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"url": "https://cathieleblanc.com/2021/05/09/what-can-i-salvage/",
"published": "2021-05-09T19:08:08-04:00",
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"html": "<p>I don\u2019t think anyone would disagree that this has been a challenging year. As part of the work of the <a href=\"https://colab.plymouthcreate.net/cplc-season-2/\">Cluster Pedagogy Learning Community</a> at Plymouth State University, my colleague Matt Cheney wrote a beautiful reflection about the year called <em><a href=\"https://finiteeyes.net/misc/salvage/\">Salvage</a></em>, with its refrain \u201cWhat can you salvage?\u201d Indeed. What can I salvage?</p>\n<p>I read Matt\u2019s piece at the start of the last week of classes. I was worried about the students in my <em>Creating Games</em> class. They had been in and out of quarantine and isolation, had COVID, had broken feet and ankles, sat with parents in hospice, and mourned their parents\u2019 deaths. They had anxiety, and depression, and struggled with motivation. Despite it all, they joyfully worked on the big game project. They had taken the play-testing and feedback process quite seriously and made improvements to their games in response to the play-testing feedback. There was no problem with attendance in the class.The semester was two weeks shorter than normal but these games are among the best I have ever seen in the class. And yet, based on the system of assigning semester grades that I had set up, some students would fail the class.</p>\n<p>Because of the shortened semester and because of the pandemic, I cut the work in this class almost in half compared to a \u201cnormal\u201d semester. I always give students lots of choice about the assignments they complete. There are currently 24 assignment options in the class. For this semester, students needed to complete seven assignments in order to pass the class and ten assignments in order to get an A.. Two of the assignments were the required game design project and presentation of it to the class during the final exam period. So students needed to choose an additional five to eight assignments to get the grade they wanted in the class. I use a version of <a href=\"https://cathieleblanc.com/2019/12/22/adventures-in-ungrading/\">ungrading</a> in this class. When a student submits an assignment, I give them feedback on it and if it is not yet complete (usually because they haven\u2019t quite understood the material), they revise and resubmit. There is no limit to the number of times an assignment can be revised. In fact, I want them to revise until it is complete but usually that only takes one additional revision.</p>\n<p>We talk quite a bit in the class about the fact that these assignments are all summative assignments that allow them to demonstrate what they have learned. The assignments are divided into three groups, each related to one of the three learning outcomes of the class. We talk about the fact that they need to demonstrate that they have achieved the learning outcomes by completing assignments in each group.</p>\n<p>As we headed into the last week of the semester, quite a few students were not on track to complete seven assignments (never mind ten) unless they crammed a bunch of work into five days. To me, that\u2019s the worst way to try to demonstrate what you\u2019ve learned. The work tends not to be of very high quality and seems to me to be a kind of hoop-jumping. And the last thing I want to do is look at a bunch of work that has been rushed through.</p>\n<p>I thought about Matt\u2019s question: What can you salvage? The purpose of these assignments is for students to demonstrate what they have learned in the class. How could I salvage that purpose without putting students through the stress of trying to complete multiple assignments in the five days left in the semester when they had other classes to complete, when they had spent the semester working and learning in the midst of a pandemic? I created an alternate assignment in which I asked them to explain what they had learned in the class and to tell me what grade they felt they had earned. I think this is a valuable assignment for all students but I gave students the option of whether to do it or not. After all, there were also a number of students who had been able to keep up with the work all semester and who had already demonstrated what they had learned throughout the semester. I asked those who did the alternate assignment to have a short meeting with me to discuss what they had written in their papers and to talk about the grade they assigned themselves.</p>\n<p>The presentations for our two and half hour final exam period took about an hour and a half. The presentations were outstanding, some of the best I have ever seen in the many years that I have been teaching this class. We used the last hour for me to meet individually with each of the students who had done the alternate assignment. In their papers, they told me of the extenuating circumstances (which I had not asked for) that I listed above, not all of which I had known about as the semester progressed. I won\u2019t go into detail about the conversations we had but I am humbled by what the students shared with me. I am awed by what they achieved in such challenging circumstances.</p>\n<p>So what can I salvage? These relationships. The fact that my class didn\u2019t add to their trauma. That they learned what they could, much of which had nothing to do with the content of my class. That, in the midst of a pandemic, they had fun learning about how to create games. And I will keep this alternate assignment after the pandemic. There will always be someone whose father is dying, someone who is struggling with anxiety or depression, someone who doesn\u2019t have a quiet place to work.</p>\n<p>No one failed <em>Creating Games</em>.</p>\n<p>Image Credit: <em>Torment</em>, taken by me on May 9, 2021. Very stressful time for my cat.</p>",
"text": "I don\u2019t think anyone would disagree that this has been a challenging year. As part of the work of the Cluster Pedagogy Learning Community at Plymouth State University, my colleague Matt Cheney wrote a beautiful reflection about the year called Salvage, with its refrain \u201cWhat can you salvage?\u201d Indeed. What can I salvage?\nI read Matt\u2019s piece at the start of the last week of classes. I was worried about the students in my Creating Games class. They had been in and out of quarantine and isolation, had COVID, had broken feet and ankles, sat with parents in hospice, and mourned their parents\u2019 deaths. They had anxiety, and depression, and struggled with motivation. Despite it all, they joyfully worked on the big game project. They had taken the play-testing and feedback process quite seriously and made improvements to their games in response to the play-testing feedback. There was no problem with attendance in the class.The semester was two weeks shorter than normal but these games are among the best I have ever seen in the class. And yet, based on the system of assigning semester grades that I had set up, some students would fail the class.\nBecause of the shortened semester and because of the pandemic, I cut the work in this class almost in half compared to a \u201cnormal\u201d semester. I always give students lots of choice about the assignments they complete. There are currently 24 assignment options in the class. For this semester, students needed to complete seven assignments in order to pass the class and ten assignments in order to get an A.. Two of the assignments were the required game design project and presentation of it to the class during the final exam period. So students needed to choose an additional five to eight assignments to get the grade they wanted in the class. I use a version of ungrading in this class. When a student submits an assignment, I give them feedback on it and if it is not yet complete (usually because they haven\u2019t quite understood the material), they revise and resubmit. There is no limit to the number of times an assignment can be revised. In fact, I want them to revise until it is complete but usually that only takes one additional revision.\nWe talk quite a bit in the class about the fact that these assignments are all summative assignments that allow them to demonstrate what they have learned. The assignments are divided into three groups, each related to one of the three learning outcomes of the class. We talk about the fact that they need to demonstrate that they have achieved the learning outcomes by completing assignments in each group.\nAs we headed into the last week of the semester, quite a few students were not on track to complete seven assignments (never mind ten) unless they crammed a bunch of work into five days. To me, that\u2019s the worst way to try to demonstrate what you\u2019ve learned. The work tends not to be of very high quality and seems to me to be a kind of hoop-jumping. And the last thing I want to do is look at a bunch of work that has been rushed through.\nI thought about Matt\u2019s question: What can you salvage? The purpose of these assignments is for students to demonstrate what they have learned in the class. How could I salvage that purpose without putting students through the stress of trying to complete multiple assignments in the five days left in the semester when they had other classes to complete, when they had spent the semester working and learning in the midst of a pandemic? I created an alternate assignment in which I asked them to explain what they had learned in the class and to tell me what grade they felt they had earned. I think this is a valuable assignment for all students but I gave students the option of whether to do it or not. After all, there were also a number of students who had been able to keep up with the work all semester and who had already demonstrated what they had learned throughout the semester. I asked those who did the alternate assignment to have a short meeting with me to discuss what they had written in their papers and to talk about the grade they assigned themselves.\nThe presentations for our two and half hour final exam period took about an hour and a half. The presentations were outstanding, some of the best I have ever seen in the many years that I have been teaching this class. We used the last hour for me to meet individually with each of the students who had done the alternate assignment. In their papers, they told me of the extenuating circumstances (which I had not asked for) that I listed above, not all of which I had known about as the semester progressed. I won\u2019t go into detail about the conversations we had but I am humbled by what the students shared with me. I am awed by what they achieved in such challenging circumstances.\nSo what can I salvage? These relationships. The fact that my class didn\u2019t add to their trauma. That they learned what they could, much of which had nothing to do with the content of my class. That, in the midst of a pandemic, they had fun learning about how to create games. And I will keep this alternate assignment after the pandemic. There will always be someone whose father is dying, someone who is struggling with anxiety or depression, someone who doesn\u2019t have a quiet place to work.\nNo one failed Creating Games.\nImage Credit: Torment, taken by me on May 9, 2021. Very stressful time for my cat."
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"url": "https://twitter.com/karabaic/status/1391578026228404231",
"quotation-of": "https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1391571188766347266",
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"text": "I have a few so-called Christians I can nominate for floor show.\ntwitter.com/reuters/status\u2026",
"html": "I have a few so-called Christians I can nominate for floor show.\n<a href=\"https://twitter.com/reuters/status/1391571188766347266\">twitter.com/reuters/status\u2026</a>"
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"text": "ICYMI: Italy announced plans to restore the floor to the Colosseum to give visitors an idea of how the arena looked 2,000 years ago reut.rs/2Sp6o8Y",
"html": "ICYMI: Italy announced plans to restore the floor to the Colosseum to give visitors an idea of how the arena looked 2,000 years ago <a href=\"https://reut.rs/2Sp6o8Y\">reut.rs/2Sp6o8Y</a>"
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"url": "https://twitter.com/karabaic/status/1391566637191426056",
"quotation-of": "https://twitter.com/nycsouthpaw/status/1391560788159180801",
"content": {
"text": "I would love a divorce lawyer & a litigation specialist to discuss this from the perspective of Ms Gates protecting Gates assets from lawsuits\u2026",
"html": "I would love a divorce lawyer & a litigation specialist to discuss this from the perspective of Ms Gates protecting Gates assets from lawsuits\u2026"
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"name": "your one nonbot friend",
"url": "https://twitter.com/karabaic",
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"content": {
"text": "Ties to Epstein haunt Gates\u2019s divorce. wsj.com/articles/melin\u2026",
"html": "Ties to Epstein haunt Gates\u2019s divorce. <a href=\"https://www.wsj.com/articles/melinda-gates-was-meeting-with-divorce-lawyers-since-2019-to-end-marriage-with-bill-gates-11620579924\">wsj.com/articles/melin\u2026</a>"
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First outing after 2 jabs and 2 weeks! Mother’s Day at the @tilthalliance Edibles sale. Lots of tomatoes. Also snap peas, arugula, basil, sunflowers. @ Seattle Tilth Rainier Beach Farm instagram.com/p/COqprUGDUjP/…
Heat death of the web universe:
Everyone builds multi-MB, vastly overcomplicated client-side apps which execute directly in web browsers,
THEN everyone streams those client-side apps from third-party browsers which all run on servers in the cloud.
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"text": "Heat death of the web universe:\n\nEveryone builds multi-MB, vastly overcomplicated client-side apps which execute directly in web browsers,\n\nTHEN everyone streams those client-side apps from third-party browsers which all run on servers in the cloud."
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"content": {
"text": "What is your favorite library for building component-based reactive UI for the web, and why is it Lit? \ud83d\ude0e\ud83d\udd25\n\nlit.dev",
"html": "What is your favorite library for building component-based reactive UI for the web, and why is it Lit? \ud83d\ude0e\ud83d\udd25\n\n<a href=\"https://lit.dev/\">lit.dev</a>"
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"content": {
"text": "Okay here goes productive day in the life, got @llamalifeco to back me up",
"html": "Okay here goes productive day in the life, got <a href=\"https://twitter.com/llamalifeco\">@llamalifeco</a> to back me up"
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "Lillian Karabaic",
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Bill Gates himself has one of biggest carbon footprints of any human being in world. He lives in 66,000 square foot mansion with 24 bathrooms that is worth $145 million, ...
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"text": "But I\u2019m pretty sure the whole house still run on Windows Me, so, you know\u2026"
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"text": "Bill Gates himself has one of biggest carbon footprints of any human being in world. He lives in 66,000 square foot mansion with 24 bathrooms that is worth $145 million, which he calls (seriously) \u201cXanadu 2.0\u201d It was built using half a million wood logs from 500 year old trees."
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"name": "K.Diallo \u262d",
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Just a wee reminder that something highly amusing has been created by @rhipratchett @CalumAWatt @alexdecampi @dtmooreeditor and myself 👍🏻
‘Campaigns & Companions...
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"url": "https://twitter.com/karabaic/status/1391243009757306881",
"quotation-of": "https://twitter.com/AndiEwington/status/1391015592447070208",
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"text": "Hey @thathappenspod I kinda want to see this? Cc @JeffBryanDavis @Thesixler",
"html": "Hey <a href=\"https://twitter.com/thathappenspod\">@thathappenspod</a> I kinda want to see this? Cc <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JeffBryanDavis\">@JeffBryanDavis</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Thesixler\">@Thesixler</a>"
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"published": "2021-05-08T13:02:15+00:00",
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"text": "Just a wee reminder that something highly amusing has been created by @rhipratchett @CalumAWatt @alexdecampi @dtmooreeditor and myself \ud83d\udc4d\ud83c\udffb\n\n\u2018Campaigns & Companions\u2019 is available to be preorder now!\n(ISBN: 9781781089224)\nand will be out mid Sept via @RebellionPub - RTs welcomed!",
"html": "Just a wee reminder that something highly amusing has been created by <a href=\"https://twitter.com/rhipratchett\">@rhipratchett</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/CalumAWatt\">@CalumAWatt</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/alexdecampi\">@alexdecampi</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/dtmooreeditor\">@dtmooreeditor</a> and myself \ud83d\udc4d\ud83c\udffb\n\n\u2018Campaigns & Companions\u2019 is available to be preorder now!\n(ISBN: 9781781089224)\nand will be out mid Sept via <a href=\"https://twitter.com/RebellionPub\">@RebellionPub</a> - RTs welcomed!"
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "DungeonMaster Ewington \ud83c\udfb2\ud83c\uddea\ud83c\uddfa",
"url": "https://twitter.com/AndiEwington",
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"published": "2021-05-08T23:45:00+00:00",
"url": "https://twitter.com/anomalily/status/1391177343696183296",
"content": {
"text": "Live in 15 minutes: Why I got a random $1,438 deposited in my bank account this week (and why maybe you will, too?)\n\n youtube.com/watch?v=h-OwAH\u2026",
"html": "Live in 15 minutes: Why I got a random $1,438 deposited in my bank account this week (and why maybe you will, too?)\n\n <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-OwAHgpzsk\">youtube.com/watch?v=h-OwAH\u2026</a>"
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "Lillian Karabaic",
"url": "https://twitter.com/anomalily",
"photo": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1123802400731664385/dsHQG1nZ.jpg"
},
"post-type": "note",
"_id": "20353866",
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{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2021-05-08T21:51:29+00:00",
"url": "https://twitter.com/anomalily/status/1391148776069292034",
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"https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E05acHQVkAESOK8.jpg"
],
"content": {
"text": "Today I noticed that my miles run and miles biked for 2021 are exactly the same year to date. Omg I really need my bike commute back \ud83d\ude02"
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "Lillian Karabaic",
"url": "https://twitter.com/anomalily",
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