Zotero and RefWorks

Have any of my academia-dwelling friends used either RefWorks or Zotero before? We had a workshop on both (sponsored by our awesome Center for Teaching and Learning) and they blew my mind. I am really drawn to Zotero--it's free, and you have to use Firefox, but that's no problem for me. It also seems much simpler and more integrated into your browser than RefWorks, although RefWorks apparently has some features Zotero doesn't have.

If you are working on a long project, check these programs out. They might revolutionize the way your conduct your research.

"Rhymes with The City of Salinas"

I took this post's title from Andrew Sullivan's post...couldn't think of a better one.

Now you MUST click here...

Back to school...

It's been a weekend of digging out and cleaning up and getting back to life as usual. I was thrilled to make it back up to my office on campus both Saturday and Sunday (today). If you know me, you know I do really well with normal routines, etc. and getting lots of work done at school is a major part of my routine. (Yes, even on the weekends...sad, I know).

Campus looks great--the grounds keepers are amazing. Of course, there are a lot fewer parking spots (again, where do you put 40+ inches of snow?), but on the whole, we should be back in business tomorrow--even with another snow blast hitting us tomorrow afternoon/evening. (This one should be relatively tame--maybe 6 inches at most. Funny how your definition of "tame" changes...)

Some follow-up on the discussion board experiment: I think it actually worked really well. I am especially pleased with the English 204 boards. All I had to do was ask some questions (admittedly leading questions) and then sit back and watch them go. They covered all the important points I would have made if we had class. This morning, I spent about 90 minutes reading over both classes' responses and then summing up/concluding each thread. One frustrating item to note: lots of students didn't post anything, or only did half of what they were supposed to do. If they don't show up with their reading responses tomorrow (the alternate response), I am not sure what to do. Maybe some zeroes for quiz grades? (This also means giving people who did their work some 100s for quiz grades.)

The upper division classes' boards are (predictably) looking very good. I haven't finished reading/responding to them yet, but I am looking forward to doing so.

Thanks, by the way, to those of you who suggested strategies for keeping on schedule using online teaching.

At the risk of making this an all-weather-related blog...

...here comes another weather-related post. We've got gotten an email from the VPAA announcing that "on campus" instruction has been canceled for the rest of this week. That's how bad things are around here--several major roads are still a mess (not to mention backroads) and even with snow-removal crews working non-stop, there just hasn't been enough progress made. At some point, after all, where do you put the snow? Calls are still in the 10-20 inch range for the latest round, which has just gotten started.

Fear not for me...I actually got out a bit today (thanks to a friend with a four-wheel drive) and picked up some more groceries. I even finally cleared out the huge blockade of snow that was at the end of my driveway--the mini-mountain that the plows refused to touch even though it was clearly (at least 2 feet) on the road, not my driveway. At this point, I feel like I can shovel away the next twenty inches that falls. After the 30 inches this weekend, I can handle it. (Although my aching back and arms might argue a bit...)

What I am wondering about, though, is if I should follow the VPAA's suggestion to hold classes online in some capacity. The concern is that a whole week of classes missed can get us into some trouble, especially with lots of winter still out there. We have a program called Sakai (a lot like Blackboard, if you are familiar with that) which can let me do things like discussion boards and even chat rooms. I think that discussion boards could work for my two upper division classes, filled with mostly English majors and minors.

I am not so sure about my two sections of English 204. I might post some study questions for each text on a separate thread (one big question per thread) and invite the 204 students to respond. Then, after they've had lots of chances to do so, I'll sum up the important points of each question. Now, should I require them to participate? I hesistate to do so since I am not sure if everyone has reliable internet access at home. But without some real incentive to participate, I can't see a lot these general education students doing so.

I also don't want to require a bunch of reading responses because, well, I don't want to grade them. I've got 70+ students in these two sections...what I need is discussion.

To my teacher friends especially, but any one else, too: any additional thoughts you might have for shifting a regular class to a temporarily online class would be much appreciated!

10 to 20 more inches...

...is what they are calling for tomorrow into Wednesday. That's literally on top of the 30 we got this past weekend.

Words fail.

Forget two feet...

The snow is up to my waist--and still falling. I'll see you all in April.

If we get another 2 feet of snow...

...I might cry.

Seriously--2 feet in December, several messy little storms since then, 6 "surprise" inches last Saturday, 4 inches on Wednesday night, and now this?

Being snowed in just isn't fun for me anymore. I keep talking to friends about how to recapture that feeling from when I was young. Back then, being snowed in was a blast. Now, it's just depressing. I think it's because I am snowed in alone. (Well, not counting Bing and Wes--without them, it would be beyond depressing.) Simply put, being snowed in would be a lot more fun if I was snowed in with somebody else. (Get your minds out of the gutter, folks: you know what I mean.)

If you read this and are anticipating the latest SNOWPOCALYPSE, what do you plan on doing to make the most of it? (Here's what's on my list: some cleaning, reading, grading, napping, and lots of TV.)

TV, the biggest threat to tenure...

Some quick--and awesome--TV links...

1) Remember this post about the Joss Whedon-directed episode of Glee? Well, it only get's sweeter--Neil Patrick Harris (my love for him only grows stronger every day) might be guest-starring in that episode. It's like the people behind Glee are putting together an episode just for me! (Because the world works that way, right?)

2) Look, anyone who knows me knows that I am counting down the days until Lost's final season premieres. I am, I'll admit, a bit obsessed. But even I can appreciate how very funny this bit from The Onion is: "Final Season of 'Lost' Promises to Make Fans More Annoying Than Ever. "

3) And then there's this gem I just saw on Gawker: an adorable Italian family from Long Island recreates Lost in their living room (and basement). I want to hang out with this family.

One more quick link...

Check out this Greensboro News & Record story about the happy ending for my grad-school friend, John, and his family, who brought their baby son home from Ethiopia earlier this week. (Non-Greensboro friends: You might remember John, Sarah, and Emma from this post.)

"Then too there is this"

Perfect poem for a winter evening and my life at the moment...

"Then too there is this"

J. Allyn Rosser

joy in the day's being done, however

clumsily, and in the ticked-off lists,

the packages nestling together,

no one home waiting for dinner, for

you, no one impatient for your touch

or kind words to salve what nightly

rises like heartburn, the ghost-lump feeling

that one is really as alone as one had feared.

One isn't, not really. Not really. Joy

to see over the strip mall darkening

right on schedule a neon-proof pink

sunset flaring like the roof of a cat's mouth,

cleanly ribbed, the clouds laddering up

and lit as if by a match struck somewhere

in the throat much deeper down.

No more Poe Toaster?

Check this out!

More links...

...these are decidedly academic in theme.

First, I suppose I am better late than never on posting a link to Brian Croxall's delivered-in-absentia MLA talk. (More smart analysis here.) I was at MLA this year, as we are hiring for two positions in our department, but I have yet to attend a single conference session (four MLAs, zeros sessions). Each time it was because I simply didn't have the time--the first three MLAs, I was interviewing as a candidate; this time, I was on the other side of the table.

Anyway, one of my colleagues and I talked about heading down to the Convention Center to see how busy the Job Center was and to get a general feel for this year's vibe, but we never got around to it. There were lots of good reasons: we just didn't have the time/energy after 8 hours of interviewing, it was bitterly cold and windy outside, and my colleague had a nasty cold. But I think that a big reason (unspoken by me) was that we didn't want to deal with what was sure to be a depressing scene. There were, after all, about 40% fewer jobs listed this year than last year. And last year's numbers were something like 30% less than the year before. It's nasty out there and I'm so grateful to have a job. And I couldn't handle seeing all those desparate folks who aren't as lucky as I am. Heck, I think I still have job-search PTSD.

Anyway, all of this is a roundabout way of saying, good for Brian Croxall for reminding people of how expensive, frustrating, awful, and often futile the job search can be.

Second link: from insidehighered.com, a report from a Rhet/Comp session at MLA. This session sounds like it was lame...lots of finger-pointing and pontificating about what's wrong with rhet/comp. But if you are interested, check out the comments at the end of the column. Some are depressing because of their own pontificating, but others (from Kathleen Yancy, for instance, or from Joe Essid, who I worked with the one year I was at Richmond) are quite good and give some hope.

Third link, also from insidehighered.com: this one made me laugh--a column about a panel of historian parents and their historian offspring at the annual American Historical Association meeting. Choice quotation? "[I]t turns out that the way you rebel against an American historian parent is to become a medievalist." Ha. Beyond the laughs, though, are smart observations about how the field (and academia) has changed over the years. Good stuff.

One last link, which is only going to be funny to English folks...MLA 2010.

Earthquake Relief

Fellow Lutheran readers (or anyone else who is looking for a good source to donate to)...the ELCA's website has a really easy donation process. Every little bit helps, right? Such devastating news for people who were already struggling. Prayer certainly helps and can make a difference, but so can money...

Out of class early, so how about some quick link-dumping?

I've got ten minutes until my next class, so let me clean out my bookmarks a bit and share some fun links with you.

1) From back in November, some current writers (including Silas House and Jill McCorkle) talk about their first books.

2) From I don't know where, but I love it (click to make it bigger). I am teaching John Smith's writings on Friday and might just have to bring this to class.


3) From the New York Times Magazine (very impressive, no?), check out "Going Cyborg," by my friend and fellow UNCG alum, Jillian Weise.

4) Finally, from Insidehighered.com, an interesting column about the murder of Indiana University professor Don Belton.

Okay--I need to stop myself! Off to class I go!

Adventures in Grading: Fall Semester Wrap-Up

It's way late to be posting these, but I hate to let these gems of bad/funny/strange writing go unshared.

From an English 204 Paper: "The impact of words such as this pierces deep into the soul and grinds up a person's insides like mashed potatoes." I actually kind of like this one because you can at least tell that the words moved the student. I do wonder how this student feels about mashed potatoes, though.

All of the rest are from English 204 Final Exams...

"Her aunt was named No Name Woman because she got prego when she shouldn't have and her village kicked her out." Where to begin? The idea that this student seems to think the woman was actually named "No Name Woman"? The use of the word "prego"? Another student, writing on the same story, put another unique twist on the aunt's predicament: "Her aunt got pregnants."

"No matter if you are dead or alive, family is always with you." That's just creepy.

"Her story, though fiction, has very accurate idealization of what it was like for slaves before the Civil War." I am not sure what "accurate idealization" of slavery is...

"A plum is simple, yet delicious, so the form he uses is short, descriptive wording that sends the reader on a taste adventure into Williams' perspective." Okay, I kind of like this one, too. Perhaps this student has a career in advertising awaiting him or her. (Yes, it's about "This is Just to Say.")

"This story shows how something as petite as the color of one's skin determines who you love." An example of how your internal thesaurus can lead you astray.

"The male domination should be counterbalanced with some stories of women smacking a few men around and see how they like it." Not that I am in favor of violence, but one must admire that a male student wrote this.

Finally, from Part I in the exam, where students identify quotations from works we've read...I thought it might be fun to share some butchered versions of the title of one of Emily Dickinson's most famous poems, "I heard a Fly buzz--when I died:"

"Before Death Comes a Buzz--Then Die"
"A Fly flew by and buzzed when I died"
"There was a fly by my death bed"
"Something about a fly buzzing"

Onto the Spring Semester, which starts on Monday!