Anne Dalke's blog

As you read over your classmates' papers, pull out one sentence you would like to discuss further, and BY MONDAY @ 5, ADD IT HERE AS A COMMENT. I will draw from these in constructing the game of "barometer," which we will play in class on Tuesday. Thanks!

We have 8 presentations--so each one gets 10 minutes. I will be very strict about the time-keeping, since we want to give everyone an equal chance to share what they have learned. Here's the program:
11:25-11:35 Minh
11:35-11:45 Sarah C
11:45-11:55 Shengjia
11:55-12:05 Wanhong and Barbara
12:05-12:15 Susan, Rochelle and Sara
12:15-12:25 Alex and Hannah
12:25-12:35 Claire and Zoe
12:35-12:45 Maddie and Elizabeth
If you have technical needs, you need to get there early and get yourself set up (otherwise, setting up becomes part of your performance time, and we all get frustrated....)
I'll bring some treats--and am very much looking forward to this!

My daughter-in-law, who is a psychiatry resident @ Penn (and a graduate both of Haverford and of The Story of Evolution/The Evolution of Stories), sent me this NYTimes opinionator piece on Philosophy and the Poetic Imagination. It put me in mind of some of our earlier conversations about language, and how we read it. Thought it might interest some of you, of the more poetic bent....

I enjoyed our two shared rambles this week; thank you for venturing outside w/ me!
Next week we conclude our work together. Here's the plan for our upcoming shared events:

By 5 p.m. Thursday, record on-line your final set of weekly observations of your adopted on-campus "site."

By Sunday @ 5, post on-line your reflections about our two excursions this week. (Max, who was unable to join us today, is hoping to "experience" the blind field shuttle on Serendip, so please think of your posting as an attempt to include her in that activity.)

For Monday's class,
* srucara will select our site

* please come ready to tell me what groups you've organized yourselves into, for our final teach-in

* review the instructions for completing your checklist and portfolio:
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/courses/ecolit/f12/portfolio
and come w/ any questions about the process

* please also read, in preparation for our discussion,
Timothy Morton's Introduction to Ecology Without Nature: Re-thinking Environmental Aesthetics
(it's in our password protected file: http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/courses/ecolit/f12/readings )

* On Wednesday, we'll do final evaluations, and then have
a teach-in, sharing with one another what we have been learning...

* My last day on campus will be the following Wed, Dec. 19.
Before then, you need to schedule a final writing conference w/ me.
Please come to that having reviewed my comments on your last paper,
as well as your other work for the semester,

...from yesterday that I don't want to forget:
"Just because they have life doesn't mean their life stops."
"What do I get by telling others that they are stuck?"
"Nobody's homework is done."

Paul Doherty, Water Waves Seen by Diffraction

here's the map to show you where we're going. and here's the plan:
we will gather @ the BMC campus center by 1:10 to walk together to Ashbridge Park
1:25-1:30: sara.gladwin, ekthorp, sarahj open our shared event
1:30-1:45: eetong, graham locate us @ the site via some history
1:45-2:00: hira, smacholdt share some poetry
2:00-2:15: froggies315, srucara supply food to fuel each of our wandering off on our own...
2:15-2:20: sara.gladwin, ekthorp, sarahj call us together to close the event, and we return to campus
before and after the day (on-line and/or in class):
rachelr, mturer reflect (lead us in reflecting?) on what happened....

We have agreed to share a collective ramble during class time next Monday, December 3. We will gather @ the Mill Creek restoration site, in Ashbridge Park (a 10-minute walk from campus); and design the day along the lines of the "dynamic structure"  froggies315 proposed, dividing into groups of 2 or 3 each to
1) open and close the wander
2) locate us @ the site via some history
3) and also via some poetry
4) supply food to fuel our wandering off on our own
5) lead us before and after the day (on-line or in class) in reflection about what's happened.

In a comment to this post, please indicate which group you want to join. Attend to the comments before yours, and distribute yourself evenly...let's see if this works! We need to agree who will do what by classtime on Wednesday.

Thanks for working so ecologically!

A.