Guest Blog by Rondalyn Whitney
Director of Faculty Scholarship and Development

School of Medicine, WVU

Rondalyn.Whitney@hsc.wvu.edu

WVU’s Campus Read engages the campuses and community through a common reading experience, fostering dialogue, critical thinking and University-wide participation. This year, the Campus read book selected was  “The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After”, the powerful, unforgettable story told by author, Clemantine Wamariya.  Wamariya recounted her journey escaping the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, migrating through seven African countries before being granted refugee status in The United States and learning how to cope with the scars of her past and her promising future. The book was adopted as part of the curriculum in the Division of Occupational Therapy and the students engaged in a virtual book club.  

Occupational therapy is centered around the tenet that by engaging in activities that have meaning, purpose and value (i.e. occupations) people experience health and wellbeing. Occupations are organized within constructs of roles (student, sister, daughter), routines (bathing, grooming, dressing), habits (packing a backpack) and rituals (lighting candles for those we mourn).  The course, Occupational Science, falls in the first semester of the program’s curricular sequence.  Students are introduced to the discipline of occupational science, occupational justice and the way occupation disruption impacts the health and wellbeing of  individuals, groups and populations. WVU Humanities Center for a Campus Read Grant for the project titled,  The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Study of Occupational Identity within one woman's Narrative addressed two primary goals, a) to use the story told by the author for this year’s Campus Read (Clemantine Wamariya in her book The Girl Who Smiled Beads) as a narrative through which students can identify occupational identity as revealed through occupation (i.e. the occupational roles, habits, routines and rituals) and b) to connect students in the occupational therapy program to the larger WVU community conversation related to social justice, occupational disruption and occupational justice.

As part of the course, the instructor, Dr. Rondalyn Whitney, hosted a four part virtual book club and university wide webinar event. Dr Whitney used a narrative medicine pedagogy (reading, reflecting, writing) to support student understanding of the journey of this storyteller to the universal story of occupational coherence (who one is as an occupational being). As students read the book, selected passages were assigned for close reading using a narrative medicine approach.  

Students participated in a watch party (Clemantine Wamariya’s TEDxYale talk), were encouraged to bring favorite foods and drinks (like a face to face book club) and wear flare (hat/scarf/beads) following the activities of the book chapters.  Students conducted rich analysis for the primary occupations of the main character and reflected on periods of occupational disruption (i.e. loss of childhood occupations due to war). For example, activities of daily living (ADLs) in the refugee camp, client factors (the author’s age during the story and developmental expectations /arrested development of that age), performance patterns (habits, routines, roles and rituals), and the sociocultural/sociopolitical context of the story.

During the book club, students reflected on their own occupations, periods of occupational disruption (such as they were experiencing during the pandemic) and what they valued (following Wamariya’s narrative of what she would include in her backpack).  Students shared from their writing and discussed how their lived experience in occupation related to  the occupational journey of the author. 

The department of OT worked with the Office of Research and Graduate Education to invite the larger WVU community to a Zoom platform event. Two invited speakers described the differences between refugee, migrant and current services and related funding in the United States, the occupational deficits and contextual changes experienced by refugees, current services provided by occupational therapists, and provide a vision for the role of occupational therapy with this population.  The primary speaker, Khalil Mrabe, the son of two refugees, presented from his doctoral research titled: Occupational Therapy’s Role with the Refugee Population. His advisor, Pamela Ann Kasyan-Howe expanded on the role of advocacy for meeting the occupational needs of this unique population. A rich question and answer period was moderated by Renee Nicholson, Director for the Center for Humanities at WVU.  

 

Teaching and Playing, Travel Nostalgia, & Chess!

Hi Everybody, I hope this finds you and your loved ones safe and well.  Like Alyssa, I have also had four classes this spring semester — however, two have been in-person and on-campus, and the other two online.  Though teaching in-person with a mask has fostered some obvious challenges, I’ve been surprised and often encouraged by my students’ willingness to take safety guidelines seriously as well as their continued desire to learn in such challenging environments.  Though I began the semester teaching in two different classes within Brooks Hall on downtown campus, I was able to coordinate a room switch fairly quickly so that both my on-campus classes met back-to-back and in the same room (202).  It has also been helpful that it is such a large room, which has allowed for ample social spacing during the continued COVID context.

In response to ‘what we could/should expect from ourselves as teachers,’ I must admit, I’ve often felt  more than just a bit nihilistic and discouraged at times.  However, in my continuing quest to ignore my advancing years (51 in a few weeks!), I always make it a habit of mine to ask students what types of music they listen to, which I then try desperately to incorporate into either my teaching or my own private entertainment.  I was recently sent a link in an email from a student who had the audacity to ask if I “knew who Dave Grohl was”!  Denying my internal impulse to lecture him gratuitously on my self-supposed vast and encyclopedic musical knowledge, including more than likely inappropriate stories about adolescent angst and a CD of Nirvana in a car stereo, I hit the link instead.  It is a  31-minute long video entitled Play - in which Grohl talks about music, education, and of course ‘play’, and then goes on to record a 23-minute long instrumental of him playing 7 different instruments all at the same time.  You may check out the video if you choose (link in footnote), but I’d like to quote Grohl from the first 45 seconds or so of the video.  Says Grohl:

“To any musician, young or old, a beautiful studio full of instruments is like a playground.  To me, I’m like a kid in a candy store.  Most musicians are always chasing the next challenge, you never feel satisfied, and you never feel like you’ve completely mastered the instrument you’re playing.  It’s always going to be a puzzle, it’s always going to be a challenge.  It’s a beautiful mystery.  But once it gets its hooks into you, that’s when the obsession and the drive really kicks in.”

Without being overly simplistic, romantic, or naively comparative, that’s how I feel about teaching, or at least how I’d like to imagine myself feeling as we progress through the spring and begin to plan for the fall.  In other words, teaching during the age and anxiety of COVID demands excitement, passion, and very few excuses.  All audiences know when the musician/band/teacher is ‘in’ to what they’re doing, and it has an effect.

With regard to ‘new elements popping up’ within the context of online teaching that have definitely surprised me, less have been technical, and more have been contextual.  Especially within the last couple of weeks, I’ve found that my expected audience for my online classes has occasionally contained some surprises — everything from pets to (Grand)parents to partners — all creating and engendering some new pedagogic dynamics that nothing could have prepared me for, especially in the context of a class on religious topics.  I’m used to having the “classroom” to myself, so-to-speak, but now during this period of online teaching, the environments within which so many of my students finds themselves in is constantly changing, and thus creating some funny, beautiful, and at times confusing, tense, but always unexpected and challenging new scenarios.

I might not have realized, until reading Alyssa’s post, that I too might be going through some sort of ‘mourning’ - a nostalgic melancholy related to not hitting the road and traveling to far away places, with or without students, during traditional Spring Breaks.  A very quick glance at my Facebook Memories page, just for today alone (and the previous several days have been similarly full of memories!), produces a couple oldies but goodies:

Me (and the “Prince of the Lilies”) — Knossos, Crete, 2017

Me and Alyssa — Caesarea Maritima, Israel, 2018

Thus, dealing with such withdrawal, looking for distractions during an “uninterrupted semester,” has been difficult at times (though, I must say, I’m excited about the upcoming Fantasy Baseball season!), but also productive of growth and change.  I’m using some of the extra time to prepare for teaching Islam at WVU (both this Spring and next Fall) for the first time.  Having taught it many times in up-state NY at various schools and institutions, I have confidence, but it’s definitely been a while — thank the gods for the Very Short Introduction Series by Oxford!!

I think I talked in a response here, during the fall, about throwing some darts (often accompanied by cocktails), rather consistently with my partner, to get through the boredom and social isolation of lockdown at times over the last year.  Well, it’s happened again — after watching the amazing Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit, we have now taken up chess!  Check out the official trailer below.  I realize that chess can seem…so…potentially…stuffy, and too intellectual, or something.  Yet, it’s been fun again (I hadn’t really played in almost 40 years, since a fierce competition with my best friend when I was around 10 yers old), competitive, infuriating, confusing, and silly — all useful for dealing with confining spring doldrums.

Alex

Teaching Associate Professor

Program for Religious Studies

...and we're back!

After starting this blog in late Fall semester, getting back to it after Winter break proved more difficult than expected! With four online classes (including one entirely new prep) my primary goal has been keeping my head above water. A few things in my classes could be improved mid-semester, but generally things are rolling right along... more on both of those in future posts.

What got me thinking about the blog again this morning was a post from a friend on Facebook: this time last year, as we were moving into the pandemic "pivot" (ugh, that word!) she started a discussion about what we could/should expect from ourselves as teachers. That FB post turned into a blog, which turned into an interview on NPR, and the rest is not-quite-yet history.

Though many of us are now more accustomed to teaching online, there are always new elements popping up that have surprised me. In the last week, I've found myself - there really is no better way to put this - mourning the lack of Spring break. Usually it's a significant part of my semester; I've taken students on 10-day trips:

(2018: students at the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem)

I've also done some pretty spectacular research/personal interest trips:

(2017: Really bad selfie at Knossos, Crete with Alex Snow)

Either way, the break has always been a really great way to recharge, if not relax*, and come back ready to finish out the semester. This year, our two non-instructional days gave me a chance to catch up on grading before the influx of midterm essays, but not much else. 

I'm curious how everyone else is dealing with our uninterrupted semester: did you schedule a change in assignments around midterm? Are your students expressing any no-break angst? Or, have you thought about what you'll do if/when Spring break returns in future? I'm seriously considering another student trip for next year, if COVID allows, and have also tossed around the idea of my version of a faculty "fam" trip.

Alyssa
Teaching Assistant Professor
Religious Studies & Philosophy

* Note: No one would ever say that leading eight students around Jerusalem and the surrounding area is relaxing. Interesting, yes; worthwhile, absolutely; relaxing, nay.

Online classes: synchronicity?

Welcome to Monday and Finals Week! As we're wrapping things up, I'm looking ahead to next semester and starting to design my new courses. (I also just found out that the book chapter I thought was due next month is actually due in January 2022, so my brain is letting that go for a bit.)

My Winter course and three of my Spring courses are listed as online (with no scheduled meeting times). My other Spring course is also online but has scheduled Tu/Th meetings. I've been getting lots of emails regarding both sessions.

Even though there's now a description of course types posted, it doesn't seem to be accomplishing much. And while I will, as usual, be sending out detailed emails before the semester starts, I still had complaints last semester. The primary concern that we weren't having live Zoom meetings, even though the courses were listed and described as asynchronous. I'm waiting to see how evals look for those courses, but I have concerns.

My asynchronous courses have recorded lectures (here's one on Minoan Crete, if you're bored!) which aren't always perfect but are a good way of making sure the students are getting more than just the textbook. 

I also started using VoiceThread for lectures this semester, which had one major plus and one BIG drawback. On the positive side, students can type or record questions or comments on particular slides -- I absolutely loved that, because it made the lecture more interactive even though it was still asynchronous. The main problem was that VT was not stable for a lot of students: there were some problems with login loops and other issues with the program freezing or loading very slowly. By the end of the semester I was exporting any VTs I recorded, and posting them on YouTube for students who couldn't get VT to work.

We can talk about other uses for VT, but at this point I wouldn't recommend it for longer lectures unless you have a backup.

Which brings us to next semester and online synchronous courses... I'm nervous. I'm not a fan of Zoom for many, many reasons, but it's what we have. This is a 300-level Ethics course, and it's supposed to be discussion based. I'm planning to make use of breakout rooms, though I felt students struggled with those this semester as well.

Are there things anyone tried that worked really well?
Things I should definitely avoid?

(This post brought to you by music from Friday night's dart game.)

-- Alyssa

Finishing Fall

In the first year of my PhD program I took my first online class. I was intending to write a dissertation about religious practices on the Internet, and the course promised to be incredibly useful. In 2000, not many people were yet publishing about research techniques specific to an online context, and the course was populated by grad students from a variety of disciplines.

Halfway through the course, the professor disappeared. The chair of the department assured us that we would be graded fairly on the papers we had already turned in (and we were), but the course simply ended. 

Years later, I found out this was a bit of a pattern in the course: the professor would start out engaged, but would gradually stop posting, stop grading, and stop responding. 

Though hopefully no one has reached the point of vanishing, the end of this semester has been rough on many of us -- professors and students alike. I've been teaching some of my classes online for about fifteen years, but moving all my classes online has been more than stressful. Many elements of this semester were abnormal for online teaching: normally no one would combine synchronous, asynchronous, and hybrid classes while also flipping back and forth between on-campus and online settings! Many of us are also trying to juggle care for elderly parents, young children, or both.

As we finish the semester - and get ready for a similar, if possibly more planned? - Spring, I'm curious what your best coping techniques have been. I have an ever-changing wall of post-it notes to keep up with due dates and content, which has been helpful. I've also started playing darts again so that I can throw pointy things at my wall without fear of (much) damage.

Leave your ideas in the comments, or ask for specific suggestions!

Alyssa Beall
Teaching Assistant Professor
Religious Studies & Philosophy