Why I teach...

Because it is not for the money (no sound-minded humanities professor teaches for money), lately I have thought a lot about my reasons for teaching. A student's e-mail last night helps answer the question a little: My teaching, when it is good at least, is the most compassionate thing I can think of doing.

Here's the students' message:
As I read the assignment for this week I realized something. You said we could write this in whatever style we wanted. You did not give us a specific guideline saying, "write like this, answer these questions, etc." Even though I love the idea of freedom to write how I please, it also freaked me out a little bit. We are not taught to think in school anymore. We are given a page of instructions that tell us to do everything a certain way and to not even think about what you're doing. Everything is done one way, and we are no longer taught to think outside the box. I think that is why students get overwhelmed in class and start to freak out. Because our minds aren't used to being stretched. And it is scary. Sometimes I get overwhelmed and feel like I don't know what I'm doing, but I like it. I love feeling like I'm finally learning something. It's a breath of fresh air to have someone who doesn't teach in the same traditional way. I don't care what anyone says or thinks, I love your teaching methods. And regardless of whatever grades I get, I am going to keep plowing on. Because where has giving up ever gotten anyone? 


Here's the assignment:
Assignment due Sept. 27
25-point essay
1: Paraphrasing exercise
*Read the article about "the story" by Craig Gingrich-Philbrook that is posted on Vista
*Read the article about e-mail and the office by Joe Robinson that is posted on Vista
*Read a third piece of your choosing. The piece can be a news story, a press release or an organizational communication document. THIS PIECE MUST TAKE YOU OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE. If you have never read Essence or Star or Creative Loafing or a press release from KSU, etc. etc., try it and learn.
Write a 1-page paper responding to what you have learned about telling stories. Use citations from the three sources you read to support your argument about how public communicators tell stories. These citations should demonstrate what you learned in class today about quotations and paraphrasing.
Whether your essay is written in AP or APA style, you must provide me with a correctly-styled APA bibliography. This list of the works you cite in your essay can be at the end of the single page (saving you paper and your planet some trees) or on a second page.
Extra credit: Identify five AP and/or APA style errors located in the three pieces you studied.