Hi All, I hope that you had a good holiday and weekend. Even those of you on big deadlines, I hope that you got a little bit of time to chill.
Hi All,
My colleague Martha Ezzell just had a wonderful piece published: "Learning is a Radical Act" Here is the beginning paragraph --
Learning ought to be a radical act. Learners should make significant changes in perspective in the process. This is not the type of change that can be measured by how much a student knows at the end of a course that she didn’t know before. Rather, for learning to be a radical act, a difference in constructing meaning about a significant area must occur. The learner should recognize the change.
To read the full article:
http://gradstudies.carlow.edu/pro-leader/pdf/radical-act-learning.pdf
Cheering you on in your work!
Harriet
Good morning. I don't usually use this site to promo stuff, but I love this new show "Modern Family" -- here's a snapshot (that is funny even if you don't want to check out the show):
A few weeks ago, I had a very full day of meetings and other commitments. Anyway, I got back to my office and didn't have a lot of time before class. I had just downed a quick dinner and was going to wash up. I grabbed my toothbrush and toothpaste and headed for the bathroom, still in a big hurry. I put toothpaste on the brush and started to brush my teeth and AAGGHHH, the toothpaste tasted terrible! I looked down and realized that I had grabbed hand lotion, not toothpaste. Lesson learned. Slow down. Breathe.
One of my former students, Ali Spagnola, is a painter with a fun and distinctive style. A few years ago, she began a free painting project wherein she creates paintings for free, on request. She has shipped her work all over the world. You can write to her and be very specific ("please paint front loading washing machine with an orange background"), or less specific ("please paint a dog"), or totally open ("surprise me"). She will then create and send you, for free (!!!!) the painting. Some of us choose to send a little money her way to support her work, but plenty of folks take the paintings for free and Ali is totally cool with that.
"To study is not to consume ideas, but to create and co-create them."
Check this out:
Hope this brings you a smile as you settle into your weekend work!
Hi All, I have occasionally had students who told me they were concerned that their writing did not sound "more academic." Well, you definitely don't want your papers to read like a text message or a facebook post. However, I strongly encourage you to not to use five words when one will do just fine, just so you can "sound academic." I believe that the best academic writing conveys complexity and confidence. Academic writing should not include slang (unless the research topic is "slang"!), shouldn't sound like you when you're chillin' with your friends. Academic writing should convey professionalism and should reflect that you are a scholar, that you research, think, and write with depth. At the same time, I strongly prefer writing that is clear and accessible, rather than writing that was penned by someone who is trying to impress me with a big vocabulary or a density of thought. 
For adult students, it can be easy to show up for class and then leave at the end without really connecting with colleagues. For the most part, grad school is not like undergrad wherein we then saw our classmates in the dorm or in the cafeteria or whatever.
Hi All,
