Friday, January 27, 2012

The OED Assignment




Few freshmen have used their college library databases enough to appreciate the joys of the online Oxford English Dictionary. Every semester I assign a fun homework project in which each student has to pick one difficult word that they don't already know the definition for and look that up through the school's portal for the OED. The students share these words (with their definitions and year they were first seen in print) with the class. We write these words on the board and then try to construct one sentence using all of them.


It's a fun and quick class time activity that encourages the use of the library's databases, appreciation for English words and their history, group work, and sentence construction.


Here are the two sentences we constructed this semester. (The first class is much smaller than the second, so that sentence is shorter.)





After a mumpsimus absquatulated with my skinking selcouth phone, I pandiculated into a juxtaposition of taxonomy.





My Quixotic fere, through enlightened self-interest, maligned an insidious plethora of ostentatiousness requiring dastardly bacteriotherapy and a magirical unguent that prorepted into an interbation of lifelong jejunes which made him trepidatious of effrontery. 





Sunday, January 8, 2012

Skype - Student/Teacher Conferences of the “Future”!





At the beginning of the fall semester, 2011, I was dealing with a scheduling conflict that was going to require that I drive 45 minutes (each way) one extra day of class just to hold office hours where my students may or may not have actually visited me. As an adjunct, my office would have been a cramped room with other adjuncts present (not an ideal place for a student to voice serious concerns).  I had considered making the long, gas burning journey on an extra day every week just to sit in the coffee shop in the library and spend even more of my meager salary sipping overpriced coffee while wishing that my students cared as much about their college careers as I did.

It just didn’t make sense.  Why waste so much time, money, and gasoline while actually helping no one?

I needed to re-think my responsibilities as their teacher. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that although the “Office Hours” requirement is very much needed, the way we conduct our office hours needs to change. I needed to find a better way to interact one-on-one with my students.

Although students SHOULD prefer human interaction, it’s not our job to change what technological evolution is causing. Our job is to teach the material, to follow guidelines, and to mentor students into their next classes.

Here is a video explaining what happened when I skyped with my students:



Saturday, January 7, 2012

Why I Left My Bra at the Belcourt

Before there were hipster icons like Jack White, there was the real thing - Crispin Glover.

Crispin Glover may be one of the weirdest - and most genuine actors of our time.....or any time. That's why I took off my bra at the Belcourt Theatre and left it there...in honor of him. Or of his insistence on making people uncomfortable. Or it could have been the wine. Whatever.

I can't really explain the movie, What Is It. Or the 8 book readings that Crispin Glover performed before the showing of the movie. But I can list just a few things I saw and heard. I leave it to your judgement/enjoyment/horror to digest. But there's no way I can help you understand.

Book Readings:

Pictures of rat carcasses
A picture of a guy doing a lamb
That lamb skinned
Yelling about turnips!
I love you.
Quiet!


The movie: What Is It


People with Down Syndrome getting it on
A guy with Down Syndrome getting a hand job from a naked lady with a monkey mask on
Killing snails with salt - lots and lots of snails
Shirley Temple with a nazi whip in her vagina
Red Swastikas
A guy in black face representing Michael Jackson
A racist country song

Basically, the movie is all about doing anything that makes corporate media uncomfortable. It may not be anything that you or I would want to see, but the fact that he is out there fighting them makes him ok with me.

And that's why I left my bra.

Watch this for further explanation:


Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Goodbye Cable TV - Hello REAL World

I am finally calling to disconnect my cable TV today. I don't need it anymore. (I actually never did - I always knew it; but I never knew how important it was to take a stand against it.)

2012 is the year that we should all try to reconnect to what is real. I mean - really real. And what is true and right for each of us. Increasingly it's become apparent that television does not give us reality- and probably never did. I mean, they called it the BOOB TUBE back in the 50s didn't they? It it has only gotten worse since then. Way worse.

Please join me, and free yourself from the crap-encrusted chains of cable television. 

Here are 10 reasons to turn off the TV for 2012:

1. Anything interesting that might happen to be aired on TV can be seen on the internet HOURS (sometimes days) before. And sometimes the really interesting stuff is never seen on TV because someone, somewhere does not want you to see it and they mistakenly think they can keep you from it.

2. You have to search for the truth - the television is NOT the place to find it. Cable news will NEVER tell you the truth - never, ever.

3. Reality television is not reality, nor is it entertaining...unless you feel the need to waste your time relishing in the misfortune and embarrassment of others.

4. The TV does not allow you to comment, give your opinion, or call bullshit on what you read, hear, or see - the internet does.

5. Drug company ads. Especially those trying to push anti-depressants.

6. "Healthy GMOs" (the world's most dangerous oxymoron) advertisements. No, High Fructose Corn Syrup is NOT just like sugar, no matter how many times and ways they say it.

7. The Mayans say we have less than a year left on this planet - do you really want to spend it watching someone else living a fake life? Wouldn't you rather spend what precious time you have left living your own life?

8. Political LIES - both sides, all channels. This is an election year - and every politician will be on TV telling lies. (Except Ron Paul - he's awesome.)

9. You will always be more interesting than any person on TV. Period.

10. $$$$$ - Why should we pay inflated prices for something that hides the truth, does not entertain us, may actually hurt us, and can never be as interesting as our own lives? That's like paying for an ex-boyfriend to hang around. Isn't it?




And if you need another reason, watch this video for inspiration: