Cathy Davidson
@CathyNDavidson
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Author, educator, advocate. "How We Know" Trilogy. Cofounder/Codirector @HASTAC . RT's are not endorsements. All views (and typos) are my own.
Joined July 2008
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What Do We Mean By Student Success? Here's my blog on this topic from my recent keynote at the National Student Success Conference in Orlando [Correct link]
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If we are to turn this Ivy League debacle into a "teachable moment," we need to learn how to deal w trick, loaded, false, set-up questions: (1) Say "I reject the premise of your question" and then (2) State your own position and policy with absolute clarity and power. Repeat.
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@minh81
The double standard of racism and misogyny is epic, even in a mass murder. All those folks yelling ab "cancel culture" and Dr. Seuss? Are they speaking out against this white man cancelling the lives of these Asian women? Are they outraged? Nope. Justifying. Feeding. Excusing.
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1-Every prof and teacher I know is having a really hard time at end of term. Everyone is overwhelmed. So are our students. So are university staff and administrators (hard to believe, right?) Everyone is working night and day, feeling inefficient, overwhelmed...
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My student's student: A+ inclass essays but B when writing outside class. She asked her where and how she wrote her papers: night EMT ambulance technician, wrote her research papers on her cell phone going to pick up patients, in the ambulance. In class by 8:30 am . . .
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On the nose.
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1.
@SaraNAhmed
noted: "If you have to shout to be heard, you'll be heard shouting." Further, shouting is heard differently: college students protesting a right wing speaker are accused of "denying" free speech; fake parents shouting at a school board meeting are "exercising" it.
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@johnlegend
@Ez4u2say_Janis
So is this the response to the news that Epstein's death may have been homicide? Isn't that the pattern? Whenever something morally or politically appalling happens in 45's regime, the next day there's dramatic tweet or policy change as diversion. Every day since Jan 2017.
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@rgay
Do we empathize before or after they call for the “beheading” of our chief epidemiologist during a pandemic? Asking for a nation...
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Among the tragedies of
@UNC
's disastrous year, is we've been distracted from the amazing hire of
@tressiemcphd
in
@uncsils
where
@zeynep
also teaches. This is THE greatest, bravest powerhouse team: sociology + digital media + anti-racism, social justice. Sheer brilliance.
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I submitted letter of protest to
@CollegeBoard
on McCarthyite censoring of mainstream, canonical American writers and scholars from an AP exam due to right wing pressure. We need national boycott of AP services, led by
@MLA
@ALALibrary
@ncte
@AAUP
@MellonFdn
@FordFoundation
etc.
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And Nancy Pelosi snatched the headlines from him yesterday and Romney today. Expect something really creepy from him to get back the spotlight tomorrow...
Honestly, this will hurt his feelings more than everything in the impeachment trial combined.
Trump doesn’t care if people say bad things about him, but he sure as hell cares if they ignore him.
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I disagree. It’s not about zoom backgrounds! Students need to see someone who, like themselves, is making tremendous efforts on behalf of inspiring learning in a tragic time. A human. Engaged. Dedicated. Real. Of course organized but not pretentious. Not “someone professorial.”
When students see you on screen this fall, they need to see someone professorial, someone who has created a classroom space that feels organized and free of distractions.
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Let's start the week by repeating: a summer of planning for better online learning this Fall must be grounded in the fact that all of our students are learning from a place of trauma. So are we. That must be part of any course design concerned with real learning.
#fight4edu
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My back of the envelope suggests this is pretty accurate. Now add in military spending.
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"The Silence of Florida’s Presidents
Inside Higher Ed asked 40 public college presidents in Florida to weigh in on state higher education reforms. None were willing to speak, even when offered anonymity."
@insidehighered
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Hear, hear, hear! We are in a national emergency of epic proportions, the worst Covid death rate, financial disaster, leaders fomenting violence, hands in the till, trying to steal votes, violence. The media: he's close, he's falling behind, rounding the track, ahead by a nose
If all the vacuous horserace coverage -- irrelevant almost immediately on publication -- were replaced by hard investigation into the crimes of Trump admin and its backers, the US would be in such a better place. So much more prepared. But if anything, this coverage has lessened.
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.
@HC_Richardson
:"The Dred Scott decision declared democracy was created at state level, by those..allowed to vote(ie. In 1857: white men)...So 14th Amendment gave federal government power to protect individuals even if their state legislatures had passed discriminatory laws."
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Over on TikTok, young people of color, esp African Americans, are having a great time collecting their favorite examples of WAVE (White American Vernacular English): everything from "okey dokey" or "persnickety" "gee willikers" "hot dog!" "cool beans" "top tier" "tomfoolery"...
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I wonder if any university (or other institution) will get rid of the "diversity" and "inclusion" language and face up to the real issues of "bias" and "exclusion" and the need for deep, structural change before real equity can be reached?
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@nhannahjones
@sivavaid
I agree. All the "but he was a nice guy and a family man and he just spewed racist, evil, misogynistic hate in public" is the worst indictment of white racism and almost definitional of white privilege.
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@sahluwal
"I agree with him Daddy." When your six year old knows you are behaving like a racist idiot. Incredible.
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@racquelgates
@TavNyongo
Yes and the unremitting headache... grief, trauma, and utter frustration and fury, up and down, down and up, and sideways.
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Skewed coverage alert! Does not note that Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is now a controversial conservative, pro-Trump paper (even banned reporters from covering pro-George Floyd protest) after a buy-out, consolidation, and editorial page control by pro-Trump Keith Burris in 2018.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette backs Trump in first GOP presidential endorsement since 1972
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1-"Why are so many of your
@CUNY
colleagues dying?" this is the question I'm being asked since
@insidehighered
article on 38+ faculty and staff COVID deaths. No one has even ventured to count how many of our 275K students have passed
#CUNYStrong
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Yep, my birthday card from my 86 year old mother, with a small and hard-earned check, never arrived. That hasn't happened ever before. She lost another daughter a few months ago. She was crushed. Lives are being hurt on every level--to rig an election. Horrifying.
Up until now our mail was working fine, but this month I got a notification that checks I sent to pay bills are running late. The logjam will only get worse folks- be smart! If you can, vote early in person. If you are voting by mail, start the process TODAY!
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After not wearing masks while over 3000 Americans die daily and health care professionals risk their lives for us all. Shameful.
#genocide
Who agrees it’s OUTRAGEOUS that
@LindseyGrahamSC
and
@senatemajldr
cut to the head of the line and got their Covid vaccinations ahead of millions of frontline healthcare workers and vulnerable nursing home residents?
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@rebeccanagle
@driftinghouse
@KimTallBear
And tragically "blood quantum" is used to harass Native people in different ways in different nations, different states.
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I always learn from
@tressiemcphd
. From today's Newsletter: "In my grad seminars, one of my fav ways of prompting students to pursue deeper lines of inquiry is by asking... If we take off the table that something is racist, sexist or classist, what else can we say about it?"
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@cjdenial
Exactly. Your students exactly match the data on inequality of access on every level. “Go online” requires institutional and individual infrastructure
#fight4edu
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The rhetoric that “college isn’t worth it” really translates into “I’m rich and want my child to go to college—and I don’t want your child to go to college b/c they might demand I pay them higher wages, benefits, and offer some measure of job security.”
#fight4edu
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The magic moment. The first box of a new book. The first sighting. It is gorgeous! Updated. The New Education 2022. Feels great in the hand. Even smells great!
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7-Anyone who thinks these make classes "too easy" is thinking in the "sequestered problem solving" mode which makes higher ed ludicrous, a pretense that in everyday life and work we don't search for just about everything and make judgments based on that knowledge.
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8-Once you realize this is a ludicrous assumption, and we should be teaching how to learn, how to judge good info from bad, how to take what's out there and turn it into something that addresses the question at hand, college becomes more relevant, meaningful, and less stressful
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Ruha Benjamin: "Davis urges us to... look ...at ways that the empathetic gaze ..sanitizes and weaponizes sentiment. Like no other, this book unsettles the liberal, feelgood call for ‘more empathy’ as a poor placeholder for mutual recognition and social liberation.”
@ruha9
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Do you know a department (any field) that requires doctoral students to take a course (even one) in teaching or pedagogy? It's so crucial even to those who don't go into teaching--I'd love to crowdsource a list and honor depts that do this.
@AnyClassroom
@GCTLC
#fight4edu
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It baffles me that profs (and k-12 teachers) think you can throw random students into a "project" w/out skill matching or peer evaluation. Of course it increases chance one student will carry the load, others will feel disempowered. Really bad management practices!
Take a look at this activity
@CathyNDavidson
uses to prepare students for co-designing their course syllabus.
How might dedicating more time for relationship-building and collaborative design support student-driven learning? via
@nemersonian
@HASTAC
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I'll ask again: anyone hear ab wealthiest tech companies (Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple etc) stepping up in this crisis to help higher ed: free laptops or bandwidth to students w/out, technical training for profs, even free licenses... ANY darn thing?
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I heard the best ChatGPT writing exercise yesterday. A friend said they have students create and save the AI essays to 3 dif prompts. Their paper = annotating those AI answers, correcting errors, choosing best parts of each prompt, combining into a final paper. Learning!
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Do Americans know we cannot leave? Mexico, Canada closed borders. Most countries won't allow Americans to travel. Rest of world gapes in fear and apprehension at what is happening to a nation with the world's largest stockpile of weapons and a pandemic and leader out of control.
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Once again
@TeenVogue
has some of the smartest journalism and analysis anywhere in the country, exposing the method of distraction beyond the message of hate:
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Big news: I've been appointed Senior Advisor to the Chancellor on Transformation
@CUNY
, the nation's largest urban public university. We'll be building on a year of serious, strategic planning by faculty, staff, students.I'm deeply honored--and ready!
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So did the US before Reagan changed a number of FCC rules inc ones that allowed Fox to qualify as unregulated “entertainment.
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My friend. Interlocutor. Fellow lover of stand-up comedy (craft and theory)--a side of this genius few knew. She even took lessons in stand up. Brilliant, curious, capacious, dazzling mind. We said goodbye yesterday, her partner holding the phone to her cheek. I'm shattered.
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Why is this not headline news? "American citizens no longer leave the country: Canadian border closed to us, Mexican border closed to us." Americans are being turned off international flights. 45 has made a hell on earth here, 123,000 deaths and rising. And we cannot leave.
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Or an M1A1 tank ...
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@NYCMayor
@NYCSchools
The kids and the teachers have more than earned a snow day. This decree exemplifies the problem of Bad Education, confusing drudgery with “rigor” and learning.
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In every talk, I'm asked where I would start first in revolutionizing education (K-professional school): Answer, always. Assessment. Until we change how and what we measure from 19th c productivity norms, education will deliver a 19thc product
#NewEducation
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@Victorshi2020
Brilliant man and powerfully eloquent. We need him in this country badly. Now.
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Stop this silliness. In the single best lecture I have ever heard, I would be amazed to only be distracted 12% of the time. That is how attention and learning work. Focus. Unfocus.Focus. Read
#NowYouSeeIt
. For Pete’s sakes. A nonissue.
Students are digitally distracted a quarter of the class time in their least favorite course. Even in their favorite course, they’re distracted 12 percent of the time.
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1-Great news!
@nemersonian
and I are pleased to announce we'll be publishing [very tentative title] Every Classroom: A Practical, Step-by-Step Guide to Transforming Teaching (Harvard UP, expected 2022). Big picture as well as "grab-and-go" activities.
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"This is a droplet infection." That's a key bit of info. Wash hands. Stay away if someone is coughing. Hand sanitizer as needed. Do not panic. Save the masks for the health professionals.
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@rmayemsinger
@TheDemCoalition
In fact, they should be charged as accomplices in a conspiracy to defraud and in attempted kidnapping and attempted murder. They have blood on their hands.
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5-Another friend called off a week of class and held "open collective off hours" in those slots where anyone could ask and talk about anything--the most responsive week they've had all term and everyone learned far more than usual and it nourished them all.
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Can we make Feb 18 the most important holiday of the year? On this day, we celebrate the birth of Toni Morrison (Feb 18, 1931-Aug 15, 2019) and Audre Lorde (Feb 18, 1934-Nov 17, 1992) What do we call this day?
#BlackFeministGeniusDay
#AuthorsDay
#BetterThanPresidentsDay
What?
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When she came to Princeton, we often had Friday night cocktails at Emory Elliot’s house and one night she told us she hated the ending of The Bluest Eye and when she passed her literary executor would publish the new ending. That was 1990.
I felt The Bluest Eye in every word of Thick. Sending love today.
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The pot business? For real? Whew. And they didn’t like Obama’s beige suit?
SCOOP: The indictment of
@RudyGiuliani
's pals yesterday alleged an unnamed wealthy Russian national helped finance their illegal scheme to fund GOP pols who would help them get into the pot business. Who's the Russian? We found some clues.
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Anyone else frustrated hearing all these negatives about "students today"? Imagine being 19 and having "adults" and "traditional media" act as if this is a sane world, post 2016, Jan 6, Oct 7..so many childhood truths undone (freedom, equality, peace, integrity). Be "normal"?
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@DCrainium
Good for you. But..how is community college teaching “leaving academia”? Community college is an invaluable part of higher ed.
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11-Final bonus: if you as prof value learning (not grading, testing, one-way data transmission etc), it's not being "soft" (students learn more!) but is far easier emotionally on students and you too.
@AnyClassroom
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@SenatorCollins
Madam Senator, how dare you tweet this after not renewing 1997 CHIP (healthcare for 9 million children) and abominable
#taxscam
. You have lost our respect.
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9-"Sequestered problem solving" is high stakes in that it minimizes the goal of "learning" and maximizes sequestering--what did you learn in 'this' class, how did you learn to answer 'me,' with 'my' (the prof's) assumptions and knowledge in tact.
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@sawoodard
@JoyAnnReid
And no police or fire department action? Imagine if it were
#Blacklivesmatter
protestors with torches near the UVA Jefferson monument
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I almost always begin lectures with an engagement, usually "think-pair-share," and the participants (it's never failed) love having a chance to talk to one another. A dull lecture bursts into life. And then I have to fight to get their attention. THAT is the pedagogical point.
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I suspect for most of the nation "remote learning" will mean students of any age learn how to survive a crisis as best we all can. If that is the low bar, it is actually astonishingly high and a better life lesson than preparing for SATs or finals.
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2-One way to address this, for those still having classes post-Thanksgiving, is like a friend (everyone's anonymous in this thread: they can out themselves!) who told students, if they wished, they could end their term w all the work they'd done pre-Thanskgiving and be done.
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1-People ask for easy way a prof can do this: On syllabus, reserve last 10 min per session(f2f, sync, async) as "reflection." Any tool works. Ask all to write answer to a Big Question. Ex: "what in this week's class can you apply to your life? Everyone learns, inc you.
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Wow.
Donald Trump needed a virtual armada of foreign shippers to bypass American workers in the Midwest just so the Republican nominee could import everything on the cheap for big profits, while paying no income taxes.
Four year old, aged like fine wine.
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“I tell my students, 'When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, rememberyour real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else.”This is not a grab bag.” ― Toni Morrison
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@lisamurkowski
You brag about this? When the arctic is already on the verge of collapse and there is a world-wide oil glut?
#badvalues
#boughtvotes
#nextelection
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@Amy_Siskind
Actually, I love your work but I vehemently disagree with this. Getting free vaccines in a pandemic is not nothing. Nor is ending a 20 year war. Nor is eradicating so many racist, anti-immigration executive orders. Is it perfect? Gosh now. But to say it is "nothing" is wrong.
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Thx to
@tressiemcphd
@rgay
: I think it was on
@HearToSlay
I heard relationship-boosting trick of asking, at end of long work day, "what were the two best things that happened in your day?" instead of using your loving partner to rehearse the day's tedious, worst bits. GOAL!
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Thank you for excellent commentary
@PeteButtigieg
. I don't understand how one can be a female "originalist." Women then were not allowed to vote, testify, serve on juries, sign wills, stand for the bar--certainly not serve on SCOTUS. Her originalism is hypocritical, selective.
Our Constitution is a living document because it requires real people to interpret laws written in a living language.
If it were self-evident, judges would be unnecessary.
Interpretation matters.
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English profs notoriously pad syllabi and over assign. We ourselves couldn't read 200-500 pages a week if we were taking 4 other courses, working (as do over 40% of students today) 30+ hours a week at paying job. Overassigning was endemic to our field 40 years ago and worse now.
@CathyNDavidson
Great points. I also wonder if not choosing reading-heavy majors speaks to a growing aliteracy in students-perhaps conditioning of their K-12 education & a legacy of “no child left behind.” I don’t know how many times I get “We have to read the whole book!” from students.
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Final thought: "digital literacy" was naive first-gen "how to use tech." We now need "digital defensive driving": we really need The Jungle (1906) for our era, to arouse a powerful social movement to rethink all of it, from bias to labor abuses and all in between.
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What can we do to make this a battlecry? Every day we need to (1) amplify what Biden and Congress are doing right; (2) keep urging Congress to more activism while in the majority; and (3) emphasize hysterically we're on the verge of authoritarian coup that will end democracy.
This is something I warn about in my article pinned to my page: the role of Gov, AG and SoS are on the ballot in 2022 for MI, WI and PA - the 3 states that have decided the last 2 elections. Trump is quietly setting up for a 2024 coup!
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Talked today w uni leader at major state uni considering getting rid of majors in favor of topical “minor clusters” across depts plus intensive “methods” study (across qual, quant, close reading, historical pov etc). Wow. Exciting even as collective imagining process! Thoughts?
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10-One-way learning in a closed system (trad higher ed), in pandemic world, where everything is closed off, adds trauma of an archaic high stakes system of judgment and credentialing to what should be the joy, agency, and empowerment of learning.
@AnyClassroom
@nemersonian
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OMG this is the best in-class assignment ever. Difficult texts? Don't think your students can handle it. Check this out! They will surprise you if you use this method from genius
@danicasavonick
Collaborative Close Reading
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This blog on why not to require video is meant also for administrators who may be requiring video presences. Video is an access and disability issue; offer alternate accommodation. Cameras Optional, Please!
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@saragoldrickrab
The "students can't write any more" has been the arrogant lament of college profs, blaming high school profs, at least since 1920. Any truly SERIOUS writer knows the craft takes lifelong practice and can always be improved.
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@BetteMidler
In his speech today Sen
@alfranken
needs to present a challenge: "What we all did was wrong. We won't argue who did worse. It's wrong. So let's make a deal: I'll resign if you resign, POTUS--and if you withdraw, from the Senate race, Roy Moore."
#Youtoo
#moralityforthewin
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@Amy_Siskind
How can we get the mainstream media to be asking THIS question, over and over and over? Thank you!
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4-Another friend--genius scholar and prof at an Ivy--had a "PJ day" where they came to class in flannel pjs and students did to and they played them a thank you song for their resilience and care on the guitar (their Covid hobby is learning to play guitar).
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I don't want students to master "digital literacy" but digital defensive driving: algorithmic accountability, ethical tech, and we need a movement, like the one created by The Jungle (1906) to tame monopolizing, greedy, exploitative tech industry
#NewEducation
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3-Another friend announced post Thanksgiving that the final exam would be "open everything" and they could work together if they wishes as long as they also submitted a signed "study/crib sheet" along w the final. They warned working together might hurt them because it slows.
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Not with a bang but with a well planned strategy... how oligarchy and potentially fascism work. Organize, people! Here's
@HC_Richardson
and
@axios
uly 24, 2022
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I thought I knew a lot about organizing. Now I know tons more! Thanks
@AOC
@rockthehouse
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A photo that will be in the history books. May that blazing courage always shine in her eyes and never, ever be forgotten. Thank you photographer GraceJensen
In Whitefish, Montana, a young woman named Samantha Francine is confronted by a large white man with balled fists, shouting, "Black Lives Matter? Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you!" She does not look away.
This is America, 2020.
(Photo by Grace Jensen)
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I was asked why humanities are key for first-gen, low income students. One reason: they are "social capital" that middle- and affluent students imbibe from preschool onward. "Soft" or "essential" skills are cultural markers, unspoken and crucial for life.
#fight4edu
@HASTAC
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Whole new level of algorithmic bias! Racist-Auto-Erasure. Twitter apologises for 'racist' image-cropping algorithm
@safiyanoble
@profwernimont
@tressiemcphd
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Yes, anyone who has ever said "it cannot happen here" now is staring "it" in the eyes. "It" is happening. "It" is us.
We all look back at moments in history and wonder how did people—did leaders—let something patently immoral and destructive occur on their watch day after day, week after week, and say nothing—do nothing. Remain silent. That’s happening right now in the US.
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14"I canceled final project. Class won’t meet last week; instead students can complete any missing work from semester revise any assignment for a higher grade. 'Cuz no zoom meetings, I’ll have time to give feedback etc It’s least stressed my students & I have felt all semester!
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This. Exactly. And this is precisely why books are being banned, people telling history with accuracy are being dismissed as "woke." Because they ARE true, not because they aren't.
@SPBPHD
I tell my students "I'm not interested in indoctrinating you. I'm interested in showing you all the ways you've already been indoctrinated."
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@CharlesMBlow
Thank you for your outrage. I don't understand why this is not universal in the US. It certainly is abroad.
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Hey, Progressive/Critical Pedagogy Friends! What is your favorite pedagogy book? Classroom book? Do you require it? Do you use it to structure your classrooms? Different books for gen ed, for writing, for lit, for history, for gender studies? So curious!!
#NewEducation
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@inlandemperor
Congratulations to you, Boo to USC. That is absolutely shocking to learn. Shocking. YOU, though, deserve it completely so please live it up, celebrate, and bask a bit! :)
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