A Vision of College Students Today

Please note: I first wrote the following article in December 2019. I kept making tweaks to it and submitted it a number of places in December, in January, and in February with no takers. I thought about tweaking it to include the COIVD19 crisis, but as is, I think this serves as an important snapshot to how roughContinue reading “A Vision of College Students Today”

Notes on: Homeschooling

COVID19 has presented challenge after challenge. (And let’s not forget that our ever-more evil POTUS knew about its threat and had options to minimize its impact, but chose to ignore them.) For a blog post here, I wanted to briefly discuss homeschooling.  I see post after post from people with children–who normally attend public schoolsContinue reading “Notes on: Homeschooling”

The “Big Idea” Gender Studies Syllabus

This is the third installment in my “Big Idea Syllabus” series inspired by Dr. Michael Wesch’s “Big Idea” Syllabus for Anthropology. My “Big Idea” Syllabus for History can be found here, for Writing here. The “Big Idea” Syllabus for Gender Studies follows.  Gender is an important, valid field of inquiry, and because women and gender-nonconformingContinue reading “The “Big Idea” Gender Studies Syllabus”

239 visits. 180 hours. Office Hours.

I continue to really love office hours (and even thrive on them!), and I had another semester of wonderful and very busy office hours, even busier than last semester! Here’s the data breakdown for the Fall 2019 semester. (Added 11/29 10:15 AM: Unfortunately, you might not be able to see the full data correctly unlessContinue reading “239 visits. 180 hours. Office Hours.”

Asking Students How They Are Really Doing Should Not Be A Rare Occurrence

Asking students how they are really doing should not be a rare occurrence. For several years now, I have scheduled a day mid-semester for wellness in almost all of my classes because I have seen my students arrive more and more stressed every semester for several years. The results are always amazing. In hopes of encouragingContinue reading “Asking Students How They Are Really Doing Should Not Be A Rare Occurrence”

122 visits. 74 hours. Office Hours.

I’ve always had busy office hours as discussed here. Invisible Labor is pervasive in our world. People labor in ways that are often unseen, unacknowledged, and/or even unpaid. In order to help counter this, I tracked visits this semester. The results follow.  I had 135 students this semester across 5 classes (plus one independent studyContinue reading “122 visits. 74 hours. Office Hours.”

Notes on: Free Speech vs Censorship, Facts vs Opinions, and Writing

Recent events, including today’s (weird, irrelevant, distraction-mechanism) announcement by Trump about colleges and “free speech zones,” warrant a few comments and reminders about free speech/censorship and about facts/options, generally. People should remember common sense and decency at every step. People should respect experiences/experts and personal limitations. People should follow the golden rule. People today oftenContinue reading “Notes on: Free Speech vs Censorship, Facts vs Opinions, and Writing”

Recalling the Books I Read in 2018

During 2018, I read about 9,000 (!!) student writing assignments, at least a thousand or so articles, and 35 books, listed below. In addition, I “read” and studied lots and lots of popular cultural texts (songs, movies, tv shows). American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America The Argonauts Aristotle and Dante Discover theContinue reading “Recalling the Books I Read in 2018”