Two Endings, and Beyond (Worn Down But Happy) – Trevor Holmes

So I’m grading some of my 164 exams, 164 papers, 1600+ discussion board postings from Cultural Studies 101 (KS 101) over at that other place. My eyes are finally glazing over and I wish everyone could write exams on laptops. But it’s lovely — really lovely — to read the exams and final Intellectual Response Papers (IRPs). More students than ever took me up on the challenge to write IRPs on alternate field observations and / or use a different format (photo essay, video, zine, whatever). The portion of their exam that was take-home asks them to reflect (with evidence) on their 10 minijournal entries from the 12-week term. So many “aha” moments arise with that part of the exam. Continue reading Two Endings, and Beyond (Worn Down But Happy) – Trevor Holmes

Place-based education and interdisciplinary experience – Trevor Holmes

Recently I attended a pre-conference workshop in Kamloops, BC run by professors from several different disciplines — geography, fine art, literature, philosophy, and biology — who had been collaborating since last summer on “place-based pedagogy.”TRU trip picture

Informed in large part by a hybrid of environmental education and critical pedagogy, place-based pedagogy has to do with, as our homework reading suggests, “decolonization” and “reinhabiting” of space and place. We experienced first-hand some of the assignments the group had worked on for an interdisciplinary course, assignments and activities that each had used in her or his own course but that now were being blended together anew. Continue reading Place-based education and interdisciplinary experience – Trevor Holmes

Failures, mistakes, stupidity – foundations of success in academia

oops2Earlier this term I read a one page article, The Importance of Stupidity in Scientific Research. The article proclaims the importance of – nay – the imperative of learning from mistakes as a valuable education path. The author describes his astonishment that a very bright fellow PhD student gave up a career path because it made her feel stupid. Continue reading Failures, mistakes, stupidity – foundations of success in academia

Of Pandemics and Pedagogy – Trevor Holmes

Coughing Girl
Coughing Girl

At the risk of sounding like a curmudgeon, I must say I have mixed reactions to the Daily Bulletin’s story about dealing with students who have the misfortune of coming down with the H1N1 influenza virus. In short, while Senate has tightened up the rules for documentation of illness as prerequisite to any accommodations, the University has simultaneously declared H1N1 to be free of any documentation requirements whatsoever. Continue reading Of Pandemics and Pedagogy – Trevor Holmes

Social Networking (and Peer Tutoring) for Second-Language Learning — Mark Morton

My nephew, who is studying Korean, recently told me about a free website that facilitates the learning of a second language by making use of social networking in the form of peer tutoring. The site in question is called LiveMocha, and it’s like many websites devoted to learning second languages in that it includes content such as flash cards, vocabulary drills, and so on. What makes LiveMocha unique, though, is that its more advanced language exercises require a user to write phrases or sentences in the target language that are then assessed by another user of LiveMocha, one whose first language is the language that you are trying to learn. Continue reading Social Networking (and Peer Tutoring) for Second-Language Learning — Mark Morton

Letting Your Students Do the Work: Student-Generated Exam Questions – Veronica Kitchen

exam-photo2My first year at Waterloo was also my first year teaching my own courses. In mid-November I found myself overwhelmed by the task of writing exams for my large second-year political science course. Since I’d never taught the course before, I had no question bank, no old exams to adapt, and not a whole lot of spare time. I struggled to write enough questions to populate my exam, plus a make-up or two. I mentioned this demoralizing state of affairs to Nicola Simmons at a CTE event. Continue reading Letting Your Students Do the Work: Student-Generated Exam Questions – Veronica Kitchen

Are undergraduates really less prepared than three years ago? – Trevor Holmes

So… last night Dave DeVidi of UW’s Philosophy Department (and current FAUW Prez) was on TV. I love it when philosophers are on TV (that’s an aside). I always like to hear what Dr. DeVidi has to say, and often find myself agreeing. In this case he was talking about a survey recently done by the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations, in which just over a thousand faculty of the 2000 surveyed believe that students are less prepared than they were even three years ago. Continue reading Are undergraduates really less prepared than three years ago? – Trevor Holmes