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.....