gets thrown away. Should a blog be the space for that? Should one put really rough, unfinished or half-formed thoughts about stuff out there for everyone to read? I'm certainly doing it, at least today.
Spent New Year's at Edisto with the Harpers, the Bomars, the Corbets, the Harrison/Greers, the Justin and Jenna (forgot their last name), the Farmer and Matt, the Hollibaugh and Mark, and in close proximity to the Ladds, the Berrys, the Wilhoits, the Cronin, the TP, and the Conan. Great to see everyone and we had much fun. I didn't know I could stay up to 3:00 AM two nights in a row. Who knew? And who knew Sarah was good at Beer Pong?
Well, you can see how far I've gotten with the site redesign. I don't know if I am lazy, have too little patience for even the rudimentary coding such a redeisgn would take, or am just inept at this stuff. Probably all three.
Finished the new syllabus for my 110 course today. I feel pretty good about it. I think it expresses what I wnat my students to get from the course and how I want them to approach it. I always stress about assignments, though. Am I asking too much? Too little? Does the timing of assignments fit the University's schedule as far as dropping the course and breaks? I know no matter what I do, I'll get groans from students. I need to be as true as I can to my vision of the course whihin the constraints of the University. That's the best I can do, I suppose. That and realize every semester and every class is different, so the syllabus only gets you so far. I'll put a link to my syllabus up when it gets posted so everyone can check it out.
Tomorrow, it's the syllabus for the graduate class. it will be very similar to the 110 syllabus, actually. The course I am teaching is for the MAT students. These are folks who have undergrad degrees already but now want to teach, so they are getting a Master's in Teaching. Since they have no classroom experience and I have no guarantees they have ever had an Ed course before, the material for 110 and 600 are similar. The assignments and expectations are different.
Off to the gym. . .
Posted by Nakia at 01:21 PM | Comments (0)