The COAL Community

This fall I'll make my first attempt at teaching IDS 110.  There are 15 of us from COAL teaching 23 sections, about 23% of the campus total in both categories.  That's not counting another 10 COAL faculty who are teaching UHC 110.  I am not the only rookie in the bunch, and many people who have taught IDS 110 in the past are making significant changes this fall.  I'm hoping we can learn from each other and discuss how the college might want to put its own "stamp" on the first year experience.

To kick off this forum, let me throw out a few basic questions to help us all get acquainted.

1. Which course (IDS/UHC) are you teaching this fall, and have you taught the class before?
2. Are you using a "theme" for your section.  If so, what?
3. Are you using a text(s)?  If so, what?
4. What's the biggest question you have about teaching the class this fall?

I'll start the ball rolling with my own responses:

1.  I'm teaching IDS 110 for the first time.
2. Unless I change my mind by the first of June, the theme for my section is "Leaders as Storytellers: How Narratives Shape Organizations."
3. I'm using the Constance Staley text.
4. What do I choose to fit into 16 hours of class time?  There's a lot of good information in the Staley text, but I could spend the whole 8 weeks doing nothing but covering that information.  I'm much more interested in stimulating lively discussion and getting students engaged.

Here are my answers, Carey:

1. My first IDS course ever. I've taught UHC 110 various times between 1994 and 2006.
2. I suspect my "theme" will have something to do with globalization and/or clashing empires.
3. I'm using the customized Staley text too.
4. Are there any studies of how well the UPEERS portals already in existence have met their goal of increasing freshman retention? I've fooled around with it somewhat and am not exactly dazzled so far.

 

 

1. I'll be teaching UHC 110 for the third time this fall. 2. I have a general topic, but not a theme. This time, we're looking at how Hamlet permeates our culture, both as a text and as a cultural icon, so we'll be looking both at Shakspeare's play in detail, but also at popular and contemporary reworkings of the play. 3. Hamlet, of course, as well as bits from other plays (Stoppard's "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" and "Dogg's Hamlet, as well as video clips from film versions and parodies (including The Simpsons, Frasier, Seinfeld, The Last Action Hero, etc.). What we're going to look at is how Hamlet the play and Hamlet/Shakespeare the cultural icons are interwoven and interpreted. 4. It's a strange class for me, kind of a hybrid between the academic classes I teach and the "how the university works and how you can be successful" practical material. For me, the mix doesn't work particularly well, and the first time I taught the course, I had a great difficulty figuring out how to blend the two in a useful way. I also overestimated the academic curiosity of the freshman honors students (or perhaps overestimated their interest in my field) the first time I taught it. The second time I taught it it worked much better? So my question is whether this theme can be relevant and interesting to the honors students, many of whom, by their own admission, are not that interested in theatre or literature.