Monday, January 25, 2016

Memorandum Monday: Creating an Alternate Universe

Hello Monday!
Sian over From High in the Sky organizes an opportunity on Monday to check in on your weekend and (especially) mention anything new you've done lately.
Well, I had a pretty relaxing weekend. Spent a lot of time in front of the TV catching up on Downton Abby, The Bachelor and Top Chef. Also watched the entire second season of The Fall! Yikes! No wonder I didn't get much done. 
The one new thing I did was work-related. For the law class I teach on employment discrimination, I created a case file of documents that the students will work with this semester to evaluate whether the two made-up applicants could successfully sue the fake employer that refused to hire them. I made up a job description, mocked up applications, wrote imaginary interview notes, drafted rejection letters, etc. Both applicants are applying for jobs as air traffic controllers. One is turned away because he is color-blind (which affects men more than women and could also be a disability); the other is possibly turned away because he is a Muslim of Pakistani descent (although he was born in the UK and worked at Heathrow). It should be interesting to see how the students work with the imaginary, real-world documents I created for class.

13 comments:

Sian said...

That does sound interesting.

Did you recognise some of the places in The Fall? Botanic Gardens features

Have a great week Rinda

debs14 said...

That's going to be an interesting project!

alexa said...

That's sounds wonderfully creative - though how you managed to fit in so much TV catch-up is a marvel to me! Sounds like you have all the credentials for being on the writing team of The Good Wife!

Anonymous said...

You can't get better than watching Downton Abby. Hope you have a good week.

The Mann Fam said...

Will you let us know what they decide at the end of the semester? That would be interesting.

Melissa said...

Wow, that sounds like quite an assignment - lots of information to work through & controversial topics to consider!

Karen said...

Sounds fascinating! Let us know how it goes.

Cheri said...

Your project now has me wondering what the answer is. And wondering if color blindness would prevent one from accurately following the dots that represent planes on a computer screen?

Missus Wookie said...

interesting case files - we covered employment law at the conference I was at last week. Not in that level of depth however!

Susanne said...

That would be a fun challenge to have to create all the documents for a fake reality. Hmmm . . . what does that mean if you are really good at it? That you have a wonderfully creative approach to practical real world situations, I suppose.

Julia said...

What a thought provoking and interesting challenge for your students. I'm about to embark on a weekend of very little after several busy ones. Some TV catching up, some films and some scrapping i think!

Becky said...

That sounds like such an interesting assignment! I loved employment law when I worked in HR and went on as many courses as I could.

KraftyKaren said...

The Fall is brilliant - hopefully not too long till season 3. Your class sounds really interesting - have a great week!