I'm tempted to have this post be only pun's on the word kairos. Like, really, really tempted.
We could label writing on kairos "kairotica."
The first day of class I showed my students this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRBW8eJGTVs It's really funny. I then say something about how I won't presume that they'll remember everything I teach them in this class. But, if this were a five-minute university, the one thing I'd want them to remember is that good communication involves the right words at the right time to the right people at the right place. Or, if I'm feeling less verbose, I'll just boil it down to "Always be aware of the rhetorical situation." Basically, it's kairos, but without me having to explain Greek to them and act like I understand it.
Today I had students generate potential questions for their exploratory paper. The poorest questions were extremely vague "Is illegal downloading bad?" The better ones addressed the question in terms of something concrete and current: "Should that poor single mother really get fined that much money for downloading a few Lincoln Park songs? Indeed, shouldn't Lincoln Park pay her for illegally downloading their songs? Can't she counter-sue?" Thus, I really appreciated the discussion on page 58 about general and specific issues. The focus on specific questions ensconced in a kairotic moment helps direct the student's research towards current ideas and modes of thought.
I've considered teaching all this during the third paper unit, but now I'm considering touching upon bits here and there in terms of helping them critically consider sources.
Also, I have a fun lesson plan for teaching the stases which involves me wearing a cool-biker leather jacket.
Anyone else have any fun kairos puns?
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