On Lecturing and Teaching

 

I think the secret is to have notes in front of you but to make it seem as if you are speaking from memory. I am getting better at this. It is good to speak slowly, to let your mind spool an autocue in your head. I actually had AD LIB in the column of my notes today. I knew that I could talk at length on the subject — it was how a US Congresswoman Michele Bachmann exemplifies the Republican appropriation of the rhetoric of the founding documents of America — and so I just had her name and I knew that this would come out naturally. I didn’t know as much about the linguistic strategies of Thomas Paine, though. I knew that this was the weakest section of my lecture. I felt a bit bad about it because I could’ve done more prep for it but I didn’t motivate myself properly over the weekend and it perhaps showed today. Most of the lecture was good, though, so I felt OK. I paced back and forwards a lot. 

Filed under: teaching

Rolling Henry Louis Gates Jr. Style.

Reposted from my Tumblr, because I went to the effort of typing this up and it keeps blowing my mind with how well-argued and everything it is.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Hello?

The Enlightenment: Yes?

HLG Jr: Is that the Enlightenment?

TE: Yes, yes it is. What can I do for you?

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The faithfulness of his promises displayed.

• Prisoners of Hope: The Story of Our Captivity and Freedom in Afghanistan by Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer, with Stacy Mattingly
• Bruchko: The Astonishing True Story of a 19-Year-Old American, His Capture by the Motilone Indians and His Adventures in Christianizing the Stone Age Tribe by Bruce Olson
• Escape in Iraq: The Thomas Hamill Story by Thomas Hamill, Paul T Brown and Jay Langston
• American Hostage: A Memoir of a Journalist Kidnapped in Iraq and the Remarkable Battle to Win His Release by Micah Garen and Marie-Helene Carleton
• Guests of the Ayatollah: The Iran Hostage Crisis – The First Battle in America’s War with Militant Islam by Mark Bowden
• Long March to Freedom: Tom Hargrove’s Own Story of his Kidnapping By Colombian Narco-Guerillas by Tom Hargrove
• Den of Lions: A Startling Memoir of Survival and Triumph by Terry Anderson
• 13 Days of Terror: Held Hostage by Al-Qaeda Linked Extremists — A True Story by Greg Williams

Filed under: teaching

What Is Literature?

Any other ideas?

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Colin Farrell vs Judy Kuhn

Filed under: teaching