Author: Steve

  • How Do Students Evaluate Class Activities?

    I got a new GoPro so what better way to break it in than to walk and talk through something on my mind about teaching. I think what explains the lack of student motivation best is that they have only one measure to evaluate things in this world: entertainment. Is it entertaining? If not, they…

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  • Free to Teach

    Is asking someone to consider the broader impact of supporting a policy out of place? Disrespectful? Is it hostile? Is it inconsiderate? The Governor of Louisiana thinks so. An LSU Law professor asked students that if they felt comfortable voting for Donald Trump because of his policy agenda, they should consider how that makes people…

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  • How To Survive the Thanksgiving Political Arguments

    Happy Thanksgiving, readers! Tomorrow is Turkey day and if the Northern State Parkway was any indication on Monday, stress is high. I’ve never seen so many accidents. Perhaps our minds aren’t where they should be because we are dreading that Uncle or Aunt coming to dinner and trying to start fights about Trump or Harris…

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  • Practice

    I must remind myself that education and learning is practicing something. We don’t have the convenient reminders like doctors and dentists do, that they work in or at a practice; that they own a “medical practice” and “practice medicine.” I think we “practice education” but we don’t have the reminder all the time that we…

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  • What Else would the ICC be for?

    The ICC indictment against Netanyahu is getting a lot of attention in the media as being out of line. U.S. Senator Lindsay Graham has said that if an ally arrests him, the United States will tank their economy. Joe Biden has said the charge is “outrageous.” But what other method or manner should be used…

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  • Archiving and Backup

    Finding some pretty striking and pretty sad draft posts in my Google Drive, which honestly I haven’t looked at in many years. I started using OneDrive and Word exclusively a while ago and cleaned out my Google Drive to save money. I put everything on my NAS and deleted it from Drive except for the…

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  • Opportune Weekend

    Been pretty down and out about teaching, my work, my job, etc. But this week things look to turn around. I have two pretty good opportunities that are coming together this week so I just have to figure out what I’d like to be doin. As a friend said, it’s time to take a look…

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  • Blogchive

    I think I’ve finally done it. I’ve finally added the archive of every blogpost I’ve ever done (with a few exceptions) to this site. I think the earliest post here is now 2005 or 2006, when I was still studying rhetoric at the University of Pittsburgh. There’s not a lot of interesting stuff back in…

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  • Responding to the Recent U.S. Election

    The responses have been poor, to understate it. I see little action plan and a lot of reaction to something that was apparently “hard to imagine” – most of the population voting against foreigners and for America first. I’m not sure who finds that hard to imagine, but it shouldn’t be rhetoricians. But here we…

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  • Is Debate about Serving Your Arguments, or Serving the Ends of Debate Itself?

    Debate’s structure makes structural demands on speakers. When entering a debate, one enters carrying the immense ideological weight of what you think a debate should look like. All the debates you’ve seen, all that you have thought debate is and should be, every debate you’ve hated and enjoyed – we all walk into the debate…

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