Also, if you continue to leave them out at the buttcrack of dawn beyond the normal puppy pee time, I will start letting my GIANT DOGS out at 2am so that they, too, can start the Midnight Bark.
*smooches* Jenn
PS--SUCK IT!
I can't say how many times I've had this argument with peers. The service/academic essay thread is so ingrained in the minds of some faculty, I fear the only way to force them to reconsider their pre-existing, current traditional view of our field is for their employment to be directly connected to their ability to adapt. I recognize this is a harsh statement, and I know that the staffing and hiring complexities that affect a WPA are challenging. But what harm comes to our discipline when, for example, instructors who perpetuate this thread retain employment to meet an administrative implied demand to offer more sections of FYC? It's messy. I know. Dobrin is really making me think.
I think one of the biggest thing I've learned in my Ph.D. studies is that studying writing and studying composition is not synonymous. So often it seems WPA work centers on FYC. But a writing program is more than FYC. McNely keeps emphasizing the importance of a vertical curricula--and I can see how a larger writing program can produce English graduates who can understand the seeming tension that exists between writing and composition studies. Might these even be concentrations that could exist within a writing program? I'm not sure...it seems our love for naming and differentiating areas of specialty is important. Otherwise, why would I have been corrected by a 3rd Ph.D. student for saying I was a doctoral student in composition in rhetoric? ("It's rhetoric and composition," I was told.) Writing, rhetoric, composition, literature, linguistics, folklore and so on. English is big.
Last year fewer than 20 percent of my online students completed course evaluations. Of course, I was able to address this in the reflection of my annual review and my department is understanding; however, moving up the food chain, I become less the awesome faculty member I know myself to be and more the data that "represents" me.
It was this idea of reconsidering course evaluation design that made me think, "Well, of course, how have I not articulated this before?!" Multiple methods of assessment makes sense; redesigning the evaluations to reflect the outcomes statements is a *must*. It also makes me want to think about reviewing the material from Committee on Best Practices for Online Writing Instruction to see what they have to say about online course evaluation and reconsidering our questions for online courses. Yeah, I have a lot of work ahead of me...
Side note: we were so into Catan that 1) we created our own rules (numbers were placed face down and settlement placement occurred before numbers flipped, we changed the meanings of cards that sucked, we played Seafarers, Cities, and Settlers all at once--ALWAYS), 2) we had to replace our set, and 3) regular Catan no longer holds meaning for us.I've gone to five previous Cs as an adjunct, and normally when I went, I attended sessions, learned a lot, hung out with others from my school who came along. This year, in my second year of doctoral studies at Ball State, I made the decision to network more. I wasn't too sure how I was going to do it until I saw mention of CstheDay on Twitter. PERFECT. KISMET. GEEENIUS.
Gertrude (before she was so dubbed) at Sid Dobrin's The Future of Writing Studies session |
Sidenote: I never saw Cindy again. I am considering bringing Gertrude to future Cs just to get my picture. It may be a lifelong Cs quest.
Gertrude's finest moment |
Suzy is unclear of Gertrude's intentions |
Getting some love from Karol |
Who is this handsome guy? |
Karol, Sara, and Tim with Sara's Pony |