Free (cool) art!!!

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.

Ali is nearing her 1000th painting!!!!!! Be part of this wonderful project and snag a cool painting for your home, office, or for a gift.

Ali Spagnola's Free Art Project

And if you think of it, tell her I sent you.

Congrats as you near 1,000, Ali!

And to the rest of you, I'll be offline most of saturday, so no video this week. I'll see you back here on Monday. Keep at it!

Harriet

To study is to co-create

"To study is not to consume ideas, but to create and co-create them."

-- Paulo Freire

How do you co-create ideas with your classmates? With your teachers?

A more traditional view of education is that teachers teach and students learn. Contemporary and progressive thinkers including Freire, Jane Vella, Stephen Brookfield, Parker Palmer and Kenneth Gergen believe that knowledge is co-created through dialog.

Think of an idea that emerged in dialog with a friend or classmate. When I do this, I get this sense of the energy between us -- the "stuff" that we create together. I love this notion. It seems almost magical to me, the knowledge that is created between us.

Cheering you on!

Harriet

Keeping it light on a Monday - all hail the binder clip!

Check this out:

alternative uses for the binder clip

Have a wonderful start of the week!

Harriet

Photo posted by PhotoCharlie on Flickr

Saturday morning video -- Flip Mania part 1

Hope this brings you a smile as you settle into your weekend work!

Flip Mania - part 1

Cheering you on!

Harriet

Don't aspire to write like an academic, aspire to find your smart and clear writing voice

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.

Having said that, folks at the University of Chicago have created a fun online toy "Make Your Own Academic Sentence" -- this is a hoot and reminds us what happens when academic writing goes wrong. Give it a try:

Make Your Own Academic Sentence

Good luck with the work!

Harriet

Connecting with classmates

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.

Today I'm writing to encourage you to look for one or a few classmates with whom you think you could have a good collegial friendship and then try to connect. Ideally, you will find one or a few folks who you can call between classes when you want help with some work or need to vent or need a kick in the you-know-what. Perhaps you and your closest colleague will occasionally meet before class for dinner or meet on a Saturday for lunch.

As adult students, we sometimes feel isolated. As one reader wrote earlier this fall, graduate students often feel disconnected from campus life. And again, we don't have the academic community of the residence halls and otherwise living on campus. However, we can create our own connection, our own circle of support. I believe that the students who connect with at least one colleague in their program greatly increase their chances of success. These connections also enrich our experience of school, I believe we learn more deeply and also benefit from the gift of new friendships.

Seek to connect.

Cheering you on!

Harriet

Proofreading your writing

Hi All,

Happy Monday! Learning to proof your own work is an important step in your academic process. Here are some tips from the writing center at Purdue:

Proofreading your writing

cheers,

Harriet