Welcome to The Spaces in Between, a weekly newsletter on culture, language, and technology written by Stephan Caspar. If you’re new here, then welcome, feel free to subscribe.
We managed to escape last weekend for a couple of nights, and although it is never quite as stress-free as you hope with a small family, it was good to be away.
I managed to get a little reading done, it was my birthday on Sunday and the family kindly gifted me a subscription to Guardian Weekly, which is almost as good as the real thing and better than the app, which delivers live news and recent headlines, rather than features and longer reads.
We celebrated with candles on chocolate brownies and an episode of the Mandolorian (This is the way…).
We also managed a few walks along the lakefront, it was cold and snowy, and although we were wrapped up, it was nice to get back inside for a warm brew.
They say a change is as good as a rest. Although, to be honest, I still feel very tired.
Stephan
Teaching & Learning
I’m thinking about next semester’s courses, even as I’m marking current work. It’s a chance to consider changes, and get ahead of some of the comments from student evaluations, I know that there are ways I could deliver a better course.
Perhaps I feel the need to employ extra scrutiny after reading an article in our student paper, which again spoke of the need for faculty to show more empathy and understanding of student wellbeing and mental health. The toll taken by students this year has been significant and there is so we can do as faculty to alleviate factors that cause such hardship and distress.
As remote instructors, we can have very little understanding of the personal circumstances of each student. Online it is hard to pick up on clues that we might see more clearly in the classroom, and which might prompt us to act.
Students are often sold a view of themselves as successful, stoical, and resilient, that the best among them are confident, ambitious, and always hard-working. As faculty, we’re often pleasantly amazed by the ingenuity and creativity of our students and rightly proud of their achievements. Setting aside the perniciousness of grading and assessment, the way we recognize achievement is so often to ignore the impact, the cost, and long-term damage.
At the start of lockdown, in the move to remote learning, I stripped my curriculum of anything that seemed remotely like busy work or extra, additional content. Fond of taking students down rabbit holes and giving them glimpses of similar, related concepts; I focused on the primary learning aims and gave them no more or less than what needed.
I know that I have students suffering from homelessness and food insecurity; which when you analyze the phrase, really speaks to the dreadful anxiety of not knowing where your next meal will come from, continually feeling hungry, or needing to ration food to make it last longer. There is support and when students seek it, they can return to lives approaching some normality and calm, but when we’re speaking about such fine balance, it can be small things that can tip one way or the other.
Teaching the students we have, not the students we wish we had.
Sara Goldrick-Rab and Jesse Stommel [link]
Life Lessons
Moving from the UK to the US, I’ve had to find local resources to support academic practice and I’ve joined the NCFDD. For junior faculty like me, there is a sea of articles, tutorials, and guides to dive into. I’m creating a work plan, first for Spring 2021, but also for the summer and after. I’m even hoping to list a few things with a three year gestation period. I don’t think I’ve ever done that before, at least not since my early twenties when I had a plan, but hey, you know.
I do know that I’m enjoying my teaching and want to continue but also that I want to give myself more opportunities in other areas. My list is looking long, but hopefully, I can start to prioritize and think about how much time different tasks will take.
This is one of those strange weeks where students are completing final outcomes and although there are flurries of questions and activity, there are also times when you can get a few other things completed.
I usually start the week by blocking out the hours in my schedule for writing and completing tasks. I still use Clear which is an app for phone and desktop, that is elegant in its simplicity (you can make lists and nothing else), but badly needs updating and is occasionally flaky in terms of syncing with the cloud, etc. I know several iOS users have switched to Todoist.
When I'm composing a post on substack or starting an article, then I usually use Markdown using iA Writer. If you’re unfamiliar with it, then it is a simple syntax for writing, that helps to insert formatting as you go along without the need to use menus or shortcuts. I will usually start in Markdown and export to Word when I need to send off or collaborate on a document. It is frustrating to me that I have to do this, but it is often the only way when working on APA or MLA formatted documents that have tracked changes and comments from reviewers. Still, Markdown gets me out of the starting gate and gives me the sort of uncluttered and focussed space I need. I recommend it to students and colleagues.
Lost and Found
I have had a couple of conversations with Emma Cragg who is someone who helps people in their careers and personal life. These are often intertwined and complicated and can require someone just like Emma to help bring some clarity of thought through listening and careful questioning. I have thoroughly enjoyed the series of daily prompts and questions, published through Emma’s Instagram that has made me pause (most likely with a cup of tea) to reflect for a moment. Emma was kind enough to mention this newsletter in Gathered Thoughts, her own weekly dispatch. It is an excellent read and always full of helpful links.
One of which was The Beginner’s Guide to Deliberate Practice by James Clear, which speaks to a kind of muscle memory for the brain, and how to train yourself through repetition and feedback. It takes a great deal of self-discipline to work this way, but the results are clear from the examples, which highlight feedback as the key to making it work.
Let’s finish with this article from Huffington Post entitled 7 Little Ways to Feel a Sense of Normalcy Right Now which is a good reminder of how we can get through the pandemic.
I felt as if I could do more at the beginning, I was more creative, more useful around the house, the urgency with which I committed to working was sort of amazing at the time. So now, it feels harder, perhaps I’m tired and it’s useful to take these moments to gather ourselves before the next few months.
By the way, Bandcamp has decided not to do any more best albums of the year rankings, instead, they’re going to put together some thematic groups and list out various genres.
This year, I've been completely smitten by Who Boy, who I know nothing about but love very much. I think they are from Detroit, which is a nice segue from last week’s newsletter. It’s nice to have a new band each year that pop up in your playlist.
Thank you
Take good care of yourselves, and feel free to drop me a line if you’d like to chat or catch up on anything. I’m really interested to meet some of the people who have signed up for this newsletter, so please feel free to leave a comment.
If you think there are some useful things, then please feel free to share with a friend or colleague.