My invited contribution to First Five went up today. I opted to share my “Frequent Five” and “Favorite Five” websites. This is an interesting project — check it out!
First Five asks artists, academics and theorists the first five websites that they visit each day. Do the websites we read shape, describe and identify who we are? How do we choose to visit these sites?
I created “DJ Academe” as as an alter-ego for web curation. Pre-Pinterest, I had searched high and low for the most elegant way to save and sort the videos I was finding for teaching sociology. I decided to use a website, reminding myself that I was running the site for myself and not for the public. My aim was to build an archive of quality, relevant material without getting distracted by an attempt to play to an audience.
Two years later, I have posted well over 1,000 videos and expanded DJ Academe’s web presence. I still find the sites quite useful and I enjoy receiving the small yet steady stream of web traffic.
You can find DJ Academe at the following links:
L-R Junaid Sulahry, Laurie Chancey, Rachelle Fawcett
My first semester at Asnuntuck was a great experience! Our December 2012 newsletter (PDF) shows some of my activities. Above, I am pictured in class wearing a head scarf with guest speakers I contacted through the Muslim Coalition of Connecticut.
I have accepted a position as tenure-track Instructor of Sociology at Asnuntuck Community College! I will be primarily teaching courses and coordinating the service-learning component of a course in diversity required of all students.
I’m excited for this new chapter to begin in my career! My experiences with ACC have been great so far and I’m looking forward to getting to know my new students and colleagues.
WORD CLOUD (only “teacher” and “class” removed) – Click on image to enlarge.
WORD CLOUD (several nondescriptive words removed) – Click on image to enlarge.
I taught approximately 1,700 students during my three years as a sociology teacher at Louisiana State University.
This is a word cloud of the most frequently-occurring words in my official written teaching evaluations, Fall 2009 – Spring 2012.
I altered the original text to correct spelling.
My LSU evaluations elsewhere:
This semester I was honored for my work in the classroom by both faculty and student groups.
April 29 – Presented with the LSU College of Humanities and Social Sciences Advisory Council Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award (pictured) at the LSU H&SS Honors Convocation. Candidates for this award were nominated by their departments, and the winner was chosen by the H&SS Advisory Council based on strength of experience, teaching philosophy, and student evaluations.
April 21 – Presented with the LSU Sociology Society Award for Excellence in Teaching by a Graduate Student at the LSU Sociology Spring BBQ. The winner was chosen based on a tally of email votes from undergraduate sociology majors and minors.
Ad appeared in LSU campus newspaper The Daily Reveille, April 23, 2012
Full text: Sociology instructor works toward Ph.D. without high school diploma by Emily Herrington
The concept is called unschooling, or child-led learning. Chancey said the philosophy behind unschooling is that children are natural learners and they will do so without being forced. Unschoolers believe that children learn best by simply following their interests.
Chancey said her background is what led her to develop a love for sociology.
She defines sociology as observing social life from a detached perspective, which is how she felt growing up — looking through the window as friends and peers experienced the institution.
“Every single thing I did has led me to this point. And that was the theory behind unschooling,” she said.
