Week 13 brings the last lecture with new material and more time to work on the poster. Well, that was the plan. Several complications got in the way. Unlucky 13! First, as the semester winded down, I was worried about the surprise Dean class inspection I was told about. While… Read more“Cultural Anthropology Week 13: Not According to Plan”
Tag: teaching
Cultural Anthropology Week 12: Getting Very Near the End
How to cover globalization in two and a half hours? I broke up the topic into three parts. The first is the lead up to world systems theory, delving again into how anthropology is conducted to show how the field has switched from viewing cultures as contained systems to seeing… Read more“Cultural Anthropology Week 12: Getting Very Near the End”
Cultural Anthropology Week 11: Make It On the Run
The second exam brings an opportunity to work on my exam-making skills. The first exam had some things I wanted to change. I might have gotten too into making the test go from easy to hard, with easy being really easy (“What is anthropology?”) and the hardest was very hard… Read more“Cultural Anthropology Week 11: Make It On the Run”
Cultural Anthropology Week 10: Preparing for the Future
Week 10 (!?) is a shakeup of the usual class schedule. For the first time, even including the first class, there was no new lecture material. Instead, the first hour was a review for the second exam, and the rest of the time was poster work time. When I was… Read more“Cultural Anthropology Week 10: Preparing for the Future”
Cultural Anthropology Week 9: An Important Day
This week brings what I consider to be the most important lecture of the course. The topic is race as a cultural or social construct. Since race has such a large effect on people in our culture, it is important to know the current state of research on human variation… Read more“Cultural Anthropology Week 9: An Important Day”
Cultural Anthropology Week 8: On to Bigger Things
After spring break, we started the second half of the course. The second half brings a change in both the lecture material and the assignments. I have gone over almost every major subdivision of culture (e.g., religion, social organization, gender, subsistence), so the remaining lectures zoom out further to talk… Read more“Cultural Anthropology Week 8: On to Bigger Things”
Cultural Anthropology Week 7: Halfway There
This week brought by first attempt at having a discussion on some scientific articles. I think it was a rewarding activity, but definitely one in which I need more experience. Thinking back to my student days, I was the person who had little to say in class discussions. In fact,… Read more“Cultural Anthropology Week 7: Halfway There”
Cultural Anthropology Week 6: Post-Game
So how did the test go? After grading the tests, I looked for patterns in the results. Everyone got the first question (“What is anthropology?”) correct, so that was good. Beyond that, results varied. My last two multiple choice questions were missed by a majority of the students. I knew the… Read more“Cultural Anthropology Week 6: Post-Game”
Cultural Anthropology Week 5: Test Crafting
This class, the fifth, started with the sole midterm exam. It is also the first graded thing of this semester. It was also the first test I ever made, which I found kind of exciting. There were more variables for me to consider in designing a test than I had… Read more“Cultural Anthropology Week 5: Test Crafting”
Cultural Anthropology Week 4: Pre-Game
Week 4 of the class was about social organization, and oh –review for the exam that is next week. I split the class into halves, with the exam review in the latter part. Breaking news happened before the lecture started, though. The country, and possibly the world, was gripped by white… Read more“Cultural Anthropology Week 4: Pre-Game”