- I walked past a sign on campus pointing the way to a Phonics Dance. What is a Phonics Dance? Will earnest teachers attired in letter sweaters join hands to do the Diphthong Swing? And most importantly, why wasn't I invited?
- Speaking of reading, I am taking the extremely rare step today of cancelling a reading assignment. I knew the reading list for my Literary Theory class was ambitious, and we've reached the point in the semester when a little trimming would open up some space for working on writing. So I'm cutting Friday's reading assignment in half. I would expect the class to rise in spontaneous applause if they weren't too exhausted to stand up.
- And speaking of applause, I had a great time applauding my deserving colleagues who received honors at our annual Founders' Day event two weeks ago, but I also appreciate finally getting a chance to reveal exciting news I've known about for a while now: starting this fall, I'll be sitting in the William R. and Marie Adamson Flesher Chair in the Humanities. It's an entirely honorary position carrying a little pot of faculty development funds, but it feels fantastic to have earned the respect of my colleagues.
- Finally, I have in my hands a card entitling the bearer to a free coffee beverage at the library cafe. Today I'll hand it to the student whose morning quota of caffeine ended up all over the floor of my classroom the other day, and at the same time I'll remind myself once again not to shimmy too close to students' desks lest I dislodge their essential beverages. If anyone ever makes a rule barring klutzes from classrooms, I'll be out of a job.
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Midweek whimsy; or, everybody do the Diphthong Swing!
The flood fizzled out. Everything is going swimmingly. What's left to write about?
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4 comments:
Congratulations!
I love the sound of a phonics dance, but have no idea what that would look like! How do they do "gh"?
Good question! One of my students explained to me that the Phonics Dance is a song and dance used to teach children the sounds of letters and phonemes, but she wasn't willing to demonstrate in the middle of class. Maybe it's on Youtube somewhere?
Congratulations on the Chair!
I'd be banished with you if the edit on classroom klutzes was enacted. I once propped my hip casually on a table whilst talking to one group in the computer lab, knocked a switch, and managed to turn off an entire bank of in-use computers... which also meant all those students had to restart their assignment (stupid clunky software). Very embarassing!
I hear you. I have tripped over cords and unplugged things that needed to be plugged in, but my worst mishaps occurred back in the day of overhead projectors. Too many things to bump into! Once I got my watchband caught on a part of the projector and literally couldn't move.
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