After a productive run-through of West Side Story, the girl decided to slide out from under the seatbelt, and got stuck in the foot well.

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Create Joy with Content Management System Hexcodes for Canvas LMS

I spent about 30 seconds eyeballing the hexcode colors for Starfleet uniforms so that, from now on, when I’m marking papers, my Canvas interface will remind me just a little bit of Star Trek. Where do you create joy? Captain’s log… supplemental entry. It’s not a perfect match, but the blue and gold are hard…

Portrait of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, biting his lips as if pensive or nervous.

The Expensive Education of Mark Zuckerberg and Silicon Valley

Because what he never managed to grok then was that the company he created was destined to become a template for all of humanity, the digital reflection of masses of people across the globe. Including — and especially — the bad ones. Was it because he was a computer major who left college early and…

On the upside, no fake news is currently being shared on Facebook. Can't think of a downside.

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Performers rehearsing a dance scene from West Side Story on the stage of the Geyer Performing Arts Center

West Side Story to play out on Geyer Performing Arts Center stage

Carolyn Jerz is playing the lead role of Maria, and Logan Williams will take on the role of her love interest, Tony. “(Carolyn) is one of my favorite actresses to work with,” Handford said. “She started out as an understudy for Maria, but she read for Maria at our first read-thru and even before she…

These chairs were cheap, but it really annoys me how the design collects water.

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Viral Video Vilifies Foul-ball Fan

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Viral Video Vilifies Foul-ball Fan

A recent video that shows a kid in the bleachers bobbling a foul ball, and a man picking up the ball and presenting it to the woman next to him, doesn’t show what it seems to show. Julian Green of the Cubs said in a statement, “Unfortunately, a video that was quickly posted and unverified…

Would YOU trade a Hank Aaron rookie card for a Roberto Clemente… for her? Full Bloom (Aug 30-Sept 2)

In Suzanne Bradbeer’s play FULL BLOOM, Jesse (played by Seton Hill’s DeShaun Herzog) owns a prized Hank Aaron Rookie Card. The girl he likes from school, Phoebe (played by Carolyn Jerz), has always wanted the rookie card of her personal hero, Roberto Clemente. As Phoebe goes through a tough emotional struggle in this play, how…

President Trump speaking at a political rally in Florida. He is pointing his finger in the direction of the camera.

‘Not good, not nice’: At Florida rally, Trump says China has ‘targeted our farmers’

They weren’t the most newsworthy part of Trump’s Florida rally yesterday, but I’m just taking a moment to acknowledge a journalist who is using muted language, in keeping with the charge of journalists to report objectively. It’s perfectly neutral to place, deep in the body of the article, a note about the president’s claim that…

Another delightful caricature by Rebecca Scassellati

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The girl as Mrs Lovett with Ben Federico as Sweeney Todd.

16yo Carolyn Jerz performs “A Little Priest” with 14yo Ben Federico. A video clip can capture only part of the magic created by a huge, committed cast, live musicians, and an attentive audience. (Support the arts in your community!) Similar:Rare find discovered amid town's Old West kitschInstead of dispensing a card like Zoltar…AestheticsAugust Wilson House…

On the way to the theater for the show! Mrs Lovett in Sweeney Todd.

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A screen shot from ThoughtCagalog.com, showing that an article has been split into 40 separate chunks.

If You Ever Find a Link to ThoughtCatalog, I’m Begging You Not to Click It

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Image of a trunk decorated with Virginia Tech designs and labeled the text "Just Visiting"

The Problems of Real-Time Feedback in Teaching Writing

Sometimes my students get nervous because I ask them to learn writing by, you know, writing. For some other subjects, it makes sense to ease students into the work, having them memorize facts to recall for points on multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blank quizzes. But writers gotta write. That means taking risks, and occasionally stumbling. In a…

The problem with blog comments, in 5 images.

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Picture of President Trump speaking at a Veterans of Foreign Wars event.

Just remember: what you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.

Words apparently spoken by the President of the United States. If you trust the news organization that reported what he said. But the President has no reason to mislead the public. He loves the public probably more than anybody. Believe me. Similar:Elementary, Dear Data (TNG Rewatch: Season 2, Episode 3) When a holodeck bet…

Why Do People Share Fake News? A Sociotechnical Model of Media Effects

Verrit, like Snopes, Politifact, and a host of other fact-checking sites, reflect fundamental misunderstandings about how information circulates online, what function political information plays in social contexts, and how and why people change their political opinions. Fact-checking is in many ways a response to the rapidly changing norms and practices of journalism, news gathering, and…

Closeup of a person's hand pulling a book off of a shelf.

How Common Core Testing Damaged High School English Classes

Helping my students understand how my role as a college literature teacher differs from the role of a high school English teacher is a sometimes daunting task. Preparing students for a standardized reading test is completely unlike teaching them about a work of classic literature. In an English class addressing The Great Gatsby, depending on student ability…

College students in a lecture hall. A facilitator is kneeling in the aisle, talking to a smiling student.

Moving from Debate to Empathy

In my freshman writing class, my job is to teach students how to write a researched essay. I encourage students to pick topics that interest them, but I warn them that if they go into their project already convinced that one answer is correct (that euthanasia should/should not be legal, that abortion is murder/healthcare, that…