Isso e aquilo

Ai ai.
Segunda feira agora é a minha prova do Doutorado!!! Ui! Eu e meu computador numa salinha por seis horas! Haja...

Depois, dentro de duas semanas eu defendo oralmente.

Seja o o que Deus quiser.

Está nas mãos Dele, né? E nos meus dedinhos... Até que não estou me descabelando tanto quanto eu achei que fosse me descabelar. Também, a uma altura dessas do campeonato.

No mais, pasei o dia organizando o meu Teaching Portfolio. Entre as coisitas, a minha Teaching Philosophy.

Aqui está:

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
Samantha Joyce

Ever since I moved from Brazil to the US in order to pursuit my Doctoral studies I find myself struggling with questions of citizenship. This is in part due to the fact that I am now married to an American citizen, and am a legal alien of this country, but it is also due to the fact that, there is great responsibility in teaching, and being an authority figure in the classroom, and in people’s lives. These two things bring me to my teaching philosophy: I see the classroom as a community and a place to be a citizen. This metaphor reminds me of my high school art teacher, who once told me “we are all links on a chain. And what we do individually, affects the entire chain”. Thus, my job, while part of this community is to be a link between the citizens and the community.

What I strive for in my everyday teaching is to create a dialogue and an atmosphere of respect, as well as a thirst to learn and influence the world in a positive manner. While I aim to provide this within the classroom, my hope is that this thirst will be with students forever. I strive to not only help students comprehend and apply those ideas pertinent to the course I am teaching, but also, I seek to encourage students to see the links, the connections of how their own lives are a part of an interlacing web of contemporary culture. While I can only hope that my students will apply this to their everyday experience outside the classroom, I make sure that at least for about three hours a week, they understand their role as citizens in our small classroom community. I foreground the importance and the consequences of communication and citizenship, as well as the rights and duties of citizens, in addition to their ethical responsibilities and dilemmas.

Being a citizen means more than having a piece of paper or a passport. It means you are free and able to think, to explore, to express ideas, to imagine, to participate, and to feel safe while doing so. I also believe that dialogue and debate is an essential part of citizenship and I encourage this in all of my classes. Before I introduce the day’s topic, I make sure to take the first fifteen minutes of class to discuss not just the previous week’s readings, but I also make a very conscious effort to ask my students what kind of connections they have made during that week between the readings and their daily lives, both interpersonally and electronically mediated. I look forward to this moment: the moment where a little light shines upon their faces that seem to say: “I get it!”

In addition to guiding students into thinking critically and understanding that their actions matter in the world at large, both in the classroom, and also during office hours, I try to remind them the importance of community sharing and living. I encourage class rituals and activities that give students a since of belonging, and I also promote group work that incorporates fellowship, peer criticism and collaboration. Another way to ensure that students know they are contributing citizens, at least in my classroom, is to incorporate some of their examples to midterms and finals. Additionally, in order to give students a broader since of citizenship, I encourage them to take classes outside the department and to participate in the university life, by taking part in activities such as going to see public speakers and lectures, as well as attending the Department Seminars.

In order to encourage students to attend class meetings I try to stay current with technology, television programs, films and music. I believe this is essential, to bridge the gap between theory and practice. By looking at current events through theoretical lenses we can arrive at a better understanding about how we produce, consume and are affected by communication in general, and more specifically, television, one of my main areas of interest.

In sum, my teaching philosophy is based on dialogue, collaboration, critical thinking and being a citizen. No matter where you are in the world.

capa da W, foto de Angie Jolie tirada por Brad Pit

Como se já não bastasse ser bonito, rico, papi super modernex, humanitário, arquiteto, casado com a fodex Angelnia Jolie, bla, bla, bla (como diria Elaine), agora o Brad tem mais uma linha em seu currículo: fotógrafo.

Quem pode, pode.
E tem gente se sacudindo...

29 de julho de 2008

Susan Douglas

Esta semana na faculdade foi TUDO de bom! Ajudei a organizar a visita de Susan Douglas, que dispensa apresentações.

Foi maravilhoso!!

Para quem não a conhece, vale a pena olhar os artigos dela para a The Nation, ou os livros Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media e The Mommy Myth: The Idealization of Motherhood and How It Has Undermined All Women.

Organizei um seminário-lanche com ela e os alunos do doutorado (maravilhoso) e a noite ela fez uma palestra inpirada no seu novo livro sobre the new sexism.

Inspiring!

O segundo Ipod a gente nunca esquece!

DoutorAAAAAAAAdo

Estou super atolada e super freaked out!
No fim do mês eu faço a prova do doutorado! Seis horas na salinha, eu, um computador e meus nerônios. Os que restarem.
E depois defendo oralmente!
Ui.

Chegaaaaaa!

Chega de lixo eleitoral, né minha gente?!