Similar:What Critics of Student Writing Get Wrong [T]o improve as writers, student…AcademiaStandardized Test Scores Don't Really Measure LearningThere are ways to raise a child’s test s…AcademiaWhy Computers Will Never Write Good Novels If it were possible to build a digit…BooksWhy I Took My Kids’ Toys AwayMy wife is something of a hoarder. Now, …Culture"A Story…
I swore I would wield my powers only for good. Witness my latest faculty service project. Similar:“We hate math,” says 4 in 10 – a majority of AmericansIf 30% love math, and 30% are neutral ab…AmusingOffice Hours in the Pool Hall My favorite story comes from the week …AcademiaMelissa Terras Reports Her Success in Making…
Similar:Moving from Debate to EmpathyIn my freshman writing class, my job is …AcademiaPost-Pandemic News: 7 Lessons We Can’t Afford to ForgetJournalists are often criticized for emp…CultureNYPD's Lt. Cattani offers heartfelt apology for "wrong decision" that threw his reputation…Cops are trained to make snap decisions …Current_EventsStudents say they prefer lectures, but "active learning" is more effectiveA…
When committee work is fun… making memes to support the English program. Similar:Do you get your news mostly from social media? I check NPR, Drudge, and news.google.com.Do you have a regular news-consumption r…CultureHappy Easter 2024PersonalLetter to the editor: Why our English department deserves more respectI came very close to accepting an offer …AcademiaDeSantis-backed bill would…
Similar:Special ed teacher quits: ‘I just cannot justify making students cry anymore’The disorder is in the system which requ…CultureYes, we will see almost anything branded Sherlock Holmes.PersonalI saw this Friday night. Great fight choreography, lighting & staging, adaptation of t…PersonalInform 7 is now open sourceInform is a design system for interactiv…CultureA quick Sunday visit to…
I’m very happy that several students in my “World Drama” class chose to write about The Merchant of Venice in their latest paper. Almost as many also write about Nine. And several chose to write about both. The assignment asked students to make an intertextual argument — that is, I asked them to write an…
This essay on college students acting helpless (Chronicle of Higher Education) struck a few chords. I put a lot of time into writing my course policies and assignment instructions. The students who want to know how they can earn a 99 instead of a 95 invariably ask really good questions that arise from their close…
Graydon Hoare offers a rousing hymn to the virtues of text. Don’t get me wrong, I like me some illustrations, photos, movies and music. But text wins by a mile. Text is everything. My thoughts on this are quite absolute: text is the most powerful, useful, effective communication technology ever, period. Text is the oldest…
You can just make out Carolyn, Leigh, and me stacked up on the right edge of this picture. Carolyn won “Best Leading Actress in a Non-Musical” for The Miracle Worker, and I also got to present her with “Best Onstage Save” for some quick thinking (and dancing) during the gypsy scene in Man of La…
Five of us went to see PrimeStage’s 1984. Very well done! I wish I could have included this play in my “World Drama” class, or that I had thought to assign the novel in my “Memes and Fake News” class. When it comes to dystopian literature, the boy is better read than I was at…
Similar:My students seem increasingly confused by the difference between journal title vs. article… Sometimes students will submit bibli…AcademiaSo We're Supposed to Be "Amazed" or "Surprised" That Tween Boys Won't Slap a Girl?What Happens When Clickbait Headlines Av…CultureBottled Authors: the predigital dream of the audiobookThere was no way to preserve sounds befo…AcademiaWhat Deathbed Visions Teach Us…
In my defense, I broke that long email down so the recipient (my chair) really only has to read about three bullet points in order to grasp the “Action Item” section… but then I had to *write* all those “just in case this become important later” details, and corral them under increasingly woebegone subheads like…
Similar:Silicon Avatar (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 5, Episode 4) Grieving scientist mom wrecks…Rewatching ST:TNG Riker does some ser…CultureWhen He Clicked the Link, You Won't Believe How Disappointed He WasAuthors of overhyped link text are like …CybercultureWhy Writing Matters When You Advertise a Cragslist GiveawayThe latest example of why writing matter…Current_EventsWeb Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers: Four…
I expect that many of my students will be living the experiences documented in this study of how young people encounter news; nevertheless, it’s difficult to notice your own environment if you can’t compare it to *different* environments. Because I grew up with the three TV network news shows and the copy of The Washington…
Fairy tales are transmitted through language, and the shoots and branches of the Indo-European language tree are well-defined, so the scientists could trace a tale’s history back up the tree—and thus back in time. If both Slavic languages and Celtic languages had a version of Jack and the Beanstalk (and the analysis revealed they might),…
Anybody seen a post tagged this way? If so, I’d welcome a screenshot. On Friday, Facebook debuted its new flagging system for fake news in America, tagging hoax stories as “disputed” for some users. First announced amid criticism of the company for its role in spreading misinformation during the 2016 election, the new feature uses…
If you understand the environment in which medieval scholars created and used books, you can better appreciate why medieval books look and function the way they do. Understanding the cultural impact of computers requires us to study the development of both hardware and technology. Playing a text adventure game on an iOS device is convenient,…
Leigh, Peter, Carolyn and I had fun recording “The Nightmare of Prince Prezelsky” for WAOB Audio Theatre’s “All for One Stories.” (Peter plays the prince, Carolyn narrates, and my wife and I are among the servants. The full 9-minute story is online.) Prince Prezelsky needs to fight a dragon to keep his kingdom safe. But…
Wilson offers a good explanation of the position that shouting down speakers is not a form of constitutionally-protected speech. Such arguments are especially important on college campuses, where it’s the job of students to engage with new ideas — even uncomfortable ones; and the job of faculty members to equip students with the critical thinking…
Similar:Tom Wayman's FAQ on "Did I Miss Anything?"I’ve long been a fan of Tom Wayman’s poe…AcademiaOne Teacher’s Brilliant Strategy to Stop Future School ShootingsEvery Friday since Columbine, one school…CultureEpiscopal bishop on President Trump: ‘Everything he has said and done is to inflame violen… “I am the bishop of the Episcopal Di…Current_EventsPublic service announcement! If…