Happy new year, former students! I hope yesterday’s events in D.C. didn’t completely undo the salutary effects of this break between semesters.
They almost did for me: The storming of the Capitol got me back onto Twitter, something I’d been able to resist this fall, even through the counting of ballots. After two and half unsettling hours yesterday of reading updates and watching videos, I closed the browser, signed out of Twitter, and took an online yoga class.
I’m trying to stay off Twitter.
Teaching helps me stay centered, and since I don’t have a new batch of students yet and you haven’t started meeting with new teachers yet, I thought I’d say hi and see if you’re okay.
If you’re looking for something to do tomorrow, Substack is having a one-day online conference called Substack On! from 12 - 8 p.m. ET, with workshops and panels for anyone with a Substack. Speakers include
Lyz Lenz, a journalist in Iowa who writes Men Yell at Me
Casey Newton, who covers Silicon Valley and democracy at Platformer
the Institute for the Future’s Vanessa Mason, writing Future of Belonging
Gabe Schneider of the Objective, which covers “communities that journalism in the United States has typically ignored”
The conference is free, but you have to register.
This morning the university released your anonymous course evaluations. Thank you for all the feedback, especially for sharing ways this course did not meet expectations, since I’m working on (or, to be precise, putting off working on) the Spring 2021 syllabus and lesson plans.
Feel free to drop me a note — or try reconnecting with someone you got to know in this class, or in one of your other classes.
Take care,
B