I want to bring attention to the summer 2008 MLA Newsletter--hot off the press at this very moment. Gerald Graff's presidential column, "Bringing Writing in from the Cold," articulates the need for the university community to embrace, or re-embrace, the teaching of first-year writing.

After worrying that I was in some ways responsible for the failures of some of my students (http://pedagogy.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/296), I incorporated some of y'all's advice--mainly trying to find something about the students that I liked, and challenging myself to keep them in the class.

Someone asked me recently who my "Mad Libs" are for teaching. I wasn't initially certain what that meant (you mean who are my nouns, verbs, and adjectives?), but on further thought I see the point of the question. Whom, it asks, do I imitate or simply mime when I have trouble knowing what to say, or how to say it, to my class? Whose language, gestures, formats, structures, reactions, jokes, or aphorisms do I seize on, filling in the blanks with information from the present situation?

I’ve been using these three readings in my class and I thought others might find them interesting in discussions on metaphors (and a range of other topics on language use). I think these are applicable in a lot of the different 309s (and 306s), not just mine on language and identity. And these readings have generated lots of interesting discussion in my class. You may already have come across these, but if not take a look. These can also serve as a spring board for evaluating the way language is being used with respect to other current events.

On Friday I spent most of the day at a fairly new charter middle school in East Austin. It was a totally amazing and challenging experience, but there was one thing in particular that I was impressed by and wanted to share.

Here's an article that appeared in the New York Times today about professors who are using blogs, social networking sites and the like in an attempt to "humanize" themselves for their students. Some also see this as a response to websites like Ratemyprofessor.com. The article's interesting, but doesn't really discuss what these sorts of issues mean for graduate student instructors.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/20/fashion/20professor.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

It recently occurred to me how little I consider the difference between how I imagine myself teaching an how I actually teach. I fancy myself quite an innovator in the classroom--or at least, that's what I tell people when they ask (if ever) about what I like about teaching. I talk about how I like to put unlike things together, or find unexpected analogies, or give assignments that move perpendicularly to their goals, or how I try to turn student questions back on the student, or how I create an atmosphere of healthy anxiety.

I'm using (with few adjustments) the showcasing protocol suggested for RHE 309S and RHE 310 this semester and I'm LOVING it. I've always had a hard time with peer review at UT (it always seemed to work better with my students at the last school I taught--but they were, generally, older commuter students.), but this all-class format seems to work well. Students get papers the weekend before the showcase and know that they are going to be responsible for their comments on the papers (I collect and look over the comments).

So, this semester of teaching for me has been very much about doing things on my terms. Don't get me wrong, I think that I generally end up teaching the things that I most want to teach the way that I want to teach them. But at some point every semester guilt seeps in and I find myself doing things because I think-I-should, or someone-thinks-it's-better, or I've-been-told-to. This rarely works out.

If anyone is talking about gender in classes, you should at least read this recent editorial from the Daily Texan. It's probably too illogical to spend much time on in class, but it would make a good example of poor reasoning.....