No comments? About right

I know that the class is over, and I figure that since only four people know about this blog's existence (and my teacher might not even know, despite the three messages I sent out to the class with the link) and no one has commented on a single post I'm just going to use this site for my own venting.

So, pretty much the same thing, just now I know no one will read but me. Eh, the blog thing was worth a shot in class but I feel it needs to be more important in the actual class discussions for people to take the project seriously outside of the classroom.

No emotion in grading?

Professor Burch made a comment in tonight's grading lesson. She said that she always had a problem not grading papers whose 'voice' she liked better than the other papers. I know that we should grade impartially, but I believe that the tone and voice of a person's writing is an important part of their work. If a student can sway you with a passionate voice (or make you relate to them with their hatred of Sean Penn) then I think that that connection they made to you should be graded, not ignored. We write with a human element involved; a human element lauded in all great works of literature. To be able to present that in a scholarly essay shows great talent or skill. If a student truly makes you feel passionate about the subject, makes you laugh, or makes you think, I'm sure that you will remember that paper far longer than you will remember the grammatically correct, perfectly spelled, followed the rubric, paper.

And those students should be graded accordingly.

Unions: A Taboo Subject?

I thought that this would be something that is covered in our classes. I mean, most of us are going to be joining a teacher's union in the not-so-distant future, right? But then again, practicality does not seem to be the main drive of this semester. All my classes are theory based; which is great but I still feel like the theory and 'higher learning' should come AFTER the basic hands on experience and the basic everyday knowledge that we need to have to survive in a school.

What about standards and legalities for situations such as fights between students or students attempting to harm us? I know we want to paint the schools as safe places to work and that each school has it own guidelines but we should go over some of this stuff. For example; a teacher at a school in my home county got assaulted by one of his students. He was stabbed fourteen times by the high schooler before, in what any other situation would be self-defense, he struck the student to stop the attack. This teacher was removed from his position and sued by the parents of the student for striking the kid who had stabbed him.

In my own school a health class teacher, a Vietnam Veteran, saved a student's life when, during a fight, he was pushed through a window. The shattered glass cut an artery in the kid's arm which the teacher, using wartime instincts and training, pinched and tied off with his fingers, stopping a fatal loss of blood (which could have occurred in under two minutes). The grateful parents of the child then sued the teacher because he had not worn sterile gloves when saving their son's life. In class, the teacher later told us that he "does not normally carry surgical gloves on his person." Which is a ridiculous assumption and demand to make on teachers.

We are there to educate your children, not be police, nurses, doctors, psychiatrists, pharmacists, nutritionists, and human pin cushions for when Johnny feels a bit stabby. We're not paid nearly well enough to do all of those jobs. And on top of that most parents won't even let us teach without having some sort of complaint that their child is not getting the best treatment out of all of the children. Unions protect us from this insanity; but they also cause more of it. Because of Unions teachers who should not be teaching are still in schools; tenure and contracts and union pressures make it so that a teacher practically has to kill a student in front of a class before they are removed from their job (yet teachers who risk their own lives to save a student, or who are literally protecting their own life get sued for doing so?).

It seems to me that the idea of unions and the pros and cons of joining them, if not the pros and cons of their existence, should be brought up at least once in at least one class. The only conversation I had about unions this whole semester occurred at a table at my friend's wedding reception with a person who shovels grain for a living (A person, who I might add, has two Bachelor's and a Master's degree).

Weddings and Graduations

I just spent the weekend celebrating the wedding of one of my closest friends. It was a great time, especially since I haven't had the chance to exchange more than a few words with her over the phone in the last two years. I'm very happy for her, and glad she's found someone who makes her smile the way the groom does.

However, I think that this wedding, even more so than my graduation, made me realize that we are (at least us recent grads) all fast becoming adults, if not there already. This is the girl I went to high school with; skipped classes, pulled pranks, sneaked kisses in the halls... and now she's married. That's a very adult commitment and one of the final steps into the 'grown-up' world. With student teaching in the High schools, looming graduation from a Master's program (only one year away) and now one of my dear friend's weddings, I cannot deny that I am on the verge of adulthood.

A very scary thought.

I think I'm going to go play some video games in order to prolong my childhood...

Anyone else?

Anyone else kinda feel like we got the most polite spanking in class today? Just me? I've never been more politely put down in all my life (and I've gotten plenty of rejection letters).

Not to say Professor Burch (I know you're the only one really reading this) did anything wrong. I just found it funny to look around and see everyone have that guilty/desperate "Yeah, she's talking about me." look on their faces tonight.

I was probably one of the worst. I know this because I wrote in an interview style, over-cited my sources and didn't cite in MLA properly (or at all. But to that later). In fact, I kinda feel like I single-handedly caused us to have the revision, and if so, I apologize for the added stress to all.

Now, I built my essay/profile off of the Annie Prulnx (or however you spell it) profile that we were shown in class (and the one we talked most about). Having never written an author profile before I figured that this would be the best piece to model off of (Bad guess on my part. And bad grammar, ending a sentence in a preposition but hey whatever works).

Turns out we were only supposed to model off of the first section of the essay, you know the one, before the author and the narrator begin to talk. That's actually the profile. Oops.

I also over-cited my author in the interview style because of the emphasis placed on actually interviewing our sources. I knew I wouldn't be able to reach my author in type so I faked it by using his autobiographical writing to flesh out a dialogue between us. I figured this is what was expected since we were all asked to interview our authors or at least make every attempt to communicate with them. Citing sources heavily was required (especially since I was earlier chastised by another teacher for not citing enough in another class, but oh well... it all comes down to the teacher's opinion of what is enough).

Now to MLA formatting... ah yes. I HATE citation formats. Mainly because of the plural; formats. There are dozens, yes dozens, of different styles, all vary by only a paragraph or two. Now, on my paper, I noticed few actual criticisms of my content, it was mainly structural. Not having the paper in a profile style and not having proper citations. These can be easily re-worked but I ask what's the point? I know I have to conform to the standards but in the graduate level I would hope for a little leeway. This is the second paper this term that I have been not graded on due to my 'inappropriate' citations. I'm sorry but do they even matter? If you read my paper and can find the books I used afterward, does it really matter how the information was written down? (Of course in a class it does, because we're being graded and told to do it in a specific style. I agree with that, but really does it matter?)

I understand the argument that we must have a uniform method of citing works. But if that was true, would we not only have one form of citation? I have, in this term alone, been asked to cite in MLA, APA, Chicago, and a plethora of other styles (alright maybe just those three but exaggeration helps my case on the sheer number of styles), all of which, to be honest I could not tell you the difference between. Title and Author, that's all you really need to find the book (I'm including edition number in title by the way). Everything else is extraneous. After all, that's how i get book recommendations from friends, "Such-and-such" book by "So-and-so" author. If it were more complicated than that we would actually need the people standing in that kiosk in Barnes and Noble (sorry to anyone who stands in those kiosks. I'm sure it's a very rewarding job).

In the end, I know that the grade is my own doing. I'm not complaining about the grade, or lack thereof. I almost never do. I know exactly how much work I put into the projects and expect the grades I usually get. I guess I'm complaining about the whole project in general. This is not targeted at you, Professor Burch (mainly because you're grading me in this and the coming semesters and well, I'd like to pass (shooting myself in the foot here...)) but I feel that this whole semester has been a big floundering for me and many of my fellow graduates. We (and by that I mean I) feel like the projects and papers given to us are overly vague. Just tonight five of us had to put our heads together to figure out if we actually had something due tomorrow since the syllabus in that class has been changed so many times and the work is split between the High School and the University (Who I am beginning to believe don't communicate with each other very well, as they each had us do the same project).

I do not feel less prepared to teach than I have before starting this semester, but I do not feel this semester has been much help either. The only practical thing I can take out of it is to keep the folders near my desk so that the children do not mess with them. The theory is interesting but until we are actually in a classroom, the theory is pretty worthless. We can prepare to swim all we want; we can talk about the motions and the strokes, we can even practice them on dry land, but we will never learn to swim until we are in the water.

I do not doubt that one day the theory will be of use to me (In fact I think that the graduate who already have teaching experience take far more out of these classes then I) but until I can be in front of a class I cannot apply it. (Damn you Elbow, I've rambled off topic). I just feel as though those of us coming out of our undergrad work missed a step in between. These courses seem designed to make us better teachers, but for those of us who have yet to run our own classroom we're left saying "What is the point of this?"

I'll sign off now before I dig my grave any deeper. Got a lot of work ahead of me and it just seems to keep piling up no matter what I do. Man, I LOVE finals.....

Last Day of Student Teaching

Going to my last class for Gear Up tomorrow. I've found this to be the most useful part of the semester; actually getting into a classroom and observing/helping the students. Very different from being a student myself. Though I feel that actually having an opportunity to converse with the Teachers for more than the two minutes between classes would have been very helpful, as would having some sort of communication with them as to what they were teaching the day we came in/actually being informed so we could help the students rather than learning the material with them then kinda faking it.

Oh, and observing on a Thursday, when most teachers give tests because they 'don't want to be that mean teacher that gives tests on a Friday'. Yeah, that can be dull sometimes....

... shoulda brought a book.

Author Paper

Well... it's done. Not too sure if I am happy with the paper (or the project altogether). I really wish we had discussed the paper at the beginning of the semester, giving up enough time to contact our authors and set up an interview or at the very least, get their okay to write about them. Oh well....

I'm considering sending my paper to George Martin. He might need a good chuckle. Anyone else thinking of showing their writing off to their writer?

Rant on Grading

The thing that struck me most when reading the articles for Professor Crowley's class was the idea of rubric grading. More specifically, how in one instance (A Mania for Rubrics, by Thomas Newkirk), rubric grading was used to grade kindergartners' drawings. This idea alone is completely absurd, and for more than one reason. First, grading kindergartners is just ridiculous; these children shouldn't have to worry about what grade there block castles get, they should be learning about social interactions and the simplest mechanics of academic requirements. Second, the idea that you can slap a letter or number grade on art is completely ignorant and, worse yet, damaging, especially if there is only one grading system. With only one system of grading, everything is scaled the same way, giving no account for differences in style, personal skill, or personal taste. After all, we all have friends who do not like the same style of music as us, but is there type of music worse than the type we listen to? Art comes down to taste and personal
attraction to the piece, as does writing.

Now writing an essay or an exam is a little easier to grade than artwork. Does the student get their point(s) across in a meaningful and precise manner? Do they write about the topics they were asked to? Did they include enough outside sources and citations? Essays and class papers can be scored by rubric (though I would not prefer it) rather easily. The problem comes when the rubric formula is extended into the creative forms of expression and does not stay in the academic. As a writer, I personally believe that you cannot teach creativity, and thus cannot grade it. It simply would not be fair. While you can teach someone the mechanics or writing, and give them advice on how to improve their own individual voice, you simply cannot teach someone how to be creative (by doing so, wouldn't that make it uncreative anyways? If there was a set formula for 'How to be creative” wouldn't that destroy the whole idea?)

This train of thought can be further extended into all of academic teaching. What right do we have to grade someone's ability, capacity and desire to learn? Should we fault a student for not wanting to learn material they believe is irrelevant and unnecessary? Is it our job to break them down and destroy their self esteem and their views of what is important so that it fits the 'accepted standards'? Or should we as teachers instead try to guide that student onto a path that they would benefit most from? A path which would utilize their passions and talents and make them want to improve themselves and learn. The difficulty with this is that we'd have to acknowledge that everyone is unique and different, and rubric based grading does not allow for differences and variances. Rubric based grading only works if we believe that every individual can be molded into the exact same form as everyone else. To admit that everyone is unique would destroy completely the validity of rubric-based grading.

And we wouldn't want that, would we? After all it is so much easier to deal with only one student copied over millions of times than to have to judge each and every person by there own merits and flaws.

Does the author Matter?

In all of my English classes there seems to be some sort of background debate over whether or not the author of a piece matters. Some classes (and thus the professors teaching them) claim that we cannot get the full depth and understanding of a work of literature unless we can see where the author was coming from, what they were trying to say and the lives they lived before and after they said it.

The other side is that once the words are published on the page, read by a reader, the story is no longer the author's property. The ideas and images that appear in the readers' heads are their own, and not subject to post-reading adjustments from the author. If you didn't get that Dumbledore was gay, does that mean Rowling had to tell us at a reading of the book or does that mean that, if she wanted to get that concept across, she should have written it into the book better. Was it right of her to say that about her character or should she have left it up to the interpretation of each reader? To continue on a topic glanced on in class; does it really matter WHO wrote Shakespeare's plays and sonnets? Would the works have any more or less beauty, merit, poetry, or value if it was discovered that a woman wrote everything, or if Shakespeare was gay? Or if it was a ghost writer all along? No. The plays would still me masterpieces of literature, open to interpretation by the masses. The plays should have no less value or no greater value (though you can bet people would try to change that). I feel that an author can create characters and stories and make them however they want, yet they should also know that truly great works of art and literature can become greater than the authors themselves.

Reflecting on the discussion we had in class a couple of things came to mind. First was that the example used in Myer's piece, where he used Huck Finn to demonstrate how people can become idealogized (sp?) to certain social concepts, can also be used to explain Bruffee's thoughts on how Truths are created by a society arriving at an agreed-upon concept. In the Finn example, Huck's belief that he is 'wrong' to help Jim escape his master is a belief instilled into him because (most) everyone he knows agrees that slavery is the norm, slaves are property, and that it is wrong to steal or destroy another man's property. These ideas, these laws, (and by being laws prove that people agree upon them as Truths) were not formed in Huck's mind but were instead put there by his interactions with his society, thus helping to prove Bruffee's theory that Truth is arrived through agreement and discourse and is not Absolute.

The second thought that came to me occurred when we (the Bruffee group, i.e. Purple Cards) were trying to explain the idea that Bruffee's form of Truth is fluid. Unlike the Absolute Truths, which are a goal to be reached and are unchanging, Bruffee hypothesizes that Truth is only Truth until the people who agreed it was change their minds about it. I felt that a quote from a popular movie in 1997 would help to simplify the concept.

“Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow.”

The Truths of human society and existence are constantly evolving and changing. New knowledge is revealed or discovered that has and will change the way we view our world around us. To bring in the ideas of several other authors that we have read so far; I believe, as they do, that it is incredibly important for us as teachers to be open and willing to question not just the knowledge we are to teach, but where that knowledge comes from and why it even exists or was thought of in the first place. And this questioning, questing spirit is something we should strive to instill in all of our students.

(and yes, I DID just quote Men in Black for a Graduate level course).

So... I've been meaning to post on this site for about two weeks. I had the blog name and site picked out and was ready to go in September. However I just seemed like every time I'd sit down to write I'd have nothing to write about. I have several friends that keep up with there blog entries on a regular basis, most of whom have tried to get me to write one. I've always thought that I had nothing worth saying in a blog. The way most of my friends use it is as a medium for random tidbits about their lives, their journals, or gossip. I've kinda found it pointless to write on the same sort of subjects since I do not enjoy reading them. I do not follow anyone's blog regularly (excepting of course all of yours, seeing as now it is part of class) because, to be honest, I'm not really interested in 'just how hot' the guy at the mall was or 'how obnoxious the test in that class was'.

So I've never started a blog, since I've never felt what I had to write within this medium would be worth reading.

However, thanks to the powers of academia (and my strong desire not to fail) I now will plunge head-long into the world of blogging.

Since right now I'm still unsure as to what I will allow myself to put on here, how much of myself I want to show you all (and how much of me you all might want to read about) I'm going to start with a list of topics I may or may not post on throughout the semester. I'll try to start with topics pertaining to our class, but the list is a little random as i plan on using this blog to motivate myself to focus on writings that have little to do with class.

List of potential topics:

-My opinions and thoughts on the articles and materials read in class.

-My comments on class discussions that I didn't
have the time to flesh out in class.

-Thoughts and ideas from other classes that intertwine with ours.

-Random bits about my day, things going on about campus, town, etc...

-Segments from my own writings outside of class
(I write mainly high-fantasy fiction).

-I'm almost always in the mood to discuss books I've read
so I might do that here.

-Anything from movies to video games to television series I think
everyone should see.

-Also, I plan on keeping a weekly update on what goes on
with my Gear Up work at BU High.

So, this may be what I talk about in this blog. Or I may do something completely different. As the title shows, this is probably going to be pretty random and rambling. (Kinda like this first post).