What’s it about?

On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind – the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.

In honor of the day, I decided to look into some things I could do around my home to make myself and my family more environmentally friendly.

I visited The Union of Concerned Scientist’s Green Tips Page to see what I could do, and here—in no particular order—are the five most doable and/or interesting things I found:

1. Dry Cleaning Clothing is Really Bad for the Environment

In about 85 percent of dry cleaning shops [the] solvent [used in cleaning] is perchloroethylene (or “perc”), a chemical that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers both a health and environmental hazard.

While I don’t do a ton of dry cleaning, I do some, and several articles of clothing I own are marked Dry Clean Only.

It’s not rational to throw these items away, and it seems I don’t have to:

Dry cleaning is not always necessary; clothing makers often place the “dry clean only” label on tags because they can list no more than one cleaning method and can be held liable if an item is damaged when the owner follows the listed procedure. [M]any of these items can be safely washed at home, either by hand or using a washing machine’s delicate cycle.

2. Appliances account for about 20 percent of a household’s annual electricity use.

Reading up on household appliances, I learned a lot about my refrigerator/freezer.

Refrigerators have to work harder to stay cool if they are located near heat sources such as dishwashers, ovens, heating vents, and direct sunlight.

I can’t do much about this, but I will certainly keep it in mind if I ever move and/or redesign my kitchen.

There are actually recommended temperatures for both the refrigerator and the freezer: between 37 and 40 degrees Fahrenheit (ºF) for refrigerators and 5ºF for freezers.

Check your settings!

Keeping the refrigerator and freezer full will help in cold retention, so if either is sparsely filled take up the extra space with water-filled containers.

Very cool! (Pardon the pun.)

3. Many dishwashers have internal heaters.

This means the machine heats the water so one’s water heater doesn’t have to. Often, water heaters are set to 140ºF to accommodate the heating needs of dishwashing. For those of us who have dishwashers with internal heaters, we can turn our water heaters down to 120°F.

4. What about Washers and Dryers?

While there are times one needs to use hot water to wash—and these times are rare—there is no reason to RINSE with hot water.

Drying multiple loads of laundry consecutively will allow each load after the first to make use of the residual heat that remains from the previous load. The last load can likely be dried using the cool-down cycle as the remaining heat will do the trick.

5. What Impact Am I Making on the Environment?

I visited The Nature Conservancy’s Web site to see just what kind of damage my family was doing.

The good news is that we are below the national average. The bad news is we are well above the world-wide average. The worst news is there is very little we can realistically do to reduce our numbers in the near future.

Afterward

I certainly learned a few new tricks, and I’ve already begun implementing them; however, my overall feeling in all of this is how difficult it is for change to occur at the consumer level.

I had little control over the design of my kitchen, but the contractor did: why not mandate designs that take into consideration appliance location for the most environmentally friendly results?

In fact, why is it that every single home now being built isn’t environmentally friendly, energy efficient, and solar powered? (Each time I read about alternatives, the ideas began with “the initial cost is higher.”)

Why isn’t every vehicle now being manufactured a hybrid? (Can you say the power of the oil companies?) I can’t just get rid of the vehicles I have, but down the road, there is no doubt our replacement vehicles will be hybrids.

My frustration stems from the fact that we have the technology and know-how to make obsolete many of the products most harmful to our world, but because of politics and profit, not enough is being done to ensure responsible consumers can afford to be green.

Until that time comes, I’m keeping up with my good habits, and adding a few new ones to my arsenal.

Hail to the Earth!

Jennifer Maestre’s “Owl”

Here’s the thing: this sculpture took serious thought and perseverance. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before: it’s an extraordinarily creative way to work as an artist.

Now, take another look at ALL OF THE INDIVIDUALLY CUT AND SHARPENED PENCILS: if I could convince my students to spend even half as much time on an assignment as I imagine it takes Jennifer Maestre to cut and sharpen her pencils—well, I’d be the Teaching Queen.

But, this is really all fluff: the real meat of this—the reason I care as a teacher is because of what this artist says about her work:

My sculptures were originally inspired by the form and function of the sea urchin. The spines of the urchin, so dangerous yet beautiful, serve as an explicit warning against contact. The alluring texture of the spines draws the touch in spite of the possible consequences. [. . .] Paradox and surprise are integral in my choice of materials. [. . .] There is true a fragility to the sometimes brutal aspect of the sculptures, vulnerability that is belied by the fearsome texture.

[. . .]

I started off in the direction of prickly things when I was in my last year at Mass College of Art. It all comes from one idea I had for a box with a secret compartment that would contain a pearl. The box would be shaped like a sea urchin, made of silver. In order to open the box and reveal the secret compartment, you’d have to pull on one of the urchin’s spines.

This is analytical thought at its best.

This is someone looking at something, seeing the surface, and digging inside to interpret that which runs below the surface.

Many students (and teachers and non-academics) would say that Jennifer Maestre only accomplishes this in her art because it is relevant to what she does and what she cares about. They would go on to say that if teachers would only make assignments relevant to real world situations, students would begin to care.

What possible real-world application do you think Jennifer Maestre was in the midst of when she observed the spines of a sea urchin and made all of these wonderful connections?

I don’t know how she got to this point, but I promise you, someone exposed her to the sea urchin, and she pursued that exposure by revisiting, by thinking, by touching, by asking, by a variety of inquisitive means because she wanted to learn more.

No teacher can provide desire.

All we can do is provide exposure.

As I tell my students: I provide the content of a course, but you supply the desire to learn.

I loathe this. It is difficult enough to encourage students to produce 4-page papers which focus on something narrow, but trying to convince a beginning writing student (who generally isn’t interested in being a writing student of any level) to embark on a semester’s long research project that culminates in 7-10 pages of in-depth writing about a more complex subject is nearly impossible. (It is made possible by setting up one’s syllabus so said assignment is worth about 20% of the student’s overall grade.)

I have struggled with working around the research paper by integrating research elements into each formal writing assignment. The results of this have been abysmal: students ignore the parameters set for acceptable sources and settle (at the last minute, I presume) for an online dictionary which provides a definition that gets plugged awkwardly (and uselessly) into the paper’s introduction. The other common result was a good source which would have provided a great addition to a paper that is instead relegated to a single (awkwardly) integrated quotation of questionable value.

Much of this failure might be the fault of the instructor: if students don’t know what types of sources are acceptable and are not clear regarding how best to integrate quotations, mistakes will happen. I can assure you, this is not the case with my students. They are thoroughly versed in what makes a reliable, usable outside source, and they are shown numerous examples regarding how to integrate said sources appropriately.

Several years ago, I gave up integrating research and reverted to assigning research papers. The results of this were also horrible. I ended my semester with a pile of papers that (for the most part) showed clear indications of last minute work: poor research, poor writing, poor me.

The overriding impression I got was a complete lack of interest on the part of (most) students regarding their topics. So I tweaked things again: I began using Jonathon Swift’s A Modest Proposal as the starting point for students’ research.

The assignment calls for students to read the piece, think about something that bothers them, then write a paper that is part research and part proposed solution. The research element of the paper is to convince the reader that the problem in question is relevant; the proposal portion of the paper allows students to get creative. The problem and its presentation are at the students’ discretion: it can be something serious or something frivolous, and the proposed solution can be satirical, serious, or anyplace in between.

If only the research papers I’d been assigned as an undergraduate were this cool!

Overall, this has been a relatively effective solution to the Research Paper Problem. In addition to improving the topic parameters, I’ve integrated mini-due dates for the project into the semester, and this has helped keep students working toward the goal. (As a bonus, I have more grading to do.)

Of course, a handful of my students have missed the due date to submit a formal topic proposal to me. The reason: they don’t know what to write about.

Next semester, I guess I’ll have to think of a few topics to assign to those students who can’t think of a single thing that’s wrong with the world or how to solve it.

Over the years, I have drastically reduced the required assignments for English Writing 300/English 1A in an effort to meet my obligations, retain a reasonable standard, and educate the students who pass through my classes.

The last several years have left me feeling as if students are lazy, resent any homework, and simply are not interested in actually learning anything. Making room for a certain degree of jadedness on my part, the numbers below seem to support my position.

REQUIRED ASSIGNMENTS

2001
ESSAYS: 6
RESEARCH PAPER: 1
QUIZZES: 11 (lowest score dropped)
READING ANALYSES: 16 (lowest score dropped)

Students day one: 48—30 allowed in (cap 27)
Students at midterm: 25
Students who finished: 18

2003
ESSAYS: 5
RESEARCH PAPER: 1
QUIZZES: 6 (lowest score dropped)
READING ANALYSES: 11 (lowest score dropped)

Students day one: 38—30 allowed in (cap 27)
Students at midterm: 18
Students who finished: 15

2005
ESSAYS: 5
RESEARCH PAPER: 0 (integrated research with other papers)
QUIZZES: 6 (lowest score dropped)
READING ANALYSES: 11 (lowest score dropped)

Students day one: standing room only—27 allowed in (cap 25)
Students at midterm: 15
Students who finished: 12

2007
ESSAYS: 3
RESEARCH PAPER: 1
QUIZZES: 0
READING ANALYSES: 3 (Prewriting assignments for each essay)
READING JOURNAL ENTRIES: 15

[Update: Students day one: 45—27 allowed in (cap 25)]
[Update 2: Students remaining week 8: 14]

As an instructor, I feel that same giddiness as the beginning of a new semester approaches. The newness surrounding books and binders and opportunities are not that different for a teacher.

The course I teach most often is English Writing 300—most of you remember it as English 1A—some of you remember it as Freshman Composition. Regardless of the title, it is the first level of composition that counts towards an AA or a BA/BA it is often the first (and sometimes the only) level of composition that is required to earn an AA or a BA/BS.

The longer I teach the class, the better I get at it, primarily because I make it a point to tweak the course content each semester. This keeps me on my toes, and keeps me engaged. It also means I spend even more time working for free, but that part I am willing to do out of my love for teaching.

This semester, I faced one of the greatest and most common of teaching challenges: the release of a new edition of the primary textbook I use for my course. When textbooks are revised, and a new edition emerges, there are a variety of issues that rear their ugly heads.

First,one must check to see that the core materials one uses are still included in the text.

One must review every handout that corresponds to the text and re-paginate references accordingly.

One must get her hands on several copies before the semester begins:

One for personal use;

One to keep handy and unmarked for various tasks of copying and borrowing;

One to place on reserve in the library for students who won’t get a textbook for reasons good and bad.

One must do this in spite of the fact that book reps take vacations just when instructors need these copies.

One must face the daunting task of transferring every annotation and every bookmark from the old text to the new. (This is a 20+ hour process for me, and working between textbooks is far too clumsy to be an effective classroom alternative.)

During the first two weeks of class, one must ask force each of her students who bought the still-available-as-used-in-the-bookstore-for-less to return said text and buy the correct edition.

Counting the latest edition, the textbook I use has gone through six (6) edition updates in the last eight (8) years. This is as shocking as it is typical. (Note to self: write and publish your own textbook, and wait for the royalties to flood in.)

The looming new textbook addition and my deep need to really try to shake the frustration monkey off of my back led me to make use of a really cool service offered by some of the textbook publishers: choosing personalized course content in a print-on-demand style textbook.

Instead of spending the time getting the new version of my old textbook ready to go, I got down and dirty and created a textbook tailored for my class and the way I teach it. I chose the readings, the rhetoric, the order of content, and best of all, I kept the price under $20.00.

I am thrilled with the results, and I can’t wait to dig into the semester!

[END NOTE: Creating the new book took me just under sixty (60) hours, and the bookstore marked up the price to $25.00.]