Curmudgeon files 1

This weeks curmudgeon files:
Well, Twitter seems to be the new thing, but I am definitely not going there. " I'm on the toilet reading a magazine and wishing you were here..." " I'm in the middle of intricate brain surgery, but instead of concentrating on what I'm supposed to be doing, I'm socially masturbating and thinking about you..." " Blah Blah Blah...senate sub committee hearings are so dull. Say I heard a good one the other day..." " Driving down a mountain road in the middle of a blizzard here in the Carpathian mountains. Gee if these roads were any more decrepit and twisting, we could sell them as stale pretzels.... AAAAARGH!- Crash! LOL!" There are just some things that I do not need to hear 24/7, including every random thought that passes through the heads of people who probably also love the smell of their own bad breath and the remains of their bodily functions. ( Smacks of "Look Mommy, I made big poop in the potty! Isn't it pretty?") Oprah Winfrey patting herself on the bak because she got "130,000 hit on HER VERY First DAAAYYYY" ( adapting her imperial "I am the QUEEN OF THE WORLD" VOICE). Now, for my journalist friends, this seems to be a good way of keeping up with breaking events around the world and seems like a necessary function to keep linked in. otherwise it sems to be another step towards total erosion of privacy and personal space.
A few weeks ago. I was in the Ladies in the Ed Building,( and on the toilet.) A woman next to me was engaged in loud bowel-related activity, with all the accompanying farts and splashes." then this is what I heard.
"Ceci? It's me. ( Explosive FART! Splash!) Has the order come in yet? ( Requisite grunting!)YOU call them and tell them that if it isn't in by 12:30, we're cancelling payment and finding another supplier!And I'm serious about that! Am I still on for lunch with the ad reps? (Squishy sound! FAARRTTTT! )Make sure our reservation is still on. I'd hate to show up without having a table reserved ! That would be so embarassing ....."
( FFFAAAAARRRRRRTTTTTTTT! paper roll unrolling. sound of pants swishing as they are pulled up)
By this time, I was out of the stall and washing my hands.Then, face visibly sweating, this middle aged woman who should know better stepped out and started tucking her shirt back into her too tight wrinkled pants and walked up to the sink to wash up.
I looked at her and said" You know what? In spite of the similarity of appearance, a restroom is not a phone booth, several of which are located right over there, in the lobby. Whether of not you have a sense of personal space and care that you are conducting business by phone while imitating the explosive sounds of an avalanche coming down a mountain, I don't really want to join your party. ( I smile sweetly and nod my head up and down as I speak in my mot dulcet and non offensive tone) Even if you have no sense of decorum yourself, you might consider that the rest of us do not want to join in your perverse version of Open Mike Night. I do not want to play, so if you need talk while you are on the toilet here, please look for my shoes under the door next time before you start and remember that I value MY privacy." she blushed and apologized and shuffled out the door.
Now Miss Manners says that the height of rudeness is to correct someone for their exhibition of bad manners, but this has happened more than once, hence the double-barreled blast of pent up, but quietly expressed, fury, as I had rehearsed this mentally to rule out all loud screaming and expletives and low key speech levels so as not to appear insane.I'm going to spread this message and hope it becomes a national movement, standing up for basic God given rights to personal potty space. I'm going to have the signs made up to post in every public restroom i use on a regular basis:"CAUTION! A PHONE BOOTH IS NOT A RESTROOM! FAILURE TO HEED THIS WARNING WILL RESULT IN THE PERSON IN THE NEIGHBORING STALL LIFTING THEIR OWN CAMERA PHONE OVER THE STALL WALL TO RECORD YOU IN YOUR VERBOSE AND INSENSITIVE GLORY,AND THEN WE WILL SEND THE VIDEO TO BOTH YOUR GRAND MOTHER AND YOUR CHURCH CHOIR GROUP! HAVE SOME DIGNITY! WE MEAN IT! LOL!"
JOIN THE MOVEMENT!
Oh my word! See what happens? If I sit at tHE computer long enough, idly typing away my vicious thoughts and degenerate behaviors, my husband will sneak up behind me with a lovely plate of green chile omelet, spicy sausages and light as air biscuits.who says that bad behavior merits no rewards?
Chuckling inside! ( that's CI, a new acronym for all you Twitterers! T

Yesterday's sessions (day 2) were very information dense and there is a lot of information to absorb and reflect on. I think we got a lot of useful information about specificity of assignments, varietal usage of the tools and methodologies available, and i can't wait to get down to the bones of actually redesigning the modules based on this inforation. Going over my notes, I think that I will have to transcribe some of this to keep in a file becuase it would ber very difficult to remember all of what was presented and shared.

Addressing specific audiences and writing occasions
I sue scenario bbased exercises to teach this.. One example is telling them the following: You have been in a one vehicle accident with an electrical pole in the middle of the night. You have to explain the accident to three different people with three different purposes, which are listed below. Spend five minutes brainstorming the first one for discussion and then we will go on and do the other two as well.What would you say to acheive your goal and purpose? what level of diction/ formalithy would you use? How would you use emotional appeals to achieve your goal?

Audience purpose goal
policeman persuade not to give you a ticket
owner of the car inform/ persuade about the accident, persuade to loan you thier other vehicle until the other one is repaired
wildest friend entertain to make the story as scary, funny or interesting
from high school as possible
in a phone conversation

Assessment:When the students have completed part one, ask them to share their answers with the class on a volunteer basis. Ask the class members to assess either in writing ( for each section, one sentence

Five principles Document

The "Five Principles of Successful Course Redesign" seves as a sound reminder and a source of good new informationabout the benefits of building pedagogocally sound online courses, both to improve the quality of teaching and to reduce costs in several ways. The parts that I have found to be most pertinent as we are piloting and revising the 0111 lab course have been the redesign of the entire course, which we have standardized and are now revising again, azs this has made the course more workable and more sound, as well as more easy for the students to follow; the component of encouraging active learning and the asessment and feeedback component, which go hand in had as the students do quite a bit of work and peer reviewing on line and it is easy as an instructor to catch poorly done work as it comes in, write a corrective suggestion to the student privately, and still give the student a chance to revise the work correctly and resubmit it in order to be successful with the assignment. I'm really enjoying the academy, and one of my favirite things about the way that it is run is that you use your own instructors as team to teach various aspects of the workshops, which reenforces the very way that we are expected to formualte our classes and also assures that we are all on the same page and are exposed to your staff in a way that makes us much more likely to come to you out of class later when we experience difficulties or as in my case so often , just don't quite get it yet and need further instruction. you force os to think and work successfully and independently, yet you all provide a great snense of comfort and security as we learn what is somewhat complicated material for those of us that are less tech savy. Also, working with the colleagues fromthe English department is also really fun as they are as nutty as we are.-Terri

Why I am here

I am attending the course redesign academy to rework the 0111 course with the able-bodied help and feedback from the 1311 instructors. I enjoy working woth the FIT team becuase they are kind and gentle and never balk at teaching new skills to the less technically abled. I love the collaborative nature of designing these courses, especially with the 1311 teachers as I rarely get to see any of these comrades, and it's great to catch up with them during lunch. Everyone has great dieas to share and important suggestions on how to make this course more workable.

storeygore

Guess which one of these statements is not true.

My name is Terri Storey-Gore, and I teach developmental English courses and a University 1301 course in the Fall semesters and English courses (1311 and 1312) in the Spring semesters. I earned my Master's Degree at the University of Texas, El Paso in 1987 and have been teaching composition in one form or another at UTEP, in the public schools, and at Community College. I love teaching and learn a great deal from my students about their lives, experiences, and hopes and dreams each semester. I live with my husband, two daughters, three cats, two dogs, a bird, and a fish named Brad.One of my dogs plays the piano.