News2008August

=CCT News=

4 August 08
See also previous news, alum news and exchanges, items for the upcoming news, and [|CCT calendar]. Inform cct@umb.edu if you have news OR want to be emailed when there's a new news compilation (no more than once/month) OR want to be removed from such mailings.

Contents: Student matters, CCT community, CCT events, alums, other events, opportunities, resources, food for thought, humor

__**Student Matters**__ The theme for this fall's [|612 Seminar in Creativity: Humor] NOTE:Tuesday classes, 602 & 612 have switched times so that 602 (Creative Thinking) meets at 4:00pm, and 612 (Seminar in Creativity) meets at 7:00pm.

Newly matriculating and continuing students should register by August 20 to help prevent any CCT courses from being cancelled by the Provost's Office.

Non-matriculated students can register before classes start at the Graduate College of Ed. Office of Student Services. (Call 617-287-7625 or email to arrange a time.) You may also go to the first class and have the professor sign you in.

A 1 credit course for the fall, "[|Reflective Practice]," is in the works -- stay tuned for details about registering. This course will allow students to get credit for participating in (then writing about) the events of the CCT Network.

CCT Community Gathering, 5 September 2008, 5.30pm-8:00pm, Wheatley 2-209 This event will introduce students--new and continuing--, alums, and other members of the CCT community to each other and to the evolving body of tools and practices that help us keep "reflecting and connecting for lifelong learning." **New students are expected to attend; Prospective students are encouraged to come as well**
 * //Reflecting and Connecting for Lifelong Learning//**

Please RSVP so we can provide the right amount of food & refreshments.

At the gathering, you will get help to join the new [|CCT Social network site] -- if you have not done so already -- which aims to make connections among students, graduates, faculty of CCT Program beyond the formal programs of study. (See [|snapshot]; request invitation to join by emailing cct@umb.edu)

__**CCT Community**__ CCT Community Gathering, 5 September 2008, 5.30pm-8:00pm -- see above. (This is the first in the fall series of CCT Network events.

We invite you to join the [|online social network site] for the CCT Network, which is an extension of the Critical & Creative Thinking Program intended to facilitate "connections that take us beyond the formal CCT program of studies" -- connections that promote personal & professional development, community building & mutual support, educational-innovation & reflective practice activities. Please look for the invitation email from "CCT Network" and follow the instructions to establish your log-in. We will be explaining the "ning" in more detail at our CCT community event on September 5th, but, in the meantime, feel free to explore what you can do - for those of us who don't read instructions, the [|Instructions & Tips] note is especially helpful to read. Send any unanswered questions to cct@umb.edu. We are hoping that members of the CCT community will inform and inspire each other by posting updates on our work and thinking. Of course, each of us has to choose our level of involvement - from irregular visits to peruse what other have posted to receiving email notification of every change on the site. The biggest challenge for users of an online social network is to extend the experiences that we value in face-to-face and person-to-person interactions and to spark other kinds of generative interactions that hadn't been happening off-line. Keep this challenge in mind as you decide what to say and when on this ning.

To those who participated OR intended to participate OR otherwise expressed interest in the CCT June 10 Dialogue session on Dialogue session on "Critical & Creative Thinking in Practice: Where have we come and what lies ahead?" see report on http://cct.wikispaces.com/CCTNetwork10Jun08. Participants are welcome to edit/add to the report. Stay tuned for more CCT Network events.

Check out this book: "[|Jewish Mysticism: The Infinite Expression of Freedom] " by Rachel Elior, translated by Yudith Nave and CCT Professor Arthur Millman.

CCT instructor, Ben Schwendener, performed with Bhob Rainey at the Taylor House, Jamaica Plain, Friday, july 18

The CCT Program [|2007-08 Annual Report] is available for viewing.

__**CCT Events**__ Celebrate Shakespeare with CCT! Our summer outing this year is at Celebrate Shakespeare Day on the Boston Common, where we will check out some performances, workshops, stage tours, Shakepeare karaoke, and more. Saturday, August 2, 2008, from 2:00pm-5:00pm. RSVP to cct@umb.edu, and we will meet right outside the Park St. red line subway station at 2:00pm.

CCT Community Gathering, 5 September 2008, 5.30pm-8:00pm -- see description above.

__**Alum Notes**__ "//NEW//" - an Art Exhibit by CCT Alum Luanne Witkowski, at the Hutson Gallery, 432 Commercial St. in Provincetown, MA -- a number of works on panel and paper using a variety of mediums. Reception: Friday, August 8, 7:00pm-9:00pm Exhibit times: August 7-17 (open Thurs.-Sat.11:00am-9:00pm and Sunday 11:00am-5:00pm, or by appt.) Visit www.hutsongallery.net for more info. or www.lewstudio.com for more about the artist.

Julie Barrett recently exhibited artwork for "First Thursdays" at Jamaica Plain Open Studios and has been chosen by Coldwell Banker Real Estate in JP as a featured artist for July. Her artwork will be displayed in their office at 713 Centre St. for the entire month.

Bob Schoenberg, CCT alum & online instructor for CCT601, is the author of Critical Thinking in Business published in 2007 by Heuristic Books, http://www.criticalthinkinginbusiness.com/.

**__Events__**

__**Opportunities**__ Need to find an apartment? One room is available in a 3-BR apt. in Somerville for September 1 -- please visit the [|craigslist ad] and contact Dereck for more information.

**__Resources__**

From Professor Richard Tabor Greene (Knowledge and Creativity Management, Kwansei Gakuin University in Sanda, Japan): Several [|books on creativity] are available for purchase, and several more [|free downloadable articles] are available.

From Deep Dish TV: DVD series "[|DIY Media: Movement Perspectives on Critical Moments]". From the web site (http://deepdishtv.org/Series/Default.aspx?id=38): "this project is animated by the idea that history, fundamentally, is defined by competing sets of narratives that are selected by interested parties. The mainstream media curates a history for us that is frequently out of synch with the experience of social actors. This project is fundamentally about collecting and distributing the narratives that social movements have curated for themselves; telling the histories that are always in danger of being drowned out and forgotten. The series will explore an array of questions, both theoretical and practical, that arise out of an examination of media generated by communities engaged in social struggle."

Creativity is the theme of the [|current issue of Utne Reader magazine]. Articles include "The Future of Creativity", "Why Essays Are So Damned Boring", "Bright Ideas from Baltimore’s Citizens", "The Creativity Conceit", "Art + Science = Inspiration", and "Putting the Arts Back into the Arts".

__**Humor**__ [|How NOT to use PowerPoint] - a video guide for overhead projector enthusiasts.

About Andrew Philippone's recent "Charlie Rose by Samuel Beckett", Retort's youtube critic, John Broughton says: "Best existentialist mash-up of the early summer. Check it out.": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFE2CCfAP1o

__**Food for Thought**__ Interstellar Merger Scientists have modeled the [|fate of the Milky Way], a long time from now, in a galaxy not so far away.

"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." - Rumi, 13th Century Sufi

"Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd have preferred to talk." - Doug Larson

Recent article from //Inside Higher Ed//: "[|Viewbook Diversity vs. Real Diversity]"

and a related one from //The Chronicle of Higher Education//: [|Cold Reality Intrudes on Diversity Conference in Disney World]