Events & Announcements

Take a break from ASA and join us for the 4th Annual Sociology Blog Meet Up. Come chat with the authors of Sociological Images, The Sociological Cinema, The Society Pages, Sociology Toolbox, Sociology In Focus, Sociology Source, and more. This is a casual event that is open to everyone (even non-sociologists)- come alone or bring your friends. Here are the details:

• When: Saturday 8/22 at 4pm
  Where: Burger Bar (1150 S Michigan Ave – 2.5 blocks from Hilton)
  Who: Everyone’s welcome. Bloggers, readers, anyone.
  What: A meet up for sociology bloggers, sociology tweeters, and the people who read them. Come meet the sociologists you only engage with online. See old friends, make new friends, have a drink, and take a break from ASA.

Hope to see you soon!

Sociology Source has found a new home as part of The Society Pages. The site is going to stay pretty much the same. It will still be focused on ideas & resources for teaching sociology. However, I’m hoping to bring more voices on to the site. So if you have a great idea or resource for teaching sociology, send me an email (Nathan [at] SociologySource [dot] org).

A huge thanks goes to Doug Hartman, Chris Uggen, Letta Page, and especially Jon Smjada at TSP for making this all happen.

It’s an honor to join all of the other wonderful blogs on The Society Pages.

The soc nerds are coming. The soc nerds are coming. ASA is just 5 days away. I’ll be posting updates on Twitter and right here as I attend session/meetups. Below is an incomplete list of the teaching and learning focused events (and a Blog Meetup & Party). For more details (e.g. where these events are held and who exactly is presenting at them), see the official ASA Program.

FRIDAY 8/9

8:00pm–5:00pm
The Section on Teaching and Learning Pre-Conference Workshop This is a fantastic workshop to reevaluate your approach to teaching, pick up some new classroom tricks, and get your questions answered by some of the best sociology teachers around. This annual event does require that register in advance (and registration is closed for this year), but I plan to cover this event on Twitter and right here on SociologySource, so stay tuned on Friday. I am a panelist/facilitator for this event, so if you are planning on attending come say hi. I’d love to meet you face-to-face. Find out more.

SATURDAY 8/10

10:30 –12:10pm
Teaching Workshop. What If Students Asked the Questions? Student-Facilitated Policy Discussion in the University Classroom

2:30–4:10pm
Teaching Workshop. The Sociology of Effective Lecturing

4:30–6:00pm
Sociology Blog Meetup. at Faces & Names (159 W 54th St).Come hang with your favorite authors from Sociological Cinema, The Society Pages, SociologySource, SociologyInFocus, ScatterPlot,Family Inequality, The Montclair SocioBlog, and more. This will be a relaxed, fun, and friendly affair.

8:30–10:00pm
Section on Teaching & Learning Reception at Rosie O’ Grady’s (800 7th Ave). Open to everyone. If you are a section member or want to see what were all about, come on down.

SUNDAY 8/11
-Section Day for ASA Section on Teaching and Learning in Sociology-

8:30–9:30am:
Awards ceremony. Hans O Mauksch Award presentation by Jeffrey Chin

9:30–10:10am:
Section on Teaching and Learning in Sociology Business Meeting

10:30–12:10am:
Teaching and Learning with Technology

12:30–2:10am:
Teaching the CORE of Sociology-or not! What should introductory students know?

2:30–4:10am:
Teaching Public Sociology

5:00-???
Scatterplot Sociology Blog Party at Lillie’s Victorian Establishment (249 W 49th St). Another chance to meet some of your favorite sociology bloggers. I’ll be there along with many other nice folks. Open to all sociology bloggers, tweeters, tumblrs and their readers, commenters, and lurkers. And if you don’t fit in any of those columns, well your invited too. More info.

MONDAY 8/12

8:30–10:10am
Teaching Sociology Editorial Board

8:30–10:10am
Teaching Workshop. Teaching Social Theory – New Approaches for Bringing Social Theory to Life

10:30–12:10pm
Teaching Workshop. Teaching Introductory Sociology for the First Time

2:30–4:10pm
Teaching Workshop. Teaching Climate Change in Sociology

4:30–6:10pm
Teaching Workshop. Sex Matters: The Importance and Mechanics of Teaching Sexuality Effectively

6:30–7:30pm
Reception for Scholars with International Research & Teaching Interests

TUESDAY 8/13

8:30–10:10am
Teaching Workshop. Embracing (or at Least Not Fearing) Difficult Dialogues in the Classroom

8:30–10:10am
Regular Session. Teaching Sociology

8:30–10:10am
Thematic Session. Teaching about Inequality in the Face of the American Dream

10:30–12:10pm
Professional Development Workshop. Demonstrating Teaching Excellence: Creating Successful Resources in TRAILS

10:30–12:10pm
Teaching Workshop. Practical Experience and Methods of Introducing Conversation Analysis to Audiences Who are New to this Approach

12:30–2:10pm
Teaching Workshop. Building a Cumulative Curriculum in the Sociology Major

Attention all my Southern friends. A bunch of us from SociologySource.org, SociologySounds.com, SociologyInFocus.com, and Soc’ing Out Loud are going to get together this Friday from 3pm–5 pm at Meehan’s Public House.

It’s just a bunch of friendly sociologists hanging out. Nothing major, everyone’s welcome!

It’s gone. Goodbye my friend. Because of an outdated credit card number my domain service did not renew the .com version of my name. I’m unwilling to pay to get my domain back because I refuse to support an unscrupulous business model.

www.SociologySource.com is dead, long live www.SociologySource.ORG.

At first I was feeling angry, sad, and ashamed (how could I be so stupid?). But not any more.

Everyday I walk into a classroom I get to live my dream. I am one of the few people on earth who get to do what they love and love what they do. I started SociologySource because I was going to burst with enthusiasm and passion for teaching and learning if I didn’t find some place to release it. Two years later I feel more invigorated than ever; in the classroom things have never been better. Writing and sharing here at SociologySource has made me a better teacher, a better student of sociology, and a better person.

To all of my friends I’ve met on this ride, I can’t thank you enough for all that you’ve given me. Talking with readers and fellow sociology teachers has been without a doubt the best part of this whole experience.

Note: My Email Has Changed

The Email Nathan@SociologySource.com is gone. You can now reach me at Nathan@SociologySource.org

RSS Hasn’t Changed

If you subscribe to SociologySource via RSS, no need to change a thing. The RSS feed will remain: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Sociologysourcecom

As many of you know, I am the editor-in-chief of SociologyInFocus.com and we are looking for great writers and sociology teachers to join our team of authors. SociologyInFocus features articles written to a student audience that take current events, pop culture, or interesting tidbits of information and uses them to illustrate sociological concepts. Sociology teachers around the country use SociologyInFocus to start class discussions, to supplement class readings, or as assignments/extra credit (each article has 4 questions that students can answer).

Are you a sociology teacher who can write about sociology in ways that are fun, approachable, and interesting to a student audience? Then we want you to join our ranks. You can find more information and start the application process by going to www.SociologyInFocus.com/join

FAQ

Will I Get Paid For My Work?

Yes. Authors are paid for all of the work published on SociologyInFocus.

How Often Would I Have To Publish?

We ask that authors publish at least once a month to be considered a permanent author.

Do You Accept Guest Posts? Can I Just Publish Every Now and Again?

Yes we do and yes you can. And you will be compensated for your guest posts. Feel free to send a post idea or manuscript to Nathan@SociologySource.com.

I Have More Questions!

Please check out our application page (www.SociologyInFocus.com/Join) for more information. You can also email me directly at Nathan@SociologySource.com.

Just in time for the beginning of the fall semester, the ClassPack 2.0 is now available for members to download. The ClassPack features my lecture notes, lecture slides, activities, assignments, and music from SociologySounds.com. This outstanding teaching resource is completely free to all members.

Will It Work With My Text Book?

Because you have my detailed class lecture notes the ClassPack can be easily modified to fit any intro text. That said, this second edition of the ClassPack is influenced by and would work well with Society the Basics by John Macionis, You May Ask Yourself by Dalton Conley, and The Sociology Project by the NYU Sociology Department[1]. I have used the previous two texts with this ClassPack and intend to shift to The Sociology Project soon.

How Do I Download It?

To get the ClassPack all you need to do is log in as a member of SociologySource.com. Not a member yet? No sweat, sign up here to become a member.

More Features Coming Soon

The ClassPack is launching in Beta. That is, it’s still under development. I look forward to adding new features soon. Today, we are launching with lecture notes, doing sociology activities, extra credit assignments, and a music collection for each of the seven class modules. However, only the first two modules include lecture slides. I hope to add lecture slide decks over the course of the fall semester. If you want an email when new features become available, click here.

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Come on down, grab a drink, and look for Nathan.  Check twitter for updates as well.

See you soon!

Big news over at SociologySounds.com! First we brought Jason Eastman on to the team as editor-in-chief, last week we added over 40 new songs to the database, and finally added a new statistical/methods category. Plus we have an all new set of sociologists rocking headphones.

If you’ve not yet seen the site, SociologySounds.com is the place educators can go to find music that illustrates sociological themes. With your help we already have over a hundred songs in the database and it’s growing by the day. Help keep it growing by submitting a song or tweeting about it. So much to talk about, but let’s start at the beginning.

Jason Eastman, Editor-in-Chief

I knew when I started SociologySounds.com that it was the right project, but that I was the wrong person for it. I love teaching, but a scholar of the sociology of music, I am not. That’s why I am thrilled to bring Jason on as the editor-in-chief of the project. Jason will bring his expertise from his research in the sociology of music to make sure that SociologySounds.com is the best resource for all sociology teachers. You can also expect your submissions to get posted much faster![1]

Jason is an assistant professor at Coastal Carolina University who studies the replication of inequalities through culture and identity. His dissertation research was on the ongoing Southern rock revival and he has written about masculinity in rock music among many other projects. You can find out all about Jason by reading his bio here. I think it’s safe to say SociologySounds.com is in much more qualified hands now.

We’ve Added Research Methods

Thanks to Sister Edith Bogue from the College of St. Scholastica for suggesting that we add a category for songs that illustrate research methods concepts. My favorite of her recommendations is the song “White Collar Holler” by Stan Rogers. It sounds like a coal miner’s blues song about a Xerox programmer from the a pre-Windows era.

She also sent me this gem from some UC Berkeley students:

Social Justice Top 40

Kimberly Harris Boyd from Piedmont Virginia Community College sent me a link to “The Social Justice Top 40” on the GlobalSolutions.org. It’s another great list of sociologically related songs. Thanks Kimberly for the great recommendation!

Sociology Rocks

Our sociologists wearing headphones crew has expanded by four new members.  Check them out above and download them all here.

Thanks Again

In just 6 months SociologySounds.com has turned into a fantastic teaching resource because of all of your help. We have well over a hundred songs and I know we can break the 200 mark by the end of the year. If you’ve got a song in mind, please share it with us. And thanks again to everyone who helped make SociologySounds.com a success!

Big news! Today I’m launching SociologyInFocus.com a site that uses pop culture, the news, and media to make learning complex sociological concepts simple. Students will love it because articles are fun, compelling, and relevant to their lives. Teachers will love it because SociologyInFocus.com makes it easy to teach using real time examples of sociology straight from the headlines.

Use SociologyInFocus.com in Your Classes

What’s great about SociologyInFocus.com is that each post comes with assignable questions. Assign articles to your students. Use an article to start a class discussion or as an ice breaker for your lectures. You can even make articles extra credit. SociologyInFocus.com is designed to excite your students and to be an invaluable resource to sociology teachers everywhere.

SociologyInFocus.com uses all the ideas and best practices discussed here on SociologySource to create a site that your students will love. Check out the site, and follow @SocInFocus on Twitter.