The semester is winding down. I am looking forward to my week off prior to teaching the Maymester. I don't know why they call it the Maymester since most of it is in June.

The student culture at BRCC is really frustrating. I have students who just stop showing up to class. They don't withdraw. They just stop showing up. Of course, this means they will earn an F in class. I cannot imagine why someone would do this to their record. The only thing I can think of is to keep financial aid. But if your GPA drops below a certain grade, you lose your financial aid anyway. I think the students don't think in terms of the long run. They think in terms of "the now." It also coincides with high absenteeism in the class. I have tried to compensate for high absenteeism by taking points off final grades for each absence. That has failed miserably. Half my students are losing letter grades because of their absences. In addition, students come to class on speech days without their speeches. It is not uncommon for some students to be unprepared three class days in a row, thereby losing three letter grades on their speeches. I have tried to compensate for that by giving bonus points to students who come to see me with their outlines before the speeches are due. Of course, only the A students and some of the high B students show up for that. It is a frustrating culture to teach. Now that I am looking over the final grades for the students (all but final exams), I'm just depressed.

In other news, I watched Susperia the other day, which is a 70s horror movie by a guy named Dario Argento. It is considered to be a classic. It is the first part of a trilogy called "Three Mothers" 30 years in the making. I have the second part from Netflix sitting at home. According to Rolling Stone, part three will be released this summer amidst all the big budget summer movies. The film is very strange and -very- 70s. The special effects are not very good, but the setting is very vivid. I'm not that into horror films, but this one was fun to watch.

Willow is graduating this month. I'm excited for her, but I'm dreading the trip. Moving her out of the dorm is going to be a big pain in the ass. She's decided she will stay with us for the summer and go to California after we return from our annual beach house stay in Florida in August. It will be nice to have her around for some borrowed time.

My life is consumed by grading right now. These are the days when I find the job at BRCC difficult. Usually it's a breeze, with low stress and low demands. Still it's less demanding than most other jobs, so I really shouldn't complain.

Some more threes:

Three movies I want to see:
1. Speed Racer
2. Mother of Tears
3. Indiana Jones

Three movies I've just seen:
1. Baby Mama
2. Iron Man
3. Deception

Three great speeches I heard this week:
1. Mechanical Exoskeletons (informative)
2. Littering (it was very well done)
3. Supporting NASA

Three gratitudes:
1. Power bars (for the protein and good taste)
2. Netflix
3. LSMSA

Southern Poverty Law Center

Take a Stand Against Hate at the SPLC. Put yourself on the map.

Gratitudes

After reading that last, somewhat bitchy post, I think I need a gratitude post to counterbalance my attitude.

Three Gratitudes:

1. I am grateful for chiropractors everywhere.
2. I am grateful for Special K Powerbars; they taste great and have 10 grams of protein.
3. I am grateful for my "good" students -- those who actually put forth the effort. There are many of them and I often forget about them in my culture shock.

Three movies I've just seen:

1. Deja Vu (At home on blu-ray)
2. Forbidden Kingdom (Very fun!)
3. Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Cute)

Three most recent links in my favorites:

1. Julia Sweeny's blog (on haitus since she's getting married)
2. An online stopwatch (good for timing speeches in class)
3. Test your brain's sex (I'm very masculine, believe it or not)

Editorial vs. Article -- Can You Tell the Difference?

I was very disappointed in my public speaking classes this week. I asked students to bring in an editorial from a newspaper. More than half my students didn't know what an editorial was or where to find it. What kind of education system do we have in this state? When students can't tell the difference between an editorial and a news article, I get really scared. And I'm not talking about the more sophisticated position of "there's no such thing as information; all information is perspectival." I am continually floored by the things I learn about my students. No wonder I struggle to meet them at their level. They are lacking in so many basics. Sometimes I get really depressed.

Today was a good day, though. One of my two public speaking classes really got Toulmin's model for breaking down arguments. That was exciting for me.

I'm supposed to be teaching the argumentation and debate classes here, but they never make. If I should be lucky enough that they make, I have NO CLUE as to how I would teach the class. Luckily, I can cross that bridge when I get to it.

At SSCA I went to the GIFTS panel (Great Ideas for Teaching Speech). Some of the faculty there had so much energy for their activities. Real pride. I can't think of any activities I'd bring to a GIFTS session. My public speaking class is really stale. I've really got to think of a way to make it more teachable and more fun. Maybe I should lower my expectations. But then that would be doing my students a disservice. I just need to remember to break things down for them into smaller chunks and pieces. Also, getting rid of the Osborn book (no offense to Michael Osborn) will help considerably because it is pitched -way- over their heads and they don't bother cracking the book at all.

I guess we'll see what next year brings when we have a new textbook.

More attempts at blogging

I was reading The Advocate online the morning and I saw that one of their editorials ended with a -30-. That's unusual. Usually the -30- gets edited out before the article goes to press or gets loaded up online. It made me nostalgic for my journalism days. I don't think my journalism teachers ever told me exactly why you're supposed to end an article with -30-. So, using the handy dandy internet, I looked it up and found this nifty article from the American Journalism Review. Apparently no one really knows how the tradition got started and what it symbolizes, but there are some neat speculations.

In other news, I went to the Southern States Communication Association conference in Savannah, Georgia the week before last. It was fun to meet up with old friends, former professors, and former students. It was also awkward because of the whole shift from LSU to BRCC thing. On the one hand, it made me feel bad for failing as an academic, and on the other hand, it made me feel good about leaving what Mary Daly calls academentia. As one friend put it, I can always go back. I do have enough spare time that I can write if the desire ever strikes me. But I'm not sure that it ever will. Maybe now that the pressure is off and I've had some recuperation and "detox" time, I can return to it. I don't know, though. The thought of it is both exciting and nerve-wracking. I don't know what I have to say that would be interesting to people. Wesley says that I edit myself too much. He's probably correct.

In any case, I had a neat little thing happen to me the other day. One of my former college roommates contacted me. Of course, she got a hold of me via the internet. So shoutout to Patty Blancarte Cochoran. She wrote that her son visited Ireland and so she was interested in comparing itineraries. I'm like...whoa....she has a son old enough to visit Ireland without her. God I feel old.

Next year I will be teaching Willow's classmates at BRCC. Not literally, but her class. Class of '08.

We are deep in the heart of Gen Y in higher ed now. I really need to rethink how I teach public speaking. Though I have very mixed feelings about this. Do I teach to the new, more visual, more "parallel" (rather than linear) thinkers? Or do I try to drag them to the 19th century way of thinking, as Kathleen Jamieson would have us do in Eloquence in an Electronic Age. I donno. It's a puzzle that I constantly turn over in my head.

Anyway, more students are here for advising. Time to go.

More on Ireland

So, things have been a little hectic in the office lately with grading and advising, so I haven't really had much of an opportunity to blog. I am going to try to do a better job of blogging. I keep saying that, and I keep failing. But here goes:

Some of the key sites we saw in Dublin include the Guinness Storehouse, which was a fairly fantastic place. As expected, it walks the tourist through the stages of making guinness. There is a taste-test room where you can get a shot of guinness and then there is a rooftop bar filled with tourists drinking the brew. From the 360 degree room of the bar, you can see just about every little bit of Dublin and then some beyond.

We also saw the Book of Kells at Trinity College, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and Christ Church. Christ Church had a huge collection of loot in the basement (crypt), which was farily impressive. They were worth the entry fees.

One day we took the DART (which is the mass transit train system) up and down the coast in the suburbs of Dublin and the smaller surrounding areas. We saw several castles, including Malahide castle. That was fun. There were tons of cafes along the way where we warmed up with tea and snacks.

See what I mean? More students for advising and now it is time to go to class.

I will try again on Monday.

Ireland

Well, Ireland was a blast.

Newgrange and Tara was the highlight of the trip. The drive through the countryside along the Boyne River was just beautiful. I can see why Johnny Cash wrote that Ireland had 40 shades of green, a song that I learned about from one of the hop on hop off bus drivers. It was great to get out of the city (which wasn't so green) and into the countryside to -see- what the Emerald Isle was all about.

Newgrange was exciting. I'm always exciting by visiting ancient sites like that. They are so full of mystery. Some great pics of Newgrange can be seen here and here.

It was magical.

I will write more about Ireland soon. I am going to Savannah on Wednesday for SSCA (Southern States Communication Association conference). I'm looking forward to seeing old friends and colleagues.

Ireland Tomorrow

I'm going to Ireland tomorrow. I'm very excited about the trip. Only I have a problem. I have a pinched nerve in my neck from a neck injury ages and ages ago. I don't know why it flared up or what caused it to happen, other than perhaps sleeping on my back. I've been going to the chiropractor this week and that has helped immensely. The plane ride is going to be a bitch, though. Luckily a friend passed me some pain killers, so I have a safety net if I need them.

Another sucky thing about the trip: We will be getting into Dublin at 6AM Sunday and we won't be able to drop our luggage off at the B&B until 9AM. And lord knows what time check-in time is. I have no right to bitch, though. It's IRELAND! I'm GOING!

The past two weeks have been a real bitch. Midterms, plus portfolios were due. I don't know why I continue to assign essay midterms. It seems like I just make my life harder by doing things like that, but I can't let go of the critical thinking component that essay exams create. In addition, we have to turn in professional portfolios that document our teaching, service, and professional development. It's a major pain in the ass to have these due the week of midterms. Also, I have no idea what I'm doing, since this is my first real portfolio.

BRCC meetings people to death. In the past two weeks, I have been to so many meetings. It's a different culture here, and that's part of the cultural adjustment I need to make. Still, it's better than an 8-5 job. One meeting I attended was on campus safety. It was mandatory for all faculty to attend this meeting. I didn't really learn anything new, but I suppose it was necessary given the bomb threat that happened last week on campus. That was a clusterfuck. It took me and everyone else 45 minutes to get out of the parking garage. That is dangerous. I hope they are working on that.

Anyway, here are some 3's.

Three Ireland Tours I plan to take:
1. Mary Gibbons' Tour of Newgrange
2. Viking Splash Tour of Dublin
3. Hop on Hop Off bus of Dublin

Three things I bought for the trip:
1. Rain ponchos
2. Batteries for my mp3 player
3. Wetwipes to wash up with in the airport.

Three things I hope to see while in Ireland:
1. The Book of Kells
2. Dublinia
3. The Dublin Castle

Three movies I've seen recently:
1. Vantage Point
2. 10,000 BC
3. The Other Bolyn Girl

Three things I'm grateful for:
1. Loritabs
2. Chiropractors
3. Tiger's balm