http://www.uvm.edu/~reparent/345 Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:14:56 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en As everyone knows, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas... on hidden-camera surveillance footage to be unearthed and used for future (or present) blackmailing purposes. Duh. And I've mentioned before that everything you put online stays online in one form or another. Forever. Right, Monica? And I always make ... http://www.uvm.edu/~reparent/345/?p=68 As promised, I've revised the Calendar. Here's the summary of changes: The Teaching Journal #2 will include a 2-4 page reflection on the journal to date; it will be due on November 6 The Greatest Teaching Fear revised draft will be due on November 20 That's it! http://www.uvm.edu/~reparent/345/?p=66 I've been buried under multiple stacks of papers from both classes (note to self: plan paper turn-in schedule more carefully next semester!), but I'm digging my way out, slowly. In the meantime, here's something to distract entertain and inform you. I posted earlier about a great satirical video purporting to ... http://www.uvm.edu/~reparent/345/?p=61 Apropos of our recent discussions of rhetoric, here are two recent videos that use rhetoric to encourage (or do they?) people to vote in the upcoming election. The first is another celebrity-infused compilation reminiscent of will.i.am's "Yes We Can" song & video (and will.i.am is in this video, too). ... http://www.uvm.edu/~reparent/345/?p=58 This is tremendous fun. Kitty Burns Florey, the author of Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog (the best, and possibly only, book about diagramming sentences), has noticed Sarah Palin's special relationship with the English language. In an article for Slate, Florey takes a crack at sentences from Palin's interviews with Katie Couric ... http://www.uvm.edu/~reparent/345/?p=54 First up, a very handy list of "5 Sayings You Can Probably Use Without Getting Fired" from Carol Richtsmeier at Bellringers. Word of warning: Ritchie's #1 thing might not work for you if you can't summon your inner Southerner strongly enough to pull it off. But for those of us ... http://www.uvm.edu/~reparent/345/?p=48 I've given you a sample student paper, written in response to the prompt: Compose a brief analysis of a technological element of contemporary culture, paying particular attention to the role(s) of that technology in/to contemporary culture. Comment on this student paper, as you would/will to the papers your own students will ... http://www.uvm.edu/~reparent/345/?p=46 Over at the Crooked Timber blog, Henry has an interesting post up about grade inflation and compression. As good, responsible new teachers, I'm sure you're all opposed (on principle!) to the insidious evil that we call "grade inflation." So was Henry. As he explains: In the course of writing my ... http://www.uvm.edu/~reparent/345/?p=38 Welcome to the Fall 2008 section of English 345: Practicum in Teaching Writing, or as I'll almost certainly refer to it, the Teaching Seminar. On this blog you'll find the course syllabus, course calendar (listing readings, special events and assignment due dates), resources for teaching composition and rhetoric, and a steady ... http://www.uvm.edu/~reparent/345/?p=36 As promised (threatened?), here's the link to University of Texas junior (major: history) Ryan Haecker's op-ed column: "Who wears the pants?" Here are two excellent responses from bloggers TBogg and Pam Spaulding. Both are witty and informative. One of them even features a visual counter-argument to Haecker! ... http://www.uvm.edu/~reparent/345/?p=16