Anna Smol: A Single Leaf

Tag: teaching

  • Widsith, D&D, Fanworks, and Films: Another Year in ENGL 4475

    ENGL 4475: the year in review I’ve filed away my course notes and given out the final grades. ENGL 4475: Tolkien & Myth-making is officially over for the 2016-17 academic year. The project proposals, annotated bibliographies, abstracts, research papers, and exams are all done now. What’s left is my delight at the many ways my…

  • An imagined dystopian LotR film

    Today I have a post that combines my interests in both Tolkien and pedagogy. In one of my English courses, Studies in Medievalism: Tolkien and Myth-making, I ask students to read the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and some of the medieval literature that influenced him. We also consider later adaptations of Tolkien’s fiction in various…

  • Think like a Professor! — or, how to defeat syllabus boredom

    It’s the beginning of the semester for most university professors. Do you dread having to stand in front of your students reading from your course outline? Do you feel it’s a futile gesture, knowing that many of them will forget or ignore the information in the syllabus? In order to defeat the boredom of the…

  • Beyond the research essay: women’s lit & archival research in an undergraduate course

    Originally posted on MSVU English Department Blog: by Anna Smol If you’ve walked along the fifth floor of Seton or through the tunnel linking Evaristus and Rosaria, you might have noticed a series of posters called “Pieces of Activist History: Betty Peterson Protest Buttons.” Produced by students in English 2242 (Themes in Women’s Writing), these…

  • AAU Teaching Showcase: Voicing Interpretations

    Each year, the Association of Atlantic Universities sponsors a Teaching Showcase, a conference on a specific theme dealing with teaching and learning. This year’s conference theme at Mount Allison University in Sackville New Brunswick was “Assessment: Teaching, Learning, Quality.”  As always, the conference provided plenty of opportunities to reflect on what I do in the…

  • Atlantic Universities: Teaching Showcase 2013

    The Association of Atlantic Universities holds a Teaching Showcase every fall. This year the conference will be held at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick. As the CFP states, “The Teaching Showcase provides a forum for people to reflect on teaching practice, discuss issues related to university teaching and learning, and share teaching strategies.”…