Monday, October 15, 2007

Blog of the Week, October 15, 2007: When Capable Students Fail

Dr. Hern’s site was forwarded to me by an experienced colleague, and all I can say is wow!  For a teacher new to Basic Writing, and probably other composition courses as well, there is a lot of useful information here.  I urge you to go forth and see for yourself.  Okay, okay, it is not a blog--still, you ought to give it a look!

Friday, October 12, 2007

WPA: Writing Program Administrators

http://www.wpacouncil.org/

The Council of Writing Program Administrators is a national association of college and university faculty with professional interests in directing writing programs.  Learn more about us. You can also read our quick guide to site content and resources.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

AcademHack Inteview: Part I

Just last week I listed David Parry’s site AcademHack as the blog of the week.  In my experience, it is the best blog/site for academics interested in using tech in the classroom.  For someone like me, with limited tech skills, David’s site makes the gear and software more understandable and accessible.  As a new tenure tracker in Texas, David is swamped with work.  Fortunately for us, he agreed to an interview about useful classroom and professional applications for technology. 

What is the most useful Web 2.0 application in your academic toolbox? How do you use it?

By far the most important tool that I use for teaching are blogs; I use the term in the plural here because I am always using several at once (usually one per class, plus my own).  Blogs are the ideal platform for sharing information with students.  When I first started putting class material on the web for students to use I had to write and update my own website “by hand” (that is without a blog).  This was okay, as I learned a great deal about how web pages are made and designed (and learned how to write CSS and XHTML—the languages that creates web pages), but ultimately it was not very efficient.  The learning curve for this type of communication can …

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Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Heaps of Resources at CompPile

Comp Pile is a fantastic documentation project spearheaded by Rich Haswell and Glenn Blalock.  CompPileis an amazing resource.  Haswell and Blalock describe their site and purpose thus:  “The purpose of CompPile is to allow ready reference to the published twentieth-century work in post-secondary composition and rhetoric, from the beginning of WWII to the end of the century. It systematically covers 1939-current, with no coverage before 1939. It is an on-line, keyworded, searchable inventory for researchers and teachers and anybody else interested. CompPile is offered in the spirit of free research and scholarship.” Epic in purpose and value.

Monday, October 08, 2007

New Teachers: How Not to Spend an Hour Per Paper

How Not to Spend an Hour Per Paper while grading was a hot topic this past weekend, and it featured a lot of great advice.  If you have not yet subscribed to the WPA list, this is one great reason to do so.  Simply take this link.  Reading the thread is highly advised.  Hopefully, we will feature some more material on this topic in the near future.

Blog of the Week, October 8, 2007: How Do the Best Professors Work?

Jose presents some great material by Cal Newport at Jose’s blog Academic Productivity.  Be sure to check it out!  And if you want to see more of Cal’s material, go to the Study Hacks blog.

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Dr. Jeff Andelora on Adjuncting at a Community College

This is the second in a series of interviews with community college WPAs.  Its primary goal is simple: let adjuncts know what our future bosses expect from us.  The second goal is to offer advice on how adjuncts can make the most of their time while teaching part-time.

Dr. Jeff Andelora is the current English department chair at Mesa Community College in the Phoenix, Arizona area.  As the largest of the ten colleges in the Maricopa Community College District, MCC enrolled over 25,000 students this fall.  This is Dr. Andelora’s twelfth year at the college.  In addition to teaching full-time at MCC, he taught English at the high school level for ten years and as an adjunct at MCC for three.

You spend a great deal of time hiring and working with adjuncts. What is the greatest benefit you see adjuncts bringing to their students in the classroom? What do they bring to your department?

The benefits adjuncts bring are as varied as the people themselves. Recent graduates often bring their youthful enthusiasm and idealism to the classroom; I can look to more seasoned adjunct faculty for their rich pedagogical experience and wisdom. Our more veteran adjunct faculty also bring with them their diverse life experience. They can often speak of life in industry or writing in various professions—perspectives …

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