TEACHSOC: Re: reading per week? Med Soc book rec?

[Del Thomas Ph D]

Andi, No written material comes to mind....at present....however, IMO the system is broken at many levels.  The ER (not on TV)  The facility is covered but the Dr.s are not.  The CT Scan is but the reader is not while the patient has no $ responsibility the facility will balance bill and even send the account to collection. Because each hospital contact is given a different account # the problem mounts and they can not flag individuals to prevent the same problem from being repeated..... Yesterday my 94 year old MIL back in the hospital.... had a low pulsar reading Ox saturation....when they moved her from the ER they removed the oxygen... 5 hour later they put her back on Ox..... when we asked about a reading first....we were told that was a different dept and that they would be along later..... hospital beds are another problem.... Most of the docs I know want to get their patients out of the hospital  STAT Even with a very diverse staff and caring....it doesn't work. Del   Andi Stepnick wrote: Thanks to all who have written in. Anyone who'd like can send syllabi or assignments. I like what I've done in the past--typically 3-4 articles a week...which is about 100 pages of *thick* reading. I'm trying to mix it up a bit. The books I'm looking at are easy reads, IMO. I read Spirit and loved it. It's our Freshman common book this year, too. The students I'm working with are pretty sophisticated and I think they'd offer a useful critique of the ethnocentrism that's seen by some health care professionals in the book. My sense is that while some Drs, etc are ethnocentric, many of HCPs *try* with such passion to understand Lia's family and Hmong culture. We have a large Mexican population here...and the largest Kurdish community in the US...as well as many other immigrants. Spirit will allow a nice parallel, I think, to thinking about working with "different" groups of people. (The same can be said regarding assumptions of class, etc.) Other recommended books?? Andi -------------- Every object, every being, Is a jar of delight. Be a connoisseur. ~Rumi~ Life is raw material. We are artisans. We can sculpt our existence into something beautiful, or debase it into ugliness. It's in our hands. ~Cathy Better~ Things which matter most should never be at the mercy of things which matter least. ~Johann von Goethe~ Dr. Andi Stepnick Associate Professor and Chair of Sociology 300-C Wheeler Humanities Building Belmont University Nashville TN 37212-3757 Direct Line: (615) 460-6249 Office Manager: (615) 460-5505 Sociology Fax: (615) 460-6997 ----- Original Message ----- From: Michael Johnston <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Wednesday, July 19, 2006 10:24 am Subject: TEACHSOC: Re: reading per week? Med Soc book rec? Dear Andi, I've never used Spirit, but some of my colleagues who have were somewhatdisappointed. I spoke with Vanderbilt a couple of years ago about this book, and they highly recommended a companion book of case stories: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0826514316/103-9289898- 6432617?v=glance&n=283155 I'd be interested to hear things go for you with the books you eventually adopt. As for reading, when I teach Sociology of Health and Medicine, I assignabout 50-100 pages a week (usually in the form of 3 journal articles). To really get students to engage the readings, I required a two page paper on a specified topic. I had students email me a draft due beforeclass and then the final version two days after class. My own impression is that these position papers substantially increased student's engagement of the ideas in the text. If you are interested, I can send you the syllabus off-line. Best, Michael -----Original Message----- From: teachsoc@googlegroups.com [mailto:teachsoc@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Andi Stepnick Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2006 6:52 AM Cc: teachsoc Subject: TEACHSOC: reading per week? Med Soc book rec? Hi All, I am totally revamping my Health, Illness, and the Body course this termas I want to try using monographs for the first time as opposed to a reader. (Some sections will be based on journal articles.) At this moment (and things can change), I plan to start with The SpiritCatches You and You Fall Down and I'll probably end with MountainsBeyond Mountains (since it's a real "hope giver"). In between, who knows? I've read so many great books. I'm considering, among many: Imagining Robert: My Brother, Madness and Survival: A Memoir Mama Might Be Better Off Dead Great Influenza Pathologies of Power.among others) The Body Silent What books worked best for you? Also, what do you find reasonable in terms of the amount of pages per week for an upper division course? (Our majors are quite good and hardworkers.) We meet once a week for 2.5 hours. I would think I could ask for 200-300 pgs a week. Andi -------------- Every object, every being, Is a jar of delight. Be a connoisseur. ~Rumi~ Life is raw material. We are artisans. We can sculpt our existence intosomething beautiful, or debase it into ugliness. It's in our hands. ~Cathy Better~ Things which matter most should never be at the mercy of things which matter least. ~Johann von Goethe~ Dr. Andi Stepnick Associate Professor and Chair of Sociology 300-C Wheeler Humanities Building Belmont University Nashville TN 37212-3757 Direct Line: (615) 460-6249 Office Manager: (615) 460-5505 Sociology Fax: (615) 460-6997 ----- Original Message ----- From: Del Thomas Ph D <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Monday, July 17, 2006 1:05 pm Subject: TEACHSOC: Re: In-class discussion vs. WebCT? Andi, There seems to be a set of basic complaints about on line work...... from many different quarters. Several lists have been swamped with complaints of too much email.... also some students will reject or be offended by academia barging in on or taking over their place/medium..... it is not rational......I gave up trying to understand it. Then there is always the elephant stepped on my note book.... hard drive.... monitor...... We are after all dealing with creative teens.... You may want to consider the following collaborative learning model While most of the material/content in sociology is abstract random it is presented in linear form....single threaded so to speak...divide the class into groups...working simultaneously on different threads ......and sharing in class....and out of class via a list... this replicates the way the brain works and the way we need to think......... Each group can process a different and yet related topic....with individuals producing individual portfolios You may or may not want to tie it all together.... One class made a movie....frequent rewrites produced adaptive learning and abstract random thinking...... Also the presence of a product...ownership was important..... be for warned other faculty may complain that students are spending too much time on your course....or even worse bring in connections from sociology to other courses. Life is risky. :-) Del Andi Stepnick wrote: Hi everyone, Over the last five years, in my Intro Soc classes, I've gotten rid of my of my paper assignments (except one in my course linked with biology). Instead, I've had students do online discussion posting in WebCT two> times a week. I like WebCT for many reasons (e.g., it requires some constancy in working with the material, it allows students to apply Soc ideas to real world situations, it provides an opportunity for them to hear alternate points of view, provides me with a way to give feedback> for all to hear, can be fun). Although it seems that students are online (e.g., facebook, myspace)> > **all the time,** twice weekly WebCT posts seems like too much for many of them. (Or maybe that's just standard complaining about "work.) I understand. It can be scary.coming up with ideas for all to see, declaring an opinion, using sociological ideas, and whatnot. Similarly,> reading/responding to students posts requires constancy on my part that reading a slew of papers at the end of the term does not. (I still> > review their online portfolios at the end, but briefly.) But WebCT seems *so much better* for them than papers in many regards> (e.g., writing skills). So, I've kept with it. However, the complaining is wearing me down and I've pondered getting rid of it this term. (Not to cater to complainers but to be a better guardian of my own time.) I may go back to papers (possibly group papers to encourage dialogue and reduce grading time). I'm also considering using my online discussion> questions in class and adding a larger discussion component. Currently, I do some lecture/concept review along with some class discussion (and films, activities, etc). Students say the amount of lecture we do now is just right.it confirms if they do/don't understand> concepts, etc. (Sometimes my cynical side wonders if they are just not working with the concepts enough on their own.) Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions? Is adding more small group discussion worth cutting lecture? If so, how do you ensure students work with concepts on their own time? Do you> give quizzes or homework? Would the time tradeoff be worth it? (That is, giving up online discussion for grading HW, esp since I've already> got the WebCT stuff together.) If I do group discussion, would you suggest keeping discussion groups> the same throughout the semester or mixing them up? Should they have to turn in a written response to help keep them on task? Should students> grade their own participation and that of their group members? Or, should they simply get credit for doing it (which would certainly be easier on me). Part of me hates the idea getting rid of WebCT but I think it might be good to try something new. Thoughts? Ideas? Time saving tips? Thanks, everyone. :-) Andi PS: I would note that our online registration system notes that WebCT is required and students certainly talk to one another. So, it's not a big surprise or anything. Andi -------------- Every object, every being, Is a jar of delight. Be a connoisseur. ~Rumi~ Life is raw material. We are artisans. We can sculpt our existence into something beautiful, or debase it into ugliness. It's in our hands.> > ~Cathy Better~ Things which matter most should never be at the mercy of things which> matter least. ~Johann von Goethe~ Dr. Andi Stepnick Associate Professor and Chair of Sociology 300-C Wheeler Humanities Building Belmont University Nashville TN 37212-3757 Direct Line: (615) 460-6249 Office Manager: (615) 460-5505 Sociology Fax: (615) 460-6997 ----- Original Message ----- From: Marty Schwartz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Sunday, July 16, 2006 9:25 pm Subject: TEACHSOC: help, please Hi -- for reasons I don't completely understand (I thought you got immunity from new preps after 30 years!), I will be teaching a senior seminar next year on criminal justice and morality (in other words, should these things be against the law). We will be using a text that covers drugs, prostitution, abortion, pornography, homosexuality and gambling. I like to have students present at least two sides of issues, and then have a class debate. Probably I will direct the abortion debate to stem cell theory research, and use queer theory heavily to avoid the homosexuality and deviance quagmire. If anyone has seen any good articles, short cheap books, videos, class exercises, fuzzy dice or whatever, please let me know. Has anyone used the video Southern Comfort? Perhaps I could do sex trafficking, but I'd have to see who is in the class -- I did a lot on it in my violence against women class last year. I'm sure you could post any answers, but private suggestions to [EMAIL PROTECTED] would be just as appreciated. Thanks in advance.> >> Marty Martin D. Schwartz Professor of Sociology Ohio University 119 Bentley Annex Athens, OH 45701 740.593.1366 (voice) 740.593.1365 (fax) --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Teaching Sociology" group. 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