Monday, November 20, 2006
why yes, I AM grading in the wee hours before class
So I'm grading argumentation essays. These essays are the last of their out-of-class essays and they are revisions of a previous in-class essay. Perhaps another day I'll tell you about how I had to lecture the poor souls about how their "revisions" were not so good at all, and how a vote re: what to do about it ended in a tie and a compromise. It's not a great story, but it is a story nonetheless.
Anyway, I'm grading these essays and I can't help but laugh during one of them. Luckily, it was the intention of the author that the reader laughs at the absurd example used to counter an opposing argument. They had three options for their argumentation essay and one of them was to argue for or against arming pilots of commercial aircraft. My funny student (who never says a word in class, unfortunately) offered an example of terrorists using as weapons the sporks found in on-board meals.
I think maybe it wouldn't be quite so funny if it weren't 4am.
Soon, I will go off to class and we will discuss Poe's "Philosophy of Furniture." Yes, I'm serious.
So I'm grading argumentation essays. These essays are the last of their out-of-class essays and they are revisions of a previous in-class essay. Perhaps another day I'll tell you about how I had to lecture the poor souls about how their "revisions" were not so good at all, and how a vote re: what to do about it ended in a tie and a compromise. It's not a great story, but it is a story nonetheless.
Anyway, I'm grading these essays and I can't help but laugh during one of them. Luckily, it was the intention of the author that the reader laughs at the absurd example used to counter an opposing argument. They had three options for their argumentation essay and one of them was to argue for or against arming pilots of commercial aircraft. My funny student (who never says a word in class, unfortunately) offered an example of terrorists using as weapons the sporks found in on-board meals.
I think maybe it wouldn't be quite so funny if it weren't 4am.
Soon, I will go off to class and we will discuss Poe's "Philosophy of Furniture." Yes, I'm serious.
Labels: teaching
Thursday, October 26, 2006
good class!
So on Wednesday morning I posted about how Monday's class was a bummer and I hoped Wednesday's would be better because mentor prof would be there.
It was.
My students burst into spontaneous applause.
Twice.
Once was for their classmate, a quiet (doesn't say a peep in class) but smart (I know that, they don't) girl who read paragraph 14 of "Letter from Birmingham Jail"— the one with all the semicolons. No one volunteered (surprise!) so I picked her. I did it on purpose because I knew she would know all the big words and could read it with the proper emotion. Boy was I glad she did. I was so proud of them for clapping for their classmate. I was also proud of them for having a good discussion and answering all the questions correctly and puzzling out the arguments and what not. You know, like good college students.
The second time they clapped was for mentor prof, who always gives a spiel to 1A classes about the benefits of a liberal arts major or at the very least a liberal arts minor. He's an eloquent speaker. He asked questions, they answered them, and they clapped at the end. Good kids.
It was.
My students burst into spontaneous applause.
Twice.
Once was for their classmate, a quiet (doesn't say a peep in class) but smart (I know that, they don't) girl who read paragraph 14 of "Letter from Birmingham Jail"— the one with all the semicolons. No one volunteered (surprise!) so I picked her. I did it on purpose because I knew she would know all the big words and could read it with the proper emotion. Boy was I glad she did. I was so proud of them for clapping for their classmate. I was also proud of them for having a good discussion and answering all the questions correctly and puzzling out the arguments and what not. You know, like good college students.
The second time they clapped was for mentor prof, who always gives a spiel to 1A classes about the benefits of a liberal arts major or at the very least a liberal arts minor. He's an eloquent speaker. He asked questions, they answered them, and they clapped at the end. Good kids.
Labels: teaching
Monday, October 16, 2006
teaching is FUN
Since I'd been talking up my composition class by telling my fellow TAs just what a good time we have (we do!), two of my fellow grad students sat in on my class today. One of my classmates was doing an observation for our comp studies class but the other one was just there for kicks (having already done her observations on other folks). They sat in the back and I swear they almost wet themselves from laughing so hard.
Today was "introduction to argumentation" day, in which we talked about persuasion, argumentation, fallacies, blah blah blah.
I was cracking myself up. At one point I dropped to my knees in a dramatic display of "appeal to emotion," and I think it was at that time they all decided I'd lost my mind.
Or maybe it was when I explained about red herrings, aka the "look! a puppy!" fallacy.
[shiny!]
Today was "introduction to argumentation" day, in which we talked about persuasion, argumentation, fallacies, blah blah blah.
I was cracking myself up. At one point I dropped to my knees in a dramatic display of "appeal to emotion," and I think it was at that time they all decided I'd lost my mind.
Or maybe it was when I explained about red herrings, aka the "look! a puppy!" fallacy.
[shiny!]
Labels: gradschool, teaching
Friday, October 13, 2006
teaching MLKing's "Letter from Birmingham Jail"
On Monday, my composition class begins the argumentation section of the course (it's modes-based) and we'll be working with argumentation for the rest of the semester.
In a few weeks, the students will read Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail," and that's all the scheduled reading they have for the class for that day.
I have some basic things to discuss, but if anyone reading this has used King's "LfBJ" and has some wicked cool activities or particularly useful discussion points, I'm all ears.
Thanks!
In a few weeks, the students will read Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail," and that's all the scheduled reading they have for the class for that day.
I have some basic things to discuss, but if anyone reading this has used King's "LfBJ" and has some wicked cool activities or particularly useful discussion points, I'm all ears.
Thanks!
Labels: teaching
Friday, October 06, 2006
oh so tempting...
Our student association wants to give a 10-minute presentation to all our 1A/1B classes (because everyone has to take those classes) about all the things the organization offers to students.
I'm fine with that. I'm all for developing community at a commuter school, registering people to vote, and so on.
But I swear to god, when the person comes to give the presentation I want to hand over the contact and follow-up emails all marked up in red ink. If you were going to send a message to a bunch of English instructors, don't you think you'd proofread your work? Seriously.
* "As an update, we are currently matching Directors' to class meeting times."
good for you. what are they possessing?
* "I will send you a conformation email early next week!"
great! I'm sure you will build a lovely email, all symmetrical and such. However, when will you CONFIRM the time?
Our student association wants to give a 10-minute presentation to all our 1A/1B classes (because everyone has to take those classes) about all the things the organization offers to students.
I'm fine with that. I'm all for developing community at a commuter school, registering people to vote, and so on.
But I swear to god, when the person comes to give the presentation I want to hand over the contact and follow-up emails all marked up in red ink. If you were going to send a message to a bunch of English instructors, don't you think you'd proofread your work? Seriously.
* "As an update, we are currently matching Directors' to class meeting times."
good for you. what are they possessing?
* "I will send you a conformation email early next week!"
great! I'm sure you will build a lovely email, all symmetrical and such. However, when will you CONFIRM the time?
Labels: teaching
Thursday, October 05, 2006
teaching...it's JUST LIKE THIS
So I was walking down the hall the other evening and I happened upon one of my fave profs in his office. I never see him in his office, so I stopped to say hi. He asked, in his sarcastic yet kindly way, "how are the little bastards?" (for he is a venerable prof and "little bastards" is a reasonable thing to call freshmen). I said, "oh, they're not little bastards to me just yet, but today I found out they have issues with critical thinking." (which is true, but I still adore my students). He says, "aye, dumb little bastards," and I laugh (because he's a crack up, really).
Then he promised to send a clip from an old Saturday Night Live episode featuring Jerry Seinfeld teaching a history class. Clearly he followed up, as it's embedded below. The clip is from 1992 (wow, the year I graduated from college...that clip IS old!) and the sketch is called "Make You Think."
It's funny because it's TRUE.
[happily sucking bandwidth from MySpace. Click here if the embed doesn't work for you.]
So I was walking down the hall the other evening and I happened upon one of my fave profs in his office. I never see him in his office, so I stopped to say hi. He asked, in his sarcastic yet kindly way, "how are the little bastards?" (for he is a venerable prof and "little bastards" is a reasonable thing to call freshmen). I said, "oh, they're not little bastards to me just yet, but today I found out they have issues with critical thinking." (which is true, but I still adore my students). He says, "aye, dumb little bastards," and I laugh (because he's a crack up, really).
Then he promised to send a clip from an old Saturday Night Live episode featuring Jerry Seinfeld teaching a history class. Clearly he followed up, as it's embedded below. The clip is from 1992 (wow, the year I graduated from college...that clip IS old!) and the sketch is called "Make You Think."
It's funny because it's TRUE.
[happily sucking bandwidth from MySpace. Click here if the embed doesn't work for you.]
Labels: teaching
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
today the freshmen will be reading ...
... "What's the Point of a College Education."
You see, they've been eased into this whole "critical thinking and reading" thing. We discussed the concept and strategies for performing such types of thinking and reading, and then they promptly biffed the in-class exercise, en masse.
The in-class assignment was to read the following (I took it from the Handbook for Writers chapter on thinking/reading/writing critically):
After hearing me try to beat "you can't comprehend something if you don't know the meaning of words and thus you should have your dictionary handy" for weeks, a fair number of the students turned in their papers clearly not knowing that a starling is a bird. So I said to them, "the first thing you should have done was raise your hand and say 'hey, what's a starling' but instead you chose to wallow in ignorance." Ok, I didn't say the last part. But really, we had just discussed how you need to take control of your own brain and ask questions.
So today we will be reading Janet's essay and their instructions are to: underline any words or phrases whose meanings are ambiguous or otherwise unknown to them, note in the margins any questions you might have about a particular statement or example used, identify the thesis of the essay, and finally write a substantial paragraph about what it means to think and read critically (talk about how you have or have not practiced critical thinking/reading in the past, and how you plan to implement critical thinking/reading in the future).
I thank Janet for her very timely teaching tool!
... "What's the Point of a College Education."
You see, they've been eased into this whole "critical thinking and reading" thing. We discussed the concept and strategies for performing such types of thinking and reading, and then they promptly biffed the in-class exercise, en masse.
The in-class assignment was to read the following (I took it from the Handbook for Writers chapter on thinking/reading/writing critically):
It is the first of February, and everyone is talking about starlings. Starlings came to this country on a passenger liner from Europe. One hundred of them were deliberately released in Central Park, and from those hundred descended all of our countless millions of starlings today. According to Edwin Way Teale, "Their coming was the result of one man's fancy. That man was Eugene Schiffelin, a wealthy New York drug manufacturer. His curious hobby was the introduction into America of all the birds mentioned in William Shakespeare." The birds adapted to their new country splendidly. – Annie Dillard, "Terror at Tinker Creek"After reading it, they were to list all the literal information, all the implied information, and all the opinions. Let's say there are 18-20 different things that could be listed (total). The most anyone came up with was 6. Not a good ratio.
After hearing me try to beat "you can't comprehend something if you don't know the meaning of words and thus you should have your dictionary handy" for weeks, a fair number of the students turned in their papers clearly not knowing that a starling is a bird. So I said to them, "the first thing you should have done was raise your hand and say 'hey, what's a starling' but instead you chose to wallow in ignorance." Ok, I didn't say the last part. But really, we had just discussed how you need to take control of your own brain and ask questions.
So today we will be reading Janet's essay and their instructions are to: underline any words or phrases whose meanings are ambiguous or otherwise unknown to them, note in the margins any questions you might have about a particular statement or example used, identify the thesis of the essay, and finally write a substantial paragraph about what it means to think and read critically (talk about how you have or have not practiced critical thinking/reading in the past, and how you plan to implement critical thinking/reading in the future).
I thank Janet for her very timely teaching tool!
Labels: teaching
Sunday, September 24, 2006
on getting started
In a previous post I briefly mentioned about some of the students [really just a few, like three or four out of 24] in my composition class not being able to get started when faced with an assignment. By this, I meant the short in-class writing assignments (eight to ten minute things) as well as the in-class essays (75 minutes). After they get going, they have things to say and their syntax is just dandy, but it's the "get going" part that stumps them.
It doesn't seem to matter if the short writing assignments come at the beginning, middle, or end of class (they're typically at the beginning but occassionaly they've been after we chatted about things for awhile), the inability to get started is still there.
It doesn't seem to matter if the assignment is "write an essay" or "answer this reading comprehension question" or "brainstorm on this topic" or so on—they can't get started. Even when the assignment is just to freewrite, they sit there and stare at the page despite the fact they just answered the question "what is freewriting?" with "put pen to paper and just write whatever comes in your head and it's impossible to do it incorrectly."
Some of them have long commutes—upwards of an hour to get to campus for a 7:30am class—but some do not. Some sleep during the commute, some of them read, some of them doodle.
Ideas? Suggestions? Thoughts?
In a previous post I briefly mentioned about some of the students [really just a few, like three or four out of 24] in my composition class not being able to get started when faced with an assignment. By this, I meant the short in-class writing assignments (eight to ten minute things) as well as the in-class essays (75 minutes). After they get going, they have things to say and their syntax is just dandy, but it's the "get going" part that stumps them.
It doesn't seem to matter if the short writing assignments come at the beginning, middle, or end of class (they're typically at the beginning but occassionaly they've been after we chatted about things for awhile), the inability to get started is still there.
It doesn't seem to matter if the assignment is "write an essay" or "answer this reading comprehension question" or "brainstorm on this topic" or so on—they can't get started. Even when the assignment is just to freewrite, they sit there and stare at the page despite the fact they just answered the question "what is freewriting?" with "put pen to paper and just write whatever comes in your head and it's impossible to do it incorrectly."
Some of them have long commutes—upwards of an hour to get to campus for a 7:30am class—but some do not. Some sleep during the commute, some of them read, some of them doodle.
Ideas? Suggestions? Thoughts?
Labels: teaching
Thursday, September 07, 2006
observation day
Yesterday was Day 4 of my comp class, but Day 2 of actual teaching. It also happened to be the day the TA Coordinator/my thesis adviser/man-holding-my-future-in-his-hands scheduled as his observation day (first of two). Argh! Gah! Stress! Ok, truthfully I didn't have much of that. I actually volunteered to go first. I wanted to get it over with, and I also wanted him in there at a time when the students were still shiny and new and participatory. (I'm kidding...kind of...)
I had a plan for Day 4, and through some miracle we actually did everything on my list and only had two minutes left at the end. True, if we hadn't gone on a five-minute tangent about poor Pluto, we would have had more time left at the end, but it all worked out. My plan included a reading quiz at the beginning followed by several distinct blocks of discussion, and the students were talkative and smart. Boy oh boy does that make things easier, and far less boring than me standing up there and lecturing about the narrative essay.
After class, the "debrief" went something like this: it was fine, class has an identity, they're responsive, etc etc, what do you think? I said, "I just don't know what to do with myself," which is absolutely true. My biggest problem right now is that I don't know where to stand...and I totally forgot I had a huge chalkboard behind me, and could write things all over it for the visual learners and such. Duh. We used the chalkboard extensively last week, and yesterday? Totally ignored it. Then again, if those are my biggest issues, I'm starting at an ok place.
The thing about not knowing where to stand, it's partially because we have stupid furniture in the classroom. The room is jam-packed with chairs, then there's a large rectangular table at the front. I stand behind the table because if I stand in front of it I'll be smushed against the first row of students. If I shove the table to the wall so I can walk in front of it, then I won't be able to use the chalkboard. So, I just have to get used to wandering outside of the bounds of the table (outside of the safety zone!). All of the critical things the observer had to say matched the critical things I had to say, so again—totally on the same page. Thank god.
On Wednesday, the students turn in their first essay-that-counts, and it's an out-of-class essay. I'm actually looking forward to grading them, to see where everyone really stands. I think many of them will be quite good.
Yesterday was Day 4 of my comp class, but Day 2 of actual teaching. It also happened to be the day the TA Coordinator/my thesis adviser/man-holding-my-future-in-his-hands scheduled as his observation day (first of two). Argh! Gah! Stress! Ok, truthfully I didn't have much of that. I actually volunteered to go first. I wanted to get it over with, and I also wanted him in there at a time when the students were still shiny and new and participatory. (I'm kidding...kind of...)
I had a plan for Day 4, and through some miracle we actually did everything on my list and only had two minutes left at the end. True, if we hadn't gone on a five-minute tangent about poor Pluto, we would have had more time left at the end, but it all worked out. My plan included a reading quiz at the beginning followed by several distinct blocks of discussion, and the students were talkative and smart. Boy oh boy does that make things easier, and far less boring than me standing up there and lecturing about the narrative essay.
After class, the "debrief" went something like this: it was fine, class has an identity, they're responsive, etc etc, what do you think? I said, "I just don't know what to do with myself," which is absolutely true. My biggest problem right now is that I don't know where to stand...and I totally forgot I had a huge chalkboard behind me, and could write things all over it for the visual learners and such. Duh. We used the chalkboard extensively last week, and yesterday? Totally ignored it. Then again, if those are my biggest issues, I'm starting at an ok place.
The thing about not knowing where to stand, it's partially because we have stupid furniture in the classroom. The room is jam-packed with chairs, then there's a large rectangular table at the front. I stand behind the table because if I stand in front of it I'll be smushed against the first row of students. If I shove the table to the wall so I can walk in front of it, then I won't be able to use the chalkboard. So, I just have to get used to wandering outside of the bounds of the table (outside of the safety zone!). All of the critical things the observer had to say matched the critical things I had to say, so again—totally on the same page. Thank god.
On Wednesday, the students turn in their first essay-that-counts, and it's an out-of-class essay. I'm actually looking forward to grading them, to see where everyone really stands. I think many of them will be quite good.
Labels: gradschool, teaching
Saturday, September 02, 2006
brief thoughts on my own class
Previously, I said that I'm not going to talk about my actual students or class except in very general ways like "fun!" or "I gave a crappy lecture," because I am not an anonymous blogger. This is still true. I won't tell you (dear blogosphere) anything that I haven't said to them already. This is not to say I don't have anything to talk about. :)
I said that my class did miserably as a group on the grammar diagnostic, and now I can say that they did average as a group on the essay diagnostic. I was (honestly) able to say something positive about each essay, followed by a ton of "here are things you should focus on and hey, guess what? they're exactly the things you'll learn in this class" kinds of comments. I had a couple students who wrote what would have been B+/A- essays right out of the gate, and some who wrote what would have been D essays. But the vast majority fell squarely in what would have been the C range. I was pleased, and we finally got down to business on day three.
Remarkably enough, by the end of day three I could match names and faces. Sure, I only have twenty-five students, but I am so bad with names that I assumed I'd have to wing it for most of the semester. Not so. I think the part of your brain used to store student information fires itself up when it knows it is faced with remembering important things. I couldn't tell you the names of eight of the twelve people in my poetry seminar, but I know every single one of the twenty-five students in my class. Whew. One hurdle down.
By the middle of day three, people were talking and we did a collaborative exercise re: writing a narrative essay and they seemed to dig it. Then we went around the room and did the "tell us about yourself" routine, and people were making connections with each other either because they went to rival high schools or a bunch of them liked tennis, etc. Hooray.
I have more than a few students who spent the last few years in remedial classes (some schools call them developmental classes, which I think is far more positive-sounding than remedial!), and they were not shy about saying so in their intros, because they were so proud to have made it through. That was pretty cool, but the really cool part comes next (or maybe I'm just easy to please). The writing exercise for the day was to write some sort of narrative about yourself (just a paragraph), and it turns out that one of the former remedial students, one who was at the low end of the group based on the diagnostic, wrote the best paragraph. It would be a perfect example of what I planned to talk about in our next class, so I e-mailed the student to see if she would be ok with me using it as an example and having her read it to the class and using it to jumpstart the discussion. She was very happy. I was very happy. It was pretty darn cool.
So, day four of class (wednesday the 6th) will be day two of actual teaching. It is also the day that the TA coordinator/my boss/my thesis advisor/thankfully an all-around-good-guy will visit my classroom and sit in the back and freak me out. Good thing I'm confident about what we're doing that day!
Previously, I said that I'm not going to talk about my actual students or class except in very general ways like "fun!" or "I gave a crappy lecture," because I am not an anonymous blogger. This is still true. I won't tell you (dear blogosphere) anything that I haven't said to them already. This is not to say I don't have anything to talk about. :)
I said that my class did miserably as a group on the grammar diagnostic, and now I can say that they did average as a group on the essay diagnostic. I was (honestly) able to say something positive about each essay, followed by a ton of "here are things you should focus on and hey, guess what? they're exactly the things you'll learn in this class" kinds of comments. I had a couple students who wrote what would have been B+/A- essays right out of the gate, and some who wrote what would have been D essays. But the vast majority fell squarely in what would have been the C range. I was pleased, and we finally got down to business on day three.
Remarkably enough, by the end of day three I could match names and faces. Sure, I only have twenty-five students, but I am so bad with names that I assumed I'd have to wing it for most of the semester. Not so. I think the part of your brain used to store student information fires itself up when it knows it is faced with remembering important things. I couldn't tell you the names of eight of the twelve people in my poetry seminar, but I know every single one of the twenty-five students in my class. Whew. One hurdle down.
By the middle of day three, people were talking and we did a collaborative exercise re: writing a narrative essay and they seemed to dig it. Then we went around the room and did the "tell us about yourself" routine, and people were making connections with each other either because they went to rival high schools or a bunch of them liked tennis, etc. Hooray.
I have more than a few students who spent the last few years in remedial classes (some schools call them developmental classes, which I think is far more positive-sounding than remedial!), and they were not shy about saying so in their intros, because they were so proud to have made it through. That was pretty cool, but the really cool part comes next (or maybe I'm just easy to please). The writing exercise for the day was to write some sort of narrative about yourself (just a paragraph), and it turns out that one of the former remedial students, one who was at the low end of the group based on the diagnostic, wrote the best paragraph. It would be a perfect example of what I planned to talk about in our next class, so I e-mailed the student to see if she would be ok with me using it as an example and having her read it to the class and using it to jumpstart the discussion. She was very happy. I was very happy. It was pretty darn cool.
So, day four of class (wednesday the 6th) will be day two of actual teaching. It is also the day that the TA coordinator/my boss/my thesis advisor/thankfully an all-around-good-guy will visit my classroom and sit in the back and freak me out. Good thing I'm confident about what we're doing that day!
Labels: teaching
Sunday, August 27, 2006
since it's not about MY ACTUAL STUDENT, I can blog this
It's Sunday (today). The phone rings. Caller ID shows an actual name and not "unknown," so I answer it thinking that if it's a wrong number I can at least tell them so, or if it's one of my friends calling from someone else's phone, I won't miss the call.
The person on the other end was neither of the two options.
caller: May I speak to Professor Julie Meloni?
I'M NOT A PROFESSOR. I ranted about people using "professor" without actually having the rank, over here. But whatever.
me: [puzzled] This is Julie.
caller: Hi, I'm [name] and I'm a [sport] player and was out of town until this week and I see you have an opening in your class at [time].
WTF? While it's true that it's schedule adjustment time and technically in my class I have one seat, I have a waitlist. Plus, um, what the fuck?
me: [not even politely] I have a waitlist.
caller: Oh, but...
me: [interrupting] Could you tell me how you got this number?
If she was given the number by someone, I want to know who it was.
caller: In the phone book.
me: Ah. Just so you know, this probably isn't the tack you want to take with faculty, calling random people at home on a Sunday evening.
/makes mental note to remove name from phone book
caller: ok, thanks!
Shall we examine just how many things are wrong with this exchange?
[I should reiterate that moving forward I'm not going to talk about my actual students or class except in very general ways like "fun!" or "I gave a crappy lecture," because I am not an anonymous blogger. Heck, even if I were an anonymous blogger I probably wouldn't be any more specific than that. I have an outlet for venting. But this student...sheesh. Not actually mine.]
It's Sunday (today). The phone rings. Caller ID shows an actual name and not "unknown," so I answer it thinking that if it's a wrong number I can at least tell them so, or if it's one of my friends calling from someone else's phone, I won't miss the call.
The person on the other end was neither of the two options.
caller: May I speak to Professor Julie Meloni?
I'M NOT A PROFESSOR. I ranted about people using "professor" without actually having the rank, over here. But whatever.
me: [puzzled] This is Julie.
caller: Hi, I'm [name] and I'm a [sport] player and was out of town until this week and I see you have an opening in your class at [time].
WTF? While it's true that it's schedule adjustment time and technically in my class I have one seat, I have a waitlist. Plus, um, what the fuck?
me: [not even politely] I have a waitlist.
caller: Oh, but...
me: [interrupting] Could you tell me how you got this number?
If she was given the number by someone, I want to know who it was.
caller: In the phone book.
me: Ah. Just so you know, this probably isn't the tack you want to take with faculty, calling random people at home on a Sunday evening.
/makes mental note to remove name from phone book
caller: ok, thanks!
Shall we examine just how many things are wrong with this exchange?
[I should reiterate that moving forward I'm not going to talk about my actual students or class except in very general ways like "fun!" or "I gave a crappy lecture," because I am not an anonymous blogger. Heck, even if I were an anonymous blogger I probably wouldn't be any more specific than that. I have an outlet for venting. But this student...sheesh. Not actually mine.]
Labels: teaching
Saturday, August 26, 2006
trying to explain the "bathroom office"
Each year, a certain number of teaching associates (TAs) get the "bathroom office," aka room 227B in the Faculty Office building. [note: despite it's name, the FO building only includes the faculty from the depts of English and Philosophy. go figure.]
This year, I am one of the people in 227B. Three of us share this distinction.
Following is my attempt to explain why this is the "bathroom office"...
Each year, a certain number of teaching associates (TAs) get the "bathroom office," aka room 227B in the Faculty Office building. [note: despite it's name, the FO building only includes the faculty from the depts of English and Philosophy. go figure.]
This year, I am one of the people in 227B. Three of us share this distinction.
Following is my attempt to explain why this is the "bathroom office"...
 This is the view of our office door when you're walking down the hall. Oh, that other door? The one you can actually SEE from the hall? That's the women's bathroom. |  If students figure out the correct door for us, that is, not the bathroom door, this is what they see. Well, they also see another desk. It's to the right, against the front wall. |  This is the view from our office doorway. As you can see, the door that is visible from the hallway is indeed the BATHROOM. |
Labels: gradschool, teaching
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
EVERYONE has a freaking MySpace account
In my class, 23 of 28 students who filled out my little "student information sheet" answered "yes" to the question "Do you have a MySpace, LiveJournal, or blog?" Twenty-two of them have a MySpace, and three of them tacked on "who doesn't?" to the answer.
I DON'T, that's who.
But I won't hold their choice of platform against them. At least they're participating in a community!
So today's class is over, and it was a hoot. Well, as much of a hoot as you can have when going over the syllabus and various handouts. I hit them with a grammar diagnostic at the end, so I'll look over that and figure out where everyone stands. On Monday we have the essay diagnostic. No actual "teaching" happens for another week.
But everyone was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, which is always a good sign. Only one person on the roster didn't make it to class, which means I have four people who want to add who are vying for one possible slot. I guess this is where I learn to be cold-hearted.
In my class, 23 of 28 students who filled out my little "student information sheet" answered "yes" to the question "Do you have a MySpace, LiveJournal, or blog?" Twenty-two of them have a MySpace, and three of them tacked on "who doesn't?" to the answer.
I DON'T, that's who.
But I won't hold their choice of platform against them. At least they're participating in a community!
So today's class is over, and it was a hoot. Well, as much of a hoot as you can have when going over the syllabus and various handouts. I hit them with a grammar diagnostic at the end, so I'll look over that and figure out where everyone stands. On Monday we have the essay diagnostic. No actual "teaching" happens for another week.
But everyone was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, which is always a good sign. Only one person on the roster didn't make it to class, which means I have four people who want to add who are vying for one possible slot. I guess this is where I learn to be cold-hearted.
Labels: teaching
Monday, August 14, 2006
tappity tappity tap tap
Finally, it's less than ten days before the semester starts. I hang with a geeky enough crowd that we're all pretty stoked for the semester to begin. My comps study group is heading into its fourth session next week, other people are already talking about getting the jump on their reading (well, they're reading Ulysses...I'd get a jump on it too!), and those of us who are teaching composition for the first time, well, my buddy Rob's statement pretty much sums it up: "I'm so amped to teach, I electrocute myself in the shower." Yeah. Like I said, we're pretty geeky.
I made copies of my syllabus and also put it online, tested that my office falls under the wi-fi blanketing the building (I share an office with two others, but we have three desks and a couch and it's not terribly cramped. However, the office location is odd—it shares an entrance with the women's restroom, basically. I'll have to take a photo to help explain properly.) since I'll have my laptop with me during office hours.
I have three bags, only one of which I'll carry at any given time, but they all serve different purposes: computer bag, teaching bag, and bag for my own classes. They're all neatly lined up in a row for easy grab-and-go. I have my transportation schedule all worked out (when to take the bus versus when to drive and park), know where and when to get coffee in the morning, I've been practicing everyone's names (I believe it's the first step to putting names to faces), I have the first five or so class sessions mapped out in general (allowing for flexibility of course), and basically I have no unusual stress about this whole thing.
People keep asking me, "so, are you nervous?" Um, no, not really. Showing nervousness is a sign of fear, and showing fear will get you trampled on. At least that's how I'm operating—as if this pack of freshmen is a pack of wild dogs. I'm only slightly kidding. Another person asked if I was anxious about going to the department meetings. Um, no. Sitting in the back of a room at a meeting in which I am not expected to contribute at all? That's sheer joy for me. "But all those professors, and we're just teaching associates!" the person said. I laughed. "Believe me, they're thrilled about our existence—we represent eleven sections of composition they don't have teach."
So there's just one more week of tappity tappity tap tap just waiting for everything to start...and I think it'll be a long week.
Finally, it's less than ten days before the semester starts. I hang with a geeky enough crowd that we're all pretty stoked for the semester to begin. My comps study group is heading into its fourth session next week, other people are already talking about getting the jump on their reading (well, they're reading Ulysses...I'd get a jump on it too!), and those of us who are teaching composition for the first time, well, my buddy Rob's statement pretty much sums it up: "I'm so amped to teach, I electrocute myself in the shower." Yeah. Like I said, we're pretty geeky.
I made copies of my syllabus and also put it online, tested that my office falls under the wi-fi blanketing the building (I share an office with two others, but we have three desks and a couch and it's not terribly cramped. However, the office location is odd—it shares an entrance with the women's restroom, basically. I'll have to take a photo to help explain properly.) since I'll have my laptop with me during office hours.
I have three bags, only one of which I'll carry at any given time, but they all serve different purposes: computer bag, teaching bag, and bag for my own classes. They're all neatly lined up in a row for easy grab-and-go. I have my transportation schedule all worked out (when to take the bus versus when to drive and park), know where and when to get coffee in the morning, I've been practicing everyone's names (I believe it's the first step to putting names to faces), I have the first five or so class sessions mapped out in general (allowing for flexibility of course), and basically I have no unusual stress about this whole thing.
People keep asking me, "so, are you nervous?" Um, no, not really. Showing nervousness is a sign of fear, and showing fear will get you trampled on. At least that's how I'm operating—as if this pack of freshmen is a pack of wild dogs. I'm only slightly kidding. Another person asked if I was anxious about going to the department meetings. Um, no. Sitting in the back of a room at a meeting in which I am not expected to contribute at all? That's sheer joy for me. "But all those professors, and we're just teaching associates!" the person said. I laughed. "Believe me, they're thrilled about our existence—we represent eleven sections of composition they don't have teach."
So there's just one more week of tappity tappity tap tap just waiting for everything to start...and I think it'll be a long week.
Labels: gradschool, teaching
Thursday, May 25, 2006
TA meetings, choosing books
On Monday and Tuesday of this week, the new crop of TAs (all 6 of us) met with the TA coordinator (aka mentor prof, aka super beloved guy, aka Dr. E) to talk about syllabi, book selections, and course times. All of us already knew each other, as well as the 3 returning TAs who were also there in an official supportive capacity. In other words, very low stress meetings, lots of positive reinforcement, just a general positive spin on the fact that we'll have 25-50 (depending if we have 1 course or 2, I chose 1) composition 1A students in just a few months.
This runs counter to one particular negative nelly prof who, when one of my fellow TAs told her she'd be part of the TA program in the fall, said "oh, that's going to SUCK for you." Way to be supportive, jerk. [Ok, I should stop here and note that I know that freshman comp classes are not the most fun thing in the world and that there are many aspects about them and the students that do suck, unless of course it's what you want to do and you enjoy it and you don't let the sucky students get you down, etc etc. I've finally learned this in my time on this earth: negativity is a self-fulfilling prophecy!]
Anyway, back to these meetings. Dr. E wrote his handout "Some Unasked For Advice" in free verse, and as he said that, R and I turned our pages sideways and went "aha! blades of grass" because a) we are geeks and b) we took his class. It was really funny.
That was the tone of the meetings: fun, supportive, informative, happy. We took home a stack of books because the next day we were going to vote on the handbook and the reader to use. He had already weeded the selections down to three choices for a handbook and three choices for a reader, any of which would have been fine.
It took us 20 minutes to come to a unanimous vote the next day, so quickly and efficiently it almost made me cry. So, for the handbook we're using the Troyka/Hesse Handbook for Writers, 8e, and the reader will be Patterns for College Writing, 10e. We felt the Patterns reader had a more diverse set of readings—diverse in terms of gender, ethnicity, subject, time period, etc.
So, if anyone has used the Patterns reader with comp 1A students and wants to offer advice, please do so!!
On Monday and Tuesday of this week, the new crop of TAs (all 6 of us) met with the TA coordinator (aka mentor prof, aka super beloved guy, aka Dr. E) to talk about syllabi, book selections, and course times. All of us already knew each other, as well as the 3 returning TAs who were also there in an official supportive capacity. In other words, very low stress meetings, lots of positive reinforcement, just a general positive spin on the fact that we'll have 25-50 (depending if we have 1 course or 2, I chose 1) composition 1A students in just a few months.
This runs counter to one particular negative nelly prof who, when one of my fellow TAs told her she'd be part of the TA program in the fall, said "oh, that's going to SUCK for you." Way to be supportive, jerk. [Ok, I should stop here and note that I know that freshman comp classes are not the most fun thing in the world and that there are many aspects about them and the students that do suck, unless of course it's what you want to do and you enjoy it and you don't let the sucky students get you down, etc etc. I've finally learned this in my time on this earth: negativity is a self-fulfilling prophecy!]
Anyway, back to these meetings. Dr. E wrote his handout "Some Unasked For Advice" in free verse, and as he said that, R and I turned our pages sideways and went "aha! blades of grass" because a) we are geeks and b) we took his class. It was really funny.
That was the tone of the meetings: fun, supportive, informative, happy. We took home a stack of books because the next day we were going to vote on the handbook and the reader to use. He had already weeded the selections down to three choices for a handbook and three choices for a reader, any of which would have been fine.
It took us 20 minutes to come to a unanimous vote the next day, so quickly and efficiently it almost made me cry. So, for the handbook we're using the Troyka/Hesse Handbook for Writers, 8e, and the reader will be Patterns for College Writing, 10e. We felt the Patterns reader had a more diverse set of readings—diverse in terms of gender, ethnicity, subject, time period, etc.
So, if anyone has used the Patterns reader with comp 1A students and wants to offer advice, please do so!!
Labels: gradschool, teaching
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