The Update (where I've been & what I've been doing)

smash by Jef Poskanzer
A slight break...

It's been awhile since I've posted. I'd like to say it was a planned hiatus- like I've been in collecting lava samples in Hawai'i or taking a meditative break inside a sensory deprivation tank. The truth is much less exotic. As some of you may already know, I'll be moving to Connecticut to join my wife at the end of this school year. She's been living in Eastern Connecticut since early January and I can't wait to get back to living a "normal" married life. While in the long run I know this situation will be worth the trouble, right now it's a pain. At any rate, let me fill you in on what's been happening lately:

The Update

What I've been busy with recently: (1) House hunting, (2) House buying (it's not yet 100% official, but we're close), (3) Interviewing (hoping for a wonderful new placement), (4) Making first preparations to move, (5) Finishing grad classes, (6) starting new grad classes, (7) teaching high school.

Despite the craziness, I'm trying to maintain sanity, and hoping to post a little more often than I have been recently.

picket fence by sniffette

Student Presentations

In my last post I mentioned that students were about to give presentations on volcanoes in which I had banned them from using over two words per slide and encouraged lots of images. The presentations were much better than any other time I've done them. Even the poor presentations were more enjoyable. Some students even gave impressive Lessig-esque presentations. I found that pretty amazing considering I've never actually shown them any Lessig presentations (they have seen me present in a mild Lessig style, but some were better than my own).

I was amazed appalled while they were designing their presentation at how much difficulty they had parting with their bullet-pointy ways. The most common questions asked: "How're we supposed to give a presentation when there isn't any information on our PowerPoint?" I reminded them that they would be able to speak during the presentations, and recommended they utilized verbal communication to convey their information. 🙂

Overall, I was very happy with the results. The volcano presentations have even had some lasting effect: Recently they had group presentations for my earthquake resistant building project. The majority of groups designed text-light presentations- even without me requiring it. I was excited to see them embracing a style that was totally foreign to them until very recently.

group airtime by *vlad*

Image credits:
smash by jef poskanzer :: via Flickr
picket fence by sniffette :: via Flickr
group airtime by *vlad* :: via Flickr