Anne Dalke's blog

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:
/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: /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.

Dear 360'ers--
Barb, Jody and I would like to invite you to have dinner with us, to celebrate the conclusion of our
shared work together this semester (not to mention plotting some on-going connections and elaborations….?).

We're proposing that we do this @ 5 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 17, @ my place in center city.

We're going to order in, so please tell us what you'd like to (or cannot/will not) eat.

Getting yourself there would involve taking the R5 to Market East, then walking south
four blocks to 903 Clinton, 2R (it's just above 9th Street, between Pine and Spruce).

Let us know if you'd like to--and can!--make it?
 
Hopefully, and happily,
Anne (for us 3)

In the final projects you are co-creating for our 360 on Women in Walled Communities, we are expecting multi-pronged, cross-disciplinary endeavors that involve both collaborative and individual components, including
    • a public demonstration, 1-3 pm, Mon, Dec. 17, of a tangible project that you have created together,
    • which builds on the particular skills, knowledge and experience of all students in the group, and
    • draws in some way on the Education, English and Criminal Justice knowledge you have acquired over the course of the semester.

In the final e-portfolio of your work, due on Serendip by 12:30, Fri, Dec. 21, we will expect critical reflection about the ways in which your final product brought together the different angles of vision (individual and disciplinary) listed above:

    • how did each of the three courses/disciplines inform your final project?
    • how did completing the project push your thinking in each of these disciplines?