Yes, I'm talking for my own benefit.
No students, don't bother to lift a finger while I go over the DETAILED/FULL OF EXAMPLES/THOROUGH power point outlining the nuances of English Grammar and proper communication WHICH YOU NEED TO KNOW!
You clearly, already have a degree in ENGLISH, Right?! I'll just continue to stand here and review concepts that have no bearing on your grades or potential to be an eloquent writer and you can just continue to stare back at me like a deer looking at a Mack truck bearing down on it.
Clearly, you don't seem to get the concept that YOU SHOULD BE TAKING NOTES!
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Good/Bad Teacher
I give out a critical thinking and analytical skills assignment each semester that asks students to observe a person in a specific profession or setting and analyze (objectively and subjectively) the impressions that this person makes, using only the evidence that they see from their observation as the basis for their analysis....Really ACADEMIC SOUNDING. Right?! Well this semester it was Good/Bad Teacher.
Interestingly enough, while teaching this assignment and reading rough drafts, I began thinking about "What really makes a bad teacher?" One of my more colorful students put it this way: "A bad teacher is one who is boring is basically a jacked up mess and doesn't even know what they are teaching or how to manage the class." (A run-on; yet, a compelling statement) I began to wonder how each of my students felt about their teachers in the past as well as the present and gave them a chance to share their observations with the class to help get some brainstorming going. (Yes, I asked for the good, the bad, and the ugly. . . it is a summer session class after all and there are some all-too-familiar faces in the class)
In short, I learned some interesting things:
- Everyone can name a horrible teacher they had in the past.
- Only a select few could think of a teacher that was AWE INSPIRING
- Many students felt like the best teachers were the ones who they could relate to but also those who pushed them although they didn't like that so much at the time they were being pushed
While there may be many "BAD TEACHERS" out there, those of us who love the profession passionately have to continue to let our enthusiasm permeate the classrooms we find ourselves in and push our students so that we continue to change lives.
How many of you can remember a BAD/GOOD Teacher?
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Most Annoying Task Today...
Some tasks that are required of an English Professor are so mundane....Take the semester syllabus for example . As a new professor, I must create one for every semester that I teach (summer included...made all the harder with longer classes but fewer weeks to work all the material in) and tweak it until I have some years under my belt and a basic formula for success.
I wouldn't be complaining if it were easy to do...UNFORTUNATELY IT TAKES ME HOURS to finesse the syllabus....I constantly move things around and cut and paste to no avail!
Basically, I loathe making syllabi and can't wait to be done with yet another one.
I guess once I'm tenured this will be a funny memory to look back at like my days of searching for this very job... RELIVE those funny yet horrific stories HERE, HERE, and HERE.
Friday, June 3, 2011
Summer School
So this semester is going to be the first time I've ever attended summer school! Well, I'll be attending as the instructor and not as a student, but you can believe the pressure is still there.
I feel like summer session classes are so rushed and I guess that is helpful for the student, but want can really be learned in a month that it takes others 15 weeks to understand fully. I have always heard that people take summer session classes to either get ahead in coursework, to repeat classes without having to suffer through an entire semester, or to just get a requirement out of the way. No matter which reason, I can't help wondering if these students really want to master/learn the subject I teach in earnest or if this is a feeble attempt to get a subject they must take but seldom enjoy out of the way. I can't shake the feeling that they may not even engage with what I am teaching them each day (thinking face). And yet, I will still try my hardest to make it an interesting and enlightening month of class (partially for them but mostly for me...students often forget professors give up a portion of their summer too when teaching summer classes).
I have always had mixed feelings about summer session classes, but I am optimistic that my students will not disappoint me
...and if they do, I can simply remind myself that IT IS SUMMER SCHOOL AFTER ALL!
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Observation: Moms in Minivans drive like Maniacs!
So this is something that I've noticed a lot recently. Moms (and Dads...don't want to unfairly leave out the menfolk who drive their children around when their wives command them to) who drive those monstrous minivans are all MANIACS!
Maybe they are totally PEEVED about the fact that they are relegated to driving such an eye-sore of a vehicle just to function in their day to day lives....but this is no excuse to speed for no apparent reason, cut people off with your massive vehicle, and basically bully other cars that are much better looking. I mean sure your kids are annoying you, but think of the rest of us please!?!
Honestly the sight of a minivan scares me.This could be because I come from a family of 5 and can attest to the activities within the minivan that drive these Moms and Dads into their permanent state of ROAD RAGE! (tehehehehe -- little Jennifer laughing inside) I always find myself cringing at the sight of these vehicles and impulsively let them pass me so that I don't have to wonder what they will erratically do next.
Has anyone else ever witnessed this, or am I alone in my observation?
Maybe they are totally PEEVED about the fact that they are relegated to driving such an eye-sore of a vehicle just to function in their day to day lives....but this is no excuse to speed for no apparent reason, cut people off with your massive vehicle, and basically bully other cars that are much better looking. I mean sure your kids are annoying you, but think of the rest of us please!?!
Honestly the sight of a minivan scares me.This could be because I come from a family of 5 and can attest to the activities within the minivan that drive these Moms and Dads into their permanent state of ROAD RAGE! (tehehehehe -- little Jennifer laughing inside) I always find myself cringing at the sight of these vehicles and impulsively let them pass me so that I don't have to wonder what they will erratically do next.
Has anyone else ever witnessed this, or am I alone in my observation?
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
WE'VE BEEN HAD! HOODWINKED! BAMBOOZLED!
"Work hard, get a college degree, use that degree as your ticket to a successful career. Or so it was sold. The social contract young grads believed in, were taught not to question, has been broken." ~New York Times
In their article on "The Downsized College Grad", the NYTimes shed light on the fact that college students are experiencing increasing difficulty as they graduate and cannot find jobs. The go on to state that the new grad is unwilling to make mistakes in the learning process and beg for structure as they try to carve out a career path for themselves. Sadly, I see this in the classroom all the time. Unoriginal thinkers; those who cannot fathom that taking chances and making mistakes is a more effective way to learn.
This is a subject that my sister and I have discussed several times and now the New York Times seems to be onto our wavelength as well (bring on the onslaught of Dateline, CNN, and CSPAN debates and specials on how college students are floundering in today's economy). Going the traditional route of accumulating more and more education does not ensure success, especially in this economy. Yet, people are so unwilling to take risks, push themselves and "think outside of the box"...an all to familiar phrase that I used to hear growing up...that they are often running in the same direction as everyone else and similarly disappointed with the lack luster results.
It comes as no surprise then, that the current job situation in the US has caused many to make the MAD DASH back to education, particularly the college classroom...ironically the same torture chambers they despised as youths and could not wait to escape...as the only way to achieve success in a floundering economy. Yet, the many of us who have college degrees and even some who have degrees with boatloads of experience don't find it to be of much help in an economy where employers have all the power and can choose to be ridiculously choosy!
Nevertheless, ads for going back to school persist everywhere and with few people wiling to take real risks, deviate from the norm and be an original in society, most of us will become slaves to what we know and continue to pursue impossibly unaffordable educations with little return from accumulating that massive debt. Only a select few will venture out into the unknown.
Despite all the evidence to the contrary, many in society will continue to GET THOSE DEGREES!
In their article on "The Downsized College Grad", the NYTimes shed light on the fact that college students are experiencing increasing difficulty as they graduate and cannot find jobs. The go on to state that the new grad is unwilling to make mistakes in the learning process and beg for structure as they try to carve out a career path for themselves. Sadly, I see this in the classroom all the time. Unoriginal thinkers; those who cannot fathom that taking chances and making mistakes is a more effective way to learn.
This is a subject that my sister and I have discussed several times and now the New York Times seems to be onto our wavelength as well (bring on the onslaught of Dateline, CNN, and CSPAN debates and specials on how college students are floundering in today's economy). Going the traditional route of accumulating more and more education does not ensure success, especially in this economy. Yet, people are so unwilling to take risks, push themselves and "think outside of the box"...an all to familiar phrase that I used to hear growing up...that they are often running in the same direction as everyone else and similarly disappointed with the lack luster results.
It comes as no surprise then, that the current job situation in the US has caused many to make the MAD DASH back to education, particularly the college classroom...ironically the same torture chambers they despised as youths and could not wait to escape...as the only way to achieve success in a floundering economy. Yet, the many of us who have college degrees and even some who have degrees with boatloads of experience don't find it to be of much help in an economy where employers have all the power and can choose to be ridiculously choosy!
Nevertheless, ads for going back to school persist everywhere and with few people wiling to take real risks, deviate from the norm and be an original in society, most of us will become slaves to what we know and continue to pursue impossibly unaffordable educations with little return from accumulating that massive debt. Only a select few will venture out into the unknown.
Despite all the evidence to the contrary, many in society will continue to GET THOSE DEGREES!
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
One of those days...
While the semester is over and I have begun the lurch toward SUMMER SESSION classes, I have to vent about how irritating some students can be about FINAL GRADES!
These grades are the result of a student's effort (or lack thereof) for the semester and often are a reflection of the student's failure to abide by policies set up at the beginning of the semester. I just get sick of the complainers. Those who really believe that they can do whatever they want during the semester and yet seem flabbergasted, (yes, I brought that back) when they receive the grade they earned.
I don't mean the students who are just genuinely upset because they let themselves down, I mean those belligerent students who decide to wage all out war with you – the Instructor – because they feel the grade THEY EARNED is not fair... because they feel that they have been personally attacked.... As if any part-time, underpaid, employee has the time to spend on a student that takes up so little of their day?!? Where to they get off making accusations like that? If paid half as much attention in class and they spent even half of the time that they took to investigate policies and how they can bring their teachers grading into question, then they could easily pass their classes with FLYING COLORS! But alas, they decide instead to slack off all semester and then (only in a last ditch effort to save themselves at all cost) come out guns blazing and personally attack the instructor –
This happens every semester (especially to those instructors/professors/teachers out there who care about standards and hold their students accountable for the actions and decisions that they make) and probably always will.
As I move on to my next set of students I keep in mind that students, luckily, are not all like this and many will accept responsibility for the choices they make in the classroom as well as the grade they earn. I just have to remind myself that grade disputes happen...and this is just one of those days!
These grades are the result of a student's effort (or lack thereof) for the semester and often are a reflection of the student's failure to abide by policies set up at the beginning of the semester. I just get sick of the complainers. Those who really believe that they can do whatever they want during the semester and yet seem flabbergasted, (yes, I brought that back) when they receive the grade they earned.
I don't mean the students who are just genuinely upset because they let themselves down, I mean those belligerent students who decide to wage all out war with you – the Instructor – because they feel the grade THEY EARNED is not fair... because they feel that they have been personally attacked.... As if any part-time, underpaid, employee has the time to spend on a student that takes up so little of their day?!? Where to they get off making accusations like that? If paid half as much attention in class and they spent even half of the time that they took to investigate policies and how they can bring their teachers grading into question, then they could easily pass their classes with FLYING COLORS! But alas, they decide instead to slack off all semester and then (only in a last ditch effort to save themselves at all cost) come out guns blazing and personally attack the instructor –
This happens every semester (especially to those instructors/professors/teachers out there who care about standards and hold their students accountable for the actions and decisions that they make) and probably always will.
As I move on to my next set of students I keep in mind that students, luckily, are not all like this and many will accept responsibility for the choices they make in the classroom as well as the grade they earn. I just have to remind myself that grade disputes happen...and this is just one of those days!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)