Be sure to check out Bad Ideas about AI and Writing: Generative Practices for Teaching, Learning, and Communication, from the WAC Clearinghouse. I had the privilege of writing the Afterword! wacclearinghouse.org/books/perspe...

"What in the Holiday Inn Express is this?" Has to be one of my favorite @jonathancapehart.bsky.social statements 💯💯💯

Everyone can enjoy an angry taco

Here's my IWAC presentation: Role-Playing with AI: Simulating Real-World Writing Challenges Across the Disciplines. Everything is available from hoki.es/iwac2025. There are slides! a handout! a transcript! a video! B.8 at 5:30 PM Eastern/3:30 PM Mountain. Lory Student Center, Room 322. #iwac25

Here are the slides and transcript for my #CWPA25 presentation (E session, Room 5): “Resist! Persist! Exist! Finding WPA Spaces Outside the Hierarchies of Academia” » hoki.es/cwpa2025

My very, unpolished #ATTW25 presentation: bit.ly/4jNc6sl

For my new career as an editorial cartoonist open.substack.com/pub/tengrrl/...

I slept all weekend again. Did anything happen?

The Dogs of War Signal Attack during WWII. Midjourney prompt: a still from a 1940s hollywood black & white movie, with a group of rough-housing stray dogs messaging on their cell phones. In the background, U.S. planes are bombing a German city. The war-weary dogs are controlling the U.S. attack.

Here are the slides and transcript (in the speaker notes) from my presentation, Crafting a Lasting Impact: Active Learning and Ethical AI Integration in Technical Communication at Southern Regional Composition Conference: tracigardner.github.io/conferences/...

On the Virginia Tech BOV agenda, Mar 24-25 (pg 125): BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the university's Office for Inclusive Strategy and Excellence is hereby dissolved . . . . bov.vt.edu/assets/Mater...

Found a DEI news article I liked, and then I noticed the author: Elaine Maimon, no wonder. thephiladelphiacitizen.org/were-under-a...

Saw this NPR article on 'ghost employees': www.npr.org/2025/03/06/g... my mind combined it with employers trying to convince employees that they are making bad choices. RESULT: ghostlighting: when you try to convince your employees you think they are ghosting. [etymology: gaslighting + ghosting]

I have just sent off my proposal for the Southern Regional Composition Conference: Crafting a Lasting Impact: Active Learning and Ethical AI Integration in Technical Communication. They're due today: docs.google.com/document/d/1... Conference is virtual and free this year!

Would you like a winter/spring card? It may be Valentine's, St. Pat's, Mushroom Appreciation Day, or any other random day, but I need your information to get one to you. Share your mailing address in the form: forms.gle/rnscaUuwnm73... I have to actually know you. Not sending cards to randoms.

This excited me as a stairs-challenged person: Google Maps now does a better job of highlighting stairs (2 minute read): 9to5google.com/2024/11/26/g... Good starting place for a writing assignment on recommending ways to increase accessibility on campus/in local communities, etc. #a11y

Important questions: How can I convince websites that I do not live in Richmond or Charlottesville? How can I block this annoying "Would you like local results?" popup? What the devil is a lash appointment? Why won't the damn kids get out of my yard?

Remember when "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" tried to teach us about tariffs and no one was paying attention

Get to know me! 😍 I will post the question and answer in the thread for access.

My Bluesky Follow/FollowBack evaluation system: Who is this person? Do I know them? Do I know anyone who knows them? Wait, followed by @roxanegay.bsky.social? Say no more. Click. Follow.

If we can go back in time 11 years, I have a WWE & teaching piece for you all: What If We Treated Teachers Like Wrestlers? from Bedford Bits / Macmillan Higher Ed. www.tengrrl.com/blog/2013/03... Not quite was @tomsura.bsky.social asked for, but it's what I have.

I am awake and online. Let the rhetoric begin!

I need to learn Yiddish expressions. I am shpilkes sounds so much more interesting than I anxious.

It’s Okay to Use AI—and to run the dishwasher twice. Some thoughts this morning, especially pertinent for those of us who battle perfectionism. www.tengrrl.com/blog/2024/07...

This assignment, by Paul Fyfe, is from the TextGenEd collection in the WAC Clearinghouse Repository: wac.colostate.edu/.../the-term... "This assignment asks students to use an accessible language model to write their term papers—with the goal of fooling the instructor."

My guide for class groups is (finally) here. I hope to say more later. For now, the goals are to share some transparency about the system and, more importantly, to put Cate Denial's pedagogy of kindness & Bill Hart-Davidson's group support ideas into action. tracigardner.github.io/TechComm/gro...

Teams, oh, Teams, please hear my screams! You break my heart when'er you start! Just let me add my class in bulk! Oh, Teams, you're mad! You make me sulk! Teams, oh, Teams, you smash my dreams! I fall apart when'er you start!

Great-looking book to support the "why" behind a humane approach to collaboration that focuses on empathy and group support in student groups: Rice-Bailey & Chong's Interpersonal skills for group collaboration : creating high-performance teams in the classroom and the workplace (2023).

The guy on the radio is delighted to be coming to us. This level of delight is more than I can bear at this hour of the morning.

The post on using parody in class by @mikertrice.bsky.social inspired me to dig up the good old ROFL the Clown proposal: 3764f15.tracigardner.com/wp-content/u... I had more time for fun writing back then. Kind of jealous of past me right now.

What if I created group guidelines for the best possible scenario instead of rules for the worst situation? What if we treat a missing student as someone who needs support, someone to take care of? www.tengrrl.com/blog/2023/10...

I want to teach AI for Technical Communications, which will be all about how to take advantage of AI to improve communication of science and technical topics. I'm pretty sure the Honor Code people would disapprove.

I'm #ungrading with a contract style system. Everything is Complete/Incomplete. Here are the details and my course grade-level expectations: tracigardner.github.io/TechComm/sem...

Course plans and syllabi don't need grammar or spelling checks. They need reality checks.

How I updated discussion prompts to add relevance to the Tech Writing course I'm teaching and add purpose to the discussion: www.tengrrl.com/blog/2023/09... Includes links to the two revised discussion prompts.

Weekly reminder about the Team Rhetoric feed!

Made a visual overview of the projects students will collaborate on this term: www.tengrrl.com/blog/2023/09... Transcript for the image is on the webpage.

Why is there such a big difference between what I want to do as a teacher and what I actually have the energy to pull off? Irrational answers only.

So there is actually best practice for doing alt text of charts and tables and things. One problem with a lot of alt text best practice is it's not created with social media in mind, but this seems to give good guidance.

I've been thinking about how I want to tackle ChatGPT etc in my classes. New blog post: catherinedenial.org/blog/uncateg...

I think I have all the annoying things figured out for the fall. Some stuff is unchanged, but I rethought group setup to deal with "free riders" & added assignment wrappers to shift thoughts from products to process (and improvement) https://www.tengrrl.com/blog/2023/08/16/wrapping-things-up/

Officially got a Team Rhetoric feed up: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:u4s6ybdap5c5tpy6m4ftqevo/feed/aaaob7mouqxj2. Go subscribe and like it! I’m slowly adding folks. Fill out this Google form to add yourself to the feed: https://forms.gle/tXkZt7b7sTT2TubP8.

Turns out I'm backtracking on some of my course decisions now that I've read Ellen Carillo's book on Contract Grading. Here's a bit on my Temporary Signs of Progress » https://www.tengrrl.com/blog/2023/08/15/temporary-signs-of-progress/

I may have all of the basic decisions figured out for my fall course. Just finished sketching out A Tentative Effort Expectations Contract Chart » https://www.tengrrl.com/blog/2023/08/14/a-tentative-effort-expectations-contract-chart/

Today’s the day when I realize that I’m focusing on all the wrong things as I try to figure out the assessment contracts for my class. Thoughts on a new system for Weighing Student Work » https://www.tengrrl.com/blog/2023/08/13/weighing-student-work/

Like or Dislike? Assessment for this Fall: More brainstorming on how to set things up. Spoiler: Nothing decided yet. https://www.tengrrl.com/blog/2023/08/12/like-or-dislike-assessment-for-this-fall/

I asked ChatGPT to “Rewrite the song The Children Are the Future from the perspective of someone who is certain that the children are mini-demons.” The results are spectacular satire. https://www.tengrrl.com/blog/2023/08/11/chatgpt-revises-the-children-are-the-future/

More wrestling with the Late Policy & Grace Period Options. I think I've figured out that I've been going about things all wrong. https://www.tengrrl.com/blog/2023/08/11/late-policy-grace-period-options/

The Tricky Focal Question Solved? I may have just figured out how to choose topics that will work regardless of major! https://www.tengrrl.com/blog/2023/08/10/ramblings-3-the-tricky-focal-question-solved/

Made the questionable decision not to go to bed in order to go pick up Rx sunglasses at 2:10. Still working on course. Figuring out the grace period is going to kill me. Used to being open, so "whatever you need" w/due dates. Group work & dependencies of one project on the next make it impossible.