Celebrate Professional Teaching
Penn State English NTL Faculty
Contributed by Judy McKelvey
1. The young Brontes’ playful hat-switching scene, reminiscent of some of the classics of stage business (Didi and Gogo)
2. Cynthia’s passionate reading of Jane Eyre’s feminist internal monologue—clearly the prototype for Aretha’s “Respect”
3. The sumptuously-colored gowns
4. The ensemble’s delight in their orchestrated call-and-response dynamic
5. The molten lava cake
Click image for Issues, Dates and Locales.
Contributed by Jessica O’Hara.
“I Slept Well If You Slept Well,” by our own Alison Condie Jaenicke appears in the recently released Isthmus Review, Fall/Winter 2015 issue. You can read an excerpt here: http://www.isthmusreview.com/i-slept-well-if-you-slept-well-by-alison-condie-jaenicke/
Full piece is available in print.
Lecturer Debra Placky has a showing of her photographs in downtown State College at Schlow Memorial Library in The Betsy
Rodgers Allen Gallery from February 1-29, 2016.
Contributed by Julie Knepp.
In previous semesters, the most common request regarding course content on my SRTEs was for more information and discussion about Career Preparation. My syllabus included a brief unit covering perhaps four or five classes that included resume and cover letter (or personal statement) preparation and peer review. In order to provide additional emphasis on this unit, I have added a day at the Career Services Center.
Like taking your class to the library, you can reserve a date in the Career Services Center and have one of the counselors present to your class on a range of topics. My classes have enjoyed the presentation on Interviewing Skills, and I have followed up in the next class with small group interview practice and a brief writing assignment on answering the individual student’s most intimidating interview question.
I put this unit at the very start of this semester, and the segue into researching the company profile, their next project, has worked out very well. The students seem enthusiastic! The CSC also offers a Mock Interview program for the students that is quite substantive, involving dressing for interviews and a recorded section that allows the student to review his or her performance. I will be doing one of these myself and posting the video on Angel for my students to critique.
To contact the CSC and make arrangements for taking your sections in for a seminar, here is the link: https://pennstate.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_02QjYDkz5jiUgxT. The website for the CSC is an education in itself, and the resources available to our students are amazing. I hope this information is helpful to my fellow 202D instructors. If you need further information, my email address is jry134@psu.edu.
Rose Bohn has released the PWR Lecture dates and topics for Spring 2016.
PWR Talk #1. Peer Review Stations: an Alternative Format
presented by Christine Chichester on Thursday, February 18, 2016 from 11:30-12:30 in 309 Boucke.
Students are often overwhelmed by peer review sessions, because they may feel unqualified or insecure when assessing their classmates’ writing. “Peer Review Stations” is an alternative to more traditional versions of peer review that gives each student a manageable and specific job when participating in an in-class session. Though this method needs thorough explanation, students are able to master one area of peer review like documentation or organization and gain confidence and skill in writing.
PWR Talk #2. Helping Our Students in Distress
presented by Kate Rosenberg on Monday, March 21, 2016 from 10:00-11:00 in Grucci (102 Burrows).
I’d be willing to guess that it’s a rare semester in which an instructor isn’t faced with a student who is dealing with a mental health crisis. From anxiety disorders, PTSD, and depression to bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, Penn State students are silently struggling. How can we best help students who confide in us? How can we compassionately, effectively help students who may be showing distressing symptoms of a mental illness? Are there ways we can start to foster a stigma-free environment in our classrooms? We’ll get to some answers and be joined by mental health counselor, Audra Hixson (Assistant Director of the Center for Women Students).
PWR Talk #3 Teaching Students to Use Evaluation Criteria
presented by Judy McKelvey on Wednesday, April 6, 2016 from 4:00-5:00 p.m. in Grucci (102 Burrows).
Come join us for a game designed to help students understand why it is important to know how to use evaluation criteria well. Some of you will play match-seekers; some will be matchmakers; and then there will be the roving disruptors. By the end of the exercise, no one will have found true love, but students will have a concrete strategy for thinking about and applying criteria in an evaluation context.
PWR Talk #4 Helping Our ESL Students in Our Writing Classes
presented by Geoffrey Clegg on Monday, April 18, 2016 from 2:00-3:00 p.m. in Grucci (102 Burrows).
Are we or are we not supposed to be taking the initiative for getting background checks?
It’s official: Angel is at “end of life” and Canvas is taking over.
Read more about Canvas at Canvas at Penn State. Here you can find “ramp up” and transition information, canvas demos, instructor resources and more. You can also sign up for the Canvas listserv, so you can get the news as it’s published.
Long live Canvas!
More on Canvas from Stuart Selber:
In case you didn’t hear, ANGEL, Penn State’s current course-management system, will be decommissioned at the end of the Spring 2017 semester. At that point you will need to switch to the new system, Canvas, if you want an institutional platform to support your courses.
Canvas is available to you right now and some in English are already beginning to explore its features. In the Digital English Studio we are piloting one section of the online version of English 215. The section is being taught by Paul Kellermann. So we have a section up and running and are kicking the tires, both of Canvas and our instructional design approach for this new platform. We will know a lot more by the end of the semester.
If you imagine yourself moving to Canvas there’s no reason to wait. You could begin by exploring and learning and then using it for summer or fall courses. That would give you a good running start before ANGEL is decommissioned at the end of the Spring 2017 semester.
Overheard in Dear Old Departed Verizon Building:
Student: “It’s just very frustrating to be graded by the department rubric you gave us when all my other friends in all the other comp classes just hand in a first draft and get an A for doing ok.”
Teacher: “Well just so you know, when we teachers do mock-grading forums, I’m always the one who grades the test paper the highest.”
Freshman Student, week 1: “I’m trying to get into med school, so I need an A in this class. Tell me what to do to be sure I get an A.”
Lecturer, week 12: “Five students I’ve been working my butt off to save just dropped my class; there goes my “D” quota.”
What to Tell Your Students the Next Time They Wonder What an English Degree is Good For:
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