Ignite Presentation

Final Project

Hey everyone! Check out my final project here, presented as a Google site. I did a classroom unit plan on memo and email formatting, with an accompanying workplace redesign. Looking forward to sharing it with you all next week!

Completed teaching philosophy

Text Philosophy:

As someone who has been a student for many years, I feel that I have a great working knowledge of what makes a successful classroom versus what makes an unsuccessful one. In my limited experience teaching workshops on writing, this knowledge has been reinforced in a lot of ways, but adapted in just as many ways.

To begin, I believe that students work best when they are entertained and kept interested to some degree. This spark of interest can come in many forms. I have had teachers take us outside to freewrite when the weather got warm, and teachers who simply stopped their lecture to ask us to get in groups and discuss our projects, or the lecture thus far. The practice of getting students out of their comfort zone, forcing them to become active participants in their learning has always, in my observations, made for a great classroom environment, and increased learning as a result.

Based on these feelings, I would consider myself a social constructivist. As Vygotsky found in his case studies, students simply perform better and can obtain more knowledge when they're engaging with someone, rather than just being told information by a superior. If making students move around and discuss with a classmate not only makes the classroom environment more fun, but also helps them learn more, how could I argue with that?

My commitment to student learning is perhaps the most important part of my teaching philosophy. It doesn't matter how much we cover in class, or how many readings we complete, or how many papers you end up writing throughout the course of the semester. If you don't come away from this course with the accomplishment of really gaining knowledge, I haven't done my job. It's for this reason that you can expect timely responses to emails regarding your questions about the course, ample availability in terms of office hours in order for us to meet, a willingness to discuss in detail anything you don't fully understand, and timely feedback on your assignments. I also am a firm believer in revision. If you do poorly on a paper or project, the best way to turn that bad grade into a learning experience is to be able to revisit that paper, and fix the problems therein. School is about learning, and I don't ever want to lose sight of that.

My courses will contain elements with which you are familiar, as well as things you might not be completely comfortable with. This means that there will be traditional assignments like papers, journals, and quizzes, but there will also be parts of this course that force you to use new technologies to aid in your overall learning. You will have the opportunity to play around with these technologies, discuss them with your classmates, and hopefully gain some great tools that will help you in the future.

I feel that the classroom setting should not be a high-anxiety place. We are here to learn, and will explore various methods that will help us do just that. I want all of us to be open, have discussions, and speak up when we're having issues. At the same time, however, I want you all to take this class seriously-- let's make the most of our time together by learning all we can, while having a great time doing it.

"It Wasn't Me, Was It?": Plagiarism and the Web

Sidler, Michelle, Elizabeth O. Smith, and Richard Morris. Computers in the Composition Classroom: a Critical Sourcebook. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2008. Print.


In this piece, DeVoss and Rosati examine the issues with plagiarism and how much this confuses novice students, specifically in regards to the web and what is considered plagiarism versus what isn't.

I like the fact that this chapter addresses the main issues students have as far as plagiarism is concerned. Because I work in the writing center at College of the Albemarle, I encounter students all the time who simply don't know how to cite properly, and can't believe all of the extra work they have to do to cite. Therefore, the "You have to do all that?" section really jumped out at me. Yes, you really have to do all that!

What confuses me is the use of the international student, Danielle, as an example of someone who plagiarizes. This isn't just a problem for international students who may not be aware of the citation requirements at American institutions. Inadequate citation practices occur across the board, constantly.

I'd like to know more about the specific plagiarism policy of varied academic institutions. Most of these policies are so harsh, and I'd like to know if anyone adopts a more laissez-faire attitude.

Extra Blog 5: The Today Show

I watch the Today Show every single weekday morning of my life. Maybe I have a secret infatuation with Matt Lauer, and maybe I don't. Anyway, one day I was on their site entering to win Hoda and Kathie Lee's ambush makeover, and I noticed they had some archived video links... And I found this one that related to our class:

Hooray for Brain Rule #1!

Champing at the Bits: Computers, Copyright, and the Composition Classroom

Sidler, Michelle, Elizabeth O. Smith, and Richard Morris. Computers in the Composition Classroom: a Critical Sourcebook. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2008. Print.

In this chapter, John Logie does a great job of explaining copyright law through the ages. Check out a TimeRime I made of this chapter:

I liked this chapter because it kind of explains the evolution of copyright law, and why it's necessary.

What confuses me about this principle is the concept of plagiarism and copyright infringement in general. I've always thought that the idea of plagiarism is academic. With copyright, the problem comes from a problem of monetary attribution going to the correct person. What, then, is the huge issue in the composition classroom with copyright law?

I'd like to know more about copyright cases through the ages. Have they become more severe? Less severe?

Teaching philosophy 2.0