Howdja get to be so wicked smart?

From a student: "i'm having a wikked hard time with the internet and i've tried to take both quizes and it won't let me"

It's not a measure of intelligence, it's a measure of sloppiness, perhaps. Or perhaps it is an effort to avoid looking too smart. God forbid you should retype or check your spelling lest you appear to care about the quality and craftsmanship of your words. If you did, you'd be an elite intellectual, like those awful elite intellectuals we all know.

Content mangement

I'm now grading 120 paragraphs from students while at the same time trying to rejigger the syllabus and get the online content management system to do what it ought to do. It's a lot of time in front of the screen, a bit of a drag. The actual teaching, responding to student work and supporting their learning is great.

I'm seeing a huge disparity in ability and I think I'll have to create groups in class that will put the haves with the have nots so that they can all begin to learn something.

At least the head of IT faculty support services feels guilty for leading me astray as I started using the system. Of course once I get it up and running it should pay for itself -- assuming I get to do the course again!

How Totalitariansim Happens

The Public Safety people have installed large flat-screen tvs all around campus following the shootings at Virginia Tech. It is intended to serve as an emergency information system, which I'm sure everyone welcomes. Of course most of the time it simply plays CNN, which helps us know how we are supposed to think and behave when putting country first.

Day One

After being oriented 6 ways from Sunday I've now taught my first class and had my first day on campus. I've taught too many first days of class to say this one was remarkable in any particular way. The students were all alive and well at 0800, which is a good sign. We'll see how it goes this afternoon.

A big issue on this campus is community, or lack thereof because, we're told more than half the students commute to school. The chair has asked that we be on campus, which I expect I will be to see and be seen. But even the students who are here, many of them, are tied to their cell phones so that physical proximity does not community make. We've come a long way from the walkman so they're really here without being here.

Meanwhile, I've just met a former 1-year faculty member who is now an adjunct, a glimpse into my future as I said to him. If some of this other work pans out it would be a fine life, assuming my wife starts a full time job, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. There's a tenure track line opening up and so it feels like this will be a year-long interview, very stressful.