Intro: Of logs, blogs and teaching

This "teaching b/log" grew out of my experience spring semester with two other blogs. It got to be convenient to post assignments to them as I was preparing for class, then go to the blogs in class the next day and follow the links. But the subject matter didn't always quite fit. And I wasn't entirely comfortable with posting assignments to blogs where students would have to scan -- or skip -- over personal rants on music, old newspapering buddies and other subjects that "won't be on the test." So at semester's end, I decided to open a new blog dedicated entirely to classroom teaching.

During the school year, if experience is any guide, I'll be posting mostly assignments and readings I run across from day to day, mostly in the mass media. I've been keying them by course number on my other blogs ... here's an example on Native American studies (note how it's keyed to HUM 221, the course number) ... and here's a feature story on grizzly bears I used in COM 209, my basic newswriting class (with the course number tagged on at the end). Best way to find old assignments and stories is to key the course prefix and number in the "Search This Blog" field at the top of the page.

I've always wanted to keep a teaching log, too, and I've started them a half dozen times on hard copy. (I usually keep up with them for three to five days, get busy, lose the notebook and abandon them.) But they can be an aid to teaching. There's a good description on the Missouri State University website that I plan to be quided by:

A teaching log is a weekly record of important experiences, insights, or milestones in your teaching/student learning. As time passes, the log will become very valuable in disclosing your craft: what worked well, what did not. When was I most comfortable and connected to the class; when was I least comfortable and least connected to the class? What are your current assumptions about teaching and learning; do they change over time; are they founded in fact? If you could change something about the teaching for this week, what would you change? If you change something, did you document why?

In addition, I'll be using the blog to keep abreast of developments in learning outcomes assessment. Since I chair my college's Assessment Committee, I try to keep up with them. My posts on the subject have strayed over into the politics of higher education, but they'll be more germane here than in my music and journalism blogs.

All of that said, I plan to use this "teaching b/log" primarily in the classroom.

There's a saying attributed to President James A. Garfield, who admired a professor named Mark Hopkins whom he'd had at Williams College. It's usually quoted like this: "The ideal college is Mark Hopkins on one end of a log and a student on the other." There's a longer version, too, with "a log hut, with only a simple bench, Mark Hopkins on one end and I on the other," and no doubt it's more accurate. I found it in an article by James O'Donnell, vice-provost for information systems and computing at the University of Pennsylvania, that has some compelling thoughts on how technology has become a seamless part of liberal arts education:

These days, I often find myself in our dining hall [at Penn] with one or another student, deep in animated conversation of just the kind Garfield imagined. But the appointment to meet was certainly made by e-mail, and the conversation continues a discussion begun earlier -- sometimes much earlier -- that oscillates effortlessly between electronic and face to face.

Very true. But I like the version with Mark Hopkins and the student on the log better. And since I'm keeping a teaching log, I like the pun best of all.

So, if you'll forgive another pun, I'll log off now.