Dustin Kidd

As a new student, I now see more options when I log in to TUPortal, Temple's primary online interface for students, staff, and faculty. Admissions, Costs and Aid, and Student Tools are the new tabs (my courses if for the courses I teach, at least at the moment). Admissions: Student Tools Costs and Aid

Temple's bookstore website makes it easy to pull up all of your textbooks at once and see the total cost, as long as the professor submits their text requests. The good news for me is that I have the same text for both classes. The bad news is that it costs $178. As a member of the Temple Textbook Affordability Task Force, this is interesting information. Language acquisition is hard and I don't blame an instructor for choosing the best text despite the cost, but I do think a wider community needs to examine alternatives.

Received this email today about my courses for the summer. One thought that occurs to me is that I might want to share this same information on my course Canvas sites. ---------------------------- Dear Dustin,  Our records indicate that you may be in the process of building your schedule for an upcoming term.  Please refer to the policies noted below that apply to your enrollment at Temple University. FERPA:  Confidentiality of academic records is maintained by the University according to federal law, The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974.  You may allow your  parent(s) or guardian(s)  access to view your academic records and other information via  Proxy Access . You may use Self-Service Banner to add, drop or withdraw a course.  If this option is not available to you, you must contact your advisor.  As with all matters related to your academic success at Temple University, you should discuss enrollment concer...

After 15 years of working at Temple, I'm finally about to use my tuition benefit. I was traveling in Mexico for spring break and thinking about what a great place Mexico City would be for retirement. My only anxiety stemmed from not being able to speak and understand the language. It finally dawned on me, I have free access to language training and there are no consequences for doing poorly. I could fail the class, but still learn more than I know now, and it would be worth it. So, I'm signed up for Spanish 1 in Summer 1 and Spanish 2 in Summer 2. I'm going to use this blog to chronicle what I learn about being a student at Temple. In 15 years of teaching, I've never been able to see the systems from the students' perspective. This won't be about lessons learned, but instead about how institutions and systems work. Expect a lot of screenshots of bureaucratic systems at work!