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Posts tagged ‘j-term’

Jan 13

Sunday Reading: Here’s to the J

The first Sunday Reading of 2013 is here! Here’s to a successful first week of J-Term. May you have another wonderful week full of playing and yaying!

Toy Story: This could have been a good J-Term class. All of “Toy Story” recreated from real toys.

Lindsay Lohan: What it’s like to work with Lindsay Lohan.

Kate Middleton: Everyone has something to say about the Duchess of Cambridge’s new royal portrait.

Dating: An interactive map of the distribution of male/female singles across the US. Seniors, plan your post-grad moves accordingly.

Inauguration: This Sunday was dress rehearsal day for the 57th Presidential Inauguration. Complete with First Family stand-ins.

The Golden Globes: Normally the awards show that no one watches, this year’s is sure to be a hit with hosts Amy Poehler and Tina Fey. The duo has even come up with a drinking game for the occasion. (Hey – we’re not suggesting it; they are…) Also check out this slideshow of all the nominees.

Igloos: If some of the snow decides to stick around, try your hand at building a rainbow igloo!

And your video of the week:

Jan 6

3 Comments

THE HUNT is back!

Where will The Hunt take you?

After a brief hiatus last J-term, The Hunt has returned to Middlebury! The Hunt, a campus-wide scavenger hunt is being run this year by Ben Wessel and Taryn Tilton. Teams of 10 or less will compete from Jan. 11 – Jan. 15th to see who can best respond to obscure questions, challenges, and projects around Middlebury.

Past questions/challenges from 2009 included:

  • Who on this campus has a future being a hand model for QVC?
  • Thread the needle! Provide a video of a paper airplane flying through the window below the clock in BiHall.
  • Arrange the Great Hall of BiHall to display a message to those on the floors above.
  • Bob Barr the libertarian, Babar the elephant. Whatever. Meld the two together in the best children’s book on colonialism.

With questions picked to try to bring different aspects of the Middlebury community together and highlight people’s strengths, this year promises to be just as crazy and quirky as the first two. To find out more and register your team, visit go/thehunt.

Oh and did we mention there’s a $1000 grand prize?

Jan 5

3 Comments

A J-Term challenge from Dean Collado

Yesterday, Dean of the College and Chief Diversity Officer Shirley Collado posted on the One Dean’s View blog. Her article, “The Disconnection of Being Connected,” offers an interesting point.

Concerned that too many of us are glued to our phone and computer screens, Collado warns, “The face-to-face conversation, the hand-written note, and the reassuring touch have given way to the casual, distant interaction that sometimes comes with living life virtually.”

As I noted in JP’s 2010 list, we are an increasingly plugged-in population. We know the benefits of Facebook and email, but the costs are what Collado asks us to consider:

I worry that this may be the first generation without sufficient experience in making human connections, that we are encouraging the development of individuals who will not know how to talk directly to each other and resolve conflict across human lines. We may run the risk of simply becoming observers, passive non-participants in our own lives. I worry that technology, to some extent, is pacifying and paralyzing us.

Commenter Kya A agrees, saying, “It’s crazy. I gave up facebook for a few months twice last year and missed an engagement, a birth, and several birthday party invites. I felt like I had just come out of a mini-coma.”

What would happen if you lost your Internet connection for a week? Could you give it up for that long while on campus? Just 24 hours?

“But why wait for a power outage before you disconnect? Try it. Tell me how it went,” Collado challenges.

Sounds like a J-Term project. I’m considering it for a day or two. Anyone else?

Nov 8

6 Comments

Governor Jim Douglas (’72) joins Midd for J-Term

That “J. Douglas” listing in the Winter Course Schedule was who I thought it was.

An all-student email from President Liebowitz on Firday confirmed that Governor Douglas will indeed spend January at the College. He will teach a course called “Vermont Government and Politics” and write about his experiences during his career in Vermont politics.

At Middlebury, Douglas majored in Russian Studies. (What is it with important Midd alumni and Russian degrees?  The President of NPR is a Summer Russian School alumna.)  He took a number of PoliSci classes, from professors including Murray Dry. He was an active College Republican.

After graduating in 1972, Douglas went on almost immediately to win a seat in the Vermont House of Representatives — a pretty intense senior-year job search. By age 25, he had moved up to House Majority Leader.  Before succeeding Howard Dean as Governor, Douglas served as a top aide to Governor Richard Snelling, as Vermont Secretary of State and as State Treasurer.

Douglas meets with Obama on the stimulus bill in 2009 (click image for source).

The Addison County Independent has already published an article about Governor Douglas’s upcoming residency at Midd.  Here are some excerpts:

“I jumped at the opportunity [to teach the course],” Douglas said. “I feel I have something to offer the next generation of leaders.

“My ideas will be quite fresh,” he noted of what will be an almost immediate matriculation to the classroom from the governor’s office in the Pavilion Building in Montpelier.  [...]

“Some people were expecting me to go on a cruise or take a long vacation,” Douglas noted of speculation surrounding his immediate exit plans. “But that’s not in my nature. I need to stay active to remain intellectually challenged.”

MiddBlog is hoping for a chance to talk with Douglas sometime soon.  In the meantime, take a look at a few important moments in Douglas’s tenure as Governor (after the break):

Read more

Jan 21

End-of-January Performance Rush

Arts events tend to arrive at Middlebury in flocks around finals time, and this J-term is no exception.  Yesterday, I wrote a lot about Lovesong of the Electric Bear (see previous post).  I know more about Lovesong than I do about this J-Term’s other performances, but don’t let my informational bias narrow your options.  Here’s some more information:

Dance Company of Middlebury: Proyecto República Dominicana
I won’t be able to make this one, but you should.  Here’s what a cast member, Liz Boles (’10) told me about the show:

The first half is a completely improvised collaboration between the dancers, musicians and lighting designer.  The second half … includes two duets and a quintet based on the theme of childhood memories.

During the last week of J-term, the company will travel to the Dominican Republic to teach dance workshops to elementary school kids and perform with Grupo de Teatro Balsamo, a Dominican theater company.  One goal is to compare attitudes about the arts in Middlebury and the D.R.

Friday and Saturday (1/22, 1/23), 8:00, CFA Dance Theater.  There will also be a free open dress rehearsal Thursday (TONIGHT) at 8:00.

Wild Party (Musical)
Yet another performance-as-coursework.  Wild Party is the Music Department’s J-term musical, written in 2000 and based on a 1928 book-length narrative poem by Joseph Moncure March.  The heyday of Vaudeville, a reckless love story, a party to end all parties — at Middlebury in midwinter?  Should be interesting.

Friday, Saturday, Monday and Tuesday  (1/22, 1/23, 1/25, 1/26), 8:00, Town Hall Theater.

Middlebury College Orchestra
The Music department also offers its support to this concert.  The group will perform Eroica, Beethoven’s Symphony No 3 in E flat.  An underappreciated Middlebury insitution in a beautiful space — what more can I say?

Friday (1/22), 8:00, CFA Concert Hall.  Free.

How You Livin’?
Not exactly an arts event, but worth mentioning:

Members of the College community share their basic beliefs and ideas with anyone who will come and listen.

The generic description makes it sound almost inane, but the more I think about it, the more interesting it seems.  How often are we allowed, let alone invited, to explain who we are to an audience of our peers? I know I have a few monologs I’ve thought up while shaving or brushing my teeth; maybe this is the time to let them out. Here’s an article from the Campus about last year’s event.

Sunday, 2:00, Warner Hemicycle. Email gfrieden@middlebury.edu for more information about how to participate.

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