I have been using Twitter for over 9 years now (@Klind2013) and while I originally used it similarly to how I used Facebook, I now use it almost entirely to speak with professional colleagues. I still somewhat begrudgingly use FB to communicate with relatives, friends, old schoolmates, and some colleagues, but Twitter has become my… Read More »5 Ways to Use Twitter to Develop a Professional Network
The Stats on Readers One of the most fun things about blogging are the statstics you get from the blogging program. I use WordPress, and get lots of data. Here are some interesting points from 2018. My blog received 2802 views from 2028 different people. (Some look more than once on the same day, I… Read More »2018: A Year of Edukention
Two years ago I taught a course for first-year college students that was focused on social media. It was called, “The Language of Social Justice,” and we looked at how social justice was fought for and against on social media. I required all the students to sign up for some social media, including Twitter, which… Read More »Teachers, What’s Your Social Media Policy?
It is my job as a teacher to create the conditions such that each student learns all they can from the English language arts to survive and thrive in the future. That mandate, which is entirely about student learning, is the only thing that does or should guide me as a teacher. Within reason, of… Read More »Fairness in the Classroom: It May Not Be What You Think
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
I always enjoy the annual conventions of the National Council of Teachers of English. I’ve been attending them since 1991, give or take a couple I may have missed. This year’s NCTE Convention was especially meaningful for a few reasons. I wanted to take some time to reflect on what I’ve observed and learned.… Read More »My 6 Take-Aways from NCTE 2018 in Houston, Texas
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
If you’re like me, you let stacks of student papers sit for a while before you can bring yourself to respond to them. Once I get into reading and responding to them, it goes well, but there’s just something about diving into the first paper on the stack that is tremendously foreboding. There have been… Read More »The Rubric Criterion That Changed Everything
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!
Future English teacher Aaron DeLay has created this very cool slide about grammar and language instruction, drawing on scholarship by Patricia A Dunn and me. Please check it out, and please credit Aaron if you use this. Thanks, Aaron! Follow him @adelayedteacher If you’d like to learn more about Grammar Rants: How a Backstage Tour… Read More »A Great Take on Language/Grammar Instruction
