Late April Thursday Attire. . .

A cold but sunny morning here in Mid-Michigan with a heavy frost during the night. Items for today include a vintage overcoat from Botany 500 that I found in my favorite thrift-/charity shop for less than US$10 about ten years or so ago when we still lived in the wilds of Central Illinois (Bloomington-Normal).

The necktie for today is a navy grenadine from Chipp by the way, in contrast (?!) to yesterday's wool number, which was also navy. A bit matchy-matchy with the shirt and pocket square this morning, sure, but otherwise a not unpleasant combination of items.

Tomorrow is the final day of the Spring '22 semester. While today is relatively easy with just a few things to take care of, tomorrow I will be swamped with about 150 semester reflections. Provided they follow directions laid out in the assignment prompt (and not everyone does), students will revisit and assess their learning for the last 15 weeks. In keeping with pedagogical thought about the practice of metacognition (thinking about your thinking), I routinely ask my students to look hard at what they have done so far in the course each week, what they are doing currently, and how they might improve their learning practices as we move forward through the course.

A large part of this capstone self-assessment involves students looking honestly at their independent and team work habits and related choices during the term relative to weekly independent assignments, related student learning team collaboration, and three collaborative projects that teams develop and submit at key points during the semester. While some of these final reflections are fairly pedestrian, as you might expect, others make for interesting examination. You can easily see that some students take the assignment seriously and have put consider time, thought, and effort into their work, which is rewarding.

But when you multiply five or six pages, or five to six minute voice recordings or videos -- I give students creative leeway in keeping with Universal Design for Learning tenets -- by 150+ submissions, well, that's a lot of reading, listening, and or viewing for the next week or so. Whew!

-- Heinz-Ulrich

Mid-November Monday. . .

A few minutes between classes this morning, so I snapped pictures of today's attire and accessories. The first wearing this season of the Optimo 'Dearborn' fedora, and the tie is a vintage number from Orvis, a nod to my late father's fly-fishing and fly-tying hobbies. It's been two or three years since this particular necktie's last appearance, so high time to pull it out and knot it carefully around the ol' neck. Managed to nail it on the first attempt too. Could this be the start of a trend? -- Heinz-Ulrich

The Problem of "Business Casual" Attire. . .

This is how it's done. Business Casual the RIGHT way, ladies and gentlemen. Even during the summer months. A photograph (taken by Studio B Portraits ) which appeared in 425 Business Magazine in May 2017. T his post on the problem of business casual dress began as a quick postscript to a previous blog entry last week but quickly grew and grew as additional thoughts occurred, were developed in more detail, and revisions made. So much so, that it seemed, eventually, like a better idea to make the initial P.S. afterthought into its own entry . Are ya ready, Freddy? Then, here we go. . . ------------ U nless you actually plan to sell beach snacks and trinkets on Cozumel, become a serial barista, or greet customers at a fancy nightclub after taking out huge student loans to attend university somewhere for four or five years, plus an MBA afterward, it's really a better idea to err on the side of (somewhat) more formal work at...

Friday on Campus Style. . .

S omewhat atypically, I was on campus for several hours today helping with an interview that is part of a larger documentary project on which a colleague and I are working. Although I am behind the camera (I'm the audio guy in fact), what better reason does one need to dress presentably? Exactly. Everything worn, barring the recently purchased University of Wisconsin socks, a gift from the Grand Duchess, has been in the rotation for a while now. And, of course, there was the Panama hat, which I'll wear until we pass October 1st when the felt fedoras reappear. -- Heinz-Ulrich

Classic Style

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