I sometimes wonder if I have any actual ideas of my own. Whenever I have a problem with, well, practically anything, but also with course development, I go around discussing it obsessively with everyone I can find. Of course, some of the people that I inflict my concerns on suggest solutions.
Most of those solutions I can't use. There may be logistical constraints (time, usually--the idea would devote more time to a topic than I think it's worth) or conceptual (for instance, incorporates material outside of the course's mandate). But, sooner or later, someone comes up with an idea that I can use and I (shamelessly) track it down and incorporate it into the course.
I do have ideas of my own (and about 25% of them work right away and another 25% work after significant rethinks). But looking back over my courses, I'm not sure that the best ideas didn't come from all the people around me.
Reading or read
Most of those solutions I can't use. There may be logistical constraints (time, usually--the idea would devote more time to a topic than I think it's worth) or conceptual (for instance, incorporates material outside of the course's mandate). But, sooner or later, someone comes up with an idea that I can use and I (shamelessly) track it down and incorporate it into the course.
I do have ideas of my own (and about 25% of them work right away and another 25% work after significant rethinks). But looking back over my courses, I'm not sure that the best ideas didn't come from all the people around me.
Reading or read
- Running Away by Jean-Philippe Toussaint
- Paper Shadows : A Chinatown Childhood by Wayson Choy
- Jack Chambers: Light, Spirit, Time, Place and Life by various
- Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi
- Miss Marple Investigates by Agatha Christie
- Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
- Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
- The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
- Strung Out by Sara Paretsky
- Not Yet: A Memoir of Living and Almost Dying by Wayson Choy
- The Swimming-Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst
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