A Sense of Doubt blog post #3659 - SoD Reprint of #2200 - Letter to my 102 Students and more from 2021: Comic Book Sunday for 2502.23

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3659 - SoD Reprint of #2200 - Letter to my 102 Students and more from 2021: Comic Book Sunday for 2502.23

I had another post planned for today, but once again, I am suffering from either the same virus I had three weeks ago, a new virus, or long-haul Covid, even though I have never tested positive for Covid.

Today, I was going to write part one of a new series entitled: "Why Do I Still Read Comics?" which is something that all my comic fan friends know their own answers for but some of my non-comic fan friends and readers may have a judgement assigned to: "isn't that kid stuff? Don't you stop with that stuff at a certain age?"

Well, that post is now postponed to bring you this reprint.

And searching my "comic books" category, I found this post from four years ago nearly to the day using the Spider-Man images I still use to this day to address the weight of writing a big project with my 102 students.

This post has other stuff in it, too, and it WASN'T even a COMIC BOOK SUNDAY.

But now it is.

Thanks for tuning in.


LOW POWER MODE: I sometimes put the blog in what I call LOW POWER MODE. If you see this note, the blog is operating like a sleeping computer, maintaining static memory, but making no new computations. If I am in low power mode, it's because I do not have time to do much that's inventive, original, or even substantive on the blog. This means I am posting straight shares, limited content posts, reprints, often something qualifying for the THAT ONE THING category and other easy to make posts to keep me daily. That's the deal. Thanks for reading.

Link to the original post that I am reprinting below:

Thursday, February 25, 2021

A Sense of Doubt blog post #2200 - A letter to my 102 students, a dream about satchel, the crushing weight of stress in comic book form, and the story of Kwame Ajamu

A Sense of Doubt blog post #2200 - A letter to my 102 students, a dream about satchel, the crushing weight of stress in comic book form, and the story of Kwame Ajamu

Hi reader.

Today's post is a mile stone, number 2200, and I am going to celebrate that achievement with nothing all that special just the usual.

Here's today's announcement to my research writing 102 students.

It's pretty self explanatory. I will let it speak for itself.

But it did also include this image:

SUBJECT: ENG 102: HAVE YOU SIGNED UP FOR YOUR CONFERENCE?? And other important thoughts I am having

Greetings Writers,

So, I had this terrible dream in which Satchel had some kind of obstruction in her bowel. But as dreams go, it kept changing from bowel obstruction to breach birth to needing her bladder or something removed. You get the idea. I had to perform the surgery because there were no doctors around and NO TIME. I am on the phone with my wife, who is a medial professional, and she is trying to tell me what to do and warning me that I could kill Satchel with the anesthetic and not to use too much, which, of course, did not calm me down. Then I am looking at books and taking advice from other people who are there in some like penthouse over a shopping mall with geodesic roofs; I don’t know. Then I touch something not sterile with my gloves and have to strip them and get new gloves.

And during all of that anxiety-rich attempt to save my dog’s life, I wake up, and then I start thinking about all of you.

Maybe you wondered how I was going to bring this around to our class or if I was just wasting your time with another pointless story.

But, aha! I have a point.

I have been reading the early submitted projects. As of this morning, we’re at 23/34, which is not stellar given late penalties but more on that in a moment.

I have been reading and making notes and filling out the rubric but have not yet started audio files because I also have TWO SETS of 101 essays and a set of SHORT STORIES and today I get a batch of business research reports. All of which stresses me the %T%$$#@ out (I am sure you can relate with your own stresses) and makes me want to cancel my one planned work break to play D&D Saturday. I also have to roll up two characters for that.

ANYWAY...

I was really feeling the massive and crushing weight of stress. Kind of like this:

or this (and all these pages):

SO... what was I saying? The Q&A class session started and that derailed my thinking.

Oh right, AUDIO FILES.

Why am I planning to take the extra time to make audio files? That’s A LOT of time... an amount of time known as a F$#$ ton of time. You get the idea.

Isn’t that what the conference is for? If I unload all my thoughts in audio files, which can be as long as 30 minutes or more, then what do we talk about in the conference? Couldn’t I just say: listen to the audio file?

I know you are thinking I could say “skip the conferences,” but then I would have to actually hold the class periods on ZOOM, and I am not inclined to do that. Plus, I want to have CONVERSATIONS with all of you when I am hoping you will all be able to show me your joyful faces on camera so it feels like we exist together in reality.

So guess what?

I am sure you have guessed by now what I am trying to say (in writing not out loud).

I am not going to make audio files of feedback. That’s not a good use of my time or yours because you would be obliged to listen to it.

And now my stress levels have dropped significantly.

Still, this is true:

I am going to make this announcement today’s blog entry. That amuses me. I do that, you know. Reproduce content I make here, there.

After all, these cool book covers, like this one:

These cool book covers were the content of YESTERDAY’s blog post (address at the end of this announcement).

And I am waiting in the ZOOM CLASS ROOM. Thirty minutes seems like a long time to wait. No one had questions about the course policies or assignment requirements, but one student did ask about my confession of favorite cable news reporter, but he’s not my only favorite, not really. I actually have featured many of my favorites on my blog as you can imagine. I am a rather big fan of Abby Phillip.

Okay... thanks for reading.

Relax.

Do your best.

Don’t forget to breathe.

PLEASE BE BUSY.

IDEAS CAN CHANGE THE WORLD

In solidarity, safety, health, and wellness,

peace in our times,

-chris tower, LCC Lang&Lit faculty,

your friend in learning

#MaskUp! #It'sScience!!

#WritingIsRewriting

#LCCStrong #BlackLivesMatter #Don'tGiveUp

“Always look on the bright side”

"An open mind is a curious mind ready to learn!"

https://sensedoubt.blogspot.com/

"There is no occasion for women to consider themselves subordinate or inferior to men."  

~ Mohandas K. (Mahatma) Gandhi

“If your world is night... shine your life like a light.”

~ The Indigo Girls

Images from -

A Sense of Doubt blog post #2199 - LITHUB - Favorite songs as vintage book covers - TODD ALCOTT

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Martin Schoeller (@martinschoeller)

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2102.25 - 10:10
- Days ago = 2064 days ago
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2502.23 - 10:10

- Days ago: MOM = 3524 days ago & DAD = 179 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3412 - How I feel about AI and Plagiarism

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3412 - How I feel about AI and Plagiarism

And so I had my first student submitted project that I am reasonably certain was written all by an AI or in large part.

Even if it wasn't written by AI, the student misused sources in many egregious ways that would indicate that the project was written by AI and the student was trying to add sources to it.

After being told that the GPTZero checker was flawed, I ran my own experiments and found that it was 100% certain that some work that I know was written by my students was AI written.

So, GPTZERO alone is not proof that a piece of writing was written by AI, but it can be one piece of the puzzle along with other indicators and poor use of sources that will help to identify this new form of plagiarism.

Also, apparently, words like "firstly" and "thirdly" are indicators of AI writing.

Then again, if you search for GPTZero, you will also find ways to beat GPTZero.

Whether the project I received was written by AI or not, it features poor source that constitutes plagiarism.

Below is what I wrote to the student after making my determination.

I have removed all identifying information, including the topic of the paper to protect the student's identity. Also, it may be possible that I delayed reporting this incident to further protect the student's identity, so do not assume that this example came from the most recent Spring quarter.

TO THE STUDENT

I regret to inform you that you earned a zero on your final project, and I have submitted it to the college for academic honesty review.

I am not applying the points back system for this zero, and so the previous grades will remain so as to retain your grade of a D in the course, which is sufficient to pass the class and to graduate with an AA degree without having to re-take the course. However, I recommend retaking this English course if you plan to transfer to a four year school in order for you to acquire the necessary skills to survive other classes at that institution: skills with which you have not shown facility in your final project in terms of making an argument, using evidence to support that argument, and accurately citing and referencing source material as evidence.

My determination that you earned a zero on the final draft results from multiple examples of incorrect or inaccurate source use. There are passages of factually-based material that must have been paraphrased from sources and feature no cites. There are other supposed paraphrases that are cited that bear no relation to the content at the indicated place in the source or in any part of the source at all. There are multiple quotes from summary abstracts with citations to articles in which that text does not appear and may not have been written by the authors named in the reference. Many cites do not correspond to end references (as in the reference is not provided). Many end references are not accurate and are missing key elements. In most cases, there are no signal phrases present to introduce sources, and when signal phrases are used they are incomplete and no context for the overall content of the source is provided. Follow up explanations of evidence are either missing entirely or extremely minimal.

These many issues with source use make any other assessment of the organization and argument structure (or lack thereof) of the project irrelevant.

Though the rating by GPTZERO claiming this work is AI generated is insufficient as evidence of plagiarism, when added to the overwhelmingly poor or absent proper citation and use of sources, the project is clearly academically dishonest and thus should earn a grade of zero.

Additionally, when compared to your other writing, the project reads in a completely different style, providing another indicator that it may be plagiarized work.

I gave you multiple chances to ameliorate this situation in how source material was paraphrased, being very clear that I might check each and every citation and source. Reviewing my second draft feedback, I see that much of it was ignored.

I wish you all the best in your future academic career and hope this difficult situation will serve as a valuable learning experience.

Best wishes,

chris tower

AI is a great tool.

I have been showing students hot use it for brainstorming.

Like Wikipedia, I am not of the mind set to advocate against its use entirely.

Wikipedia is the single greatest, collaborative writing project in the history of the human race, and criticism against it are often toothless and deeply inane.

Suggesting that Wikipedia be avoided entirely is a deeply stupid point of view. I wish to sock any teacher who suggests such a thing with a large sock full of horse manure.

Likewise, AI can be a great way to brainstorm. I created an intriguing outline and source list for a research project using it.

Like Wikipedia, it's a starting point not an ending point. It's not a way to circumvent doing actual academic work.

But using it for help is not something to be wholly avoided.

more here:

https://dlabs.ai/blog/ai-powered-content-a-comprehensive-guide-to-engaging-and-plagiarism-free-writing/

In this Blog Post

Do You Really Need To Check ChatGPT Content for Plagiarism?

1. So you can ensure originality

2. So you avoid serious repercussions

3. So you protect your reputation

4. So you’re never caught out

Tools to Check for Plagiarism in AI Content

ChatGPT Itself

PlagiarismDetector

AI Text Classifier by OpenAI

Tips to Avoid Plagiarism in AI Content

1. Source Ideas from ChatGPT, Not the Actual Words

2. Find and Cite Your Sources

3. Maintain Authenticity by Fact-Checking

Takeaway: Use ChatGPT Wisely, And You’ll Write Well

CHECKER

GPTZERO

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2406.21 - 10:10

- Days ago = 3276 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3377 - DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH - Verify and Validate!

 

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3377 - DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH - Verify and Validate!

Found this in the archive from over three years ago.

It's still true.

Too many people believe things that are not only untrue but have been proven false repeatedly.

How is that possible?

Well, if it doesn't fit in a headline, if it's not immediate clickbait, or a ten second Tik Tok video, then it may not penetrate the public consciousness.

Only 59% of people surveyed in a poll documented in the article to follow are CERTAIN that Barrack Obama was born in the United States.

Ah... the glory days. This article was written BEFORE January 6th, 2021.

One reason may be that Donald Trump is not really a non-incumbent. More importantly, he is seen by a majority of his base as the only legitimate president. Two thirds of Republican voters (and nearly 3 in 10 Americans) continue to believe that the 2020 election was stolen from him, and that Biden was not lawfully elected. In fact, this “election denialism” is one of the major differences between those who support Trump and those who voted for his rival, Nikki Haley. According to them, “massive” fraud occurred in certain states (fake voters, rigged voting machines, etc.) with the blessing of election officials and unscrupulous judges, thus tipping the contest.

Jérôme Viala-Gaudefroy https://theconversation.com/why-do-millions-of-americans-believe-the-2020-presidential-election-was-stolen-from-donald-trump-224016

THREE IN TEN Americans believe this nonsense??

Trump claims it's 82%, but he's wrong (as usual).

“Eighty-two percent of the country understands that it was a rigged election,” Trump said March 2 during a rally at the Greensboro Coliseum Complex. “You can’t have a country with that. A poll came out: 82%. But they go after the people — they don’t go after the people that rig the election, they go after the people (that are) looking.”

WRAL https://www.wral.com/story/fact-check-trump-says-82-of-americans-think-2020-election-was-rigged/21316494/

That's wrong as shown by the source above (from the CONVERSATION), AND yet, this one directly above comes from 2024. This is a claim Trump is making NOW.

I could run through  a litany of false beliefs:

Is Covid worse than the flu?

Was George Floyd murdered?

Is the Israeli government carrying out genocide the Palestinian people?

Did Trump supporters really storm the capitol on January 6th 2021?

But there's also falsification on the LEFT.

Lately, Biden has been claiming that when he took over from Trump in 2021 that Inflation was at 9% and that's completely false. It was 1.4%. I hate to give Trump credit, but that's just true.

Biden is now pushing that retconning of reality to new levels. On Tuesday, in an interview with Yahoo Finance, Biden claimed that inflation was "at 9 percent when I came in, and it's now down around 3 percent." As The Washington Post notes, this is at least the third time in recent weeks that Biden has blatantly fibbed about the rate of inflation when he took office.

For the record, annual inflation was 1.4 percent in January 2021, when Biden's term began. Data released by the Department of Labor on Wednesday shows inflation hit 3.4 percent in April—and inflation hasn't been below 3 percent on an annualized basis since March 2021.

Eric Boehm https://reason.com/2024/05/15/dont-give-biden-a-pass-on-inflation-dont-give-trump-a-pass-on-covid/

Research, see?

I could take a little more time to verify these sources and their facts from multiple other sources, but I feel I can trust these.

Most Americans do not bother TO LEARN about anything and believe false claims, especially if they are often repeated, which is a Trump tactic, and one Biden now seems to be adopting.

Thanks for tuning in.

Happy New Year, America! Your Friends And Family May Be Absolute F*cking Morons

Evan Hurst

December 30, 2020 04:10 PM

 

Giphy

Over the last year, we have personally noticed something disturbing, mostly on Facebook, which is the official internet home for disturbing things. There aren't a lot of Trump supporters in our own personal Facebook feed. That's by design. What few are there, we probably muted them a long time ago.

But yet over the last year, we've noticed some memes going around, just absolute conspiracy theory bullshit, really bugfuck stuff. Stuff about Chrissy Teigen deleting 60,000 tweets and blocking a million people, Tom Hanks getting Greek citizenship for NEFARIOUS reasons, Justin Bieber's song "Yummy" being secretly about how he was a Pizzagate victim, Chris Cornell from Soundgarden "committing suicide" (yes, in scare quotes) while working on a child sex trafficking documentary.

It's QAnon shit. It doesn't say QAnon, but it's QAnon shit. QAnon as in the rebranded Nazi blood libel conspiracy theory made up by an anonymous idiot on the internet.

Again, we are not Facebook friends with Trailer Park Cletus, because we don't know him. This is creeping in to otherwise normal people's Facebook feeds.

Well, wouldn't you know it, but according to a new NPR/Ipsos poll, fully 54 percent of Americans think at least maybe there is a secret child sex ring cabal of Satanists that secretly controls the media and politics. Fully 17 percent are like yep that is a true thing that is just true. Thirty-seven percent are open to the idea, because maybe.

That means there's overlap there with Biden voters, y'all. A small overlap, but an overlap nonetheless.

The poll asked Americans about things that are true, and things that are not true. Here's a disturbing one: Fully 47 percent of Americans are convinced the "majority" of this summer's racial justice protests were violent. Another 16 percent think maybe that's true.

Here's another: While 51 percent of Americans know Jenny McCarthy is not a scientist and that vaccines don't cause autism, 12 percent are certain they do and 37 percent think WHO KNOWS, COULD BE!

Also, only 59 percent are certain Barack Obama was born in the United States.

For those of us who still care about verifiable facts, and who moreover actually understand how to research for ourselves, it's been insane watching how many people have allowed themselves to become absolute morons who truly believe things like this. Who believe Donald Trump when he says millions of votes were stolen from him, or that he actually won in a landslide. Yes, without a shred of evidence, and even though almost 60 judges, including Trump appointees, have laughed that out of their courtrooms.

But according to this poll, fully 39 percent of Americans are very sure there exists a Deep State secretly working against Trump. That includes 71 percent of Republicans, but somehow also 15 percent of Democrats and 37 percent of independents.

NPR did some followup interviews:

"There's just too much information out there," said Brooke Williams, a Republican voter and self-described QAnon follower from Oro Valley, Ariz., during a follow-up interview with NPR. "I can't see how anybody is not thoroughly convinced that Biden was illegally elected."

That person presumably knows people who aren't bugfuck crazy. People who know how to look a thing up, and know where to look it up.

But "Brooke" right there says "there's just too much information out there" for her NOT to believe in QAnon, and that Joe Biden won the election illegally. Quite frankly, "Brooke" is probably getting "information" from email forwards and uncredited memes and Facebook posts that say LIKE if you agree that Donald Trump was anointed by Jesus to save the world, SHARE if you think he IS Jesus! And when you tell them the correct information and attempt to show them the evidence, or when you tell them where to find the correct information for themselves, they sneer and say "Fake news!" or something else Trump has trained them like syphilitic monkeys to repeat.

They probably think they have been doing their own research. Because see, their friend Betsy Beth from Bible study posted that meme on Facebook about Hillary Clinton birthing a devil baby named Anthony Fauci in the tunnel that leads to the basement of the pizza place in Washington DC and now they are making all the itty bitty babies wear masks so nobody can identify them when they put them on the pedophile plane to Obama Island, and Betsy Beth never lies. How is that not "doing your own research," LIB?

Happy New Year, America! Some of your friends and family are absolute fucking morons or at least moron-curious. We don't know how to fix it, but we think we've reached the point where you need to keep your kids away from them, or at the very least carefully monitor what they're allowed to say to your kids.

So on that great note, OPEN THREAD and we'll be in late tomorrow with your New Year's Evestravaganza when we say G the fuck O to this horrible anus year. Be careful out there. Maybe stay at Wonkette, the Only Safe Part of the Internet.

[NPR]

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2405.17 - 10:10

- Days ago = 3241 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3069 - All my Community Conversations to Date

Me and Klint at Commencement 2023

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3069 - All my Community Conversations to Date

The picture above features me and my friend and colleague Klint Hull. We did a Community Conversation together on world-building in 2022, linked below, so it seemed fitting to make us the picture.

I felt it was time for a post that collected all of my community conversations.

I have done five.

Here they are.

May 23, 2019: When It's Time to Individuate: Gender, Middlesex, and the Jungian Process of Individuation

Chris Tower, Adjunct Faculty

October 31, 2019: GRIN and PREPARE For It: Four Technologies that may Kill Us

Presented by: Chris Tower

October 8, 2020: Comic Books as a Vehicle for Anti-Racism

Presented by Chris Tower and Abbie Leavens

Oct 8, 2020

October 8 Presentation: Comic Books as a Vehicle for Anti-Racism

Presented by Chris Tower and Abbie Leavens

Like everything else in America, comic books have a history of perpetuating racist stereotypes and fostering implicit bias, and yet since the 1960s, comic books have worked to be a vehicle for social change and currently are trying to be a truly anti-racist art form. What is anti-racism? How can art forms like comic books effect social change?

April 14, 2022: Klint Hull and Chris Tower, Building a World: Creating Meaningful Settings for Fiction
Presented by Klint Hull and Chris Tower

Apr 14, 2022

April 14: Building a World: Creating Meaningful Settings for Fiction

Presented by Klint Hull and Chris Tower

In fiction, the setting is not just where the story takes place: Setting is integral to character and plot. Chris Tower and Klint Hull discuss elements of setting, such as history, society, and environment, and lead an activity to craft a fictional setting from scratch.

April 13th, 2023

Presenter: Chris Tower

"I like to read banned books"

View recorded conversation (via Youtube)

Apr 13, 2023

April 13 Presentation

I Like to Read Banned Books

Presenter: Chris Tower

Me and Mav - Commencement 2023

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2307.14 - 10:10

- Days ago = 2933 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3066 - Pedagogy & Rhetoric: Giving Students Agency and Voice

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3066 - Pedagogy & Rhetoric: Giving Students Agency and Voice

Here's something I wrote on my guiding principles as a teacher.

First-year composition: some of the guiding principles that shape your curriculum and teaching practices within the discipline of composition.  

My number one guiding principle is forging strong relationships with students.

The rhetoric that we ask our students to practice we should practice ourselves, and so, that’s my first claim, for which I have evidence.

- Conferences

- getting to know them

- showing that I care

- trying to foster their agency and the development of their voice in what they write and what they choose to write about

- If I show them that I am on their side, that I care, that I have empathy, then this rapport usually happens organically.

That said, my guiding principles are to practice what I preach (and I do preach; I am zealot), to practice kindness and empathy, to model effective communication and negotiation with students, and to constantly re-evaluate my practices to improve and to best meet the needs of students.

Next claim, Teachers of writing should be actively writing themselves. I have always prided myself on being a working and publishing writer and apply my experiences gained as a writer to the class room. I have worked to bust that old chestnut adage that those who do, they do, and those who can’t, they teach. I hate that one. I have written professionally and published for many years. I currently publish a blog, which sometimes has original writing of my own in it, and I draw from those experiences as I teach. Like many faculty here at LCC, both in Lang & Lit and college wide, I literally practice the skills I preach and teach.

Because I change my approach and am constantly re-evaluating every aspect of my pedagogy, I have been on a journey as an educator that has evolved the more I learn and experience.

In attempting to practice what I preach from the start of my career as a graduate assistant teaching grammar, I was very much a prescriptivist, which fed my OCD tendency for things being just so. There are rules and so follow them, dammit. However, soon I became swayed to the Dark Side and felt the lure of descriptivism, as I could see language evolving and some of the evolution I really liked (I was a big fan of the verb “dis” as in disrespect).

These dual mindsets were soon at war with my attempt to practice my own writing methods and philosophies as I began to teach writing. I like rules (fewer and less, the Oxford Comma) and yet I liked dynamic change and creativity, fluidity, uncontrolled self-expression. I agree that many (all?) aspects of our “Standard American Academic English” are white supremacist in origin, and this is something about which I have done much self-discovery in the ways these origins have impacted my teaching.

As for prescriptivism vs descriptivism, when I discovered Peter Elbow and Donald Murray, and I felt that a new term defined my pedagogy: expressivist. I adopted freewriting, revision, and peer response methods as well as a conference system to have discussions with writers to learn their aims, their feelings, their obstacles. I liked the “anti-textbook” counter-culture movement to the traditional paradigm touted heavily by my graduate school professors. I drew ideas from Elbow’s book Writing Without Teachers, such as the process of writing like cooking (48-76) and the idea of the emerging center of gravity (35-37) - MORE NOTES HERE.

These were methods from the early 1990s to the early 2000s. I added multi-stepped process approaches in assignments, journal systems for free-writing and exploration, grouped communities of writers, self-reflection on process and product, and many of methods to allow students to discover their own voices and to grow as writers.

Knowing my path from prescriptivism to descriptivism to expressivism informs my journey of adaptation, becoming an instructor who constantly evaluates and revises his courses, much like the mantra I preach to students: “writing is never done, it’s just due.” After years of instruction in pre-college courses and online for profit schools with dubious standards, I moved to Washington and was hired at LCC in 2018. Never before have I felt like such a fish out of water. Though I constantly sought to improve my pedagogy, I felt like I knew this job, I knew composition, I knew rhetoric well enough (though as a life long learner I knew I could always learn more). But LCC was a new experience for me. Suddenly, I was welcomed to a department that worked together, valued all voices, and invited adjuncts to join in the process. Suddenly, I felt like an imposter, as if I knew nothing, as I gobbled up all that I could in learning from my new colleagues. And that’s when I decided to join two other instructors in throwing out grades and adopting the anti-racist assessment ecology of Labor-Based Grading for my English 101 course.

And so,

- prescriptivism to descriptivism to expressivism and beyond (more to find and learn)

- My current colleagues have helped me to grow and change more than ever before in my career

– I believe in student agency, communication, empathy, relationships

- Learning over grades, learning over earning “points”

- GROWTH MINDSET

- Life long learner - inspire others to be the same

- CRITICAL THINKING - helping students to learn how to think critically as the central skill in all that I do.

SOURCES

Google - Expressivists Writing

Google - Peter Elbow

A Sense of Doubt blog post #2627 - Does Grammar Matter - Prescriptivists vs. Descriptivists

A Sense of Doubt blog post #2670 - The Case for Hogwart's Grading System

https://mrandersonwrites.wordpress.com/2016/05/19/know-your-theory-expressivist-composition-pedagogy-edition/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theories_of_rhetoric_and_composition_pedagogy

Creative_Expressivism_A_New_Vision_for_Teaching_Writing

Radical Expression

The_Economy_of_Expressivism_and_Its_Legacy_of_Low/No-Stakes_Writing

Peter Elbow articles

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2307.11 - 10:10

- Days ago = 2930 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3065 - The Time Issue - Time Management by Pink Floyd, Tom Waits, Rolling Stones, David Bowie, and More - Music Monday for July 10, 2023

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3065 - The Time Issue - Time Management by Pink Floyd, Tom Waits, Rolling Stones, David Bowie, and More - Music Monday for July 10, 2023

This is a partial reprint of a previous post that I often use in my classes to discuss Time Management. I don't know why I felt I should capitalize that word.

I always tell my students, mostly in English 102, the research paper writing class, about the proportional relationship between time and anxiety. The more time one has to complete something, the less the anxiety. As the deadline approaches and the time to completion dwindles, anxiety begins to sky-rocket. 

We will spend out whole lives trying improve our personal skill in time management, and with the possible exception of a few weird pod people, we will never perfect our management schemes.

I am much better than I used to be. I have tracked how I spend my time looking for ways to improve. I use a variety of to-do lists and calendars to keep myself on track, and still I forget things or mismanage my use of time. How can I not? Unlike the pod people, sometimes I just do not feel like doing a thing, and if the thing does not have to be done that day, that minute, and can be postponed, often I will delay.

That said, I think I have improved my time management skills, especially my ability to prioritize as well as delay something that does not need to be done immediately to manage work load and not over-work or not over-work too much. 

I am still struggling to make time for everything, especially writing fiction.

My anxiety about getting work done propels me to work first and put off self-care. I am getting better at knowing what work I can get done in a day and taking time early in the day for something like writing, at least days when I don't have to teach first thing, which right now are four of the seven days in the week.

I am also better at managing the time I spend on this blog, getting ahead on it, and leaving it for the evening rather than wasting prime writing time in the morning with something that can wait.

I said getting better not getting it all done the way I want, but I do feel that life is in better balance than it has been.

By telling my tales of time management, I hope to at least encourage others to think of their own time management issues.

- Prioritize

- Look for ways you waste time

- Analyze how long it takes to do things and plan ahead

- Don't overwork; save time for selfcare

- Continually re-assess: you never have it all figured out

I think about time a lot.

That's some of what I have learned. And as I think, I like to have music.

And so, this revised blog post that contains songs about time to remind us all of the importance of one of the most valuable natural resources in existence: time.

Just remember: "hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way..." ~ Pink Floyd "Time" from The Dark Side of the Moon album released on March First, 1973.

I have now made a mix for time songs plus a few extras to round it out at 23 songs.

I raided the article below for ideas and posted many of those songs directly to this blog for those who want to select specific songs.

So, this is Music Monday for July 10, 2023.

Thanks for tuning in.

My workspace with Satchel in surgery recovery in her cone:

My weekly to-do list grid:

21 Best Songs About Time

By Liam Flynn

Last Updated On: August 29, 2022

Time Management: Songs About Time - a mix

Chris Tower - my TIME mix

[1] Time - Pink Floyd

[2] Time - Tom Waits 

[3] Time (2013 Remaster) - David Bowie

[4] Time Stand Still - Rush

[5] Time Is On My Side - The Rolling Stones 

[6] "Time Passages" - AL STEWART 

[7] Time (Official Audio) - The Alan Parsons Project

[8] Time After Time (Official HD Video) - Cyndi Lauper

[9] Time in a bottle - 1973 - Jim Croce 

[10] Time Song (Official Lyric Video) - The Kinks

[11] Too Much Time On My Hands - STYX

[12] Who Knows Where The Time Goes? - Fairport Convention

[13] Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? (Official Audio) - Chicago Band

[14] If I Could Turn Back Time (Official Video) - Cher

[15] Time (Clock Of The Heart) - Culture Club

[16] Reeling in the Years (live) - STEELY DAN

[17] (I've Had) The Time Of My Life (Official HD Video) - Bill Medley, Jennifer Warnes 

[18] Back In Time - hueylewisofficial

[19] Time Is Running Out (video) - Muse

[20] L'Addio (Official Music Video) - Kit Sebastian

[21] Time Has Come Today (Audio) - The Chambers Brothers

[22] Sitting on the Dock of the Bay - Otis Redding

[23] IN THE AIR TONIGHT - PHIL COLLINS (PURE-VOICES REMIX)

Friday, January 29, 2021

A Sense of Doubt blog post #2173 - The Time Issue - Time Management by Pink Floyd, Tom Waits, and David Bowie

A Sense of Doubt blog post #2173 - The Time Issue - Time Management by Pink Floyd, Tom Waits, and David Bowie

Short post that I use in classes on time management.

SUBJECT: THE TIME ISSUE (a la Pink Floyd)

This issue of time management came up last week in the “strange nature discussion” item, and I had additional remarks. Feel free to comment, question, extend. This item is somewhat for fun (hence the video) not strictly academic...

I understand the time issue. This is a frequent discussion we have as I am accused of expecting too much with my vague "do extra." So I get it. Given that I am in school myself plus working more than full time, I struggle as the rest of you do to balance work, family, and school. 

Did I share my favorite time management web site?

https://appliedcomputing.wisconsin.edu/current-students/student-services/time-management-calculator/

and I wanted to share to share it with all of you. Give it a try. It’s a time calculator that uses a pie chart to divided up the time you spend on things throughout your day, so you can see where all of your time goes. I was amazed at how quickly it filled up and left me with limited free time and limited time for sleep.

That link above may be dead, these should work:

https://uwex.wisconsin.edu/online-learning/time-management-calculator/

https://www.asundergrad.pitt.edu/study-lab/time-management-calculator

Here’s my time management results:

So I have some free time if I wanted to do school again. I left out some things, too, such as meetings or writing time.

Also, I wanted to chime in on the subject of to-do lists. I have been trying to change myself from an unorganized and procrastinating person for years. I tried to adopt my friend’s method of making lists and actually doing the things on the list. But I would lose the lists, or I would decide to do some things with my time that I had not written on the list.

Then, this other friend of mine told me that she makes a to-do list every morning of the things she has to do that day. So I decided to give this a try. I found it immensely helpful. It focuses me on what tasks I have to do, and I get an endorphin rush each time I cross off a thing. In fact, to make more things that I can cross off, I have broken up tasks into parts, so a task, like grading, that used to be a single item on the list can now be as many as five items as I list all the steps in my grading process. Also, if I have a big task to do, I will set a reachable goal for the day, like with your papers here at Park. I have a note to grade five of those today. If I do so many a day, I have fewer to do on Sunday.

                                
Sometimes I use the same list for two days. I am not as regimented as I could be. But the list is REALLY helpful and keeps me on task. In fact, soon, with these messages, I can cross off my “Daily PARK” item. Ah, endorphins....

"An open mind is a curious mind ready to learn!"
your friend in learning!
peace, chris tower
“Always look on the bright side”
https://sensedoubt.blogspot.com/

 After asking my students to log their time spent for a week, I did it, too. Here's some of my logs:

And here's one of my standard weekly to-do lists:

AND NOW SOME SONGS ABOUT TIME

"Time" - Pink Floyd

PINK FLOYD

Tom Waits - Time

Tom Waits-Time, from the 1985 album 'Rain Dogs'. Backing video taken from a live performance on the 1988 film 'Big Time'.

Time (2013 Remaster)

David Bowie

Provided to YouTube by Parlophone UK
Time (2013 Remaster) · David Bowie
Aladdin Sane
℗ 1973, 2013 Jones/Tintoretto Entertainment Company LLC under exclusive licence to Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company
Guitar, Programmer, Saxophone, Vocals: David Bowie
Producer: David Bowie
Flute: Ken Fordham
Engineer, Producer: Ken Scott
Guitar, Vocals: Mick Ronson
Piano: Mike Garson
Engineer: Mike Moran
Remastering Engineer: Ray Staff
Bass: Trevor Bolder
Drums: Woody Woodmansey
Writer: David Bowie

RUSH - "TIME STAND STILL"

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2101.29 - 10:10
- Days ago = 2037 days ago
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The Rolling Stone • Time Is On My Side / Official Video

lamiretele3

May 5, 2022

Séquence diffusée le 8 juin 1983 sur Antenne 2 dans l'émission "Platine 45"

The Rolling Stones - Time Is On My Side

Zacky Dog

Sep 27, 2014

The ultimate version. ;)

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THIS SHOW NOR DO I CLAIM IT'S MINE IN ANY FORM. ALL COPYRIGHTS BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS, NOT ME! I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS SHOW IN ANY WAY. This video is uploaded for people who cannot find this excerpt/clip anywhere, for non-profit, educational use, and entertainment purposes only and to bring back old memories.

AL STEWART "Time Passages"

31323Alex

Mar 18, 2012

"Time Passages" by Al Stewart is from the album "Al Stewart: Greatest Hits".

Released 2004

The Alan Parsons Project - Time (Official Audio)

The Alan Parsons Project

Cyndi Lauper - Time After Time (Official HD Video)

Cyndi Lauper

Jim Croce - Time in a bottle - 1973

Guy Van Nimmen

Jan 19, 2011

James Joseph "Jim" Croce (January 10, 1943 -- September 20, 1973) was an American singer-songwriter.

The Kinks - Time Song (Official Lyric Video)

The Kinks

Aug 15, 2018

Previously Unreleased track ‘Time Song’ available here: https://thekinks.lnk.to/VG50ID

Available as part of 50th Anniversary The Kinks Are The Village Preservation Society: https://thekinks.lnk.to/VG50ID

 

Visit the Official Store for limited edition formats & offers: https://thekinks.lnk.to/VG50ID

Included in The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society 50th Anniversary Editions are many previously unreleased tracks and versions, including this previously unreleased track ‘Time Song’.

Despite never been included on a release, ‘Time Song’ was performed by The Kinks at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in January 1973, celebrating Britain’s entry into the Common Market.

 

‘When we played a concert at Drury Lane in 73’ to celebrate us about to join what was called The Common Market, I decided to use the song as a warning that time was running out for the old British Empire.’ Says Ray. ‘This song was recorded a few weeks later but never made the final cut on the Preservation Act I album. Oddly enough, the song seems quite poignant and appropriate to release at this time in British history, and like Europe itself the track is a rough mix which still has to be Finessed.’

 

Ray Davies mixed the track earlier this year and it is included on the new VGPS Deluxe Box Set and Deluxe 2CD. The single version will also be available as a limited edition 7” single exclusively with pre-orders of the box set via The Kinks Music Glue official store, and as a digital download / streaming single.

 

Follow The Kinks:

Website: http://www.thekinks.info/

Styx - Too Much Time On My Hands

STYX

Who Knows Where The Time Goes?

Fairport Convention - Topic

July 24, 2018

Provided to YouTube by Universal Music Group

Who Knows Where The Time Goes? · Fairport Convention

Unhalfbricking

℗ 1969 Island Records, a division of Universal Music Operations Limited

Released on: 1969-07-03

Associated  Performer, Vocals: Sandy Denny

Associated  Performer, Guitar, Background  Vocalist: Richard Thompson

Associated  Performer, Guitar, Background  Vocalist, Producer: Simon Nicol

Associated  Performer, Bass  Guitar, Background  Vocalist: Ashley Hutchings

Associated  Performer, Drums: Martin Lamble

Producer: Joe Boyd

Producer: Fairport Convention

Studio  Personnel, Engineer: John Wood

Composer  Lyricist: Sandy Denny

Chicago - Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? (Official Audio)

Chicago Band

Jun 6, 2019

Official audio for Chicago - "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" from 'Chicago Transit Authority' (1969)

Stay In Touch with Chicago…

🎶 Website https://chicagotheband.com/

Cher - If I Could Turn Back Time (Official Video)

Cher

Premiered Feb 18, 2022  #Cher #Remastered

'If I Could Turn Back Time' is the lead single from Cher's nineteenth studio album 'Heart of Stone' released in 1989. The official video has been restored in HD quality.

Follow Cher:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/cher

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cher

Culture Club - Time (Clock Of The Heart)

Culture Club

Jun 2, 2009

Listen to more from Culture Club: http://cultureclub.lnk.to/Essentials

http://www.boygeorgeuk.com/

http://www.culture-club.co.uk/

Music video by Culture Club performing Time (Clock Of The Heart) (2004 Digital Remaster).

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2307.10 - 10:10

- Days ago = 2929 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.