Blog Posts - Pedagogue

Episode 8 release date: Friday, 10/11

10/9/2019

Hi! As promised, I'm going to release more episodes than normal this month. Episode 8 is going to be released this Friday, 10/11!

Episode 8: Jessica Nastal
In this episode, Jessica Nastal talks about her approach to teaching writing at a two-year college, her transition from a public research university in the deep South to a community college in the south suburbs of Chicago, and her research on writing placement.

Stay tuned and subscribe on Apple, Google, Stitcher, Spotify, or SoundCloud.

Thankful,
-S

October episodes and voting (I need your help!)

10/8/2019

Hi, everyone! October is here. And it's my favorite time. Fall weather, colorful leaves, fall break, warm food and fall drinks, my anniversary (Oct. 1st), my birthday (Oct. 9th), Halloween, and more. Because I love October so much, I'm going to release more episodes than normal this month. So how about two full episodes and a bonus episode? What do you think?

I need your help on the bonus episode, though. Right now, I'm stuck between releasing a bonus episode on applying to grad programs or a bonus episode on strategies for publishing a journal article. So I'm asking you to go vote on Twitter: @_Pedagogue_. If you click on the hyperlink, it will take you to the poll.

This is going to be a really good month, so stay tuned for news, updates, and episodes. You can always follow the RSS feed on the blog for the most up-to-date information. You can also click the +subscribe button and get episodes right away on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and SoundCloud.

Happy fall,
-S

Pedagogue Bonus: Tips for the Dissertation (w/Antonio Byrd)

9/26/2019

In this bonus episode, Antonio Byrd talks about the dissertation and offers advice for graduate students planning and/or writing their dissertation.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or SoundCloud

Pedagogue Bonus episode this week?

9/22/2019

Hi, all! We're going to release a new bonus episode this week. So far, the bonus episodes have been tailored toward graduate programs, students, and mentors.

Pedagogue Bonus: Re-imagining English Graduate Education (w/Steve Parks)
Pedagogue Bonus: Advice to First-Time Teachers (w/Nancy Sommers)
Pedagogue Bonus: Job Market Advice (w/Les Hutchinson)

Pedagogue is committed to facilitating conversations that move across institutions and positions (graduate students to emeritus). This week our bonus episode is going to focus on another aspect of graduate school.

Pedagogue Bonus: Tips for the Dissertation (w/Antonio Byrd)

I hope you are finding these bonus episodes useful. Please feel free to post your comments and thoughts on Twitter.

Yours,
-S

PS
I hope everyone got a chance to listen to Episode 7: Lisa King (released Friday, 09/20)!

Episode 7: Lisa King

9/20/2019

In this episode, Lisa King talks about Native American and Indigenous rhetorics, how this approach to teaching changes the writing classroom, and she shares additional resources for teachers and allies.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or SoundCloud

Episode 7 release date: Friday, 09/20

9/18/2019

Hi! A new episode is being released this Friday, 09/20. In this episode, we talk about Native American and Indigenous rhetorics, what this work means for the classroom, how it changes our approach to teaching writing and rhetoric, and how to navigate conversations with students on indigenous stories and texts. Our guest shares additional resources for teachers and allies interested in embracing this work in their classrooms.

Stay tuned to find out who our guest is on Friday. And subscribe to our podcast on Apple or Google to get episodes as soon as they release. You can also listen to episodes on SoundCloud or through our site, and read transcripts to every episode (and bonus episode).

Thankful,
-S

Resources from Episode 4 with Steve Parks

9/12/2019

Earlier, I wrote about how I wanted to use this blog space to reflect on possible resources and strategies teachers could use in their own classrooms. I've written about resources in Episode 1 & 2 with Mike Rose and resources in Episode 3 with Stephanie Vie. Some resource posts are going to be filled with book and article recommendations, while others will offer strategies and tips for pedagogical practices and activities.

In Episode 4, Steve Parks talks about his commitment to community partnerships and establishing relationships with local organizations. He also shares how he attempts to create a classroom community that is democratic and dialogic. I decided to separate those two threads and identify key points in hopes of providing resources for teachers interested in this type of work.

On establishing and developing community partnerships

"You shouldn't do partnership work where you don't have long-standing partnership beforehand."
"Spend some time really knowing the people, understand the organization, what their needs actually are. Because then, when you build your class, you can make sure it fits that actual need."
"Don't say you're going to come for a semester and leave. It teaches your students bad politics, it's unfair to the community, and it's not how change happens."
"I think programs should have two or three long term partnerships that their students return to throughout their career. You have a partner, you find the need, you develop your class."
"You should match what you're going to do to the resources you have. If you can only devote 10 hours of your class to this project, and they can only give two or three meetings, then what you do might be a brochure, it might be just an event that people come and talk about an issue, but it'll actually happen."
"Teach very pragmatic skills like, how do you run a meeting, how do you listen, how do you interview, how do you do these things."

On building a classroom community that is democratic and dialogic

"One of the exercises is the story of self. The challenge of the story of self, when you're in a basement with community groups, is you say, 'You could've been anywhere but you chose to be here. What led you to this room today?' I ask students that question early in their class, like, 'You could have gone to other universities, you could have taken other sections, what brought you here?' So, they kind of narrativize their journey that brought them here, which gives a fuller sense of who they are as a person because then they tell it to class."
"I say we're going to create a covenant of behavior, like I do in a community organizing space. We write down what has made us feel safe and intellectually curious in the class, and what has hurt that. We write that on the board, I pass it out at the beginning of every class for several weeks. We use it as a way to monitor our own conversations."
"I do this thing I learned from Ira Shor, I end class early for the first, I don't know, month or so. I have students stay behind, and I say to them, 'How's class going for you? Whatever issue you have with the class, everyone is having with the class, and you can't offend me. I want to fix this.'"
"I think [the first-year writing class is] a place to validate the concerns of this generation around economic mobility, around the purpose of literacy, around what identity means, around what coalition means. I think, particularly in a first-year writing classroom, when it's their first introduction to the university, it can really create a marker of what's possible for you to do in the academy, and what you should expect of all your other classes."
"I actively ask them to bring their whole set of life experiences into a classroom."

Steve also mentioned Raymond Williams' "Cultures is Ordinary." You can read that here. And please feel free to read the whole episode transcript to learn more about both these threads.

I hope this helps.

-S

New Pedagogue Bonus episode; 5k in 4 months

9/11/2019

Hi all, I hope all is well! Happy new academic year. If you haven't listened to the new Pedagogue Bonus episode released earlier this week, give it a listen. Les Hutchinson and I talk about the job market, share our experiences, and offer some advice that might help those navigating the market.

I think it's a good episode for graduate students interested in knowing more about what to expect and what to do, and also those faculty members who mentor grad students. I imagine the bonus episode could help complement job placement workshops or seminars -- and help grad students better understand different stages of planning for the market (not just what to do when you are on the market).

Some other good news: yesterday, we hit 5,000 unique visits on the site. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Thanks for listening and sharing and circulating the episodes. We've been around for 4 months, and that 5k represents your willingness to listen and share more than anything else. It's easy to get caught up in the numbers. 5k or 20 people. It doesn't matter. That's not what the podcast is about. Pedagogue is about building a community of diverse voices talking about teaching writing. Helping each other. I'm committed to that work.

You're going to be hearing from some great teachers -- from community colleges to private universities -- in the upcoming months. There's also going to be some great bonus episodes: writing the dissertation, advice for publishing, and applying to graduate programs. Comment below or send a tweet and let me know what bonus episode you want to hear next.

Yours,
-S

Pedagogue Bonus: Job Market Advice (w/Les Hutchinson)

9/9/2019

In this bonus episode, Les Hutchinson talks about her experiences on the job market and shares potential strategies or tips for those on the market.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or SoundCloud

Episode 6: Nancy Sommers

8/26/2019

In this episode, Nancy Sommers talks about her first experience teaching, her work on responding to student writing, what comments best complement her teaching values, and she shares the importance of reflection in the writing classroom.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or SoundCloud

Episode 6 tomorrow, 08/27

8/26/2019

Hi everyone, I'll be releasing a new episode tomorrow:

Episode 6: Nancy Sommers
In this episode, Nancy Sommers talks about her first experience teaching, her work on responding to student writing, what comments best complement her teaching values, and she shares the importance of reflection in the writing classroom.

About 75% of the episode is about responding to student writing and developing a pedagogy that is guided by response. We talk a lot about how to have dialogues with students early in the semester about commentary, which is timely for many of us as we start a new academic year. We talk about being generous responders. We talk about how comments can mirror our voice in the classroom. We talk about having students reflect on comments throughout the semester, and how teachers can use those reflections to better understand what's working and what's not working for students.

I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the episode and how you respond to your students. How do you respond to student writing? What tips and strategies do you have? Remember you can also go to Nancy's blog post and share advice to first-time teachers.

Excited,
-S

A blog post from Steve Parks and Nancy Sommers

8/21/2019

Hi all, recently, and separately, Steve Parks and Nancy Sommers wrote about their Pedagogue episodes on Bedford Bits. You can check out Steve's blog post here. And Nancy's here. Both of them ask us to come together and contribute our own ideas and thoughts to their reflections. If you have some time, I would encourage you to comment on their posts.

I love seeing how Pedagogue is getting out to these other spaces and how people are using the podcast to reflect on their own teaching and using it to help generate more conversations about teaching writing and using it as a resource. This is definitely what I had in mind when I created the podcast -- for it to be used in different contexts in different classrooms with different teachers. So please keep sharing and following along.

Since Kyle and Dana's episode, I've had a lot of graduate students contact me. And I'm super thankful. I've spoken to about six over the past two weeks. I've been really encouraged by their work and energized by those conversations. I'm excited to see these emerging scholars move teaching writing and the field in incredible ways.

Here we are at the start of the school year (my favorite time of the year!). I wish you nothing but the best as you step into the classroom and meet and interact with your students. What a special privilege we have as teachers. What an amazing opportunity to listen and see students develop as learners and writers. For us to grow alongside them.

I'm going to release a new episode next week. Stay tuned.

Yours,
-S

Pedagogue Bonus: Advice to First-Time Teachers (w/Nancy Sommers)

8/7/2019

In this bonus episode, Nancy Sommers talks about creating a classroom community, thinking and responding as a writer, and teaching one lesson each day.

Here's one of my favorite quotes from the bonus episode:

"Be yourself. That's what I love about teaching is that my voice, my voice on the page is the same voice in the classroom. I'm a Jewish mother. I feed people. I bring cookies to class. You just have to be yourself. You can't imitate somebody else. The voice in the classroom has to be your own voice."

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or SoundCloud

Episode 5: Kyle Larson and Dana Comi

8/5/2019

In this episode, Kyle Larson and Dana Comi talk about their research and writing, what has surprised them most about graduate school and what advice has helped, how the grad seminar can be re-imagined, and being actively involved in their local communities.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or SoundCloud

3 months!

8/5/2019

Hi all, we are about to celebrate 3 months! Wow. I'm thankful for all your support. Pedagogue wouldn't exist without you, and I mean that from the depths of my heart. I'm incredibly thankful -- and wish I could thank each one of you individually for listening and sharing and commenting on the podcast.

I've been thinking back to how this whole thing started:

April 2019.
I was driving back to Mississippi from Texas listening to a podcast.
I was thinking about how much I enjoyed talking with teachers about teaching and listening to stories and experiences.
How I always left those conversations inspired.
How I always learned something from them.
How I enjoyed meeting new people, new teachers.
I said to M, "What do you think about me creating a podcast about teachers talking about teaching and writing? You know, where I just ask questions? Do you think I could do something like that?"
M: "Yes."
S: "Really?"
M: "For sure. You love teaching. And you love talking to people. So I don't see why not."

That was that. I came up with the name Pedagogue minutes later and sent out a tweet asking if people would be interested in listening to something like that.

The response was amazing.

So I started doing stuff.
Built a site.
Made a logo.
Got recording software/equipment.
Tracked my guitar for the opening/endings of episodes.
Sent an email to a few distinguished teachers-scholars I didn't know.
Mike Rose responded.

All of that in 1-2 weeks.

Almost 3 months later.
I'm writing this post about Pedagogue.
Still amazed. Still surprised.

Almost 3 months later.
People have contacted me about being on the podcast. People have reached out to me about writing a blog post. There was this and this, too.

I've talked with over 15 teachers. I've released 5 episodes and 1 bonus episode. The site has had close to 3,000 unique viewers and 7,500 page views.

So to celebrate 3 months -- I'm releasing another bonus episode on Friday, 08/09.
Pedagogue Bonus: Advice to First-Time Teachers (w/Nancy Sommers)

Please keep listening and sharing and commenting. The only reason Pedagogue is here almost 3 months later is because you helped it be here.

Encouraged,
-S