I really like this idea. So much freedom to do what you want. I don’t know what student wouldn’t want to do that as a final. It is so open and completely up to them to make the meaning of what they create. You can be a crappy artist, but that poorly drawn figure means something to you. Now tell us why it means what it means. How is that not easier than a term paper? If they are truly that uncomfortable with the assignment, someone should have figured out they could have disguised a paper as an essay. I agree with what Robert said about the learning to solve the problem, not make one.
Author: Chris
Comment on As a future professor I expect to be questioned by Chris
Bringing emotion back into teaching and being ourselves has to be one of the best themes of Palmer’s. I think students enjoy it when we are ourselves in the classroom. Although, I do have to watch my humor in that case. The seem to instantly check out when we get up in front of the class and ramble through the facts.
Comment on Teaching for the 21st Century – Connecting the Dots by chris
I’m a bit of a pessimist and I don’t see much change happening. It’s easy for use to sit here now and blog away about how awesome we are going to be, which is true that we are awesome. However, once reality strikes I see us having to choose between parts of our careers. How easy is it to sacrifice teaching in order to maintain those other aspects? I witnessed a professor teach an entire semester from “lesson plans” made about an hour before class. It was a crappy class, but the professor was still able to maintain their productivity with research. This particular class has tons of potential, but it takes time to develop that. That time is something this pre-tenure professor did not seem interested in investing. One example doesn’t make it always true, but I foresee that happening a lot.
Comment on Paulo Freire & Bell Hooks….educators I can stand by…..and an ode to Linda Brown….. by chris
I’m probably going to miss the mark on your post by a significant margin, but I thought has occurred to me. Watch out, someone could get hurt. What are the student’s expectations when they enter a college classroom? Are they expecting a stream of Robin Williams “O captain my captain” moments? Do they believe that it is a nonstop party and you can pass with constant supply of all-nighters? Finally, are they seeing this a merely checking a box on a job application? I’m going to be the naysayer and conspiracy theorist and say, what if that is all they are expecting? I show up to class, spit it back at you, then get my degree. Wouldn’t that mimic the high school experience, and they could find comfort in something familiar? Granted, it is our job as educators to grow their minds beyond that. This tangent was brought you by the word humanist.
Comment on Critical Pedagogy: Learning to think not memorize by Chris
We could take this analogy even further and find the similarities between feedlots and concentrations of dung. Food in one end and waste out the other. The cow got fatter and is standing in shit. Sounds about right for the bovine system. It is easy and cost effective. The rancher barely has to think. We’re a bunch of different ranchers right? We want that highly efficient system where the waste is high quality because the feed was high quality. Isn’t it our jobs as the rancher in this system to ensure the quality of this feed/information? Digestion in cows does require chewing, regurgitating, chewing some, then more and more. In my mind it we can feed them information, but then help them spit it back up and chew on it some more. Keep moving them around in search of that green grass they are looking for. That was a fun metaphor to interact with.
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Comment on Critical Pedagogy by Chris
Hopefully that worked, and my wonderful contribution is still there. It is a good representation of critical pedagogy, as we are free to engage with it as we see fit. Pictures, wise sayings, not-so-wise saying, or dank memes are all contributions. Although, I do sense a power structure here. As I had to agree to cookies and other miscellaneous things. Could this be the digital face of the power? Turning over your data in exchange for something.
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Comment on The Universal Language… Not So Universal? by Chris
Removing the stigma of I don’t know would be the best thing ever. I want to hear students be wrong, but not be afraid of being wrong. Maybe it is some really good logic that will lead to an even better answer. Or, even knowing that it’s okay to not know the answer because there is a lot information out there to help you learn what you need to know.
For your last paragraph, I have a student in my woody landscape plants class that struggles with that. He knows the names of the trees in his native language, but struggles to translate them into English. It made me realize that the naming convention for species wasn’t as nearly universal as I thought.
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Comment on “Racism is a structure not an event” – Robin DiAngelo by chris
The piece of embedded racism that I recently came to understand better is how the history of the United States was taught to us. We were given this narrative of progress being made by the Europeans who settled here, and everything that stood in their way was a challenge. Or, the picture that has been painted of the South during the Antebellum as some glorious good o’l time. Want something more recent? I think of how civil rights moment is portrayed as having solved race issues with the passage of some legislation like the Civil Rights Act. It made me felt lied to, realizing what I grew up believing was a grossly distorted view. To apply this to my practice as an educator, it underlines the importance of hearing all the sides of a story/issue. Just because it was what you were told all your life doesn’t make it the most true.
Comment on Can discomfort be taken seriously? by Chris
Whoops, not trying to remain anonymous.
Comment on “When we focus on others, our world expands” by chris
Realizing that we have to take that moment and put ourselves in someone else’s place requires work and thinking. It is so much easier to make it all about yourself. It’s a shortcut, like our biases. Okay, I can’t substantiate that claim, but it sounds right. I know I am guilty of it, because it is a hard thing to do. I like the theme of your post. We have to consider others. Unfortunately, it seems that we don’t nor want to take time to consider things in the eyes of others. What you suggest in empathizing with out students has been a struggle to try, because I easily fall into my biases of thinking underachieving students are being lazy. It is difficult to start flat out believing student’s and realizing their is more to their life than this class; but, like you say, it’s a good start.
