Dustin Kidd

Life is a combination of emotional problems and math problems. The same is true of grading. But, as much as possible, I like to insist that emotional problems are not my problem. I make grades a very straightforward math equation by using grading rubrics. A grading rubric is system of accounting for every point that can be earned in the class. At the end of the semester, a final grade is submitted in letter form, but the letter is generally equal to a numerical percentage. So all (or nearly all) classes can be constructed around a 100 point system. The first step in the rubric is also often the last step for many instructors. That's the step you take on the syllabus of proportioning various assignments into the 100 percentage points. Here's a hypothetical example: Attendance: 10% Participation: 10% Midterm: 25% Final: 25% Journals: 15% Paper: 15% Usually we use numbers divisible by 5 or 10 to keep it simple. A grading rubric forces you to then account

1) What questions do you have? The typical way of gauging whether your students are still with you, and prepared to move forward, is to ask "Any questions?" That's a yes or no question and in many cases students will simply answer 'no' to themselves and otherwise sit there silently. Instead, try "What questions do you have?" It presumes that students do have questions and puts the impetus on the students to identify the questions they actually have. 2) Silence The goal of the classroom experience is to engage students intellectually. If you're giving students something to think about, they're going to need time to think about it, too. Silence feels very awkward to the person standing up front but it's often barely noticed by the audience, especially if the silence is preceded by something worth thinking about. So after you make a point, take a long pause. If you ask students what questions they have, take a long pause to let them

dustinkidd.blogspot.com (videos will not appear in facebook, so click on the blog for the full post) Like my reason posts on popular culture, this is focused on Glee.  In last week's episode, Kurt came out to his dad, after joining the football team and scoring the winning field goal.  It's striking that the usual story of a painful coming out followed by endless abuse and mocking is here replaced with coming out as an inner torment that is greeted with support by surrounding characters.  In other words, the focus is less on presenting gay characters who can serve as role models to gay youth, and more on presenting positive straight characters who can offer a welcoming environment to the kid coming out.  These characters present new role models for straight people. In the first clip below (advance to the .55 second mark), Kurt pulls Finn aside to ask a question. Finn, not realizing that Kurt is asking for help with football, intercedes and says: "Thanks, but I already hav

dustinkidd.blogspot.com What is it? Readily available funds that you can use to pay for unexpected needs in life. One of the biggest things to plan for now is the possibility of being unemployed. When to do it? Right away, if you don't have any emergency funds at all. Once you have $1000 set aside, go back to working on your high interest debts (esp. credit cards). After those are paid off, then built the fund up. How much do I need? Advice ranges from $1000 to 8 months of expenses. I'd aim for 6 months. How do I calculate 6 months of expenses? It's not half of your annual salary. Don't calculate your emergency needs based on your salary, calculate them based on your expenses. If you have a budget, you can do this quickly (and if you don't have a budget, you'll be able to make one quickly after planning for your emergency fund). Start with your fixed expenses like rent, cell phone bill, loan payments, etc. Then, estimate your variable expenses like f

dustinkidd.blogspot.com CNN on Glee's pilot strategy: Glee banks on risky strategy LA Times on last week's episode: Glee: Ah, fellas! Calgary Herald on best fall bets: Fall Season Survival Fresh Air interviews the director and producer Ryan Murphy: From Nip/Tuck to High School Glee NYTimes on last week's episode: Glee, Brought to you by the letter C TV Guide on Fox's Use of Tweet-peats: Fox to Air Twee-Peats of Glee and Fringe TV Guide on the director's cut: Glee Director's Cut: What's to Come? And yes, you guessed it: The Gleeblog

dustinkidd.blogspot.com Glee feels like it was written by a graduate from my course on popular culture. I tell my students to look for the racial and ethnic minorities, look for the women, look for the disabled people, look for the gays and lesbians. On a many shows on television, these characters are not present or they appear very infrequently. A lot of hype surrounds the occasional exceptions, but they really are exceptions. Glee is one more of those exceptions, but it's striking for its inclusiveness. The initial Glee club--New Directions!--includes one kid in a wheelchair, one kid who is probably gay, one Black woman and one Asian woman (who is probably lesbian), along with the perfect straight White male and female leads. This isn't a show that argues that we're really all part of the mainstream. The key moment in the pilot episode is when Finn, the male lead who has been recruited from the football teams, declares that "we're all losers!" The show

dustinkidd.blogspot.com The New York Times has a nice front page article today, September 9th, on the dangers of debit cards. The problem? Overdrafts. I got into this problem a few years with Wachovia. A deposit that I made didn't clear for a few days, even though the deposit was recorded. In the meantime, I made 4 small purchases, each for less than $3. But because the bank argued that the money wasn't available, I incurred FOUR overdraft fees of $34 each. I was mortified. I called to complain and the bank refused to help. On a graduate student budget, it took me a long time to recover. To prevent that from happening again, I signed up for overdraft protection. Under this service, any overdrafts would come from my Wachovia credit card. What wasn't explained to me was that there was a $30 service charge every time this kicks in. In addition, the bank then collected finance charges as well, unless I paid if off by the end of the month. Since I was carrying a lar

dustinkidd.blogspot.com This is a summary of my 2007 article "Harry Potter and the Functions of Popular Culture" from The Journal of Popular Culture . I argue that the basic functions of popular culture today are the same basic functions of crime, as described by Emile Durkheim in The Rules of Sociological Method in 1895. Briefly, these social functions are to: produce social norms, establish social boundaries, create rituals that generate social solidarity, generate innovation, and pave the way for social change. It's tempting to give specific examples from film, television or music for each, but that would be misleading. Popular culture accomplishes these functions through blunt ubiquitous force, not through acute specificity. We don't turn to one TV show for our norms and another for our innovations. What Not to Wear may in fact tell us what to wear, but we also figure out how to dress ourselves from all of the other media we consume. Most people will never wa

I was teaching CW Mills's "The Sociological Imagination" this week, to kick off my seminar on Sociological Theory.  This is a little primer that Mills (pictured) wrote on how to think about the world from the sociological perspective.  Most issues can be thought about from multiple perspectives, including the sociological imagination, but for some reason the sociological imagination is much harder to embrace than other perspectives.  Comte anticipated this by suggesting that human things would be the last aspects of the world to be taken up by science.  The current housing issue (it takes a lot for me to say crisis about anything) offers a nice example.  The main competitor to the sociological imagination on this topic (and many others) is American individualism.  American individualism argues that you make your own reality through your work and through your choices.  People who do well are presumed to work hard and make good decisions.  With regard to homes and mortgages

In order to keep my finances on the up and up, and to make sure I can save what I need to save, I set a monthly budget and I adhere to it by tracking every penny I spend.  To do this, I developed an excel spreadsheet with multiple worksheets.  I have 7 tabs in my spreadsheet: Checking, Cash, Savings, Fidelity, TIAA-Cref, Budget, and Income. At the start of the month, I outline my anticipated spending in the budget, and my anticipated income in the income tab.  Whenever possible I get very specific in my budget.  For instance, I don't know how much I will spend on groceries, so I estimate, but I do know that I spend $4.95 every Monday at the bakery for my loaf of bread.  So Bread has it's own budget line ($4.95 X # of Mondays in the month). Then, I open this document every day to record every purchase made with my checking account, or with cash.  ATM transactions are debits in the "Checking" tab that align with credits in the "Cash" tab.  The tally in the cas

You don't see a lot of trans men and women in popular culture, except as rare one-off characters who are used as comic relief. But that is changing. When Mac, on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia , met a trans woman named Carmen, it initially felt like the same old shit. But things got more interesting as Mac started dating Carmen and struggled with the tension between his feelings and the pressures he felt from his friends. I really like the character Alexis on Ugly Betty , played by Rebecca Romijn. The show only occasionally focused on her identity as a trans woman, and didn't hesitate to make her beautiful and powerful. It did explore her dating life in one episode, as well as her friendships with other women, but it did this is a fairly nuanced and interesting way. The new trans woman on TV is Leiomy Maldonado, one of the dancers in Vogue Evolution , a group that is competing on MTV's America's Best Dance Crew . It will be interesting to watch how she pres

Connecting the dots in today's New York Times , I count at least four stories about national borders and the people who move across them.  A federal judge has dismissed a suit against a new law requiring federal contractors to use a system called E-Verify to confirm immigration status of its workers.  The law goes into effect on Sept. 8. A sheriff in a Texas border-county has been sent to prison for assisting Mexican drug smugglers in exchange for bribes.  Advocates for immigrants rights have petitioned the administration to abandon a program of cooperation with state police on immigration enforcement.  Afghan boys, refugees from their homes , are spreading across European cities.  Palestinians continue a five-year protest against a barrier that has taken half of its land and given it to an Israeli settlement.  It would tempting to say that the problem of the twenty-first century is the problem of the borderline, but with environmental destruction already in play, I think tha

I'm in a list-making mood. Here's my current fashion favorites. T-Shirts: Obey . I buy them at South Moon Under . I'm eying this one now. For white T-shirts, I like Calvin Klein and for plain color t-shirts, I like American Apparel . Jeans: I think Diesels are the best. I also like Joe's Jeans . Dress Shirts: My best ones are TailorByrd . They have contrasting collars and cuffs. Shoes: Just bought a pair of Via Spiga ($50 at Daffys). But I prefer Unlisted , by Kenneth Cole. Sneakers: Really like Timberlands . Socks: American Apparel makes great socks. The black 3-stripe calf length can function as dress sock or athletic socks, and they don't leave black fuzz on your feet like most dress socks. Watches: Love my Nixon . Hoodies: I like both Obey and American Apparel . Wallets: Gama-GO Short-sleeve button-downs: I have several of these, but the only one that keeps looking crisp is by Banana Republic . Underwear: Diesel and 2Xist . Rainjacket

Need a plan for getting out of debt and onto the financial high ground? Follow this plan, in this order , and be patient. Participate in your company's matching 401K or 403B. Put $1000 in a savings account and don't touch it unless there is an emergency. Pay off your credit cards, personal loans and car loans, highest interest to lowest. Go back to the $1000 and start building it up to an emergency fund that you could live off of for 8 months. I'll blog more about this in the future. Keep this in a savings account where you can get to it easily. Contribute the maximum amount to a Roth IRA. For most of us, that means $5000/year. Save for and buy a house, preferably without a mortgage or with 20% down to get the best rate. Pay off your student loans. Increase your contributions to your 401K or 403B up to the maximum. Pay off your mortgage. Simply ignore the steps that don't apply to you. Obviously, if you have no job or your employer doesn't match funds, then s

I recently joined the advisory committee for Temple's new major art prize, the Jack Wolgin International Competition . This prize awards $150,000 to an international artist, chosen from a pool of select nominees. Three finalists are invited to share their work in an exhibition that runs throughout October. Panels and other events dot the calendar across the month. Near the end of the exhibit, all 3 artists come in for a 3 day artists-in-residency. At the end of the residency, a winner is announced. The winner gives a public lecture the following day. My role on the committee is to direct an impact assessment, examining the prize's effects on Temple University, the Philadelphia art world, and the artists themselves. This is tricky work, and I'll share some of our research design here, in hopes of getting some feedback and fresh ideas. Measuring Impacts on the University: Our first and easiest measurement here is to track media hits that are generated because of the a

I've added two new teaching tools to my regime this semester. 1. Skitch . Skitch is both a desktop application that lets you capture images easily, and a website that allows for easy image sharing . I'll use it this semester to capture images that we can discuss in class, and to take pictures of the blackboard at the end of class (to capture interesting brainstorming sessions). I can upload the pic via email, straight from my phone, and the students will have access right away. I can use the image capture software to circle parts of the reading, charts, graphs, etc. and bring those to the surface for discussion. 2. Slideshare . This program allows you to upload PowerPoint presentations to the Web. I uploaded all of my slides for the semester to one page where they can be accessed from any computer. It allows me to worry less about carrying the slides on a USB drive or having to upload them to the course Blackboard page, which sometimes doesn't open. It also makes fo

The book project that I am working on now examines the relationship between popular culture and social inequality. When I think about social inequality, I think in terms laid out by Patricia Hill Collins, whose book Black Feminist Thought emphasizes the intersections between race, class and gender, as well as many other dimensions of identity. She calls this the 'matrix of domination and oppression' and in my work the key variables are race, class, gender, sexuality, age, and disability. When I think about popular culture, it seems the key sociological issue right now is the enormous amount of popular culture that we have (so many movies, books, CDs, websites, magazines, TV networks and shows), all produced by a tiny handful of massive corporations. We tend to assume that these corporations are competing, but a close analysis shows that they have far too many contractual relationships to truly be invested in competition (for instance, network studios frequently sell their s

After winning the world title for the 800 meters, South African Caster Semenya will have to submit to gender testing before she can safely keep her gold medal. Her detractors think she is either a man or an intersexed person. If she can't prove she is a biological woman, she loses her medal. The case assumes rigid gender boundaries that nature doesn't actually provide, and it highlights for me why we shouldn't have gender-based sports at all. I'll be brief. You probably think that we know that the average is woman is slower than the average man, which in turn would justify the fairness of separating men and women for at least some sports competitions. We don't actually know that. Any claim about average men and women would have to be based on a random sampling of men and women from all over the world . Most of our tests of these sorts of things come from studies that examine only men and women from the US or from European countries. To be sure, researchers

I hate clutter. Let's get rid of it. Pick a spot in your house or office or even computer that you want to de-clutter. Let's say we're de-cluttering a drawer in a home-office. Take out everything and put it all in one pile. Pick up each thing one at time and ask yourself why you have this thing. If you're going to keep it, you have to know why you have it . You should be able to name the purpose the object has and know when it will meet that purpose. The purpose of a yellow highlighter is obvious, but if you never highlight things, then it will never meet that purpose. It's clutter. This stapler and its little box of staples work like new. I've had them for years, I never use them. They have to go. Do you want them? Start a new pile of the things that have no clear purpose. If you are rigorous in surveying your stuff, this pile should get big quickly. Everything in this pile is going to go; we just have to figure out where it goes. Now, you're

We didn't really talk about money in my family when I was growing up and the lesson I learned is that money is a private thing that should not be discussed. It seemed a great social faux pas to discuss things like salary, savings, etc. Being silent on money is completely wrong. We need to learn from Lilly Ledbetter , who spent years unwittingly getting paid less than her male counterparts at Goodyear Tire & Rubber, and then lost her discrimination suit because she didn't sue within 180 days of the pay decision. Of course, she didn't know about the discrimination during those 180 days. She assumed she made the same as everyone else. It was years later before she discovered the discrepancy. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act helps to fix the problem by resetting the 180 day statute of limitations with every unfair paycheck. But even that won't matter if we don't talk about pay. How can you know that you're making less than your colleagues if no one will

Tom over at I Hate Paper turned me on to this ABC show Wipeout . I don't wanna like it, but it's really fun to watch. I'm watching it on Hulu, which ABC wasn't really partnering with very much, but they seem to have stepped it up. Since I'm interested in both the business and content sides of popular culture, I thought I'd use my new love of Wipeout to do some exploring. Wipeout is a collaboration of Endemol Entertainment and Pulse Creative . Endemol was founded in Amsterdam in 1994 but its website says it is now owned by a "consortium consisting of Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, Mediaset Group and Cyrte Group." Its credits include Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Deal or No Deal, Big Brother After Dark (?), and Gay, Straight or Taken. Pulse calls itself a boutique agency and it has only 4 other shows to its credit. It is really a branding agency and it merged with Insite Media Group in 2007. Wipeout is distributed primarily by ABC , which is o