Dat was easy

Welcome, fearless reader, to the 11th installment of the Teaching Carnival!

Strip borrowed from Pearls Before Swine

How were you taught to teach?

A description of “Preparation for teaching” appears at Not of General Interest. At Reassigned Time, an explanation of “Teaching As a Job – What I Wish I’d Learned in Grad School.” And A White Bear describes “Learning to teach.”

What are you doing differently than you used to?

Some reflections On Teaching are offered at In Favor of Thinking. Marcia Hansen finds herself “Getting real.” Dr. m(mmm) is “trying a radical shift in my pedagogy, for one big course,” while Undine considers changing teaching practices. Hilaire describes “personality change … accomplished through teaching.”

Teaching and technology

Carrie Shanafelt is trying out a Wiki for her British Literature class to facilitate the sharing of student work. She hopes that “[t]he creation of a wiki…would render these [assigned historical context] memos in an attractive, interconnected, easily browsable format that would ensure that they don’t get lost or forgotten in the bottoms of bookbags”.

Originally posted on the Humanist listserv, Alan Liu’s proposed policy for appropriate student use of Wikipedia generated significant online buzz, both on that listserv (1, 2, 3) and at Kairosnews, one of Jonathan Goodwin’s class blogs, cac.ophony.org, and the CHE‘s Wired Campus Blog.

Metaspencer explains the answer to “Why course websites?“

At Academic Commons, Susan Sipple discusses Digitized Audio Commentary in First Year Writing Classes, and Derek Mueller has tried commenting with audio in some online courses. At the Rhetorical Situation, Oxymoron finds online students more willing to engage in discussion than in-class students usually are.

“Classroom Blogging: The Pedagogy and The Technology” is the first in a planned series of posts at AcademHack on using blogs in teaching. David Silver is requiring students to blog for the first time. Scot Barnett wonders if blogging can be taught. “Thoughts on blogs and textbooks” are offered by RevisionSpiral.

Chuck Tryon is teaching New Media Studies in the freshman composition class.

Relationships & Boundaries

There are several good entries about how students and professors interact. Professing Mama asks, “What’s Your Name, Little Girl, What’s Your Name?” Brightstar finds herself Concerned about Boundaries. Parts-n-Pieces addresses “faculty perception of students: as adults or as kids,” and finds that sometimes students need help making the transition to adulthood. Dr. Free-Ride wonders what her students should call her, and PZ Myers thinks that’s a good question. Ancarett also weighs in on the conversation.

Coincident with a New York Times article on Cathy Small Bardiac discusses her (no longer) pseudonymously authored My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student. Dr. Crazy then responds. (See also this September 2005 entry by Steven Krause and this one from last February at the Salt Box, which provides some links to other discussions as well.)

Various…

Geeky Mom asks the big question: “What is education?.” Jason Jones explains that he will be “teaching in the pilot of [his] campus’s Learning in Communities program.” Ryan Claycomb reflects on “Dressing for Class.” Chuck Tryon describes “Teaching the Intro to Film Course.” Scrivener finds that being a beginning student of guitar provides him with insight into his students’ experience in the classroom and argues that “It’s Good To Be a Student.” Anne Galloway will be teaching Introduction to Sociology of Science & Technology” for the third time and is finding the right right rhythm. New Kid on the Hallway addresses student motivation, and StyleyGeek evaluates her students’ evaluations of her.

First day (or first week) back at teaching

Many bloggers recorded their impressions of the start of the semester:

• The Little Professor and Lucyrain confess to a bit of pre-semester anxiety, but Steven Krause is in an Academic Holding Pattern as the possibility of a faculty union strike looms. This just in! The Strike is on…
• A Delicate Boy: “Here We Go Again, We’re Going ‘Round…” and “Just Like the Other Day…“
• b l o g o s : Wednesday as Monday, students as shoppers, and other first day idiosyncracies
• Burnt Out Adjnuct: First Day with Class.
• Is there no sin in it?: The First Day
• Joe(e) learns that one of her students is a falconer.
• metaspencer: back to school encounters
• Mommy, Ph.D.: A different sort of first day of school
• My own public Idaho: they’re back…
• New Kid on the Hallway: First day down
• Planned Obsolescence: bleh.
• Reassigned Time: Day One of the Semester a Success (I suppose) and
  Day Two, in which I Make Students Feel Overwhelmed and Bored
• Schenectady Synecdoche: Goofiest first-day message
• Scrivenings: How Cool are My Students?
• Slaves of Academe: Flop d’estime
• Terminal Degree: “I Love Jesus”
• Why Not Blog?: Loose ends
• Xoom: eeny meeny miny moe

But wait, there’s more!

Flavia is “Teaching the longer, larger class” and solicits advice on strategies.

Lanette Cadle addresses Theory, Pedagogy, and Lore in Composition Studies. Mike Edwards offers up a three-part series on teaching composition at West Point: I, II, III. Adjunct Kait explains “How to Write a Syllabus” in four easy lessons–I,
II,
III,
IV–to which the Grading Policy at Planned Obsolescence would make a nice addendum.

Ryan Claycomb wonders if he should be teaching his graduate seminar by or on the seat of his pants. Jeff Rice has been reading Wayne Booth’s The Vocation of a Teacher. Kristine Steenbergh finds herself reading and thinking about “Teaching Literature.” Coturnix discusses the “Scientist Rock Star!” idea in two parts: I, II. GrumpyABDadjunct has “a question and some musing.” Maggiemay describes her “[c]hallenges in advising” at Professorial Confessions. Half An Acre addresses academic jargon and student writing. A request for input on “in-class speaking exercises” is made at the Thinkery.

And finally, Timothy Burke tackles the issue of Assessment.

Peese Drive home safely

That’s all, folks! There’s more backstage on del.icio.us and Technorati, so visit those sites, and consider adding their rss feeds to your subscriptions. Please tune in to Scrivenings on September 15 for Teaching Carnival #12, and be sure to check out our lineup for the fall.