April 2008

A post on your life in six words.

A post on My Hero, including research, about someone who fulfills the definition of hero that I give. This would have to be a significant post but it could be used to replace 5% of a low grade.

I think I will do this for CC2′s classes.

This is a good introduction to blogging for my classes, especially those where most of the students do not know about computers.

My husband showed me “Twitter in Plain English” from Common Craft, but I liked this as well. Hmmm. I might use the Twitter video as a “other things to think about” on the last day of class.

The Hindu says a good teacher needs knowledge, communication skills, and aptitude. They define aptitude as wanting to do it.

Ad Prima: Toward the Best Education Information says good teachers:
are good at explaining things
keep their cool
have a sense of humor
like people (especially those in the age range they are planning to teach)
are inherently fair minded
are practical
have a command of their subject
set high expectations and hold their students to those expectations
are detail oriented
are good time managers
can lead or follow
don’t take things for granted

A blog, Ripples of Improvement provides a list of the Top 10 qualities of a good teacher.
1. Confidence
2. Patience
3. True compassion
4. Understanding
5. Ability to look at things in multiple ways and explain things in more than one way
6. Dedication to excellence
7. Unwavering support
8. Willingness to help student achieve
9. Pride in students’ accomplishments
10. Passionate

Commenters added “understand learning” and “sense of humor.”

Tomorrow’s Professor from Stanford, offers these characteristics:

Wants to teach
Take risks
Never have enough time (because they are too busy doing teacher-related stuff)
Tries to keep self and students off balance (meaning they are always stretching themselves)
Do not trust student evaluations (because they say too much nice about them)

If the above is Chris Morgan’s list, it is complete and online at Learning Matters at Lingnan, which includes other things about good teachers
have a positive attitude
think of teaching as a form of parenting
try to give their students confidence
try to motivate their students by pointing out incentive systems (like the raise lost because the person didn’t know how to write)
listen to their students

Marshall Brain says good teaching is knowledge, communication, interest, and respect for the students.

Nelson Guirado says a good teacher
Plans
Corrects work consistently and return it on time
Doesn’t sit down during class

Teach Kids Attitude 1st is another blog with a simple answer to what it takes to be a good teacher. A passion for teaching and a supportive teaching environment. That’s it.

JSTOR offers an article from Bioscience that says a good teacher must have enthusiasm for their subject and enthusiasm for their students.

This semester I’ve actually had my freshman composition course reading blogs (for their compare/contrast paper on the presidential candidates) and my English blog (on their various assignments). As the semester winds down, they are creating links’ posts (with six good links), commentary posts (using topics from their documented papers that they are well informed on), and a narrative post (about their life).

I am grading these posts on timeliness of execution (did they get posted by the due time?) and the quality of execution (did they match my criteria?).

The links’ posts have come in already. And they are an improvement over what I was expecting based on the first one I saw. (He used Wikipedia and had quick-Googled sources. So he’s not doing well.) Most of the posts, however, are very well done.

I interviewed yesterday for six and a half hours. There was no scheduled time for lunch, so I brought a bar and peanuts, thinking that I could eat them on the run. That wasn’t as necessary as it looked, since I had 15 minutes between each part of the interview.

The president mostly asked me questions about my life. Of course, I was only there for ten minutes, so… He asked how I got to Texas from New York, why I chose my PhD alma mater, what things influenced me. Then he asked me three times what my research was going to be… He asked it three different ways, so it is possible I wasn’t answering what he was asking or he wasn’t understanding what I was saying. (I think now, looking back, that he was asking me where I was submitting proposals and papers. I would certainly have changed my answer, since I didn’t answer that at all.)

I told the chair that. She said she thought it might be X issue. I said I had thought about X issue and had presented a paper on it, back when I was teaching full time. I also said I had brought a copy for the president, but had not had an opportunity to give it to him. She went right out, put it in a folder, addressed it, and had it delivered to him. Doubt he saw it, since he was so busy, but…

I found out that there is a new chair for the department. I liked that. The new chair is the woman who supported me in the first interview. She is also the woman who took me around for my interview and introduced me to, it seemed like, everyone on campus. She becomes chair June 1.

The interview seemed to go fairly well. I am not the high profile candidate the president would like to hire, but I am a solid teacher and could, I believe, do presentations on a regular basis. I’ll just have to remember that it is part of my job description. Maybe I can get in touch with some people from my old college and present panels. Have to think about that.

I believe the chair likes me. I got on well with the dean, who is an easy-going person.

I think I got on well with the provost, too. While I’m scrutinizing it with a microscope I wonder if perhaps I didn’t seem a little too eager with her. As I was leaving she said, “You seem to have a lot of interests.” Now that would be good if she were talking about my teaching, but it came on the heels of my saying that her desk, a huge beautiful wood work with hand painted flourishes, was beautiful. I had already commented on how much I liked the blue glass, telling her that I collect it. And, when I came in, I asked her if she were born in September, because she had on a sapphire necklace (and earrings and wedding ring, but I noticed the necklace). So I’m now a little less sure about that.

I told the chair that, for a year or two, I would be willing to teach four sections of freshman English, if that was what needed doing, but that I did not want to do that for twenty years. She laughed and said no. She asked me what my dream job would be and I had trouble articulating it, even though I have written about it before. She kept asking me if I were going to be happy not teaching literature. I’m a writing teacher, primarily. But, having taught six to nine classes of freshman comp a year in the last six years, I am ready for a change. I am more than willing to teach business writing or something else, if that is available. (It doesn’t go to adjuncts at the community college for sure.)

We also discussed when in the day I would want to teach. Of course everyone wants to teach in the mid-morning (almost everyone). I said I’d prefer to teach a night class rather than a 4 pm MWF. Can you imagine being in Houston traffic at 5 three days a week? I would not enjoy that. But now that I’ve thought about it, I’m not sure when I would rather teach. Something else to think about. They schedule their classes early, so if I have a different opinion than what I told her, I should let her know if they call to hire me.

I think that my freshman comp class went very well. I taught for thirty minutes. The students were engaged; they laughed in the right places; they answered my questions. I did a little more lecture than student involvement, but I think it went all right.

However, in the tech writing class, while I showed that I know technology and I gave some good points, I was so busy presenting what I had prepared, that I didn’t engage the students. And that is the class the dean sat in on. (In fact, only the chair and the adjunct whose class it was were in my freshman comp teaching.)

I will try to remember that the teaching isn’t so they can find out what I know, but so that I can show them my best teaching style. That they did not see.

The chair said that she would let me know by June 1, hopefully. We’ll see.

If I don’t get the job, it will be God’s decision. When I started this search, with three colleges to apply with, I told God I needed him to be clear where he wanted me to go.

CC1 was hiring developmental writing only and so I didn’t get in. There are plenty of adjuncts who have done that for them on a regular basis. And they might have gotten someone from outside. I don’t know.

CC4? didn’t call me back after the phone interview. I thought they would, but I was wrong.

So whether I get an offer or not, I feel confident it will be what God has in mind.

Other things discussed:

The future graduate programs… MFA, JD, etc that are being envisioned and made part of the vision.

What the school is known for now. It is a SLAC, but at the rate they are changing, it won’t be that for long. Right now they’re strong in pre-med. Three of their sophomores were admitted to medical school, assuming they keep their grades up and graduate. They also have a very strong nursing school. In addition, they have a very strong bilingual education emphasis. They got $1.5 mil from the government for scholarships for that.

Developmental writing. The chair and I discussed this. I brought it up with the provost and the dean.

My considered response

After the phone interview, I almost withdrew my name. I loved the idea of working at a college like this one, which is why I applied, but the interview was problematic. However, I decided it was worth continuing because I did want to work there.

After the on-campus interview, even given that it went all day and had no lunch break, I really want to work there. I will be disappointed if they don’t offer me the job. There is a financial issue, though, because I need to make enough money to make it worth driving across town for. We probably won’t move. (I’ve considered it, but right now it would be unpopular with my family and financially foolish.)

I want to work there. It looked like a great place to be. Right now it’s small, but it is booming and will be growing like crazy. Being there in the transition stage could be good because I’ll get to know people across the campus and because I’ll then be in a nationally recognized school.

Besides teaching, which I love, I will also need to get re-involved professionally. That is a little harder to do because I have been out so long, but I am already moving that direction.

Update:
I was not hired for the ft position. I did adjunct there for two years, including one year where I worked ft for pt wages. They were hiring ft’ers but did not even consider my application. While they paid well for pt, I was glad to find a ft position and leave. The biggest problem was the change in atmosphere on campus with the new provost. The college became toxic. Many long-time employees were fired. (No tenure.) So I am glad they didn’t hire me after all.

I wrote about the 2002 Tech Standards “worst evers” in a post on things to avoid when writing procedures and instructions. However, when I found other years’ Worst ever, I couldn’t resist adding to it.

For 2003 here are some of the excerpts:

The winning entry begins: “1. Be tights part E with part I together by fitting M. Also can be installation handle part J in this side.” It ends with “6. Test stranger & use on.” Because we all want to test strangers.

The runner up, which might have won had it not been submitted late, was for a car alarm and was entirely written in caps.

For 2005:

The winner is a single page labeled HDD assembles elucidation.

A few notable excerpts:
“Heading up the upper cover to turn over to rise…”
“Cover up and down to separate then and completely…”

The runner up is instructions for using a jack hammer.

“Before operating the jacks. first .insert the notched end of the handle into the release valve. —The diagram does not show a handle anywhere, and refers to a “release valve lever.”
Insert operating handle in the socker and the ram is steadily raised…” —The socker?
“Select point of action according to gravitational center place the jack on the hardness ground if necessary.”

And you can see the most confusing directions on a remote, ever!

Often it is good to use an inverted pyramid to organize.

Give answers before explanations.

If you are providing an FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section, after you provide the question, give the answer. Then give the explanation.

What is a URL?
A URL is a web address. URL stands for Universal Resource Locator.

The reader probably doesn’t care what the acronym (letters) stand for. They care about knowing what it is. So give the answer and then provide the explanation. If they want the explanation, they can keep reading.

Give summaries before details.

This works on the same principle above. If the reader only wants to hit the highlights, you give that first. If they want more information, they can keep reading.

Notice that this post is organized that way. If you only want to know what is an inverted pyramid, you can read the bolded sections only. Then you’re done. Or, if you don’t understand the bolded info and want more, you can keep reading.

Give conclusions before discussions.

In some kinds of writing, you don’t want this. Putting the conclusion first is usually not a good way to write a persuasive paper. However, in business this is known as the bottom line. Give the bottom line first. Then discuss how you got there.

I was recently on a hiring committee. We had many people who applied for the job. At the end of the whole process, we were supposed to bring recommendations to those with the power to hire. Whether in written or in verbal form, the best way to present our recommendations would have been conclusion first (Hire Y.) and then the discussion (He has 8 years experience….).

Give general statements before specifics.

Think of this as the topic sentence in a paragraph. You give the general statement, then you back it up with specifics. You can use that format to organize an entire technical paper.

wants to hire SIX new English teachers for the fall… No wonder the President and Provost are busy. If there are even half that many plans to hire in other places, they are stretched.

I guess that is why they were hiring last year and this year. And next year.

They doubled their freshman class from 2006 to 2007. It is expected to be up another 20% this year.

I guess I am a little weirded out that there might be six new teachers in one section.

I just read through an entire year’s worth of the campus newspaper online. Doing that is part of my prep for the interview on Tuesday. I’m also re-reading my dissertation, so I’ll be able to talk about it.

Online Technical Writing: Instructions covers a lot of information quickly and then links to in-depth discussions on such things as audience, task analysis, and special notices. The in-depth discussions are just that and they contain multiple examples.

Travel Guidebook Writing by Tom Brosnahan, a published author of multiple travel guidebooks. It includes discussions of getting started, contracts, and what it’s like on the road.

Writing Revisable Manuals: A Guidebook for Business and Government has a list of chapter titles in the left sidebar. These include “About Readers and Manuals,” “Page and Screen Design,” and “Writing Style.” The first in the list is “What this Guidebook Contains.” It gives the chapter titles and a one sentence description of what is in there. The most useful chapter, after the first, seems to be “Methods of Presentation,” which lists and gives examples of different ways of presenting information, such as the expected bullets and more esoteric offerings like playscripts or warnings.

Keys to Writing a Human Resources Manual would have been very useful for whoever wrote this employee manual. The pages load a little slowly and the site seems to take you through extra steps, but once you get there, the information is useful. Their example is for sale for only $19.95. (How about free?)

How to Write an Employee Manual for restaurant managers is fairly short and simple to read. The short is good, but it also means there is little discussion on any topic. It has four sections: Why you need a manual, How to write your manual quickly and easily, What your manual should say, and Employing your manual. (They did not pay attention to parallelism.) Each section has a bulleted list underneath it, so it is quick and easy to read. There are examples given.

Apparently an employee manual is the most common type because there are many more links than those I wrote.

How to Publish a Great User Manual has some good things in it. Right away, though, they use acronyms without explanation. However, if you keep reading, there is good information. For instance, “Explain the Problem Being Solved” says that many manuals just translate the language from engineeringese into a human language and do not attempt to explain why it is good to have this or that feature. I think that is very true, though many manuals fail in the translation portion as well.

How to Write an Effective Manual has five short points. The first tells you to hire a technical writing person. (That’s good for when you graduate and want a job as a technical writer, but not so much just now.) Number 3 is useful, though. “The manual should be activity centered.” It includes a discussion of what that means.

Samples:
Walden U’s guidebook and template for writing proposals, abstracts, theses, and dissertations. They are very detailed. Good example of writing, even if not a discussion of the process.

A Guidebook for the Assessment of Children’s Narratives

Sample proposal for writing a guidebook on how to change a tire

Manual on how to write for philosophy class identifies itself as the long version. It is written in paragraphs, but includes humor.