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Friday Favorites

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Sue Peterson, MA

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Joining Momfessionals and A Little Bit of Everything for December’s first Friday Favorites. I’ve been sick this week (out of work for two days) and I’m still feeling a little bit under the weather. But, life goes on, so I had a really long work day yesterday after waking up at 4 am (thanks insomnia) and I have to work on Saturday this week because we have our Rookie Tournament for my Argumentation students. No rest for the weary this week! Since I was sick at home for two days (and not doing much outside of work the other days, this is going to be a short and sweet one!

I got some of the Christmas things out last weekend when we got home from Thanksgiving travel. The dogs seem to enjoy it. These two old ladies (they are both 9 and the black dog will be 10 on Christmas day) are spending more time inside due to our cold tule fog!

Celebrating December with a festive cup!

I was able to make it to teaching one day this week and we chose our slate of topics for debates next week. I’m excited about some of these.

We had our Sense of Place event on Thursday night (hence the very long day) and this was the last session of the night. We had students presenting research from an Upper Division Student Success Research class and a Geography class displaying their “rephotography”. For this project they explore our local city through both historical archive photos and by going out to the places. They then retake a photo from the historical archive from the exact angle (they actually have software that they overlay the photos to make sure it matches the angle) so you can see what the place looked like historically and what it looks like now. The most striking one for me was our train station. The historical photo was from 1908 (!) and the rephotograph looked almost EXACTLY the same. The building had not changed at all. There were a few new trees and a ramp for accessiblity going up to the building, but the building itself was the same. I also noticed how many more trees we have on campus and in the city now than we used to. So, that’s positive progress!

Well, I need to get to sleep so I can get up and go to the Rookie in the morning. I’m so looking forward to Winter Break! 15 days to go!

7 responses to “Friday Favorites”

  1. sarahjedd Avatar
    sarahjedd

    Great topics! Terrible time to get sick! I hope you are fully recovered for the onslaught of finlas. I have a meeting on Thursday this week, and then I am peacing out until after MLK day.

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  2. Joanne Avatar
    Joanne

    So sorry to hear you’ve been under the weather! That old time versus now photo shoot sounds to neat. I love to see the passage of time like that.

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  3. Daria Avatar
    Daria

    This are great topics! I teach high school and we had a few Socratic seminars in my Spanish honors classes and those were amazing. We talked about global food insecurity, health care issues in South America and the Caribbean, and P Neruda’s poem that spilled into colonialism and exploitation.
    Can I find more info on where and what you teach?

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    1. Sue Peterson, MA Avatar
      Sue Peterson, MA

      I love that you do this in High School! So valuable. I teach at California State University, Chico. My department is Communication Studies and I focused on rhetoric when I was in school and have done quite a bit in argumentation, debate and deliberation since I left. I have a 2/3 appointment as Director of First-Year Experience and we do what is called Public Sphere Pedagogy work through that on campus. This was for my Argumentation and Advocacy class though. I do Student Congress with them, which is a fun way of getting them to explore policymaking. Thanks for asking!

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  4. Daria Avatar
    Daria

    This is so interesting, thank you for sharing! Do you feel that, overall, freshmen are prepared well for university level of work?

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    1. Sue Peterson, MA Avatar
      Sue Peterson, MA

      I teach at a California State University (CSU), so we’re kind of a mid-level choice between our Community Colleges and UCs here in California. And I teach at one of our more rural CSUs, so our admissions are not as competitive as others may be. But, I find it is really a mixed bag with our Freshman. Some come in very prepared and they tend to do well. Others come in below in math and science, but do pretty well in other classes. Others come in behind in English and writing skills, but are pretty good in math. And then we have a small group who really need a lot of support all around. Part of that is lack of opportunities in high school and part of it is that some of them had decided they weren’t going to college, but changed their mind when they found out they could get admitted. So, they didn’t take courses that would have helped them be prepared. We consider our FYE courses to be a “soft-landing” spot for students. Our faculty work to make sure they get connected to resources on campus so they can visit when they need them, we structure in some writing, some research, some presenting, and some reflection. The hope is they leave the course understanding what it will take for them to succeed, even if it means they have to seek help to get there. For the most part, our students are really wanting to succeed, so they are open to guidance if they aren’t totally prepared yet.

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      1. Daria Avatar
        Daria

        Amazing. I’d love to do what you do. Are you hiring? 😉

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Hello,

I’m Sue

Welcome to Speaking of Easy! I am a Public Speaking and Communication Studies instructor and I love to do things the easy way. I am a Nor Cal girl through and through. I have a teen daughter, multiple jobs, a Senior/Ambassador Girl Scout troop and learning to love life!

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