Gale KennyBarnard CollegeColumbia University (this is part 2 of Gale Kenny’s reflections on teaching with blogs during the fall semester): The bad: · As I had feared, it became difficult to respond adequately to everyone’s posts, and to keep track of the comments for grading purposes. I ended up requiring the students to turn in…
Teaching with Blogs: What Worked, What Didn’t. (part 1 – what worked) (and as a quick side note, Gale’s marvelous book is now out in paperback! – ejb) Gale Kenny, Barnard College, Columbia University At the beginning of the semester, I contributed a post about my experimental plan to have every student in one of my…
Spring 2012: United States History through the Civil War We’re doing it backwards this year: second half of the survey in the fall, first half in the spring. The reason: I’m not in charge of the universe … yet. In my case, I teach what I’m told so United States history from colonization to the…
Well, the earnest, hard-working guys at Teaching United States History never take a break. We’re preparing for Spring 2012 already. I’ll be teaching the first half of the U.S. history survey (contact to Civil War) and Kevin will be teaching a course in American Religious History, which I’m guessing he’ll bring into the blog now…
Final Grades I’ve kept a list. I’m checking it twice. And now I’m trying to decide who’s been naughty (you D- students know who you are) and nice (the line between A- and A seems so razor thin at times). As I grade the final exams and the website creations, I’ve been struck by two…
It’s the last day of class before the exam, and I promise my students at the very beginning that we will get all the way to their adulthoods … and end with the film Inception. I pretend to myself that they care – that they think “no way, Professor Blum won’t possibly make it to…
Teaching 1990 to Yesterday Our last discussion had my students become the historians and the subjects. They were placed in groups and determined three things (people, events, concepts, issues) that would be in history books about their lives thus far (1990-yesterday) 50 years from now. The answers included: Barack Obama, same-sex civil union, 9/11, the…
As I’ve wound up my lectures this term, I’ve tried hard not to plod through the last fifty years as a series of decades–the 1950s, the 60s, the 70s, the 80s, the 90s–but instead to see the period as “an age” or as “ages.” How best to understand the world we’re living in now? How…
Top Gun in the 1980s When I first started teaching about the 1980s, I felt alone and afraid. I put on the self-confident, know-it-all style that Tom Cruise embodied in Top Gun, but deep down I worried because I knew that I was flying solo. There was no mother “goose” to protect or guide me.…
Entertainment versus Effect Our discussion of the 1970s began with a question for today: which would leave you more disgusted and demoralized, a terrible economy defined by inflation and few job opportunities OR a presidential political scandal that showed wickedness in high places. In groups of two, my wonderful students chattered and chattered. The result…
