Friday, February 17, 2017

February 17, 2017

I recently published a Prezi Presentation: “Plagiarism: A Lesson for First-Year College Students, February 16, 2017.  For those of you who are academics or teachers in the public-school systems, this lesson might be useful to you.  Check it out.


I have an upcoming SKYPE interview on the Mysterious Matters Paranormal Podcast in March. The interview will be available for listening or for download shortly after the first airing of the show; it will appear in the show’s website archives and on YouTube.

You can visit Mysterious Matters at http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-farside-podcast

The host of the show is Bob Bain and the show is produced in Nashville, TN.  Mr. Bain is convinced (and rightly so) that there are invisible forces at play every day in our lives and that these “mysterious” forces can manipulate what we see, what we think and even what we achieve. 

In the 21st century, contemporary physics is moving closer and closer to an accurate study of these mysterious forces.  But the invisible world isn’t invisible; it is merely subatomic; part and parcel of what I refer to more simply as the Quantum Universe.

All of this is Lovecraft country for sure and I will, of course, be discussing these matters and my book H.P. Lovecraft & the Black Magickal Tradition (2015).  So please check it out!

JLS


Tuesday, February 7, 2017

February 8, 2017

Lansing Community College (LCC) was established in 1957 in Lansing, Michigan and it is one of the most comprehensive colleges focused upon offering learning opportunities in four areas: career and workforce development, general education, developmental education, and personal enrichment. The college is generally recognized by educators and other interested parties as a local, state, national, and international leader in forging educational partnerships with business, industry, and government to better meet the needs of an ever changing, technologically savvy and multicultural world -wide marketplace.   I teach WRIT 121: Composition I at LCC and for those of you who may be unaware of my connection with this institution, I want to briefly identify some of the reflective, collaborative communities that we have at the college which operate in conjunction with our traditional classroom communities to support the student learning process and to make all of us richer, more diverse in our outlooks and, by implication, much more creative.

            There is, to begin with, the LCC Library on the 2nd and 3rd Floors of the Technology & Learning Center (TLC) Building on the main campus. The focus of the collection is on introductory works and materials that supplement the college curriculum and present a general survey, with an emphasis on works aimed at lower division undergraduates. The library collection reflects multiple formats that maximize access to content and address the needs of different learning styles and naturally, given the increasing reliance on technology and the World Wide Web in the 21st century, emphasis is placed on electronic resources such as e-books which can be accessed on and off campus.  In all cases, the LCC library fosters diversity and critical thinking.

                Second, there is the Writing Center in the Arts and Sciences Building, which adjoins the TLC Center.  The Writing Center is headed by one full-time LCC employee, who is supported by a staff of writing assistants and tutors.  The Writing Center is open every week day from 9 AM to 800 PM, 10 AM- 6 PM on Saturday, and the Center schedules appointments for those students who prefer this, or else, students are free to walk in at any time and they are assisted on a first-come, first-serve basis.  The Writing Center is committed to offering advice and instruction on any writing assignment; general English essays in the literature and writing classes; essays in psychology, history, or sociology, and even lab reports for physics and science classes.  It is a primary directive among the members of the writing staff that they do not preempt the philosophy or teaching of individual instructors; they are aware that they are a support system and are not meant to serve as actual course instructors or to offer advice or instruction that might contradict what a given course instructor might require. The goal of the Writing Center is to work in harmony with the faculty to ensure that all students can participate fully and equably in achieving the educational outcomes that they desire.

            A third collaborative resource that I have, as yet, never utilized but which I am thinking about using in the future is The Center for Transitional Learning, which offers a series of free classes in English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL).  ESOL classes can be scheduled to run concurrently with regular LCC classes and they include basic, intermediate, and high intermediate reading, speaking, writing, and grammar skills; there are also classes on listening, note taking and communication.  The ESOL classes serve as a bridge between ESL students who may be struggling to improve their written and communication skills and the WRIT 121 & 122 classes, and they offer a judgement free, respecting attitude towards learners of all types and levels of development.  This is, of course, as it should be.  For indeed, LCC is committed to encouraging full engagement of its students in a constantly changing, global environment.


JLS

February 7, 2017

I have an upcoming SKYPE interview on the Mysterious Matters Paranormal Podcast on February 24, 2017 at 2:00 PM Central Time. The interview will be available for listening or for download shortly after the first airing of the show; it will appear in the show’s website archives and on YouTube.

You can visit Mysterious Matters at http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-farside-podcast

The host of the show is Bob Bain and the show is produced in Nashville, TN.  Mr. Bain is convinced (and rightly so) that there are invisible forces at play every day in our lives and that these “mysterious” forces can manipulate what we see, what we think and even what we achieve. 

In the 21st century, contemporary physics is moving closer and closer to an accurate study of these mysterious forces.  But the invisible world isn’t really invisible; it is merely subatomic; part and parcel of what I refer to more simply as the Quantum Universe.

All of this is Lovecraft country for sure and I will, of course, be discussing these matters and my book H.P. Lovecraft & the Black Magickal Tradition (2015).  So please check it out!

In addition, I am in the process of scheduling more radio and podcast interviews, more book signings and presentations.  To date, I have an upcoming interview on the Wicked Domain Radio show and the Deeper Down the Rabbit Hole podcast.  I will also be a guest speaker at the Carnival of Para Horror in Buffalo, New York, and the Scare Fest convention; both of these conventions will occur in late August and early September.

I will post the dates, the times and the locations for all of these events when this information becomes available.



JLS

Saturday, February 4, 2017

February 4, 2017

I have recently published a Web Quest classroom lesson: “Imaginary Friends: A Lesson in Multiculturalism for 3-5 Grade Public School Students.”

This lesson is suitable for secondary school students, Grades 3-5, and it instructs them in the art of creating an imaginary friend by using the Hyper Studio 5 Web 2.0 application.

This lesson represents also a good first-step towards teaching fledging wizards and witches in the public-school systems how to create egregores, i.e. magickal entities that can be used for many purposes by adult magickal practitioners. 

The lesson is available to the public at the following link.



JLS