Professor Sabir's Posse

Professor Sabir I think you should make class more socially interactive. I think that would help because it would kneed everybody into the same dough. When we become invested in something together (almost like a team) then I think interaction (with the blog and in class participation in general) will naturally increase. Class is detached and does not flow naturally. I can sense your frustrations when you try to promote discourse and it doesn't happen. I don't think its because of you or your content but because people are cut off from each other and therefore from the experience in general.
 

So what do you suggest Thomas, more group work? More presentations? What kind of team-building activities do you suggest? We could do more collaborative writing...more reading circles....
 

Well, I agree with Thomas. We don't connect well. I mean, there are a lucky few who have friends, or made friends in the class, but there are others that are left out. Reading circles do not really help in my opinion. We read, and that is it. The interviews help to tell you the truth because we get to know the people more. We can also see if we have anything in common. That's just my part.
 

Where I work, we are required to do team-builders and other activities to gain a closer relationship with our co-workers and boss as well.

Interviews
Icebreaker Games
- two truths and a lie
- any mini games that have a consequence at the end like "if you lose, tell us one embarrassing moment that happened to you."
Energizing Games
- Question Game
- Big Booty (name isn't bad. Don't think nasty.)
- Shuffle your Buns

These are a few of the games from work.
 

Umm I don't know thats a hard question. Now that I really stop and think about this, a writing class would be hard because writing is something that you ultimately have to do on your own. It has to be your own creation at the end of the day. The only things that could involve group work would be collaborative researching and peer review/criticism. Both things come before and after the actual writing process.

So it looks like we must start here within these two things as it seems to be what we are limited to as per making the process of writing more social and less individualistic.

It seems to me that, though writing is a task for the individual, the things that inspire what will be written come from many different sources.

I guess I mean to say that writing is ultimately a compilation of inspirations. So even though we have to write alone, the process of inspiration can be shared.

The only thing I can think of is to focus more on content/creativity (what should I write about?) than on the actual writing process (grammar, structure, punctuation, whatever)

Ideally, people in class would share their dispositions amongst each other, and through this mixing of ideas, inspiration for writing can occur.

The class would be centered more around sharing your dispositions. That would be one of the primary goals.

So issues would have to hit close to home so that everyone could have a say. not something obscure.

I suggest a class centered around this theme: what is your role in the community? What is the community? What happens in the community? What should/shouldn't happen in the community?

What we are asking in this class is simple: what are you/who are you/where are you/where do you come from/where are you going?

This is something everyone can answer because everyone is part of this community and plays some kind of unique role within it.

everyone can add something to this during class. everyone can have a say because these are ultimately questions about the nature of yourself...and to make class more social, you must share yourself. It would be important for each person in class to identify themselves and share who they are and what their unique role in the community is. This would help the rest of the class as a whole understand just who the people who live with and struggle with in the same community are. Thus giving them greater insight into what the community is in general.

The idea here is to stimulate an awareness of the self as it exists within the community and once this foundation is put down the writing process can then be implemented as a way to bring these ideas to life.

The writing process is only a container, or a vehicle to these ideas and if these ideas are not fully fleshed out then the container or vehicle (writing) will be hollow and ultimately useless.