I've been remiss in pointing to editions of the Teaching Carnival as they appear. Here's a comprehensive list:
Let me know if you're interested in hosting #8 on April 15, 2006.
Scribblingwoman has posted Teaching Carnival #2. Check it out!
Teaching Carnival #3 will take place at Scrivenings on November 15.
This Teaching Carnival entry is about how I grade student essays and how to go about developing my grading technique. Well, maybe "grading" is the wrong word. I don't have much of a problem assigning a grade. It's the commenting that often trips me up. I want to improve my commenting, and I want to be able to return my students' papers in a more timely manner by grading them more quickly. If it's not too much trouble, dear reader, I would like to hear from you on your own grading practices, if you are a teacher. If you are a student, tell me about your experiences getting essays back with comments. I've listed questions at the end of the entry below, and it would be great if you answered some of them.
Miriam, of ScribblingWoman, will host the next Teaching Carnival. To nominate teaching-related posts from all disciplines in higher education, contact her at unbsj.ca with jones before the at.
Don't wait for someone to notice your teaching-related posts. It's easy to draw everyone's attention to them.
Don't just spectate. Participate!
Greetings, Inside Higher Ed readers. Do you like grits?
Teaching Carnival is devoted to gathering select blog entries related to teaching issues in higher education. Below you will find the first installment. (Be sure to have a look at the common sense words of advice for readers.)
Caleb McDaniel explains how he makes use of the first twenty minutes of his introductory course on U.S. history.
Scrivenings presents an essay assignment involving inductive and deductive logic.
The Salt Box takes issue with one of Gerald Graff's assumptions regarding students and the accessibility of texts.
Savage Minds' Nancy Leclerc asks how useful the "four-field approach" is when teaching introductory anthropology.
"[T]he subtle politics involved in the organization of language courses, specifically South Asian language courses" are analyzed at The Home and the World.
The bloggers at Playing School, Irreverently, In Favor of Thinking, Mode for Caleb, NegativeCapability, and Democratic Socialist Republic of Konibono address a recent column or two on clothing and the classroom.
The Chronicles of Dr. Crazy features "Yet Another Open Letter to Students of English Literature," which prompts much discussion in the comments regarding the work of professors and more conversation here.
The Little Professor provides some preliminary answers to a pertinent question: "what do professors owe their graduate students when they venture out into the thorny fields of journal publication?"
Otto's Random Thoughts presents a course description on "Deported Nationalities in Kazakhstan and Central Asia."
At Easily Distracted, a syllabus for a course titled "Image of Africa" is discussed.
Blogenspiel has been thinking about Vergil and this semester's Ancient/Medieval survey.
At I Know What I Know, a request is made for advice about the degree of specificity in a syllabus' reading schedule.
Syllabus design and reading loads are considered at NegativeCapability
Online syllabi and the culture wars are discussed at Critical Mass.
CBD argues that students need more emphasis on abstract, critical thinking skills when learning about writing and technology and fewer lessons on how to use software.
Alex Halevais is thinking about teaching, technology, and transparency.
The intersections of blogging and teaching are found at decorabilia and Scribblingwoman, while courseware Blackboard offers frustrations at Kairosnews.
Teaching online involves a learning curve for Steven D. Krause.
Two different courseware packages are tested this semester at Working Blue.
Jonathan Dresner considers the challenges of teaching a summer course.
Scott Rettberg finds himself teaching digital media aesthetics in Norway.
The authors of Anbruch and Octopus' Garden, and New Kid on the Hallway are not quite ready to return to teaching at summer's end.
It's tough to switch gears from summer back to the classroom, according to jo(e)'s page.
A batch of bad course evaluations can make it tough to face going back into the classroom, as One Bright Star acknowledges.
A confession is offered at Caveat: Venter.
Dr. History (and readers) share classroom horror stories.
La Lecturess has her "first teaching-anxiety dream of the academic year."
"238 Eager Young Minds" await Sharon Gerald.
At Confessions of a Community College Dean, we find confessions regarding honors programs and their consequences.
If it's August, it must be time for freshman orientation, as we discover at Did we do anything important today?.
A Ianqui in the Village wonders how to handle a student who is very late in completing an incomplete.
The Cynical Professor advises potential students to get a life of the mind.
Russian Violets considers whether a d.u.i. is a valid excuse for missing class.
A student learns how to learn...sort of...at Tall, dark, & mysterious.
Sometimes checking on your book order means you get locked in the bookstore after hours, according to Xom.
Red Bird Rising worries about older teachers who refuse to make room for the new...literally.
Timna misses the generosity of the late John Lovas.
M2H reflects on the first day of class.
The first week of the fall semester brings heat, back-to-back classes, and a need for throat lozenges at Rhetoric and Democracy.
A good first day activity is wanted at the Blog of a Math Teacher.
What Now? addresses “outcome-based student learning objectives” for degrees and courses.
Chuck Tryon discusses ideas for a senior seminar in media studies.
Bitch, PhD realizes that libraries make pdfs.
A Delicate Boy looks forward to the coming semester.
The first day of class was leaky at Earth Wide Moth.
Pedablogue offers advice on teaching the once-a-week course.
Students need to know that the practice of journalism "has very real effects on the polis," according to Rhetorica.
...for readers of Teaching Carnival are necessary, since teaching is often a very sensitive subject for professors, students, administrators, parents, and observers of higher education:
It's my favorite holiday. The pumpkins, the candy, the costumes, the parties! Who can resist?
More than 150 links listed on del.icio.us as a Teaching Carnival, Backstage. Anyone with a del.icio.us account (they're free!) can contribute to Backstage: just tag something with teaching-carnival. A few things show up at Technorati; anyone can contribute there, too, by following directions located here.
Some time tomorrow will appear right here the Teaching Carnival proper.
If you've written something related to teaching but not captured by the above del.icio.us links, let me know asap.
If you'd like to host a future Teaching Carnival, let me know.
How about Teaching Carnival, Backstage (rather than Teaching Carnival Raw) to describe the constantly updated RSS feed of links related to teaching in higher education? The monthly or bimonthly Teaching Carnival would proceed basically along the same lines as the other blogging carnivals out there: History Carnival, Philosophers' Carnival, and Poetry Carnival, for example. Every one or two months, a different editor (me first) will round up a bunch of links to blog posts related to teaching in higher education.
Scott asks a question in the comments to a previous post, and I thought I'd try to explain myself a little better.
Content
In terms of content, anything goes for the Teaching Carnival, as I recently wrote Scrivener, from "I can't believe summer's over and I'm headed back into the classroom" to "Here's a complete version of the syllabus I've been working on" to "Wow, that was a weird first day of class!" to "Check out this assignment I've been using." Anyone who teaches in higher education is welcome to contribute, from grad students to senior, tenured professors.
Teaching Carnival, Backstage
The "Backstage" version would just be the links that aggregate over time between the montly or bimonthly regular versions. There would be no difference in the content of the links that appear in either version.
I'm imagining, however, that "Backstage" readers would find many, many links contributed by many people through, for example, their own del.icio.us accounts (which are free) in which they use the teaching-carnival tag. If you use blogging software that features categories (like WordPress or Movable Type), Technorati will automatically grab any posts that are categorized as "teaching-carnival." If you use Blogger, which doesn't have categories, you'll need to add your own Technorati tag to each relevant entry like so:
Teaching Carnival
By contrast, the regular version would have a narrower selection of links as well as some commentary and organization provided by whoever is editor at the time.
RSS Feeds
"What's RSS?" you ask. Live in confusion no more. You can use desktop software (e.g. NetNewsWire) or web-based software (e.g. Bloglines) to subscribe to the RSS feeds of your choice.
The advantage of Teaching Carnival Backstage is that anyone can make their entries part of the RSS feed. You do not have to wait for whoever is putting together the regular Teaching Carnival to notice what you've written. You can add your posts using any of the methods described above. Another advantage is that, given how very many academic blogs are out there, the open RSS feed could help under-read blogs get more exposure. And finally, readers of Teaching Carnival, Backstage would be provided with a constant and easy-to-sift stream of teaching-related blog entries from a wide range (I hope) of blogs.
Currently
The del.icio.us links for Teaching Carnival can be found here. So far, they are overwhelmingly by me, although Marcia Hansen added a couple, too. Technorati has only picked up one link, at the time of this writing, which you can see here. The first installment of Teaching Carnival will feature a link to an RSS feed for Teaching Carnival, Backstage that mixes all the feeds from different sources together.
Any questions?
I have a rough idea for something interesting. We will have Teaching Carnival Raw to go along with Teaching Carnival Cooked. What's Teaching Carnival Raw, you ask? Well, I'll use Feed Digest to grab a bunch of RSS feeds, mix them all together, and present them on a constantly and automatically updated page, just links and very brief descriptions. You can contribute to the Raw feed. Here's how:
Anyone have additional or alternate suggestions for doing this?
Carnival? Raw? Cooked? Wow, that's a really badly mixed metaphor. I'm open to suggestions for alternate naming.
I've noticed that people like Scott and Chuck are posting entries about their fall courses. Inspired by the genre represented by the History Carnival, I'd like to propose a monthly or bimonthly Teaching Carnival.
Although I'm not teaching this semester, focusing instead on my research, I'll host the first one on September 1 and then call for volunteers to host subsequent ones.
Any teaching issues are fair game, regardless of discipline.
If you would be so kind, gmail non.zombie with any blog entries you have written, are writing, or will write about teaching. Be sure to include "Teaching Carnival" in the subject line.
Please forward and link as appropriate.