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.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
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.
And those students should be graded accordingly.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
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).
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...
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...
Monday, December 7, 2009
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.....
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.....
Thursday, December 3, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
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?
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?
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