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BRCC Commencement 2012

~LS~ — Fri, 18 May 2012 20:59:14 +0000

Today I had the joy of witnessing BRCC’s commencement ceremony. I had more fun at today’s ceremony than at most any other I’ve attended. There have been some momentous ones, where I’ve hooded advisees or watched favorite cohorts graduate or where I graduated myself, but this one was particularly joyous.

Today I got to sit on the stage and watch the students as they shook hands with the Chancellor, posed for the photographer, and clutched their diploma folder.

Now, I’ve done that many times before, but at a university. The ceremony at USF was impersonal. When I saw my students “walk” I had feelings of tenderness, but nothing like today. Today the sheer aura of success radiated off the students’ faces. You can see that from the floor, where I usually sit, but right on the stage, it’s blinding. It made me giddy.

By now I’m a broken record about [...]

D&D Fortune Cookies

~LS~ — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 01:01:20 +0000

At the beginning of the semester I had to give a speech at convocation to the entire faculty, staff, and administration. I chose to speak about why the start of a new semester is like a fortune cookie. Throughout the speech I periodically opened up a fortune cookie, read the fortune, and made a comment. It was a fun speech and people liked it. They are still giving me fortune cookies and making jokes about it. I keep trying to explain to them that I don’t necessarily like to eat fortune cookies, I use them during Dungeons and Dragons. I just like to take the fortunes out and put them on the D&D battle mat. They give me a blank look, shake their head, and shove a stale fortune cookie my way. (Note: All fortune cookies are stale, right?)

So, it’s easier just to show you a picture than to [...]

My first post of the year…

~LS~ — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 16:43:10 +0000

…And it’s January 22. I fear this is a sign of how the semester will be. I have over-committed myself to various things at BRCC. Some of what I’m doing is important to me, but it contains elements that are not. Others are important and I enjoy. In either case, I’ve forgotten how to say no and I need to start prioritizing.

Classes are going well so far. This semester I am teaching Introduction to Humanities for the first time ever. I’m excited about it and frustrated because I can’t keep my mind out of the theory clouds and in the community college classroom. I think I’ve put together something accessible, but we can only see how it unfolds.

I’ve been very persuaded by the literature I’ve been reading about students today. Regardless of the problems with categorizing and labeling, I have found the insights that characterize students to be [...]

On Office Hours and Better Teaching

~LS~ — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 14:20:49 +0000

Teaching at BRCC has been a constant challenge, one I’ve blogged about regularly. I’ve struggled to adapt to an entirely different audience than I taught for nearly two decades when I taught at R1 universities. The disparities are glaring and I confront the effects of institutionalized racism, poverty, declining education, and dropped literacy rates that are compounded by multiple generations of institutional and personal neglect. I try to maintain academic standards in a situation where those standards guarantee the failure of two-thirds of my students. It has been a true learning experience for me, one that stretches my teaching abilities, drains my hope, and empties my bag of teaching tricks on a daily basis. Still, I find it joyful, rewarding, and I know that what I do makes a difference in some of my students’ lives in ways that other forms of activism cannot. When compared to teaching at universities, [...]

Cultural Identity Activity

~LS~ — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:56:32 +0000

Since teaching at BRCC I have struggled with introducing issues of racism and other identity categories into the classroom. Given the diversity of the campus population, I’m not sure why. As I posted previously, the responses to racial topics are completely unpredictable.

Last semester, for instance, my students claimed that black people really do like fried chicken. Although part of that discussion was intentional provocation on some of the students’ part, I think many genuinely bought into the stereotype.

Perhaps my difficulties derive from the increasing hostility in conservative rhetoric toward people of color. The “love it or leave it,” English-only mentality is surprisingly prevalent. Although many, many white students don’t fall into this category, there are enough of them to make conversations tense and uncomfortable.

If the students of color (predominantly black, though we’re seeing a rise in other minorities) aren’t comfortable enough to [...]

Black doll white doll

~LS~ — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 10:11:03 +0000

Today in class I showed a clip from A Girl Like Me, a documentary made by a 17 year old young woman who revisits the Black Doll White Doll test. The test asks black children to choose between a white doll and a black doll, asking questions such as “which doll is the prettiest” (they pick the white doll), “which doll is the nicest” (they pick the white doll), and “which doll is the most like you” (they flounder and then pick the black doll). Watching black children struggle with those questions is very sad. I show this video in class when we talk about the relationship between perception, the self, and communication.

What always amazes me about this video is the responses that it provokes. Sometimes students completely shut down and getting them to talk is impossible. Sometimes students [...]

The hidden cost of graduate school

~LS~ — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 22:02:40 +0000

I just paid my student loan a couple of days ago, which basically means I hit a button on the loan website and depleted my financial resources for another month. In the moment, I started to reflect on the debilitating costs of graduate school, costs which most people don’t consider even later in their lives after they’ve graduated. Most academics that I know have a deep sense of nostalgia for their days of poverty, where living on ramen, cheap beer, and the company of good friends in the same boat got them through until the next measly TA paycheck. They also have a healthy resentment for how paying student loans back takes money directly from their pockets in the present. This is all at the level of obviousness. But the unacknowledged costs add up to a substantial amount of cash, yet no one ever includes them in any accounting. When [...]

Teaching evaluations

~LS~ — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 20:34:03 +0000

I got my teaching evaluations back yesterday.

I have been thinking lately about faculty reviews and teaching evaluations because they are such an issue at school lately. Our student ratings are incorporated in our annual reviews, so the numbers count in our overall annual evaluation by the school administration. Now, on the one hand, this doesn’t actually mean much since there’s no material reward for a good review these days and no one’s job is threatened by an average review.

My questions have been running the course of how pointless and aggravating teaching evaluations often are yet how my happiness is still tied to them. Frankly, I’m not sure what teaching evaluations mean. In the ideal sense, they measure whether or not your teaching is effective. Even though I have a strong philosophy about what I consider good teaching, I still question who knows what way is best? Commitment to [...]

Summer goals 2010

~LS~ — Sun, 30 May 2010 05:06:54 +0000

Believe it or not I’m a good week and a half into the summer and I feel like time is flying by. I don’t like that. Finally yesterday I sat down and set out my goals and I think I have entirely too much to do. Hopefully I can make a dent in these.

1. Disney, Disney, Disney. I’m working on the bib. There are so many things to read! Disney is soooo huge! Since the From Mouse to Mermaid, Disney has opened up a theme park in Hong Kong, of all places, they are planning one to open in Shanghai, and the rebirth of Broadway as Disney World is old news. It’s impossible to suss out all the pies that Disney has its fingers in. So, I have my work cut out for me.

2. Computery type stuff. I spend way too much time on my computer and I [...]

Summer Goals sorta

~LS~ — Thu, 27 May 2010 03:47:04 +0000

I’ve been done with the 2009-2010 school year for a few days now and I’m already behind on my summer goals. Not only am I behind, but I haven’t even written them down yet. I know I have several things I want to accomplish and they are swimming around in my head like goldfish but I just can’t manage to get any clarity.

I need focus.

Perhaps I will start tomorrow…