Becca
@beccad3rry.bsky.social
Bricoleur of teaching, words, music (mostly folk), folks, systems, trees.
FYI for Baltimore musicians!
Musicians! Please send @baltimorebeat.bsky.social your music!
February 25, 2025 at 12:38 AM
FYI for Baltimore musicians!
A thoughtful and grounding interview with Ed Yong. He talks about hope, hummingbirds, masking, moral injury, journalism, burnout, birding, empathy, escapism, being present, and points in between.
On the cutting room floor is the bit where the host introduced their interview series, The Interview, and I asked how long it took to come up with the name. Anyway, here’s me talking about birds and science and burnout and moving through the world. The photo’s nice! www.nytimes.com/2025/02/22/m...
‘The Interview’: Ed Yong Wants to Show You the Hidden Reality of the World
The Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer talks about burnout from covering the pandemic and how bird-watching gave him a new sense of hope.
www.nytimes.com
February 23, 2025 at 4:37 AM
A thoughtful and grounding interview with Ed Yong. He talks about hope, hummingbirds, masking, moral injury, journalism, burnout, birding, empathy, escapism, being present, and points in between.
A thread on queer history focusing on the Renaissance. I didn't know about a lot of these!
LGBTQIA+ As we resist those who claim diversity distorts scholarship, let’s run through the acronym & show how easy it is to find the rainbow in every era. We don’t even need to look beyond the Renaissance celebrities that are household names! 1/?
(Countdown to Inventing the Renaissance)
(Countdown to Inventing the Renaissance)
February 7, 2025 at 3:31 PM
A thread on queer history focusing on the Renaissance. I didn't know about a lot of these!
Reposted by Becca
By definition, numerical weather models require international data. The atmosphere knows no geopolitical boundaries: any model that begins and ends at its country’s border is unable to generate reliable predictions until after a weather system crosses its boundaries. Which defeats the purpose!
NOAA Employees Told to Pause Work With ‘Foreign Nationals’
An internal email obtained by WIRED shows that NOAA workers received orders to pause “ALL INTERNATIONAL ENGAGEMENTS.”
www.wired.com
February 6, 2025 at 3:23 PM
By definition, numerical weather models require international data. The atmosphere knows no geopolitical boundaries: any model that begins and ends at its country’s border is unable to generate reliable predictions until after a weather system crosses its boundaries. Which defeats the purpose!
Reposted by Becca
One of the best things you can do right now is read books. Buy them. Borrow them from the library. Gift them.
Read history. Read fiction. Read science writing. Read anything that shows you the world is bigger than what fascists say it is.
Read to remember why your resistance matters. 📚💙
Read history. Read fiction. Read science writing. Read anything that shows you the world is bigger than what fascists say it is.
Read to remember why your resistance matters. 📚💙
January 26, 2025 at 2:04 PM
One of the best things you can do right now is read books. Buy them. Borrow them from the library. Gift them.
Read history. Read fiction. Read science writing. Read anything that shows you the world is bigger than what fascists say it is.
Read to remember why your resistance matters. 📚💙
Read history. Read fiction. Read science writing. Read anything that shows you the world is bigger than what fascists say it is.
Read to remember why your resistance matters. 📚💙
And here's "Rain, New Year's Eve" by Maggie Smith, another New Year's poem that's been on my mind:
January 2, 2025 at 9:19 PM
And here's "Rain, New Year's Eve" by Maggie Smith, another New Year's poem that's been on my mind:
Here's all of "Counting, This New Year’s Morning, What Powers Yet Remain To Me," the Jane Hirshfield poem that I excerpted:
January 2, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Here's all of "Counting, This New Year’s Morning, What Powers Yet Remain To Me," the Jane Hirshfield poem that I excerpted:
"Stone did not become apple. War did not become peace. / Yet joy still stays joy. Sequins stay sequins. Words still bespangle, bewilder. / Today, I woke without answer." -Jane Hirshfield, from "Counting, This New Year’s Morning, What Powers Yet Remain To Me." poets.org/poem/countin...
December 31, 2024 at 8:32 PM
"Stone did not become apple. War did not become peace. / Yet joy still stays joy. Sequins stay sequins. Words still bespangle, bewilder. / Today, I woke without answer." -Jane Hirshfield, from "Counting, This New Year’s Morning, What Powers Yet Remain To Me." poets.org/poem/countin...
I found this to be a thought-provoking article about the impacts of AI readers (both positive and negative!) on education.
My latest piece for the Chronicle about AI reading assistants:
The most frustrating aspect of generative AI in education: This is technology that can truly help some students yet can also, through misuse or over reliance, seriously weaken the skills of many others. www.chronicle.com/article/when...
The most frustrating aspect of generative AI in education: This is technology that can truly help some students yet can also, through misuse or over reliance, seriously weaken the skills of many others. www.chronicle.com/article/when...
Advice | When AI Does the Reading for Students
The technology that powers ChatGPT is quickly transforming reading practices. What does that mean for your assignments?
www.chronicle.com
December 18, 2024 at 2:57 PM
I found this to be a thought-provoking article about the impacts of AI readers (both positive and negative!) on education.
This, exactly. Writing is not the only way to think with and through ideas, but it is a visible and important one (and one that is important to me, of course).
This is what's so baffling about so many suggestions for AI in the humanities classroom: they mistake the product for the point. Writing outlines and essays is important not because you need to make outlines and essays but because that's how you learn to think with/through complex ideas.
I'm sure many have said this before but I'm reading a student-facing document about how students might use AI in the classroom (if allowed) and one of the recs is: use AI to make an outline of your reading! But ISN'T MAKING THE OUTLINE how one actually learns?
December 15, 2024 at 9:03 PM
This, exactly. Writing is not the only way to think with and through ideas, but it is a visible and important one (and one that is important to me, of course).
Reposted by Becca
If you think about it, the very best books are really just extremely long spells that turn you into a different person for the rest of your life
December 12, 2024 at 1:40 PM
If you think about it, the very best books are really just extremely long spells that turn you into a different person for the rest of your life
"Winter Poem" by Nikki Giovanni:
December 11, 2024 at 8:20 PM
"Winter Poem" by Nikki Giovanni:
1/8 It's Spotify Unwrapped season, which means that it's time for a reminder that streaming is an absolutely trash business model, Spotify is particularly bad, and you can support independent music by finding other ways to pay for the music that you love.
December 9, 2024 at 4:42 PM
1/8 It's Spotify Unwrapped season, which means that it's time for a reminder that streaming is an absolutely trash business model, Spotify is particularly bad, and you can support independent music by finding other ways to pay for the music that you love.
Rereading this article about the philosophical & practical differences between Bandcamp and Spotify: "Spotify is not a 'music company first,' as Diamond describes Bandcamp, because music plays a role only insofar as people spend some of their time listening to it, and Spotify wants all their time."
www.npr.org
December 6, 2024 at 8:53 PM
Rereading this article about the philosophical & practical differences between Bandcamp and Spotify: "Spotify is not a 'music company first,' as Diamond describes Bandcamp, because music plays a role only insofar as people spend some of their time listening to it, and Spotify wants all their time."
Reposted by Becca
A moment to appreciate Baltimore’s Pratt Library 📚
December 6, 2024 at 7:04 PM
A moment to appreciate Baltimore’s Pratt Library 📚
Reposted by Becca
I'm not on twitter anymore, but this tweet from 2 years ago is sadly more accurate than ever
December 5, 2024 at 12:45 PM
I'm not on twitter anymore, but this tweet from 2 years ago is sadly more accurate than ever
Reposted by Becca
I think we're probably underestimating the degree of change that will need to happen in education to deal with the presence of GenAI/LLMs. The studies I've read that show positive efficacy for LLM integration tend to measure that efficacy against what I call "schooling," rather than learning.
December 3, 2024 at 9:33 PM
I think we're probably underestimating the degree of change that will need to happen in education to deal with the presence of GenAI/LLMs. The studies I've read that show positive efficacy for LLM integration tend to measure that efficacy against what I call "schooling," rather than learning.
As someone whose most advanced degree is in Teaching Writing, my professional response to this headline is mostly just silent screaming.
November 17, 2024 at 5:26 PM
As someone whose most advanced degree is in Teaching Writing, my professional response to this headline is mostly just silent screaming.
Reposted by Becca
When botanist Richard Deakin examined Rome’s Colosseum in the 1850s, he found 420 species of plant growing in the ruins: cypresses and ilex, pea plants and more than 50 types of grasses.
But some flowers growing there mystified him. They were so rare they were found nowhere else in Europe.
But some flowers growing there mystified him. They were so rare they were found nowhere else in Europe.
November 8, 2024 at 12:19 PM
When botanist Richard Deakin examined Rome’s Colosseum in the 1850s, he found 420 species of plant growing in the ruins: cypresses and ilex, pea plants and more than 50 types of grasses.
But some flowers growing there mystified him. They were so rare they were found nowhere else in Europe.
But some flowers growing there mystified him. They were so rare they were found nowhere else in Europe.
From "A New National Anthem" by Ada Limón: "Perhaps / the truth is that every song of this country / has an unsung third stanza, something brutal / snaking underneath us as we absent-mindedly sing / the high notes with a beer sloshing in the stands / hoping our team wins." poets.org/poem/new-nat...
November 15, 2024 at 9:19 PM
From "A New National Anthem" by Ada Limón: "Perhaps / the truth is that every song of this country / has an unsung third stanza, something brutal / snaking underneath us as we absent-mindedly sing / the high notes with a beer sloshing in the stands / hoping our team wins." poets.org/poem/new-nat...
Reposted by Becca
A lot of people have shared this poem over the past week. It’s a sentiment I think about a lot, especially now.
I hope everyone is doing what they need to take care of themselves. One step at a time. One day at a time.
I hope everyone is doing what they need to take care of themselves. One step at a time. One day at a time.
Perfectly expressed, @clintsmithiii.bsky.social.
November 13, 2024 at 10:34 PM
A lot of people have shared this poem over the past week. It’s a sentiment I think about a lot, especially now.
I hope everyone is doing what they need to take care of themselves. One step at a time. One day at a time.
I hope everyone is doing what they need to take care of themselves. One step at a time. One day at a time.
