OT Congrats, Cris

Miss Criseyde has just had the first run, expirimental course she taught this past semester garner raves, and has been asked to continue this course as part of the regular curriculam.

Her course?  Fandom.

Way cool, huh?

n

Congratulations to you, MsCriseyde!  I wish you luck with your future semesters.

ProfStokes

Way cool, huh?

Absolutely. The reviews are fabulous and well deserved, I'm sure.  Congratulations, Cris!

I STILL want to take that class!!!

I couldn't be happier for you, MsCriseyde!

I STILL want to take that class!!!

Wouldn't that be great. Maybe we should all take September through the end of December off from work and then register for it.

I could just imagine the look on MsCriseyde's face on the first day of class if she discovered that her students are all people from this forum.

This is wonderful news Cris!!!  Mucho Congrats!
And this means more research!!!![clap]
YOU GO GIRL!!!!![/color]

Always, Minja [/color]

Congratulations to you Miss Criseyde!  After viewing your site like I have been I knew you would have success in whatever you choose to do!!
Best Wishes!
Deb

Congratulations!!!

Most Excellent News! Congratulations to you Criseyde I love your site! so it is only natural everything you do would be as well done! 

Brava!

  Sarah's

Congratulations MsCriseyde!!                        

This is fantastic news and Im so happy for you!![clap]

Cassandra

Congrats Cris!!  I'm so very proud of you!!!!!
Way to go !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   
              Love U Anne
( YOU DON'T HAPPEN TO HAVE THE Q-MAN AS ONE
OF YOUR STUDENTS DO YOU?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YUMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Congratulations on a job obviously well done.

May I ask in what department your course is offered?  My first guess would be English...but it could also be Comm Arts or even Sociology, couldn't it? 

Again....congratulations!

First, thanks for all the fuss, everybody. It's very odd to get congrats for doing something you really enjoy anyway, but don't tell the university that, or they'll cut my salary down to less than a half a living wage. 

May I ask in what department your course is offered?  My first guess would be English...but it could also be Comm Arts or even Sociology, couldn't it? 

The course is taught through the English dept. and is offered as an alternative to the generic "pop culture" version of freshman comp. that doesn't concentrate on any one topic. This course just concentrates on one element of pop culture for the semester, and, in my case, it really has to do with the intersections and perceived oppositions between popular or fan culture and academic culture. The dept likes it because we're increasingly having to treat the freshman yr of college as the 5th yr of high school, and the course offers an intro to academic culture that encourages interrogation of its practices.

A lot of what we read is drawn from authors with a solid reputation in media and fan studies -- Henry Jenkins, Camille Bacon-Smith, Constance Penley, etc. We also use stuff from psychology and sociology journals.

The class begins by looking at "official" products and fan activities and moves on to "unofficial" fan creations like fanfic, songvids, message boards, web sites, etc. Then we wind up by examining media representations of fans. This semester, we watched The King of Comedy, a De Niro / Scorsese film, and Trekkies, which won't be making a return appearance next semester because my students don't even know the difference between Star Wars and Star Trek, and it was anticlimactic after having seen raw footage from the DS Festival earlier in the semester. 

Fascinating, Professor!

I'm sure of the two courses offered, yours is the one that produces the better end result  from your students.

WHY is Freshman year now the 5th year of High School?  A friend taught briefly at the local Community College of the SUNY system and she was appalled at the level of incompetence in English among the first year students.  What are kids who are barely literate doing in college anyway?  Why do they have diplomas?

New York State is raising the bar by making the Regents Examinations in 5 major subjects mandatory for EVERY child in order to get a High School Diploma.  You would NOT believe the parents and others who railed against this as unfair and punative.

Parents like that, who don't understand that a General Diploma is a useless lie if the kid can't read, are a disgrace.  I attended a meeting on the subject where it was explained that our district was already planning additional instruction for students identified as at-risk for failing the exams.  The first parental question asked was "Is this going to be on Saturdays?  Because I have things to DO on Saturdays!!"  I wanted to slap her.

I think these days you have to be a hero to be a teacher.

Congratulations, Criseyde. This sounds both like a lot of fun, and a very useful way of quietly building some important skills these kids will need to function in college.  Some of the writers you mention, such as Penley and Jenkins, might even make the kiddies think about reasserting their subjectivity in the face of the stifling, all-flattening multimedia juggernaut that saturates North American postmodern consciousness.

That said, I'm horrified to learn that these kids are so illiterate they don't even know the difference between Star Trek and Star Wars.  I shudder to think what they would make of a Shakespeare play, a Bronte novel, or an Auden poem.

You're working in the trenches, dear.  Goddess bless you!

Gothick

New York State is raising the bar by making the Regents Examinations in 5 major subjects mandatory for EVERY child in order to get a High School Diploma.  You would NOT believe the parents and others who railed against this as unfair and punative.

Oh, I would! My first year of teaching was in a Technical High School instructing two senior classes (and one Post-Secondary class for adults) and you would NOT believe just how many parent abdicate any responsibility for their kids' education. If asked if they'd be willing to try to help out a kid who wasn't doing well, their view was that it had to be the schools'/teachers' fault if their kid wasn't doing well, and they didn't have time/weren't being paid to do the schools'/teachers' jobs. Their only concern was that their kid pass and graduate regardless of their abilities. Sadly, a few of them got a rude awakening when their kids neither passed nor graduated.

I don't quite know where that attitude has come from, but it's something that's been steadily developing over the past 20 years, and as far as I'm concerned, (most) teachers who work in elementary and high school education these days are candidates for sainthhood when it comes to dealing with that type of parent. I thank God every day that I have an enjoyable and fulfilling job on the college level, that (most of) my students have been conscientious and well motivated, and that I rarely have to deal with parents.