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

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 attire any time you head into the

The Average Guy's Guide to Classic Style Now on Ebay!!!

Another great old Laurence Fellows illustration of menswear from the classic era, the 1930s. T he Average Guy's Guide to Classic Style is up and running on Ebay. -- Heinz-Ulrich

"If you see something you want. . ."

The above photograph has been "borrowed" from the J. Press website. "I f you see something you want," advised my late mother, "buy it. It won't be there when you go back later." A favorite (and wise) adage hers that I still follow whenever possible. So when this item appeared on clearance at J. Press, I mulled it over for a couple of days, and then clicked the requisite boxes to make the online purchase. Should be here within the week. Once upon a time, I had a similar jacket by Corbin that I foolishly purged before we left Central Illinois ('Illi-noir' anyone?) for Michigan almost 10 years ago. Not sure what I was thinking at the time since I did like the item and wore it routinely. This one will be a bit nicer and help me make sartorial amends. At least to myself. -- Heinz-Ulrich

Classic Style

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