Hi all, One thing that I encountered at one school where I taught was a student with what seemed to be a mental illness. I say this because she disclosed - publicly, in the discussion area! - that she had urges to kill people. She even mentioned that her psychologist had told her to talk about it because it was better to talk about it. She would also attack students (in writing) if they mentioned being gay. When I tried to talk to her about it (privately/email), she got upset and told me that she had done nothing wrong. What… >>>

Hi all, One thing that I find handy, and I wonder if other instructors do it, is to re-use feedback. And by that I don't mean giving the exact same feedback to each student, but by having a general format for each week. For example, I will have feedback that is ready to be personalized. One assignment my students do to help them get used to writing paragraphs is to write two paragraphs about music they like. My feedback includes a comment that tells them that their work is interesting, comments on whether I know the musician or will check… >>>

While watching the presentations, one of the suggestions was to allow students to make choices - let them pick the order of the work they do was the example. I couldn't help but feel that was not a good example, at least for what I teach - composition. The research paper really needs to be the final work the students produce because everything leads up to that project. Each project has slightly higher requirements for outside sources, etc. It makes sure that they build to what they need to understand. I do, however, give them free choice on topics. What… >>>