Category teaching
Writing assignment requires students to be alert to possible story ideas
Story ideas. They’re all around us. That’s one of my messages for tomorrow’s lecture when we talk about an upcoming assignment that requires the students to find their own story ideas. For this assignment, we are asking the students to select a story that has an environmental, health, science or technology angle. And those stories […]
‘Clean Out Your Inbox Week’ was last week, but it’s never too late to try to battle excessive e-mail
I almost missed “Clean Out Your Inbox Week.” That’s because the announcement didn’t come as an e-mail. I read about the event in a news story. If I’d received the info in an e-mail, I would have known it much sooner. That is if I could find that e-mail in my inbox. Marsha Egan, author […]
Journalism students organize Town Hall Meeting to promote discussion of the future of journalism and journalism education in the college
Tomorrow evening a special event is being held for our college — a Journalism Town Hall Meeting. Students in the campus chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and staff members of The Fine Print have organized what they hope will be the first of several town hall meetings. The topic for tomorrow’s panel discussion […]
Textbook cover needs to reflect contemporary media — both the reporters and equipment
Even though I do find Carole Rich’s Writing and Reporting News to be a very effective textbook — and so do the students (see previous post) — I do have a few suggestions for improvement. One is the book cover. Designing a cover for a media textbook is a challenge, as so many different media […]
Selecting a textbook to help promote student learning
I was walking across the stage in the auditorium before class when I heard a student say: “I love this textbook.” Needless to say, that caught my attention. I turned and saw two students on the front row looking at the course textbook — Carole Rich’s Writing and Reporting News: A Coaching Method. “I really […]
Teaching the same course builds confidence and competence
The teaching team and I met during Reading Days to debrief from this semester and plan for next semester. I asked each of the lab instructors to share a highlight from their teaching this semester. The major theme for most of them was feeling more comfortable teaching the course. For almost everyone, this was the […]
Teachers and students feel snowed under at the end of the semester
When I first saw the falling snow feature for WordPress, I thought the look wouldn’t work for my blog. After all, I’m teaching in Florida and just ran wearing shorts and a T-shirt. But then I thought of my desk and dining room table. I’m snowed under with papers to grade. This is that time […]
Humming the quadratic formula
At our lunch meeting today, Paige Madsen (my lecture assistant) and I were discussing plans for the end-of-the-semester meeting with the current seven teaching assistants for Writing for Mass Communication and the new TA who will be teaching with us for next semester. We listed materials we need to have for the meeting and issues […]
They Might Be Giants and Billy Joel remind us that learning can be something we can sing about
A drive across town running errands was a reminder of how creative approaches to information delivery can beat the traditional approaches. I happened to listen to Ira Flatow’s Science Friday on National Public Radio. He introduced They Might Be Giants, a music group who lauched into playing and singing “Science Is Real.” The song had […]
PepsiCo’s iPhone app provides example for media ethics discussion
As an iPhone owner, I’m always interested in new apps (applications) for the iPhone. One of the recent — and controversial — apps was “Amp Up Before You Score,” released and then withdrawn by PepsiCo Inc. The app was to promote PepsiCo’s Amp Energy drink. The app provided 24 types of women — such as […]
Julie Dodd 