Wednesday, November 16, 2005

The Boy Stops Me Cold

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A few nights ago, as we were putting the kids to bed: The Wife: DD, get in here! TW: You want to handle this one? (Points to The Boy) TB: W...
Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Ask the Administrator: What Should I Take?

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A Western correspondent writes: -------------- I am in my Junior year at a huge research university of 30,000 students. I am 20 years old, I...
Monday, November 14, 2005

Because They're Fragile

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I’m often mistaken for a conservative. Some of it is superficial: short-haired white guy in the suburbs, whose wife stays home with their t...
Sunday, November 13, 2005

Dorcasina

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Dorcasina is facing one of the worst of all things. If you can, please drop by and send her a line.
Friday, November 11, 2005

Online Courses, Office Hours, and Cross-Purposes

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For all the right reasons, my college is at cross-purposes. We want to run more online courses, since students love them and they solve a na...
Thursday, November 10, 2005

My Sick Fantasy

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And no, it doesn’t involve Winona Ryder, or supernatural powers, or even dunking George Steinbrenner in a vat of boiling oil. (Not that I’d...
Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Why I Don't Grade on a Curve

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I actually heard this on the radio this morning: "Things in France appear to be calming down. There were only 600 car fires last night...

Ask the Blogosphere: Stuck in a Monoculture with You

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I need the internet’s help to figure out this one. I received a very anxious question last week that required some back-and-forth for me to ...
Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Ask the Administrator: What to Reveal?

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A correspondent sent a question that was new to me: ------------ I am an adjunct cc English teacher in (wherever). After getting laid off fr...
Monday, November 07, 2005

Legacies

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Though I’m not any kind of libertarian, I have to admit making some very libertarian sounds whenever I hear about the ‘legacy’ airlines and ...
Friday, November 04, 2005

Teaching in Context, or, All Hail Dr. Crazy

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Dr. Crazy has a series of really good entries going on how she has had to adjust her teaching style and expectations to meet the students ...
Thursday, November 03, 2005

Term Limits for Department Chairs

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Although I’m usually suspicious of easy populist ideas like term limits, I’ll admit recently flirting with the concept of term limits for de...
Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Carts, Horses, and IT

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I recently endured one of those conferences where the formal part of the program was disappointing, but the intramural conversations between...
Tuesday, November 01, 2005

The Wife, The Lyricist

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The Boy has to bring a snack to preschool each day, which The Wife packs the night before. They talk about snacks as he’s going to bed and ...
Monday, October 31, 2005

Ask the Administrator: Helicopter Parents

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One of my favorite fellow bloggers sent in a good one: ------------------- Do you think it is acceptable at any point for parents to step in...
Friday, October 28, 2005

Ask the Administrator: How Faculty Look From Here

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In response to the open call for questions, two correspondents asked variations on how faculty look from the dean’s office. One asked specif...
Thursday, October 27, 2005

Showing Up

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What do you do, as an administrator, when (you have good reason to believe) a tenured professor regularly fails to show up for class? I have...
Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Ask the Administrator: The Curse of Meetings

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In response to a call for questions, I got two variations on the same question. The variations were: 1. Why are there so many &*#()@) ...

The Boy Discovers Another Eternal Truth

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The Boy, at dinner: "Girls like boys who can make them laugh." And thank heaven for that, I say. A few weeks ago, he noticed that ...
Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Another Good Idea Crashes and Burns...

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Steven Krause’s blog recently mentioned a few free, open-source alternatives (Moodle, Sakai) to the big-market course platforms (WebCT, Blac...