A Happy Mess.

-
With how messy my head has been lately with acronyms and pedagogies and webinar chatroom comments, you'd think I'd lost what my teaching style IS, but I think all of these Twitter-induced rabbit holes have only reaffirmed what I'm doing in the classroom and why.

Student voice and choice. Yep.
Empathy built in. Yes.
Creativity everywhere. Hells yeah.
Real-world applications. Mm hm.
  • PBL asks students to create their own projects and create their own daily tasks.
  • OEP asks students to write for the open movement, the creative network of the world. It demands: "Get rid of disposable assignments!"
  • TFT asks students to transfer what they are learning in one area to another.
  • Punk theory says, "Give students voice and choice."
  • OWI is all about access and inclusivity.
Some tweet the other day said that we should shy away from recipe assignments (14 slides, 7 sources, 4 transitions, 2 memes) because that's bad, and <insert their pedagogy here> says that we should give them the outcomes instead (I'm butchering the paraphrasing). What I got out of that whole deal was this: Start assigning projects like this CC course assigns projects.

What do I mean? Well, here's a screenshot of a current project of mine (the goal is to argue whether you are a stereotype/birth order or not):


And then here is a CC project description:


Notice the difference? And why shouldn't I just list the minimum pieces that should pop up and let the students determine how many sources and how many words? It sounds very hippie-dippy to me, but it also sounds like less stress on my end. The products that students could create are endless.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Intentionally Equitable Hospitality - IEH

-
Image
I signed up for a three-part webinar series, pre-Spring semester, on the topic of Intentionally Equitable Hospitality .* Here are my random thoughts and connections, via a list that some might understand and some might not. Power in the Room: Such a variety I've witnessed... Campus meetings Book clubs and Sorority groups I've been a part of Conferences, virtual and in-person The classroom Courses I've taken = Creative Commons Certification for Educators Who has designed these spaces? Who do they serve? Who benefits? Thinking on the idea of generous authority* "Facilitator is equalizing, protecting, and hoping to connect to their guests." Have I ever experienced this? Yes. With the ungrading community online, the OER community, my book club, the CC course, and hopefully in my own classroom at times... What can the inequitable spaces I've been in learn from the equitable ones? Soft starts. How is everyone? What is the pulse of the room? "Authority figure...
Read more

Absence Makes the Content Longer?

-
Image
Well, hello there, little bloggie. I haven't been on here for months, but I think I have rather good reasons... the most unfortunate reason is my health.  Towards the middle of May, the day after our last contract day, I had a biopsy done on my face (a weird bump near my left nostril that had not healed over since fall!), and the dermatologist was pretty sure it was basal cell carcinoma. Skin cancer, although not the total evil kind. Within weeks, I was "signed up" for 21 radiation treatments in Fargo, and that sucked up my summer. The radiation itself was 30 seconds worth of nothing, even if halfway through (treatment 10-ish) my skin did freak out a bit, which threw me into a spin of anxiety. {The same thing happened with my breast reduction; at some point, your brain wonders why you are doing what you are doing, and you question all of your decisions.} I was able to get away to two cabins to attempt to recalibrate my soul and body, and those little trips did help, even ...
Read more

ChatGPT and Communication Differences in Two Genders

-
Image
I've been revamping my English 120 (argument-based) in my head a lot lately, since I teach it in the summer. I want more engaging discussion boards, and for an early-in-the-semester one, I've been thinking about having students look at two items, compare and contrast them, and then dig into their own observations. The questions in the discussion board might simply be - Given these two items, do you think there are differences in how these two genders communicate? Do you see it in your own life? What are the implications for writing teachers to grapple with? Item #1: I plan to download the annotations to the syllabus from spring and block out the names of the students, replacing the names with MAN or WOMAN to give us a "real life" example to play with. Item #2: This question/answer from ChatGPT - I see more of my male students writing less in their comments and discussions than female students - why is that? Is there research on the different between textual communicat...
Read more