The other day a student privately messaged me on Zoom and said "You look tired. Thanks so much for all that you do for this course. It must be difficult." If you're a teacher you might balk at the observation about my looks, but to be fair to the student, I did look tired! My … Continue reading Is Your Teaching Energy Jar Filled with Sand or Rocks?
10 Tips for Virtual, Synchronous Participation
I was actually going to write about a different topic this week, but in a recent meeting a colleague mentioned how fatigued she was because her virtual synchronous sessions were basically all black boxes with the same four students participating each time. This particular colleague is up for a pretty rad teaching award this year, … Continue reading 10 Tips for Virtual, Synchronous Participation
NeMLA Roundup: All Things Digital
I attended my first large virtual conference recently at Northeast MLA where I chaired a panel and presented a paper. Even though I didn't get to attend all the sessions and meetups that I had ambitiously added to my conference agenda, I was able to make it to a good number of excellent panels. The … Continue reading NeMLA Roundup: All Things Digital
A “Less is More” Feedback Model for Online Writing Intensive Classes
Last semester I was asked to help facilitate a short workshop on strategies for providing feedback on low-stakes work in online writing-intensive (WIT) classes. It seems the pivot to online instruction has left faculty overwhelmed with the amount of written feedback they think is necessary in an online class. I should mention that *most* of … Continue reading A “Less is More” Feedback Model for Online Writing Intensive Classes
Multimodal Assignment Design
During the week of September 21st - 25th, I will be presenting a 15 minute pre-recorded session titled "Designing, Scaffolding, and Evaluating Multimodal Assignments" at the 2020 Innovations in Teaching and Learning Conference hosted by the Stearns Center at George Mason University. In connection with the video presentation, I have also created a PDF designed … Continue reading Multimodal Assignment Design
Digital Literacy
This week was the first week of fall classes at my institution. While it has been fraught with technology issues like a massive Zoom outage, Blackboard lockout, and Kaltura/MyMedia crash, it has also been exciting to meet my new students and begin some of the conversations central to our courses. In particular, I am excited … Continue reading Digital Literacy
NeMLA 2021 – Digital Pedagogy in the Composition Classroom
I am pleased to announce that my panel proposal for Northeast MLA 2021 has been accepted. Little did I know when I wrote the proposal how pervasive digital approaches to teaching composition would become now that we find ourselves in the middle (?) of a global pandemic. As I write this, it is not yet … Continue reading NeMLA 2021 – Digital Pedagogy in the Composition Classroom
CtrlF – A 1 Minute Podcast on Digital Literacy
This semester I am co-leading a Faculty Learning Community on Multimodal Assignments. This week we are producing one-minute audio compositions with captions and/or transcripts to practice making multimodal compositions which are accessible. Recently I tweeted about my experience volunteering with Computer Core which seeks to help low-income people acquire digital literacy skills. At the same … Continue reading CtrlF – A 1 Minute Podcast on Digital Literacy
How I Replaced the Research Paper in First-year Composition Using The Gelman Library Social Feed Manager
Recently three of my students from the Fall semester of 2018 presented at the Writing and Research Conference hosted by the University Writing program at George Washington University. This conference is designed to showcase the research and writing that first-year students do in their UW courses with current first-year writing students, librarians, and faculty. I … Continue reading How I Replaced the Research Paper in First-year Composition Using The Gelman Library Social Feed Manager
Using Wikipedia in the College Composition Classroom
Last semester, I partnered with the Wikipedia Education Foundation to organize a Wikipedia editing project for my first-year composition students. Using Wikipedia in the classroom has changed the way I think about the production and consumption of knowledge. Like many academics, I had been indoctrinated to think of Wikipedia as a non-reliable source. Period. And … Continue reading Using Wikipedia in the College Composition Classroom
