Welcome to LSU.
Olivia James, welcomed her ASIS class that way. I thought I either heard her wrong, “was she
trying to say FSU” or maybe she had attended LSU and merely misspoke. I was wrong on both counts; in this class LSU
stands for Learning by Screwing Up. That’s
an important concept for adult learners of any subject but especially where the
student can be embarrassed by not being able to speak well in front of his
classmates. James’ class is a safe haven
from that. This is where she wants you
to make your mistakes. What prompted the
comment was a student had passed his on line certificate test about understanding plagiarism
in American Universities. That was
reason to applaud and we did but he passed on the 6th try. Unfazed by the failure, James immediately
praised the students and with an encouraging tone said we are so fortunate you
shared that because we all learn from each other in this class. What a great comment.
The first part of the hour was a continuation of the
discussion on plagiarism. This upper
level group of students will shortly be competing in an FSU environment so this
class was as much about linguistic skills as cultural assimilation into an American
University environment.
The second half was spent on a toastmaster’s icebreaker
game. Students stood up and introduced
themselves in a presentation format. The
speech was timed and then the classmates wrote feedback. I bold this word
because James discussed the difference between feedback and criticism. The comments were not to ‘bring down’ or
criticize the performance but should be advice or constructive information to
assist the student’s performance.
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