Fallout from My Reunion

I went to my high school reunion this past spring.  I have to say I actually enjoyed myself, and it turned out much better than expected.  Maybe it’s because our class was small.  But that’s not the topic I want to discuss.

The first thing I want to write about my disappointment at our class photograph.  When you purchase a photograph at an event knowing that it will be sent to you, what do you expect?  I expected a nice glossy of our class.  What did I get?  I got a darkish, orangey print out using an ink jet on matte finish paper.  Some of my classmates were actually orange in the photo.

What was that photographer thinking when she sent these out to all of us?  Did she think we actually expected our photographs to come that way?  And I know I am not the only one that felt that way.  I spoke to a couple of other classmates including one of the main organizers, and they too felt ripped off.

Morale of the story?  If you provide a product or service to customers, take time to make sure you understand what people expect and deliver it.  This photographer has deeply hurt her reputation because she had some 30 people buying photographs from her at $20 a pop.  She made well over $600, and she could take the time to color correct and even go to Target or WalMart and have the photographs professionally printed on glossy?  Even with that additional cost, she was have made a tidy profit.  And better yet, she would have people willing to recommend her instead of all these people who will steer clear of her in the future and even tell people not to use her.

The second thing I am still thinking about.  I met up with one woman that I always liked, and we even talked about our jobs.  She thought that maybe we could do business together in the future.  Nice. 

One day months later, she did call, but what she was offering wasn’t just a chat or potential business but a possibility of selling products under her.  It wasn’t bad that she offered that, but I guess my expectation at a reunion wasn’t to be sold too. 

I guess what colors my view is that I steer clear of products where you have to join in order to purchase, and while there are testimonials, there are no prices mentioned until you join and there are minimum monthly commitments for purchase.  She was selling those type of products.  I was disappointed and now I wonder was she really happy to see me or did she just see me as a potential customer rather than a former classmate.

Am I glad I went to the reunion?  You bet.  If this is all I have to complain about then I guess it was a very nice event.

Tools for Teachers (Part I)

With the Internet today, there has never been so many resources for teachers so easily available.  For my next few blogs, I am going to offer you some gems that I find useful as an adjunct college instructor, and I am sure you will find many of these useful too.

Templates

Vertex42.com (http://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/education.html) has some great templates to help teachers in Excel.  Choose templates for grade books, lesson plans, calendars, attendance forms, and behavior reward charts.  You can also share with your students a GPA calculator, weekly class schedule, periodic table, and graph papers.

PDF Converter

            If you are on a tight budget and there’s no money for Adobe Acrobat, you can still convert files to PDF online for free.  PDF Converter (http://www.freepdfconvert.com/) will allow you to upload your source file, and they will email the converted PDF to your.  You may convert Word, Excel, PowerPoint, images, Web pages, and other files to PDF.

Free Photo Editor

            Need to edit photos and images and there’s no money to buy PhotoShop or another photo editing software?  Avairy (http://www.aviary.com/) offers a free editor for use on the Web or your mobile device.  It may not have all the bells and whistles of a purchased software, but it certainly can do a lot and should satisfy most teachers.

            All of these options are powerful, useful and most importantly free.  Be sure to check them out and spread the word to your fellow teachers!

Classroom Activity – Creating Titles that Hook

Ever heard that you never get a second chance to make a first impression?  That’s true when you write.  Often, students overlook titles for their essays.  During the semester, I spend a class going over titles and having fun with them to show students ways to be creative and hook the reader.

One of the activities I begin with is sharing headlines I created for fairy tales and nursery rhymes.  One of the ones I use is “Rodent Terrified by Time Piece.”  At first students scratch their heads and try to think back to the nursery rhymes they remember.  Then if I’m lucky, one student will guess “Hickory Dickory Dock.”  It is a little difficult with the current generation because many of them were never read nursery rhymes, but they soon get into the activity and enjoy trying to figure out each story.  Another one I use is “Downtrodden Woman Escapes for the Evening:  Saved by Authorities.”  That’s “Cinderella.”

We talk some about the titles I offer because they are written more in the newspaper genre than for essays or stories.  We then talk about how even though they are writing academic essays, they should still try to make the title hook the reader and the introduction interesting to the reader.

Then I flip the tables on them and give them five more fairy tales and ask them to write their own titles to hook the reader.  When they are finished, I look for volunteers to share.  This is one time when students are more eager to share, and we get some good laughs from what they have written.  With this portion of the activity, I offer a site with brief summaries of the fairy tales because more and more often fewer students are familiar with all of those tales.  And even if they are familiar, it is sometimes nice to review.  I found when I developed this activity, I ended up rereading of the stories and seeing details I had forgotten or missed.

I think the most startling thing they realize from this exercise is that they should consider the audience they are writing for even if it’s just the teacher and try to make their writing interesting.

Classroom Activity - Getting Students to See the Other Side

Often history is written from the point of view of the victor.  We see everything in our lives from a certain perspective.  It colors everything, and I try to get my students to see that.  I have found one class activity that I think does this very well.

It begins with fairy tales.  I begin with having the class read The Real Story of the Three Little Pigs by A. Wolf written by Lane Smith.  Each student reads a page aloud.  I ask them to do it with feeling and a good voice.  The story garners some laughs, and it breaks up the monotony of English Composition.

And then we talk about perspective and whose points of view should a paper be written from.    We talk about the differences between what the wolf wrote and how the story was originally written.  Who does the original favor?  We also talk about in a light hearted way how everyone who goes to prison is innocent.

We then move on to the class activity.  Here I ask my students to get into groups of three or four and to write their own take on a fairy tale.  I say, “Choose a character in that fairy tale and write the story as you imagine that character would have.”  I then allow them about 15 to 20 minutes to write their version of the fairy tale.

It’s an enjoyable experience where students are given the opportunity to be creative in a English composition class.  It also requires them to review a familiar story more critically and pick up details that they may have passed over when they were children.  Often, my students give modern twists on the story, and I am often impressed with how creative they are really with their stories.

At the end, I bring them back to what I want to emphasize.  When they get to the end of the semester and have to write their argument/persuasion paper, I want them to be able to consider the other side as well as the side that they take.  I want them to step into someone else’s shoes and see if they can understand why how the other side sees the issue.

The Typical English Composition Student & Why English Composition Matters

Since January is the time when I prepare for the spring semester courses that I teach, I start to think about the classes I teach and what I would like to get from students in terms of the essays I receive.

I’m sure all of you at some time or another have had an English teacher who is absolutely in love with English and literature and what he or she teaches.  Those teachers should be.  That’s what makes an inspiring and effective teacher.  What is hard for the average student to take is when those teachers expect students to have the same love as they do.

I take a very different approach when I teach English Composition to incoming freshmen.  I know that in my class, I’ll find two maybe three students who love to write.  I’m grateful for those students because it’s likely that they’ll turn in essays that I’ll really enjoy reading. 

The majority of the students in class are students who are required to take it for the general education credits, and they will be grateful when it’s all over.  I don’t mind those students, and I tell them that I don’t expect novels and super creative works.  All that I want from them is sincere effort in trying to communicate clearly and at a college writing level.  I just want them to put in the effort that students should for any college course.

Why does English Composition matter so much?  Sometimes it’s hard to make a student understand that these highly constructed academic essays will help them with college and with life.  In a typical student’s life, there’s email and texting. Neither form of communication is anything like college English.  They don’t see the connection, and that’s what I try to show them throughout the semester.

Here are a few of the connections I hope I get my students to learn:

What’s the point of a comparison and contrast essay?  Besides learning a new form of writing, students are also learning critical comparison thinking that can help them when buying their first car, choosing an apartment, or purchasing a large appliance.  With that type of essay, students have to learn to pick out the useful information and make decisions as to what is important.  We are making comparisons all the time and basing many decisions on those comparisons.

What’s the point of an argument essay that requires research?  This one is a biggie because students groan when they know they have this huge essay at the end of the semester.  Besides helping them learn the steps in working on a longer piece of writing, I try to show how in the real world, we often have to persuade people.  If you are in sales, you have to persuade people to buy.  Why is my product better?  What special features does it offer?  Maybe you have to persuade your boss to invest in a new piece of office equipment.  Why do we need to place a perfectly good copier?  Why should we spend the money now?  We often have to persuade people both personally and professionally.  Most young students have already practiced persuasion when trying to get something out of their parents, but most of them have not learned to persuade beyond pleading and comparing themselves to their peers.  Again, I try to show them critical thinking skills.  They need to look at a problem and research it and find what’s important to that topic.  They need to learn how to blend logical argument with emotional appeal and while appearing knowledgeable about their topic.  What are the details that will sway a reader?  What are the key components that make you believe what you do?

I could offer a lot more examples, but you get the point from just these two.

We are a species that relies on communication.  We rely on verbal communication, and we rely heavily on written communication.  Our world goes beyond email and texting, and there are very few jobs out there that don’t require written communication skills.  If a student can write successfully in college English adjusting their style to whatever scenario they are given, then they can communicate effectively anywhere they go.  Writing clearly matters.

The Typical English Composition Student & Why English Composition Matters

Since January is the time when I prepare for the spring semester courses that I teach, I start to think about the classes I teach and what I would like to get from students in terms of the essays I receive.

I’m sure all of you at some time or another have had an English teacher who is absolutely in love with English and literature and what he or she teaches.  Those teachers should be.  That’s what makes an inspiring and effective teacher.  What is hard for the average student to take is when those teachers expect students to have the same love as they do.

I take a very different approach when I teach English Composition to incoming freshmen.  I know that in my class, I’ll find two maybe three students who love to write.  I’m grateful for those students because it’s likely that they’ll turn in essays that I’ll really enjoy reading. 

The majority of the students in class are students who are required to take it for the general education credits, and they will be grateful when it’s all over.  I don’t mind those students, and I tell them that I don’t expect novels and super creative works.  All that I want from them is sincere effort in trying to communicate clearly and at a college writing level.  I just want them to put in the effort that students should for any college course.

Why does English Composition matter so much?  Sometimes it’s hard to make a student understand that these highly constructed academic essays will help them with college and with life.  In a typical student’s life, there’s email and texting. Neither form of communication is anything like college English.  They don’t see the connection, and that’s what I try to show them throughout the semester.

Here are a few of the connections I hope I get my students to learn:

What’s the point of a comparison and contrast essay?  Besides learning a new form of writing, students are also learning critical comparison thinking that can help them when buying their first car, choosing an apartment, or purchasing a large appliance.  With that type of essay, students have to learn to pick out the useful information and make decisions as to what is important.  We are making comparisons all the time and basing many decisions on those comparisons.

What’s the point of an argument essay that requires research?  This one is a biggie because students groan when they know they have this huge essay at the end of the semester.  Besides helping them learn the steps in working on a longer piece of writing, I try to show how in the real world, we often have to persuade people.  If you are in sales, you have to persuade people to buy.  Why is my product better?  What special features does it offer?  Maybe you have to persuade your boss to invest in a new piece of office equipment.  Why do we need to place a perfectly good copier?  Why should we spend the money now?  We often have to persuade people both personally and professionally.  Most young students have already practiced persuasion when trying to get something out of their parents, but most of them have not learned to persuade beyond pleading and comparing themselves to their peers.  Again, I try to show them critical thinking skills.  They need to look at a problem and research it and find what’s important to that topic.  They need to learn how to blend logical argument with emotional appeal and while appearing knowledgeable about their topic.  What are the details that will sway a reader?  What are the key components that make you believe what you do?

I could offer a lot more examples, but you get the point from just these two.

We are a species that relies on communication.  We rely on verbal communication, and we rely heavily on written communication.  Our world goes beyond email and texting, and there are very few jobs out there that don’t require written communication skills.  If a student can write successfully in college English adjusting their style to whatever scenario they are given, then they can communicate effectively anywhere they go.  Writing clearly matters.

What Students Need to Add to Their Essays

If you are new to college and getting ready for English Composition (Freshman Comp), what should you try to put in your essays?  Detail.  Detail is what is lacking in many of our busy lives.  We are a society of sound bites and 30 second clips, and unfortunately, that’s what is showing up in much of the writing of recent high school graduates.

So if you are a college student, keep detail in mind when you write.  When you make a statement, you have to expand on it.  And here are some examples of how you can expand your writing both creatively and objectively.

Example 1:  In a personal essay, someone writes, “The food on my plate looked totally unappealing.”

It’s an okay sentence, and most people would have an idea what was meant.  Still, there’s the opportunity to make it more detailed so that people know why it was so unappealing to the author:  “I looked at my plate and silently gagged.  There was congealed gravy on top of some grayish matter.  I tried not to smell it, but I couldn’t help getting sour odor from the food into my nostrils.”  The author now has told you exactly what was unappealing about the food on the plate.

Example 2:  In a research paper, someone writes, “Many people will be involved in a drunk driving accident sometime in their lifetime.”

This sentence needs specific detail and support.  After all, it is part of a research paper and it’s giving a fact without detail or support.  Give the reader something to really go on and believe:  “Almost a third of the American population will be involved in a drunk driving accident sometime in their lifetime (‘Drunk Driving Facts & Stats Tips’).  That means that if you are sitting in a classroom of twenty students, at least six students in that classroom will be in an alcohol related accident some day.”  This passage now has a real statistic what is cited and a little elaboration that may make the statistic more personal.

There are many ways to expand your writing and make your essay longer and more detailed.  Remember:  don’t just fill your essay to meet the minimum length.  Figure out how to fill your essay with substance, with detail that makes the material more interesting.

The Five Senses

One thing that’s often forgotten today is to depend on the five senses.  We are such a visual society that we forget that there are other senses to draw from.  What are the five senses?

·         Sight

·         Hearing

·         Taste

·         Touch

·         Smell

Look back at the food example.  Yes, it’s very visual, but it draws on smell too.  I won’t even try to imagine what that stuff would have tasted like, but you get the picture.  Think of all the things you can include in your essay.  Talking about past birthdays?  Did your parents light the birthday candles with a match?  Recall that sulfur smell and describe it.  Been right beneath fireworks?  Describe the sounds of the explosions and how the ground rumbled under your feet.  You can also try to describe the smell of gunpowder that would have gone along with it.  Writing about your best football game in high school?  Don’t forget the feeling of being tackled with all that weight piled up on you.  Describe the mud splattering against your face during one of the wettest games ever.

Examples and Statistics

Examples can make your writing come alive, it works in giving support to your topic.  The examples can come from your own life or from newspaper and magazine articles or from any other source you can think of.  It really depends on the type of essays you are writing.  In fact, for the research paper assignments I give out, I encourage students to use examples.  Some teachers and textbooks refer to them as case studies.  Either way, find people who have been in similar circumstances and describe their situations and how it relates.  Find examples in business or science or at gatherings.  Make sure you refer to the source where the information came from when you use it.  Sometimes it can be as simple as mentioning the publication or author.  Other times, you have to be more formal and document the sources.  Again it depends on the assignment.

Use statistics to show that what you are writing about matters.  If you are writing about global warming, use examples such as the polar bears’ hunting territory shrinking.  Use statistics about how much that territory has actually shrunk.  Maybe their territory was all of the arctic and now it’s the size of …..  Again, you need to say where information came from, formally or informally depending upon the assignment.

There’s a lot more that I could write on this topic, but I think I’ve given you some ideas of how to add detail.  Like I said before, if I could give one piece of advice to new college writers, it would be to learn to write with details and avoid those 30 second sound bites.