Hello, how are you?
It’s still shorts weather just about and although the forecast is for a big drop in the next few days the AC is whirring and it still feels quite summery. Leaves are starting to fall, but I’m not out raking yet. You can feel the change in the seasons though, there seems to be a great deal of squirrel activity, burying acorns in the lawn and chasing each other along the telephone wires. I put new batteries in the camera trap as this time of year seems to attract visitors, and we’ve already seen a small rangale of deer and the usual groundhog comings and goings.
There was late-night street soccer/football for the kids during our block party. It’s always great to see the streets as playgrounds, clear of cars. There are some top cooks in our neighborhood, so enjoyed various curries, fried chicken, and creamy desserts. We even decorated a few hand cookies, you’ll see.
I hope that you’re all well, it’s good to be writing as always, lots in my mind this week, so apologies that this might seem a bit longer than usual.
Stephan
Teaching & Learning
I’m full-on into marking/grading and tieing up the loose ends of our Multicultural Immersion course which I’ve thoroughly enjoyed teaching even with a larger group than we would normally enroll. I think the issue with the size is that some people have slipped through the net and I’ve struggled to keep an eye on particular students with slightly lower levels of engagement and who aren’t as vocal or confident in class as others.
When we were learning remotely I polled students regularly and invited feedback through a google form, sometimes picking up on one or two grumbles or concerns. I’m wary of adding too many surveys and I find it hard to get the majority of the class to provide feedback via the final course evaluation, which would be useful. Some students just don’t like filling in any type of feedback or evaluation form. Perhaps there are some other innovative ways to do this, I’d love to hear suggestions.
As I segue into the next course, I still have time to set up surveys and build feedback loops. I keep wondering about the students’ agency in all this? For many, it seems sort of pointless to provide feedback that they feel they won’t benefit from or see reflected in outcomes. I know that some teachers offer incentives for completing evaluation surveys, perhaps they need to be baked into the course, for instance, contribute to a participation grade. I’m not sure.
Regardless, the objective surely is good listening and I hope that’s what I’m able to provide, not because I simply announce it, but hopefully because I invite the questions and show that I will adapt something when it is obvious to everyone but me that it isn’t working. I hope that’s a start.
Life Lessons
I enjoyed several very productive meetings this week with different working groups in the university who are steering projects or overseeing particular service functions. I thoroughly enjoy collaborating with my colleagues, I think this is the work, finding ways to come together to create something new.
One of the things I have missed greatly is walking through the campus on my way to a meeting and bumping into colleagues that I hadn’t seen for a while and finding out about current projects and talking about ways that we might work together. I know for academics there is a downside to this desire to collaborate and learning to say “no” can be very stressful, but having to cope with the resulting strain of too many projects can be too. I’d like to think it is often a case of “not-now but later”.
Changing tack for a second, there are a couple of people on campus whose work I greatly admire and would love to collude with, but don’t seem to be very approachable. It’s probably true that their time is a precise resource, so I plan to wait until a have an idea that is so irresistible that they couldn’t say no to working with me. If they still give me the cold shoulder, then I’ll try not to take it personally and understand that there are good reasons why they might plant “keep out” signs. I’m still relatively new, and I don’t have an established reputation, not yet anyway, oh and I know that I come across as slightly needy. I have to be patient and let the work speak for itself. In the meantime, anyway, my cup overfloweth and I’m thrilled to be working with my collaborators, I’m in a very good place.
Digest
This newsletter started as the Modern Languages Digest, the newsletter of The Global Languages & Cultures Room and I wanted to take a quick moment to let you know that activities in the room are ramping up now that we’re back in person and campus is busy again.
It has been tricky maintaining a presence since the start of the pandemic, but we (myself and a small band of brilliant student workers) have continued to post on social media, develop new projects and maintain the room. The hardware has been updated and now this semester, we have invited students to visit and held workshops with various groups eager to learn about our work and try out some of the experiences that we have produced and continue to curate.
We’re in the process of planning for 2022 and hope by then that students will come by in larger numbers, that we’ll be able to enjoy small gatherings, talks, and screenings as before. Our teaching and research blog has been updated and our Instagram channel is running projects, including regular features such as Highlighting Black intellectuals and cultural agents from around the world, and our Artists Micro-commissions project inviting students to create work that reflected aspects of language, culture, and identity.
Lost and Found
Here are a few things that I read this week…
I’m anxious that the current political polarization does the most harm to those at the fringes or even those who identify with being at the center of the political spectrum. We’re not hearing moderate or minority voices in the din of extremist rhetoric. I think that’s why many of my students say they are a-political or feel overlooked or under-represented. I might have felt the same when I was at university yet I took part in sit-ins and rallies, hoping to add my voice to campaigns as I still do where I feel there is injustice or the need for awareness.
So, although I’m slightly skeptical about social media companies running tools for advocacy, a part of me feels quite encouraged by new features on Snapchat which aim to help young people run for political office and increased representation in their communities.
As I’m reading through this before sending it out, news has come through from the UK that an MP has been killed during one of their weekly surgeries, with echoes of the murder of Jo Cox. While I am fiercely critical of the policies and approaches that particular politicians put forward I do feel deep down that there is a desire to serve and represent their constituents, and that it is a terrible thing for democracy when meeting people is so fraught with danger and acts such as this one threaten the ties between communities and the people that represent them.
I did just have a few more links to add here.
I’m looking forward to Dave Eggers's new book The Every (affiliate link) which is available to pre-order, with 32 different covers that have been designed by brilliant illustrators and artists.
Another useful reminder about student engagement in the Chronicle.
250 most popular online courses from Class Central.
The Strange Persistence of First Languages (via CASLS)
I’m trying out this Insta Go, which has been recently updated and seems relatively simple to use for capturing first-person footage or as an action cam, to attach to bikes for instance. The camera itself is just the oval patterned piece in the image above, the rest of it is the charger and stand that it fits into when you want to download the footage. The image is pretty good, 5k apparently which is remarkable for such a small device.
Thank you
okay, that will do us. I’ve overstayed my welcome, I know.
Just a quick note to say that there are a few signs that booster shots may not be far away, my hope is that vaccines for under 12’s will arrive soon too. Things are relatively good here and rates of Covid are holding steady for now with occasional increases.
I’ve included this video below which I saw via Kottke. It is similar to watching a fire spread through a forest, as sparks and embers reignite areas and propagate across the country. I know that it’s a cliche to say that we’re not out of the woods, I’m not sure what the next phase is looking like and hoping very much that there won’t be new variants that push us back. We are learning to live with Covid in the foreseeable future and all we can do is learn to make good decisions that mitigate risk as much as possible.
Have a nice weekend, I’ll be cycling hopefully if the weather holds out.
Take care, speak soon.