In addition to reviewing the instructions together, I provided some context about the purpose of the game (pictured here). I emphasized recent statistics about reported loneliness in college students, being respectful of each other's stories, and avoiding trauma dumping. 10/10 would recommend.

My first-year writing students are writing op-ed essays in the style of invitational rhetoric for the next major project. We've been reading and talking about how to foster understanding among differing perspectives for weeks now, and I thought this would be a fun, low-anxiety way to enact that.

We played Story Stitch in #FirstYearWriting today, and it was incredible watching my students tell stories about their lives. It's a super easy card game that involves flipping cards with story prompts, and they can choose to engage the question or skip it, so it's low stakes.

Okay writing instructors (or anyone who teaches invitational rhetoric or intercultural communication in some way), I have a great recommendation for a game that emphasizes community building and learning about each other through storytelling: Story Stitch!

www.greencardvoices.org/programs/sto...

The first two episodes of the revival of Reading Rainbow have nearly 500,000 views each 🤯

Do you know how cool that is for literacy, for book joy?! We are all worthy of reading, we are all readers 💚

And NOW episode three is out! Take a look, it’s in a book 📚🌈🦋

youtu.be/e4VIV48ZB0M?feature=shared

I really wanted to like the animal rights movement class I took in college, but my professor compared me (and only me) to Hitler on the first day of class because I was the only one who didn’t introduce myself as a vegetarian, and it was honestly all downhill from there.

My morning class is interrupted every day at 11:40 by a campus tour. Today I lost track of time and was dramatically telling a story about a former professor who repeatedly made us watch PETA videos of animals dying. I said, “I was like I’M DYINGGGGG every day in class” right as a tour walked past 🙃

A thread of dogs, because this is what we need today, starting with el Negro Matapacos
May his spirit protect the Sumud Flotilla and all protesting for freedom
Enjoy this timeline cleanse
🧵

My writing process:
1. Think about the topic for several weeks without any research or writing beyond recording a random voice note or jotting an idea in my notes app ~50%
2. Research the topic and/or similar genres ~20%
3. Brain-dump every thought I have about the topic ~10%
4. Revise and edit ~20%

Your email finds me deeply burned out and disassociating.

The cat/that eyeball alien is so terrible.

This update is brought to you by the $3 assorted pack of cookie sandwiches I bought yesterday and noticed that "cheese" was one of the ingredients in the assortment. My students were furious about the idea of cheese in cookies, but I'd say at least half of them were brave enough to try them.

I love taking snacks to class for work days or peer review workshops. Usually I choose the safest, plainest snacks possible. Recently, my strategy is to buy random snacks from the Asian market in town and watch my students react to random textures/flavors, and it is an absolute delight.

oh hell yeah

Pretty common thing I get told when I point out an accessibility fail: "They mean well, so give them a break."

Unfortunately, that's not how this works. Accessibility is about what is and isn't, not what's intended. Giving people breaks for half-assing accessibility just normalizes inaccessibility.

For reference, I asked them to read/listen to two of these three readings beforehand:
✨ one about ChatGPT and critical thinking: time.com/7295195/ai-c...
✨ one from the perspective of college students: www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
✨ one about professors using AI: www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/t...

I was honestly feeling dread about scheduling a day in first-year writing where we read and talk only about AI, but students had really interesting things to say about what they think the purpose of higher ed is and how AI can facilitate or hinder that, as well as a slew of ethical concerns.

I will remind folks those images of Nazi book burnings aren't burning just any books. They're burning the library of Magnus Hirschfeld; a gay, Jewish doctor who created an institute dedicated to LGBTQ sex education and healthcare. And a man who pioneered gender affirming care surgeries.

Is this digital humanities?

And yes, as an accessibility-conscious person I went back and forth on this a lot. There is a kind of magic in writing by hand, but it's not always accessible. I bought physical notebooks for everyone but also noted in the assignment sheet that students aren't required to journal by hand.

I bought small (4"x5") notebooks for the students enrolled in my first-year writing class this semester. The goal is to journal periodically about their writing processes. I distributed them in class today, and it was so cool seeing them all writing by hand about their processes.

I am the type of colleague who talks trash almost constantly but will also bake cookies for the staff/faculty/grad students in celebration of us making it through the first week of classes. It’s all about balance 😅

It disgusts me enough as is to watch universities push AI without any acknowledgment of its limitations, but to actually frame it as an ethical responsibility makes my skin crawl.

I'm a writing professor because I believe that critical thinking, reading, and writing skills are foundational skills for being human. What's the point if we don't critically engage with other perspectives? Are you really communicating if you don't care what was said or what you say in response?