In the last weeks I let my opinions about the multiple choice question and the short answer essay fly wildly. If you haven’t read those you might be interested to check them out. I issued my preferred type of question (short answer) to my students in a test and was recently able to read their responses. I was astounded. I’ve written about the course I’m teaching before but a brief recap is in order. It is a strange (but very valuable) course as it is taught by three different instructors from three different areas. Visual Art, Music and Theatre are … Continue reading →

Once again my students are preparing for an exam and once again I am preparing to write up the exam they will be given. It is a complex course I teach. The students have three subjects, three instructors, three tests and a combination of in-class work, lecture, guest speakers and guest artists. One has trouble blaming them for asking what they should focus on while preparing for the exam. As such, they are given access to review materials in order to assist them in their studies. In truth, these review materials are often nothing more than the slides and notes … Continue reading →

After I finished the first part of my qualifying examinations for my doctoral degree my family and I found our way to a local apple tree farm. We took a nice drive, dressed a little more warmly than usual, and took our time looking high and low in the various trees for fresh apples free of pesticides and wormholes. We had such a wonderful time when we went the first time that we planned to do it again. With Halloween just around the corner we went to pick up a pumpkin. I realized, once we got home, how interesting new … Continue reading →

Today was the day I gave a big lecture to my course. Not a lecture of anger but a lecture filled with content. The content was varied and hard. I talked about the types of things it would be filled with last time. I believe that the lecture was a success but I don’t want to talk about that today as much as I want to talk about the term I’ve been known to use when talking about my students outside of class to other people: kids. Now, I want to make it clear that this isn’t meant as a … Continue reading →

Tomorrow my students will be treated with a huge lecture. I’ve given the synopsis to a couple of other instructors who say that it can’t be done. They say it is impossible to cover the amount of material I plan on covering in the short amount of time we have to cover it. Add to that the video clips that I’ll be showing troughout and it seems like an impossible task indeed. What makes it not impossible is something that playwrights typically value in their works: unity. I believe that the lesson is clear, straightforward, and well organized. How do … Continue reading →

In my previous post I talked about a growing concern among academics about the use of their “intellectual property” by other individuals (including, sometimes, their own students) in the halls and forums of universities. These are understandable concerns. In some ways the fear is that someone else could take your syllabus (full of hard work and sweat and tears) and go off and teach it themselves without crediting (or otherwise giving monetary or other value) to the original creator, you. There are a number of problems that I identify with this line of thinking that I’ll get to in a … Continue reading →

When I was a kid in college I frequently read on the internet about classes in popular culture. My interest in popular culture, like most students, was always more intense than my interest in business, the history of marketing, or mathematics. What drove me to seek out these courses was that during my first semester I took a course on Woodstock. Oh yes! For one glorious semester I watched documentaries about, read commentary on, and listened to music from that iconic festival. This was something that seemed surreal. Somehow it always seemed that you “lived” pop culture but “studied” everything … Continue reading →

Recently I gave my students their first test of the semester. Lots of e-mails were exchanged the day prior. “How do I study?” “What should I know?” “Is there anything I should specifically focus on?” Their nervousness was, I think, unfounded. However, I appreciate the e-mails because it demonstrates that they cared enough to prepare and inquire. While most of the test was multiple choice there was one section at the end that was a short essay. I like writing portions for a variety of reasons and today re-proved my use of them in a testing environment. The class is … Continue reading →