The Tribe That Reads: Member

Persona, person…

Since our last discussion I have been thinking quite a bit about this idea. Remember Sullivan remarks that homosexuals he has known sacrifice the person for the persona. This made me think about Tannen and her ideas about “marked” women. Are not the women in her essay marking themselves with a persona by their choice of clothing, make up and hairstyle? Then I statred thinking about Holden Caufield-my 10th grades are read Catcher-and his constant efforts at “acting himself.’ (Again, a Sullivan phrase) My weekend has been full of people watching and thinking about this issue. I think that our conversation about high school personas was stymied by the embarrassment of talking about people we all know. I don’t want to embarrass anyone so let’s switch to the idea of stereotypes, teachers and students. What do you see? What do you think?

#aplangpersona

Peace,

Your Humble Instructor

This fits in well with our reading. It was also written by Brent Staples.

For all of students who ask me if the writer “really means all that stuff we talk about in class” I offer this. Rowling worked very hard to create the outline. In other words she writes with a purpose and on purpose. So yeah, I think she really meant to do “that stuff.”

fuckyeahmanuscripts:

J.K. Rowling’s plot outline for Order of the Phoenix

Who is the RhetoRick guy? He’s quite a philosopher.

geoffwilliston:

“There’s that word again”

-RhetoRick

So, when I become the hermit that I was always meant to be, this is what my shack will look like.

annaharo:

The Everlasting Beauty of Books (by isolano.)

world-shaker:

Nearly two-thirds [of faculty] reported using at least one social media site in their class, but 53% said Facebook and 46% said Twitter add “negative” value, the Pearson study says. A survey last fall by Faculty Focus, a website about teaching, found that about 83% of professors allowed laptops in their classrooms; 58% said they found students using Facebook when they weren’t supposed to.

Maybe if you did something besides stand in front of the class and lecture the whole time, while expecting your students to just use their laptops to diligently write down all the knowledge you’re allegedly spewing, they wouldn’t be on Facebook or Twitter because you’re so damn boring.

Blame the teaching, not the tool. Too many professors seem to think lecture is an effective tool.

Guess what: It’s not.

I absolutely want to take this class. I remember that I liked to draw and paint, and then for some reason I stopped. Now I want to do it again. So much of what I do feels temporary and digital. This looks more durable for some reason. If anyone wants to join me in an elementary art class let know. In the meantime I’ll be pressing my nose against the windows at Burton.

thenearsightedmonkey:

Last week, students in Lynda Barry’s “What It Is” class were given sweet little portable watercolor sets. They’re breaking them in by coloring photo-copies of work they did the earlier in the week. There hasn’t been any instruction on how to use the watercolors. That will come after students have messed around with the paints and the brush enough for instructions to make sense. Sometimes giving instructions too early in the process can cut a person off from finding interesting ways to use materials on their own. Telling someone about ways to hold a brush or get paint to flow will make much more sense after they’ve played around with the brush and the paint for a while.

Photos by Bucca Four of Hearts