April 2007

Don’t have both your classes turn them in at the same time.

Alas, I didn’t schedule that well.

says Live Science.

“We learn better when the material meshes with what we already know, according to a new study of rats that researchers say could help explain human learning.”

Does that mean that the more you know the easier it is to learn new things?

Interesting idea.

but I love the work and would do it for free. (Don’t tell my boss.)

It also means I was very interested in Richard Vedder’s comments on some of the discussion at a meeting he attended.

Dan Julius, the Provost at Benedictine University, called for more serious academic research on labor issues, suggesting good ideas for studies. For example, has the spread in the use of part-time non-tenured (“contingent”) faculty led to reductions in academic or instructional quality? What is the relationship between academic quality and unionization? Good questions, deserving serious scrutiny. And Ernst Benjamin, who runs the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), saw a potential dilemma. In pushing hard for higher salaries and fringe benefits for mostly tenure track full time faculty, unions increase the incentives for institutions to hire more adjunct faculty with low pay and fringe benefits. He came close to suggesting that unions are promoting the demise of their own membership by driving universities to lower cost substitutes for their services.

How much fun.

Friends in Illinois had been talking at the dinner table and wondering what category Harry Potter and Eragon fell into, fantasy or fairy tale. Then they weren’t sure what the difference was. So this morning I got a call from K asking me about it.

We talked about the definition of fairy tale. I told her that, generally, it is a short tale, told first and only later committed to writing. It does not have to have fairies in it, must have an implicit moral, and may or may not have originally been told for children. It quite often has unbelievable events, such as a wolf talking or a witch being beaten by two children.

And I quoted to her my favorite comment about fairy tales by G.K. Chesterton:

Fairy tales are more than true -
not because they tell us dragons exist,
but because they tell us dragons can be beaten.

The whole discussion made me want to go back to fairy tales tomorrow for class instead of moving ahead. I think I’ll go back and do “Little Red Cap” for setting and theme after all.

1. Be expressive. Students do better on tests then.

2. Give them a framework for the lecture. Maybe a skeletal note framework that they can fill in with the major points.

3. Give the students short breaks throughout the lecture to review their notes and ask questions.

4. Give students assignments that encourage them to use their lecture notes.

That’s what I got out of Tomorrow’s Professor’s posting.

A longer point summary (12 lines or so) can be found at the end of the essay.

A Holocaust survivor saved his students’ lives yesterday at Virginia Tech when he threw himself in front of the shooter after telling his students to go out the window. The Jerusalem Post has the story about this hero.

33 people died. His class didn’t.

My students asked how many teachers would do this. I thought we all should. But maybe we all haven’t thought of it beforehand.

God bless Professor Librescu.

The windows don’t open in my classroom, so if a gunman comes down the hall, I can’t tell the students to go out while I try and slow him down. (Thank God for Professor Librescu.)

But I do keep the door locked, so we could close it. And even a shoe under the door would wedge it closed, even if the gunman had a key.

There are TVs and chairs we could put against the door (though the charis are very light) and then we could go to the other side of the wall and lay down flat. The walls are thin and bullets could go through and hurt someone.

The windows might be broken open. We’re on the second floor, but even glass and broken legs are better than death.

There are two exits. We’re very near one. It might be that we could get out the other.

My students and I talked about this. It is better to be prepared.

I told them that, in all likelihood, Professor Librescu had thought all his life about what he would do if “they” came for him again. And that forethought is what allowed his students to get out the window.

How would you get out of your work room?

The new edition of the text has eliminated “Rondeau: Jenny Kissed Me” by Leigh Hunt from its collection.

Alas! One of my favorite love poems, and certainly the only one I’ve memorized, is gone.

How does Princeton propose to stop grade inflation? By “putting a limit on the number of “A” grades academic units can reward.”

Let’s think about this.

Most semesters I have about four students per class who make As. That’s out of 25 students to start. I’m a conservative grader and require lots of work in my classes. So someone like me teaching at Princeton would probably get all the As to give away that I could usually use.

But let’s say that one semester I had twelve students who were really working hard, doing all the work, doing it well, getting help before class, and they all ended up with As. Unfortunately, my four As wouldn’t help me there, because I would have eight students who couldn’t get As.

I understand the point. Lots of people give As way too easily. I was required at the school where I taught full time to curve my final grades by eight points because too many people were doing poorly in my classes. So I’ve definitely seen what happens when you have a limit on grades, poor or good.

I think I could see limiting As, if I could hoard them. Say I get six As per semester per class. I usually use four. But then one semester the twelve folks show up and I use up my hoarded As. That’d be okay. What if the twelve come the first semester? Then we’re all hosed.