Three Successes and Three Areas to Improve: Reflections on Teaching My First Online Course to Undergraduates

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In Fall 2018, I designed a new course I called “Reading Social Media,” which is intended to explore the ways in which social media shapes and reshapes public discourse and those who engage in it. The course was taught in a fully-online environment, meaning that the students and I never met in person. We functioned… Read More »Three Successes and Three Areas to Improve: Reflections on Teaching My First Online Course to Undergraduates

Don’t Teach against Plagiarism, Teach for Academic Honesty

I asked a first-year college class recently, “What can you tell me about academic honesty?” All the students could talk about was how bad plagiarism is and that they should avoid it or they would get in serious trouble. When I said, “I didn’t ask about plagiarism, I asked about academic honesty,” they were completely… Read More »Don’t Teach against Plagiarism, Teach for Academic Honesty

2017: Another Year in the Books!

Today is the last day of 2017, and I decided it might be good to take some time to reflect on what I’ve encountered professionally this year. Warning: it may not make gripping reading, as it’s mostly my own navel-gazing, but perhaps it will inspire you to do some reflecting on your own professional year.… Read More »2017: Another Year in the Books!

Who Helped Me for No Reason

This is a very personal post. Recently, I have had a number of people I’m close to use me as an example of someone who worked his way up to a successful career “without any help from anyone.” They like to use me as an example of why we should eliminate taxpayer-funded social programs. This… Read More »Who Helped Me for No Reason

A Review of My Summer Reading

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I’ve gotten heavily involved in reading social media, primarily Twitter, and the many interesting links to news stories, blogs, and studies I get from those I follow. But I wanted this summer to try to pull back a bit on that and get back to reading more full books. I’m taking a few moments to check… Read More »A Review of My Summer Reading

Two Books All (White) English Teachers Should Read

The events in Charlottesville, VA have rightly begun crucially important discussions about politics, race, and racism in the classroom. I am still thinking through my own thoughts about this topic, though I am (and have been) firmly of the opinion that responsible discussion of political issues absolutely must be taken up in English classes. A… Read More »Two Books All (White) English Teachers Should Read