Of my two favorite things ever recorded for television, the second is Ricky Jay's magic show taped for HBO, Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants. I was lucky enough to randomly see this when it aired, and it was the most impressive thing I had ever witnessed. I grew up watching magic specials with large-scale illusions (and, in my mind, always hosted by John Ritter), but I had never seen anything so tactile, precise, and cool. Everything was close-up, mostly involving card control, including throwing cards so forcefully to pierce a watermelon rind. The thing that stuck with me forever was the last segment, titled "The History Lesson," where Ricky Jay walks the audience through the history of the cups and balls trick while performing it in different iterations. Even now, I am still so amazed by this, not because of the trick itself (watch the dozen Penn and Teller clips of them showing how it's done), but the storytelling on top of his command over what is being witnessed. I've watched this segment at least a hundred times in my life, and I still get immersed in watching a trick that is relatively rote and commonplace, however impressive, become extraordinary because of how it's so uniquely shaped.
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Teaching, especially towards the end of the year, can feel similarly well-worn. Semesters sometimes bleed together, and time folds in on itself more often than any of us would like. Things can start to feel more like muscle memory than craft. But while the trick is the same, what you make of it is not. What is always there is what everyone individually brings into the classroom, with presence, care, and craft, to make the experience irreplaceable.
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For all of it, please join us in the Faculty Hub for Faculty Appreciation Days this week. We'll have grab-and-go salads on Tuesday and Pearl's cupcakes on Wednesday (while supplies last). There are still some spots open for chair massages both days! Sign up for chair massages here. We are excited to have coordinated our events with Academic Advising and their Advisor Appreciation Week this year. Please see the full schedule of events here.
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Coming Up in the Faculty Hub
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Tuesday, April 21 & Wednesday, April 22
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Completely unrelated to teaching but very related to magic, The Weather Channel has launched RetroCast Now, a retro version of their website that delivers current weather conditions while recreating local forecast programming from 90s cable. I cannot promise this will do for you what it is doing for me right now, but if you miss smooth jazz over a countdown to the weather forecast on the 8s of every hour, I highly recommend checking it out.
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Your Voice Matters: Take the Survey on AI in Education
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Researchers at MIT and Washington & Lee are conducting a large international study on how faculty and students are navigating artificial intelligence in higher education, and we ask you to participate. This short, anonymous survey asks about your experiences with AI tools: how often you use them, what you use them for, how you think about academic integrity in the age of AI, and what kinds of institutional support would be most helpful. Your responses are completely anonymous. No individual or institution will be identifiable in any reporting or publication based on the survey. Our institution specific results will be shared with us so that we can see how AI is being used here and how we compare to other locations. This data will contribute to the work of the newly formed Senate Ad Hoc Committee on AI and Emerging Technologies.
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We are always looking for new and exciting projects and collaborations. Feel free to contact us.
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