Friend-like Entities

It’s no secret that I’m a fully-fledged, all dues paid up, member of the “uses social networking” club. Good heavens, after all, I have a paid account on LiveJournal, I’m a “pro” on Flickr, I’m on Facebook, Twitter, and more recently on Pinterest. I have a Tumblr account I never use; I’m on Google+: you [...]

The Kremlin Ate My Homework

As anyone who knows me, or who follows me here, on Twitter, or on LiveJournal (ssh!), will know, I make my writing students write blogs. I have sound reasons for doing so, both pedagogical and idealogical: blogs force students to consider their audience, create a sense of community outside the classroom, and expose weaker students [...]

Celebrating my Students’ Blogs

My first year Creative non-fiction students are asked to write blogs. Part of the purpose of using blogs rather than a more conventional “journal” or just individual homework assignments is that the blog is public. They can read and comment on one another’s work. They can see the best, and I find that they work [...]

The Great Blogging Challenge

Okay, I’m taking part in Nablopomo (National blog posting month) as part of the November Writing festivities. I’m going to try to post an entry every day, and my participation is dedicated to raising money for the United Way. I’ve challenged the students in my Creative Non Fiction class to take part, and I pledge [...]

metaphor week

Mist is when the sky is tired of flight

November is Writing Month

I’m participating in National Blog Posting Month. I may do my daily postings on my “other” blog, the one I don’t make public to everyone, because it’s easier to write personal stuff every day! However, if my students in Creative Non Fiction take up the challenge, I shall post in here as well. If you [...]

Sunday Rant – A Plea for the New Media

Are there any Math teachers out there who still refuse to use a calculator? Who still use a slide-rule and memorize times-tables? To me, that’s the same as the way many of my colleagues, not just in my department, but everywhere, seem to be in a state of denial about the importance of new developments [...]

Thinking About Audience

One of the reasons I make my students keep blogs is that it forces them to consider an audience. If they write a journal on paper or in a Word file, they know that I am the only person who is going to read it; write that same document in a blog, and they know [...]

November Blogging Challenge!

Help me and my students raise money for the United Way! November is writing month, and many people around the world are taking part in challenges to write every day for thirty days. The best known of these is NaNoWriMo, but my English 152 (Creative Nonfiction) students and I have agreed to try Nablopomo: National [...]

Getting the Hang of Twitter

I have to confess that I thought Twitter was a bit silly when I first signed up for it (I can’t remember exactly when that was, though it seems a while ago now). In the first year or so, I hardly used it at all. While I could see the point for people with equally [...]