Catherine Anderson
@candershamilton.bsky.social
learning, teaching, languaging, queering, parenting, unsettling
Offering thanks to Past Catherine, who scheduled "Catch-up Week: No New Material" for mid-November.
October 30, 2025 at 11:03 PM
Offering thanks to Past Catherine, who scheduled "Catch-up Week: No New Material" for mid-November.
I didn't know it was possible to love Emma Thompson any harder than I already did.
"I DON'T NEED YOU TO FUCKING REWRITE WHAT I'VE JUST WRITTEN!"
October 28, 2025 at 2:02 PM
I didn't know it was possible to love Emma Thompson any harder than I already did.
A co-working session with twitter colleagues turned into a Community of Practice that turned into a whole-ass textbook:
essentialsoflinguistics.ca
essentialsoflinguistics.ca
October 8, 2025 at 6:44 PM
A co-working session with twitter colleagues turned into a Community of Practice that turned into a whole-ass textbook:
essentialsoflinguistics.ca
essentialsoflinguistics.ca
Universal👏Free 👏Vaccines 👏
There are still a lot of unknowns, but we feel strongly that universal & free COVID-19 and influenza vaccines would be a good investment in health, health systems, and attendance at work and school. Thank you to the brilliantly detail oriented @jabreznik.bsky.social and Dr Matt Miller... 12/n
September 25, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Universal👏Free 👏Vaccines 👏
Just in time for "Language behaviour indexes social identities" week in Intro Linguistics:
www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?com...
www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?com...
Questionable Content
www.questionablecontent.net
September 23, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Just in time for "Language behaviour indexes social identities" week in Intro Linguistics:
www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?com...
www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?com...
Listening to podcasts and baking cookies, the perfect start to a Sunday.
September 7, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Listening to podcasts and baking cookies, the perfect start to a Sunday.
I am once again urging you to add a thread to your class discussion board where students can post pics of their pets. I'm feeling nervous about the first class of the semester but I also get to enjoy excellent cats and dogs on my screen.
September 3, 2025 at 3:29 PM
I am once again urging you to add a thread to your class discussion board where students can post pics of their pets. I'm feeling nervous about the first class of the semester but I also get to enjoy excellent cats and dogs on my screen.
Reposted by Catherine Anderson
"LLMs cannot replace the expertise, empathy, insight, experience of teachers because teaching is a relationship. Do not let anyone automate any parts of your work you value and do well."
February 20, 2025 at 5:29 PM
"LLMs cannot replace the expertise, empathy, insight, experience of teachers because teaching is a relationship. Do not let anyone automate any parts of your work you value and do well."
Worth reading:
(Also now I want to watch the movie Pride again)
(Also now I want to watch the movie Pride again)
Had a fun time writing about bread and circuses vs. bread and roses and whether in crises we're allowed to have fun. www.meditationsinanemergency.com/circuses-vs-...
Circuses vs. Roses: Notes on Pleasure and Scold Culture
Someone made this extra-grumpy meme about the fact that football player and podcaster Travis Kelce proposed to pop superstar Taylor Swift and now they're engaged, or rather about the fact that of cour...
www.meditationsinanemergency.com
August 28, 2025 at 12:48 PM
Worth reading:
(Also now I want to watch the movie Pride again)
(Also now I want to watch the movie Pride again)
Classes start a week from today. Thanks to decades of formation, I'm tense and jittery.
BUT:
1. The sun is shining and the breeze is deliciously cool.
2. My prep is done for Week 1 of both courses.
3. My office Snack Box is stocked with high-protein, ø-lactose- treats.
This is going to be ok.
BUT:
1. The sun is shining and the breeze is deliciously cool.
2. My prep is done for Week 1 of both courses.
3. My office Snack Box is stocked with high-protein, ø-lactose- treats.
This is going to be ok.
August 26, 2025 at 1:21 PM
Classes start a week from today. Thanks to decades of formation, I'm tense and jittery.
BUT:
1. The sun is shining and the breeze is deliciously cool.
2. My prep is done for Week 1 of both courses.
3. My office Snack Box is stocked with high-protein, ø-lactose- treats.
This is going to be ok.
BUT:
1. The sun is shining and the breeze is deliciously cool.
2. My prep is done for Week 1 of both courses.
3. My office Snack Box is stocked with high-protein, ø-lactose- treats.
This is going to be ok.
As I prepare for my #IntroLinguistics course I'm thinking a lot about the word "generative" and how it means something different to linguists than to techbros. So I added a textbook section about it. I hope it's useful to you too!
ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/essentialsof...
ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/essentialsof...
1.7 Do ChatBots have Language? – Essentials of Linguistics, 2nd edition
This Second Edition of Essentials of Linguistics is considerably revised and expanded, including several new chapters, diverse language examples from signed and spoken languages, enhanced accessibilit...
ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub
August 15, 2025 at 4:59 PM
As I prepare for my #IntroLinguistics course I'm thinking a lot about the word "generative" and how it means something different to linguists than to techbros. So I added a textbook section about it. I hope it's useful to you too!
ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/essentialsof...
ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/essentialsof...
Today, with 11 work days before the semester begins, my brain finally flipped from Do Things The Excellent Way mode into Do Things the Easy Way mode, thank god.
August 14, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Today, with 11 work days before the semester begins, my brain finally flipped from Do Things The Excellent Way mode into Do Things the Easy Way mode, thank god.
We celebrated our 1st anniversary at a fancy French restaurant in Chicago. In 2000, cell phones were socially conspicuous. The 1st time a fellow diner answered his phone, the maître d’ scolded him roundly. The 2nd time, the diner was seized by the elbow and escorted out, much to our satisfaction.
A power fantasy I have kind of often is “I open a small retail or food business specifically so I can enforce basic social norms on narcissistic patrons”
August 1, 2025 at 10:17 PM
We celebrated our 1st anniversary at a fancy French restaurant in Chicago. In 2000, cell phones were socially conspicuous. The 1st time a fellow diner answered his phone, the maître d’ scolded him roundly. The 2nd time, the diner was seized by the elbow and escorted out, much to our satisfaction.
Doing some digital housekeeping and realized that I have files for a single project spread across FIVE different cloud accounts. Not in any systematic, secure way, just in a chaos way.
August 1, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Doing some digital housekeeping and realized that I have files for a single project spread across FIVE different cloud accounts. Not in any systematic, secure way, just in a chaos way.
This is because it takes a lot of work to keep a university running. Research gets the glory, but in a healthy institution, senior academics are actively involved in decisions about curriculum, policy, admissions, hiring, IRBs, awards, promotions, and a million other essential functions.
Earlier in my career, I sought to become a Full Professor because I thought "once I get there, I won't have to worry about anything and I will be able to just focus on doing my research". Well, I have got news for you (as I write several letters of Promotion-To-Full): THE WORK NEVER STOPS.
July 29, 2025 at 1:13 PM
This is because it takes a lot of work to keep a university running. Research gets the glory, but in a healthy institution, senior academics are actively involved in decisions about curriculum, policy, admissions, hiring, IRBs, awards, promotions, and a million other essential functions.
A doozy of a thread for the #RacioLinguistics files:
July 12, 2025 at 1:47 PM
A doozy of a thread for the #RacioLinguistics files:
I regret to report that, a full eight weeks before classes start, in the 25th year of my teaching career, the teaching anxiety dreams are here again.
July 8, 2025 at 11:22 AM
I regret to report that, a full eight weeks before classes start, in the 25th year of my teaching career, the teaching anxiety dreams are here again.
So useful!
If you're new to captioning videos for your content, you might feel as if you don't know what you don't know. Meryl Evans' "Does Your Video Make These 6 Common Caption Mistakes?" is a great resource to help make your captions better.
meryl.net/common-capti...
meryl.net/common-capti...
6 Common Caption Mistakes: Is Your Video Guilty of Any?
Your captioned video has standard captions that are accurate and in sync with the audio. It could be making one of these six mistakes.
meryl.net
June 24, 2025 at 10:27 PM
So useful!
It’s been at least two decades since I set foot in a laundromat, and I’m finding it strangely peaceful. But also taking the opportunity to be grateful that I can usually wash my clothes in my own home.
June 21, 2025 at 4:27 PM
It’s been at least two decades since I set foot in a laundromat, and I’m finding it strangely peaceful. But also taking the opportunity to be grateful that I can usually wash my clothes in my own home.
A thing that I like: in #HamOnt there is a social norm of thanking the bus driver when alighting, even from the back doors. A simple little ritual that preserves a bit of care in our daily routines.
June 19, 2025 at 12:51 PM
A thing that I like: in #HamOnt there is a social norm of thanking the bus driver when alighting, even from the back doors. A simple little ritual that preserves a bit of care in our daily routines.
Reposted by Catherine Anderson
3/ There's definitely labor-saving value in having a program do a lot of brute force work much more quickly than a human can, even a human with a latin dictionary. But the sense-making is still human work, and human work that requires prior knowledge and understanding.
June 16, 2025 at 4:12 PM
3/ There's definitely labor-saving value in having a program do a lot of brute force work much more quickly than a human can, even a human with a latin dictionary. But the sense-making is still human work, and human work that requires prior knowledge and understanding.
Once at the farmer's market I asked the young man at the stall for "a couple of those yellow zucchinis" and he replied, as witheringly as only a 14-year-old can reply, "they're Summer Squash".
Silly question to English speakers who use the word courgette instead of zucchini. Do you use that word for both of these squashes or do you have another word for the yellow one?
June 15, 2025 at 1:01 AM
Once at the farmer's market I asked the young man at the stall for "a couple of those yellow zucchinis" and he replied, as witheringly as only a 14-year-old can reply, "they're Summer Squash".
I, on the other hand, am feeling totally Pɽoədʉl because I’m already anticipating how I’ll use this in a lecture in September.
a friend of mine shared this ai-generated "emotion wheel" and unfortunately i have been laughing my ass off at it for like 15 minutes now. today i am feeling Fnliinneon
June 5, 2025 at 5:45 PM
I, on the other hand, am feeling totally Pɽoədʉl because I’m already anticipating how I’ll use this in a lecture in September.
guys, guys, guys: this is happening!!!!!!!!!!! I did not know they had any tour dates in Canada and then my brother told me about this!
I am beside myself with anticipation.
I am beside myself with anticipation.
Tickets acquired to see Melissa Etheridge and the Indigo Girls at CityFolk! And to make it even more awesome I get to go with @candershamilton.bsky.social! So excited!
a closer i am to fine sign with two people holding guitars
Alt: a closer i am to fine sign with two people holding guitars
media.tenor.com
May 17, 2025 at 4:39 PM
guys, guys, guys: this is happening!!!!!!!!!!! I did not know they had any tour dates in Canada and then my brother told me about this!
I am beside myself with anticipation.
I am beside myself with anticipation.