Cool

8 (or so) Things You Should Be Aware Of

1. Today is the 10th annual “Talk Like a Pirate Day.”

2. Today is also the last day to walk freely into HWC without a new and fancy ID. The gates go active at 7:30pm tonight.
Get your ID and tell your students to do the same. Bring a timesheet and your old ID when you do. And expect lots of tardies tomorrow morning.

3. Even organizer Phaydra Babinchok (chicagoslutwalk@gmail.com) wrote to tell me that this year’s Slutwalk (“a march in support of education and against intolerance…[that] aims to combat the myth of “the slut” and the culture of victim blaming that prevails the world over”) will take place on Saturday, September 29th. Phaydra writes, “ It is open to everyone; any age, race, gender, trans status, or sexual orientation.  We will gather at the Thompson Center at 11 A.M., will begin our walk at noon, and will end at Daley Plaza. We will have speakers, a comedian, crisis counselors on hand, and voter registrars. Here is the Facebook invite-  http://www.facebook.com/events/356219161132288/ . If you would like an organizer to come talk to a class I think we can arrange that.  Hope you can make it out to the walk!”

4. Hard to believe, I know, but there’s a new District mandated process and set of forms for:

Chao Lu (Math) is our local contact for clarification and information about all of this; she’s working as fast and hard as she can to get good answers to your questions.

5. Farrokh Asadi (Biology) is the director of the Epic Players’ production of Bertolt Brecht’s “Fear and Misery in the Third Reich.” Information about tickets is available HERE.

6. Don’t forget about Jonathan Kozol’s event coming up on the 27th. Other interesting events include some that are listed here. The one on the intellectual giants of Asia looks really interesting to me, and Garfield Park Conservatory is great anytime, but especially great when there’s Art mixed in. Easy to get to, too; it has its own Green Line stop. Don’t miss it if you’ve never been. It’s a great place to grade.

7. Mike Ruggeri wrote and asked me share this notice about a Chicago Archeology Society speaker discussing the Underground Railroad and the “first legally sanctioned free black community” (within the colonies of North America).

8. Union meeting tomorrow (Thursday) at 1pm in room 1115. Be there or be square.

 

Website Wednesday

Website Wednesday is a regular feature in which we highlight one (or a couple) of sites from the Billions floating around the Intertoobz that just might help you with your Herculean task of educating inquiring minds. Any and all suggestions for future editions are welcome.

Truth be told, I had no idea what site to feature for this Wednesday, so I Googled something like “awesome websites.” Here’s one that I found: Get High Now. That’s right–no teaching and learning resource this Wednesday. Instead, I share with you “the multimedia appendage of the historic and thrilling book, Get High Now (without drugs)—an illustrated, mind-blowing magic carpet ride of more than 175 ways to alter human perception and consciousness (without drugs or alcohol).” The site features a handful of visual and auditory “highs,” as well as explanations of how these sensory illusions work. Here’s my favorite: Chronosynclastic-Infundibulum, which you might know by its more common name: the “rotating snake” (be sure to read the health warning beforehand!). Some of the audio ones take a while to load, but I’m sure they offer some fun “trips” as well. Log on, tune in, drop out.