what educational experiences do you remember?

Do you remember classes? Parties? I remember places very strongly. There's a scene from Jane Austen's Pride and Predjudice when she visits Darcy's house and falls in love with him because the place demonstrates his character. Sewanee was that was for me - the ethos of learning echoed through the place. A sense of the pastoral and respect for the land pervaded both the architecture and the land. All the buildings were made of sandstone from local quarries,reflecting the colors and feel of the landscape. Classrooms were always open, and on late nights I sought solace there to continue to bang out my studies.
I don't feel like the college where I work now has the same kind of purposeful architecture. If it is, the purpose doesn't seem to be learning. Rather, the purposes seem corporate and fundraising oriented.
How does that dictate what my students will take away from there college experiences?

August

It's halfway through August and I have not made one post. Partly because it's August and I was on vacation, and partly because it's August and school starts in WAIT, HOW MANY DAYS?!?!?!?

Although today I'm feeling more sleepy than anything. In the digital-millenial-Internets age, lesson plans have been replaced by PowerPoint slides. I can't imagine my college professors teaching with PowerPoint ("And here, a representation of "the beast from two backs" from Othello!" I think much of literature is best left to the images you see in your own head.) But in business classes, I suppose the visuals make sense. "And here's where you business will break even when you switch to compact florescent lightbulbs!!"

I just had a great idea for one of my lesson plans I have to write that has nothing to do with PowerPoint. Something involving the StoryCorps project on NPR, teaching adults with low literacy levels about oral history, and The Color of Water. I might post them here later on for public use.