Fin

This is your last chance to get a blog post/comment in for the semester. Use it to tell me what literary text you would like to have taught in BENG 102. Keep in mind that it should be a text that gives students a way to talk about various literary devices (e.g. setting, characterization, theme, symbol, tone) and has thematic content that would facilitate interesting discussion and that people could successfully write about. Give me ideas and explain why you choose them.

The very first semester i had english was fun but the teacher really didnt teach us much... I'm not trying to say that the teacher was bad or that i slacked off, it's just that the course itself wasnt much of a challenge, nor fun. All we did pretty much was read "New York Review of Books" and read little stories from books hwich we were quizzed on later on. We had class discussions but i just felt like i was back in first grade... BENG102 actually feels like a college level class. Professor is more alive, more entertaining, and definitely keeps me busy. Not as far as giving us a lot of work but in class i'm not distracted or falling asleep, i'm actually7 partivipating and paying attention. Even though there are some hard contests to learn and i'm not doing the best i can, i trully think the class is worth my time, There were some books i didnt like and not going to lie, some that i barely red because i thought they were boring, but some things were interesting. I love class discussions and the fact that we get separated in to groups and analyze what ever the assignment is together. I like things that are challenging and not things like tests or long homeworks, but stuff like reading out loud in class and than having to anylyze and discuss the reading. The only thing that i missed having in 102 is movies! I believe we watched two movies in 101, maybe just one that we watched several days, but i think watching a movie in class that is interesting and has something to do with what we are learning is very entertaining and fun. I dont like the blog post assignments... Not because i think it's bad or anything but because i just forget about the online blogs during the weekends, it just totally fly's out of my head. Unfortunately it is a grade so i have to do it but i'd rather not have anything like online homewor's or papers that i have to do for a grade. Other than that i think 102 is way more fun and i definitely learned a lot more in here that i did in my 101 class. Just need to add a couple of movies, less papers, no online blog and more class discussions! Class is pretty chill though i'm looking forward to my 103, if i happend to take it...

Curriculum Reflection

As we get close to the end of another semester (it's really the best thing about semester, that they have a beginning, a middle, and an end), I always like to encourage students to think about the progress of the semester and to try to itemize the things they have learned from their coursework. For this post, I'm asking you to try to think about the skills you are learning in BENG 102 and compare them to the skills you learned in BENG 101. Do they seem like differently focused classes to you (not just in terms of content, but also in terms of method and goals)? Do they feel progressive or repetitive? Is this class providing ways for you to track your progress between the two?

As always, there is no right answer here that I am looking for, and I am definitely not interested in just reading that the class is great and you are learning so much. I am genuinely curious about your experience with these components of the curriculum.

USCB's history

This is a big year for USCB, the jubilee year, which marks 50 yrs in the area. In some ways the celebration culminates on Tuesday with a medallion ceremony at which the president of the University of South Carolina system presents our chancellor, Jane Upshaw, with an official medallion with the school's seal. It is kind of a big deal.

I always wonder the extent to which this sort of thing - not the ceremony explicitly, but the awareness of the school's history and its relationship to the community - matters to the student body. I wonder this particularly when it has to do with a school like USCB, which understands its education mission and goals as rooted to explicitly in the needs and strengths of the local community. If it is your week to post, I'd like you to reflect on what, if anything, the school's history means to you, or if you think there is some value in being aware of that history and/or relationship to the community. If you think there is some value, tell me what it is explicitly. I don't need you to fake thinking this is important if you never think about it, I am just genuinely curious about what these things mean from the students' point of view.

Here is my post

Here

Tournament Time

Inspired by (and tired from) staying up too late to watch basketball, this prompt is about college sports. Lots of discussion goes on among college administrators about the role of sports in a college community. Your own college community has thought very consciously about what it means to develop the athletics program, ow that helps build school identity, what needs to be done to balance those needs against more academic needs. This year's NCAA tournament featured the (until last night) 'Cinderella story' or Cornell, which seemed such an unlikely contender because it is an Ivy league school, one that we associate with rigorous academics, not rigorous athletics.

Respond to this prompt with a post that explores the role of athletics in a college community, and in particular at USCB. What do you want them to be here? What role do they play, what concerns or hopes do you have?

What is college for?

I'm late on this and I apologize. I am thinking about Andrew Delbanco's upcoming talk "What is college for?" (3/24 7:15 Hargray 156) and wondering how you would answer that question. If this is your week for a blog post, write a bit about what you think college is for, both personally (why are you here) and on a broader societal level.