timna

this bodes well for the rest of the semester and that makes me very, very happy

the same class with the primary/secondary problems? a few classes later, a library visit, the chronological class (which I thought was somewhat mediocre this time because I too obviously knew what was coming and we were stuck in the computer classroom so the physical space to sit in a circle stretched out into a long oval and they looked like a police lineup instead of a friendly discussion group) and some other discussion -- today they wrote an in-class essay and I reveled in their answers. maybe I got the questions right this time. they read a text, they read an introduction to that text giving historical context and some of the issues about authenticity, they read the article they had to bring in from the references --- and --- they read Gerald Graff's "Disliking Books from an Early Age" which really tells them about the conversation that's going on in literature classes. I phrased the question in terms of Graff: what did they learn about the conversation regarding this particular text?

allow me to quote one of the opening paragraphs:

Literature has not been a hard subject for me in my recent education, nor has it been a very interesting one; that is, until I started this in-class unit. When I started reading ----, I was engaged to the point where I was able to continue reading, but the novel wasn't quite able to absorb my every thought. Then our class was handed out the article by literary teacher Gerald Graff, titled "Disliking Books at an Early Age." This article brought up some points which I had never even thought about before, possibly because I was never taught them. The main point of his article was this: "reading books with comprehension, making arguments, writing papers, and making comments in a class discussion are social activities" (Graff 55). In other words, there is a lot more to literature than simply reading it.

I am really looking forward to this class taking on the research project. They've got the assignment sheet already, they each chose a text,  they understand about getting secondary sources, even the peer review groups are assigned so they can function as writing groups if they want: they're ready to go!

inescapable engagement and retention

"duty day" yesterday for the CC. since almond joy was home sick, I considered staying home. I  considered ducking out since my Wed exercise class was meeting and I'm not usually at the CC on Wednesdays. but I'm one of those folks who actually usually enjoys going to these day-long programs that try to push our college forward - developing faculty and staff consensus for change and then seeing how to implement it.

(I laughed out loud when I read CC Dean this morning: "At the cc, we’re at the opposite extreme. The rule of thumb here is that nothing should ever be done for the first time." My impression is that here our faculty is being carrot-and-stick'd into some of these initiatives!).

The morning speaker presented the CCSSE (Community College Survey of Student Engagement) research esp as regards to our college's results. I think the most important part for me was that I may considered students engaged, while they may not find themselves to be. Perceptions vary. But if I think about it -- how many of those students are participating? Is it really the same 5% about 90% of the time?

We talk a lot about retention, but I literally have no idea what kinds of numbers we have. Our department get lots of numbers at the beginning of the semester: how many sections of each course filled and what percentages and on and on. Do we ever revisit those numbers at the end of the semester? Not once since I've been here. Is it sort of a taboo to say I have 18 finishing when 28 start? Is it insignificant after they've paid their tuition? Retention is a mixed message for us (as teachers) at an open-enrollment school, yet it could certainly be discussed. One emphasis of the CCSSE speaker was that you can't evaluate information you don't have. We all know anecdotally what a great influence we are on a number of students, but what about the (vast) number who disappear? Not that I'm saying we should be calling and emailing everyone who doesn't show up. Just wondering if there's any follow-up. Are my numbers in the range? Are there any connections between ways of teaching and student success? Could we investigate it without connecting specific teacher names (too threatening) to some of those outcomes?

The afternoon speaker was entertaining and did give one good example of engagement - really good -- but so much of his talk was sound biting that, while his observations were funny, I found myself less engaged overall.  hmmm.

my other thought -- why do some people (maybe half my dept was there) not come? they rented a hall (the campus doesn't have a large enough or comfortable enough space for all of the faculty and staff), fed us throughout the day, closed the school -- and still quite a few people  took the day off.  I guess there are a certain number of required "duty days" and folks do juggle them according to their own schedules. this just seemed like a provocative and interesting day, a shame to miss out on the conversation.

Avishay is in the Knesset

Not that it's a surprise, but my former boss, Avishay Braverman,  is now in the Knesset!

He was the President of Ben Gurion University when I was the liaison to the Board of Governors. I used to write the "President's Report," the annual message to the Board of Governors. Seems like a lifetime ago. Avishay had kids the same age as mine so our kids were often matched up at holiday parties.

For more about the elections: Allison would be the place I'd start. 

ktzitzot poireaux, or mangling meatballs in several languages

mr. t's birthday today and we made celebratory meatballs, rice, salad and orange cake.

the family recipe for meatballs is found, as is often the case, in the phone book we brought from Israel. it's a 2-ring binder, meant for grammar school in Israel. our phone numbers, important documents (say, for example, the list of kids in almond joy's kindergarten in the kippa building in Beer Sheva) and blank sheets can be found there. so when I'm calling for a recipe, more than once, I've jotted it down there.

translated from the Hebrew:

• cook the cut up pieces
• mix meat, breadcrumbs, salt, pepper and eggs
• use the cooking water with lemon to simmer

you'd think I could invest a few more words, but I can hear my Parisian-born mother-in-law telling me exactly how to make her son's favorite dish.  obviously I understand that I must first cut the leeks (yes, do you know how long it took me to figure out what the word was? loof, in Hebrew, and no idea how to spell it in French: pruru, ? poireaux, no?!!) into small sections and wash them well to get the sand out.

then, mix whatever meat you have and however much you have of it (of course) with the other ingredients. no, she can't tell me exactly how much since it depends on however much meat you have, right?

next we fry the meat patties. they should be thin, they just have to be browned. gently place them in the pan (crock pot -- don't tell) and cover with leek-cooking water and fresh lemon juice. simmer for hours.

ben timna did all of the frying while I put together a million tax papers for our first meeting with the accountant. I was amazed that he finished first.  mr. t. and I went off to the meeting and came back to a house that smelled like home and had a dinner based in that phonebook connection. happy birthday, mr. t., I wish you so much happiness.

edited to correct the spelling -- I hope I've got it now!

polls close in ten minutes

in Israel.

not getting the interviews

an apparently reliable source says that the school that I applied to 100 miles away is now interviewing. of course, I don't want to believe that it's a reliable source (it is).  or maybe they're still calling folks. that's the way the next 2 months go... with an application deadline of Feb 20th, yes, they are probably interviewing.

another school, with an earlier deadline, hasn't called either.

so while I've tried to apply elsewhere, it looks like it's coming down to just one place to think about.

but yesterday was fun:

which reality?

It's hard to get back into writing when I've been away for nearly a week. Other commitments are calling: I got the week online for the WS class and have a quiz to write for the comp folks. Unpacking and laundry, tax materials and mail -- all calling my name.

But I want to pretend that I'm really not here yet. The train ride was long and I was reading Xenocide. As much as I wanted to get back home to the people here and to my bed, I am not looking forward to the next month or two here.

Good thing I signed up for exercise class before I left; I can't imagine that would have been me crawling out of bed to go otherwise!

The conference was poignant for me. I was fascinated to see people I knew previously only online - it seemed that I could skip some of the awkwardness that I inevitably associate with meeting new people. The sessions were either very practical and thus I absorbed them with high energy or depressingly about the state of the profession which I took entirely too personally. Part of me disassociates from looking at the long-term view of teaching since, hey, this might all be coming to a halt pretty darn soon. I felt out in the wilderness at a session about job searching and mentoring since every single person there had found a job. Gee, maybe there weren't any temporary or adjunct folks at the conference? And yet, sessions about professionalizing the adjunct would just have set me back further into a funk about the job search. I'd rather hear about online peer-to-peer work than talk about abysmal conditions or feel as though this temporary identity is going to be permanent if I stay in academics.

anyway. the people I spent time with at the conference made it a good place to be. and now I've got to get back to this reality.

jo(e)'s recording the adventures

since jo(e) and I are sharing a room (and she's as funny and wonderful as I expected!), let me just link and run. sessions to go to, the library to sneak away to, and I must, must, must get some sneakers because my beautiful purple good walking shoes did a number on my feet. maybe I've never been a plane with them? so I'm limping around here and there's no time for that.

away

normal blogging will resume after I return. the big city offers so much to do and the conference could take all the time I have. did walk down to a library that I hadn't been to in many years and found good materials in their archive. I'll go back there today.

how did you know?

One of the subjects of our teaching circle is figuring out how we know when a class works. What characterizes a successful teaching experience? So we're bringing in our stories and after each one trying to pin down some of the similarities. We realize that there is no formula, but surely there are going to be some aspects we'll find in common.

Today went well. I added an additional discussion day (which has messed up the classroom scheduling because I alternate computer classroom with classroom that is nice to talk in), as they requested in the midterm survey. I went with trepidation because if they hadn't done the reading, this was going to be a long 75 minutes. I was kind of low energy -- I'd finished the grading just before class, a cold is starting again, and I'm hanging out at home with ben timna since he's on break so it's hard for me to get into that teacher mode. But I thought about how it could be organized and went with a fairly standard approach: limited the material to the first 1/3 of the book even though they should be about 2/3 of the way through, listed five categories on the board (gender, politics/economics, family, race, religion) and said sign up for the one you want to work on. Good groups formed without me intervening. And within 20 minutes they had 5-8 examples from the reading to start the discussion flowing. That class worked.

Finally, I asked them to write what surprised them or confused them in the text and something they had learned. As I read those memos, I remember why I assign this particularly difficult text. It's compelling, it's hard, it's brand new and disturbing material for most of them. But they are reading it. Next week we'll do the chronological criticism and I hope that works well, too.