Aside There are so many blog posts I want to write but the beginning of this semester saw me chasing my own tail like never before. What’s up with this? Did I take on too much–probably. BUT there is also so much to fix, develop, improve, support, help. And everyone around me feels the same […]
Author: Nathalie Sheridan
Like Lotus from the Mud
First days of annual leaveThe struggle is realWinding down impossibleToo many loose ends to tie up Communications to finishPlans to makeCreating order as strategyWardrobe, drawers, papers While the mind meandersThe hands make spaceAnd somehowCreating outer spaceCreates inner space The white noise is calming downAnd thoughts emergeLike bright lotus blossoms from mudThey were hoveringJust below the […]
Of Wormholes and SoTLwalks
Hello lovely bloggers and readers, I have no idea what happened to November! So my theory is that on my last SoTLwalk I fell into a wormhole and came out in December back in my office instead of the path I was walking. I am sticking with that explanation. It’s 2020 and this makes as […]
SoTLwalk October
Muhahaha. Let’s get the skeletons out of the pedagogical closet. These are the prompts Natasha gave us this month: Ghostbusters! (It is Halloween, after all!)…Are there are demons in your teaching and learning closet? Any fright-nights to share? Maybe a trick or treat in your curriculum? Play with the ideas and themes associated with this […]
Using Blackout Poetry to aid Translation
Cite as: Sheridan, Nathalie (2020): Poetic Inquiry as a Meaning-Making Process Across Languages. figshare. Online resource. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.13146242.v1 Poetic Inquiry as a Meaning-Making Process Across Languages I find translating from German into English particularly when it comes to academic text indefinitely more difficult than the other way around. Which is strange as I am fluid in […]
Blackout Poetry and Pancakes
If you have not yet joined Pedagogy and Pancakes run by Chris Headland come on in, these morning sessions are fab. So, today the fabulous Aimee Merrydew was introducing Blackout Poetry as a creative teaching method to encourage students to engage more deeply with core texts they have to read. And while I was listening […]
A Sense of Future
Today was a strange day, friends and colleagues talking about their struggles to focus, to ‘be on the ball’, to work efficiently. So it was a strange, grey, rainy autumn day that somehow put a sound absorber on the brain. However, the shared experience that unsettles me most is that lack of a ‘sense of […]
Ethnography of a Museum
Context I am experimenting with writing again. So back to the beginnings of my academic journey and ethnographic writing. Without further ado: An Excerpt The smell is difficult to describe, an echo of floor polish clings to the dry air, the worn Lino floors make my shoes squeak, but it smells of something else; I […]
Granddad
During the last months I have often been thinking of my granddad. And today after blurting out crying a couple of times I thought I write up a couple of memories and inevitably learning about teaching. He worked in an agricultural boarding school, after having to stop being a farmer. The young adults—many of which […]
Falling into the Heather
About failed adventures, resilience, and preparing for the new academic year. Last week we spend four days in the Cairngorms (Scotland), as a short break after the summer was all but relaxing. However, the weird and wonderful mechanisms of stress and being worn out saw me reaching some physical and mental boundaries. And led to […]
Zoom Break Zumba
This is one option, ten minutes dance-off while you are waiting for the next session to begin–by the by: beginning. Over the last couple of months people have been asking for suggestions of what do you do during these newly acquired breaks between meetings. You know the ones we used to use to run from […]
Friday-Artday
Over the last evenings I have been playing with digital and mixed media art to reflect on all the challenges faced working in higher education at the moment. In part these are responses to the irresponsible press articles demeaning online learning and teaching–it’s all just watching some videos after all, right?– dismissing the unbelievable amount […]
A Story about Becoming a University Teacher
Living by the Proverb ABSTRACT There seems to be a strong link between developing our identities and storytelling. As humans, we strive for coherence, and this coherence is found in stories (Hermans, 2001). This is an experimental paper telling a story about developing a brave, and authentic self as an educator (teacher) in Higher Education […]
#SoTLwalk August 2020
This is a non-walk SoTLwalk and rather late. I hurt my back and walking was so uncomfortable there wasn’t much reflecting going on through the process. I was so annoyed not being able to go out much during a sunny weekend, I made a ridge-walk with Munro in milk foam. 😂 This month’s topic is […]
SoTL Definition Conundrum
I have had a bit of frustration with getting a definition sorted. So I made a thinking thing … ‘definitions are living creatures’. That’s the premise.
