Critical thinking skills and basic textual analysis are increasingly important in a cultural landscape where the powerful are counting on the average person not caring about such things as the truth. Biden opened by talking about how English common law in the 1300s allowed for husbands to beat their wives, and then said that we…
Insightful essay from a US Military vet who went to college at age 52. Let me address this “snowflake” thing. According to the “Urban Dictionary” a “snowflake” is a “term for someone that thinks they are unique and special, but really are not. It gained popularity after the movie “Fight Club” from the quote “You…
Similar:As CRT Supplies Vanish the Classic Arcade Machine is Virtually DeadIf you understand the environment in whi…CultureA Conversation with Dennis Jerz, Actor — WAOB Audio Theatrehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU6vs0ZB…DramaVaccine hesitancy morphs into hostility, as opposition to shots hardens What began as “vaccine hesitancy” has …CultureA dinosaur and an octopus are among those doing a speed-writing workshop in my…
Similar:Ugh. Unmarked items waiting for me as I start to recover from an illness.PersonalBrass desk lamp, with translucent green shade and glowing light bulb filament. #blender3dPersonalSeton Hill University advertises for “Social & Digital Content Manager”The Social & Digital Content Manager…AcademiaTrying something a bit different for today's 10 sq cm of #steampunk #blender3d control pan…AestheticsMy older…
Similar:#PPTPlaytime Tartuffe @thepublicpgh (Looking forward to Part 2 of this live videoconferenc…CultureA Career-Aligned Major Isn’t EnoughI’ve taken over teaching the English dep…AcademiaBad Writing Costs Businesses BillionsThis is thinkpiece rehtoric rather than …AcademiaThe Myth of ‘Learning Styles’The discourse around “learning styles” (…AcademiaThoroughly enjoying Collaborators at Quantum Theatre.PersonalThe chief engineer does not know where the floating lamps…
What does this simple question and its results tell us? It’s not the English major that’s the problem. It’s an industry-recognized skill attached to the English major that’s the opportunity. I’ve long advocated for a rebranding of the term liberal arts. Americans generally and employers more specifically value the elements of a liberal arts degree such…
See: Academic Argument: Evidence-based Defense of a Non-obvious Position Similar:Don’t patronize older adults by calling them ‘the elderly’In English grammar, we use the definite …CultureI went with frisse. German uses esse “to eat” for people…AmusingWhat Khan Academy's Fun, Free Learning Empire Has to Do with Dystopian Social Control Over the Christmas break, I’ve been ch…AcademiaNo one’s…
Some days are slogs. Some weeks are slogs. Some weeks are slogs that end with a wonderfully heartening comment from a student. I will not deny that I was a little worried about reading Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet as I know that they are two of Shakespeare’s most famous plays and I feared that…
Most of my students use MS-Word, but maybe a third use Google Docs (that’s a big increase lately) and a handful (but a bigger handful) use Pages. Today during a writing conference, a freshman comp student blinked in confusion when I asked her to “take me to your word processor.” I tried again. “Open up…
Citing student objections to offensive content, Point Park University canceled its production of The Adding Machine: The Musical, which was scheduled to run Dec 6-15. The PPU Globe reports that during an emotional “town hall” meeting that included the cast and crew and more than enough members of the public to fill the Highmark Theater,…
“It has made me more confident in myself, and I don’t view Shakespeare’s work as intimidating anymore.” –freshman student reflecting on the first half of my “Shakespeare in Context” course. In lieu of reading comprehension quizzes, I have students post informal responses. They respond to an orientation lecture and each act of the play as…
In the past few years I have seen more students who are very bright, hard-working, and grade-conscious, who are very comfortable when they have a list facts to memorize, or a formula to follow. Rather than thinking of a revision as an opportunity to develop, these students think more transactionally than organically about their learning, and prefer to see revision as a punishment for not getting it right the first time. I see it instead as an integral part of the critical thinking process.
Jessica found herself wishing that somebody — anybody — in her family had died: ”Because then I could write about it.” — College application essays. >As a young man I needed someone to look up to, someone to emulate. I was something of a nerd: I needed someone who’d integrated highly technical talents with the…
Similar:A rare win for Dad. CultureThese buildings are so much better than my first try about a month ago, and good enough fo…These buildings are so much better than …PersonalThirteen seconds. Dozens of bullets. One explosive photo.Forget for a moment that the picture is …CultureLeonard Nimoy, Spock of ‘Star Trek,’ Dies at 83Leonard Nimoy, the sonorous,…
Turns out, getting a STEM education may help you get a good job early but if you want a good career, you’re better off in liberal arts lane. In other words, even if you’re only measuring money, a liberal arts education is probably worth a ton more than most people may think. […] [B]y the time…
Saving for the next time I teach “Intro to English Study.” It’s all well and good to sing “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd” to the tune of “Hallelujah,” but why can’t you do it the other way around? For that matter, why does it work only when you limit yourself to the first two lines…
A recent study measured differences in student learning, comparing the results of traditional lectures (where the students sit passively while the instructor connects all the dots for them) and active learning (where the students get guidance, but have to connect the dots themselves). Students gave lower ratings to instructors who made them think harder and…
[T]o improve as writers, students need to write frequently, for meaningful reasons, to readers who respond as actual readers do — with interest in ideas, puzzlement over lack of clarity or logic, and feedback about how to think more deeply and write more clearly to accomplish the writer’s purposes. There is no shortcut… When…
Me: I need to post the opening lecture for my online Shakespeare class. Also me: I should compose it in blank verse. Me (glares in iambic pentameter): Also me: O for a Canvas of fire, to surpass The farthest distance of instruction. SHU tech is cool, but can a Macbook hold A seminar discussion? Can…
Few school newspapers are financially independent from the institutions they cover, says Chris Evans, president of the College Media Association. As a result, college administrators hold powerful leverage over student journalists and their faculty advisers. The need for aggressive student news organizations is as acute as ever. But image-obsessed administrators are hastening the demise of…