teaching
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10 Reasons I Hate Grading Your Assignment: Blogiversary Post #2
I hesitate to put this post out there again! Not only does it feel outdated (I haven’t asked for a paper copy of an at-home assignment in three years), but at the time it was published, it attracted some passionate critics (and defenders); if you go to the original and read the comments, you will see what I Continue reading
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Science, Art, and the Myth of the “Discipline”
I’m always delighted to read about college teachers who are are taking unusual approaches to pedagogy. Jailson Farias de Lima is one such teacher. In an article published on ProfWeb yesterday, he describes an innovative project he has designed for his chemistry students, challenging them to express their understanding of scientific concepts through art-making. Science Continue reading
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FYI
Dear Composition 101 students: “YOLO” is not a topic sentence. Continue reading
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“I AM the Teacher”
After a long and infuriating day of grading final papers, here’s a random quote from my favourite writer that makes me feel oddly, ambivalently better. ‘You act,’ said one of her Senior Seminar students at a scheduled conference, ‘like your opinion is worth more than everybody else’s in the class.’ Zoe’s eyes widened. ‘I AM Continue reading
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This Book is Too Sad
A reader and colleague sent me this question the other day. What would you do in her position? Dear Siobhan, A few of my college students (note, not the class as a whole) have told me they’re having a really hard time with the book we’re studying in class because it’s too sad. It’s The Continue reading
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How Sexy is Too Sexy?
How much explicit sex is acceptable in a book required for a college class? If students have some say in whether they read the book, does that make a difference? One of my courses includes a list of eight novels about adolescence. Four or five students will read each novel and will work together to Continue reading
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The Art of Running Away
It’s been a tough semester. I’ve described some of the trials already: a new course that didn’t work very well, an unsuccessful experiment with blogs, a number of unpleasant end-of-semester exchanges. More than a month after the end of classes, I’m still dealing with a challenge to one of my plagiarism rulings, and still awaiting Continue reading
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When the Syllabus Goes Wrong
I cannot tell a lie. My new course is a failure. This semester, I did a complete overhaul on the English course I teach for Child Studies majors. The earlier version of the course was a solid one. It focused on the topic of childhood relationships in literature: parent-child relationships, sibling relationships, and friendships. We Continue reading
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The Least Stressful Job on Earth
My husband sent me this article this morning: the Globe and Mail summarizes some key points from a list of the most and least stressful jobs on earth. #1 least stressful job? University professor. I’m not exactly a university professor, and some of the conditions I work under are quite different from theirs. My students, Continue reading
About Me
My job is to teach people to read and write; aside from that, I like to learn things.
Classroom as Microcosm 