I enjoyed getting to talk with Bethany about a creative way she sparked curiosity with the students in her class last semester. She designed a capstone assignment she calls How My Profession Influences Policy. The people in her class explored everything from beauty professionals and the tip tax credit, sports journalists and FCC media-ownership rules, to actuaries and the Social Security trust fund.

Bethany introduces us to the idea of civic professionalism and shows how disciplinary identity can become a foundation for civic identity. We talk about preparing for those potentially difficult moments in class, the value of asynchronous structures that let students think before they speak, and what it looks like to model the language we hope our students will use to talk about hard things. Regarding "hot moments" in our classes, Bethany reminds us what happens when we choose not to address them:

I always enjoy reading about people's note-taking and sense-making processes. D'Arcy Norman sounds like he's similar to me, in that we enjoy digital note-taking, yet also find analog methods helpful, in some contexts. He writes for his last line of the piece:

I like a person with a sense of humor. Having gone down the route of using an e-tablet for some hand-written notes that were easy to get back into my digital systems, I did find myself wanting to talk him out of it. Yet, I also recognize that there are some of us for whom the quest is the whole thing. We will never be that dog who actually catches the car, right? For me, I continue to get so much delight out of Obsidian. Even if I change my mind at some point, all of my notes just sit there on my computer, in plain text, ready to follow me wherever I might head next.

​Rebooting My Notetaking, by D'Arcy Norman​

As I put my final preparations in for the UCI Pedagogical Wellness Day, I'm glad I just happened to mention to my friend, Naomi, that I was looking to glue a bunch of covers to brown envelopes for the Field Guides I'll be giving away at the poster session. She steered me away from the kind kids use at school, as well as others that require a ventilated room.

After assembling a portion of them, I can tell already that this experimentation is a success. UHU stic for the win. Now if I can just convince one or both of our kids to help me with the rest of them.

​UHU stic​

Last week, I wondered the way you approach keeping track of your class plans. Here's what you shared and my method.

This week, I'm wondering:

Who you want to positively gossip about?

I participated in a MYFest26 session last week which introduced a new Liberating Structure: Positive Gossip. Would you take a minute out of your day to share positive gossip about a mentor or supporter in your life? I'll choose a few to include in the next Field Journal. Let me know in your reply if you prefer to remain anonymous, as otherwise, I'll assume it is ok to include your name.