...the absolute best moment of the day!
In Advisement, a young woman came to get some advice about courses to take next semester. She seemed very glum and unhappy about the whole thing, mostly was concerned that she take classes only in the morning, as she just got a job with a fire house and wanted to focus on that. I explained that she'd make her own schedule; I'd just recommend courses. But I told her we have an A.S. degree in Fire Science, asked if she'd be interested. I let her read the degree description--and she started to perk up. So I began advising her on that, but after I stepped away for a moment to collect something from the printer and then came back, she told me she's really more interested in getting into the police force or criminal justice. Oh, well, we have an A.S. degree in that too, I said. So I advised her about classes she could take that would satisfy both general liberal arts requirements and the CRJ degree requirements. She only wanted to go part time, but we got to about 10 credits, so I told her she might do better to go ahead and go full time (12 credits), as it might be cheaper--though of course she should keep her schedule and time constraints in mind. OK, she said, and as she was gathering up her stuff to leave, she muttered something about being very nervous. Oh? I said. Why? She said she was nervous about summer classes. I said, "Well, we should talk about that." She never went to summer school, didn't know what to expect. So I told her a little about how summer classes work and said she could either think, "I'm going to take on something that I need to focus all my attention on, no other class material to get in the way," or she could think, "I'm going to take something that's just fun, no worries--fulfills credits but is for me, not anything mentally challenging"--like some of our PE classes.
The whole time I was talking, her face kept getting brighter and brighter; she started to smile, even to laugh a little. When I finished talking about some of the PE class options (adventure activities, sailing), she looked at me, astonished, and said, "You are awesome."
I need to put that on repeat play. I thanked her, of course, and told her we all try to be--but ... well, there you go. I made college feel a little less of a prison, a little more like an adventure. She left Advisement with a smile on her face and a spring in her step.
I'm taking that to the bank.
Monday, April 30, 2018
Fiddling while the students fall apart
I was working on grading the essays for the SF class--and I graded one of the essays for the Nature in Lit.
I despair.
So, I switched to placing my book orders for fall. That felt relatively productive--but I realized two things. One, the book I was so happy to find--Edgar V. Roberts's What Every Student Should Know About Writing About Literature--isn't really helpful at all. I can assign the stuff, and students can diligently regurgitate it, but it does absolutely bugger all in terms of making them understand how to write a literature essay. (I don't know what will make them understand. I'm going to try doing a video for the online students, and I'll go back to doing a talk for the face-to-face classes, but ... well, they just don't get it.)
Two, the anthology I've used for Native American Lit is insanely expensive: $140 new. I understand why--lots of living authors whose work needs to be paid for under copyright laws--but still, given our student population (and the cost of other textbooks), I just don't feel right using a textbook that costs so much. So I'm looking at other less-expensive anthologies--but that means my book order may change, and, more important, well, I have to look at the less-expensive options. Not just glance at the cover, but read them. And, if I use one of them, figure out the readings to assign. In other words, pretty much reinvent the wheel.
I also made the snap decision to teach Ceremony again--even though I'd rather hoped to find something that is newer, and even though it's a plagiarism trap: there is so much out there that students can raid from online, some of them are bound to do it.
(Oh, but that reminds me: the essay from a student in the SF class that put me over the edge tonight was notably awful not only in having no argument and in being rife with word-salad sentences but also in using an online summary of the novel rather than any actual quotations from the literature itself--and putting those bits from the online source in quotation marks but otherwise not citing them. Fuuuucking hell.)
The 101 students--those who actually came to class (all six of them)--were mostly eager to talk about the sources they found and their concerns about writing their essays, but ... I kept them about 40 minutes, then let them go. They didn't have anything else to bring to the class, and I wasn't going to force them to stay and do busy work. Peer review on Wednesday. Conferences Monday. The painful process of grading those final essays next week. Then done.
Oh, god, we're almost done--but I feel like I'm barely going to make it over that finish line. I'm in a bit of the usual end-of-semester panic about all the work I have to do (grading those essays, yes, but also P&B stuff), but I'm even more just hanging on by my fingernails, which are bending backward with the effort.
I am going to move the deadline for revisions of second essays for the lit electives closer to the last day of classes; I want to give them a little more time, since I'm so late getting everything back to them. It will make the last days of the semester a little more harried for me, but I'll be doing the students a favor. I don't quite know what to do about the fact that their essays are so ungodly bad, but that's a worry for another day.
And the system keeps locking me out--when I'm typing in the correct password. So I have to wait until it unfreezes and try again. But not tonight. Tonight, I'm going to fold my tents and steal away. (I like the idea of stealing away, as in taking "away" and not paying for it...)
I despair.
So, I switched to placing my book orders for fall. That felt relatively productive--but I realized two things. One, the book I was so happy to find--Edgar V. Roberts's What Every Student Should Know About Writing About Literature--isn't really helpful at all. I can assign the stuff, and students can diligently regurgitate it, but it does absolutely bugger all in terms of making them understand how to write a literature essay. (I don't know what will make them understand. I'm going to try doing a video for the online students, and I'll go back to doing a talk for the face-to-face classes, but ... well, they just don't get it.)
Two, the anthology I've used for Native American Lit is insanely expensive: $140 new. I understand why--lots of living authors whose work needs to be paid for under copyright laws--but still, given our student population (and the cost of other textbooks), I just don't feel right using a textbook that costs so much. So I'm looking at other less-expensive anthologies--but that means my book order may change, and, more important, well, I have to look at the less-expensive options. Not just glance at the cover, but read them. And, if I use one of them, figure out the readings to assign. In other words, pretty much reinvent the wheel.
I also made the snap decision to teach Ceremony again--even though I'd rather hoped to find something that is newer, and even though it's a plagiarism trap: there is so much out there that students can raid from online, some of them are bound to do it.
(Oh, but that reminds me: the essay from a student in the SF class that put me over the edge tonight was notably awful not only in having no argument and in being rife with word-salad sentences but also in using an online summary of the novel rather than any actual quotations from the literature itself--and putting those bits from the online source in quotation marks but otherwise not citing them. Fuuuucking hell.)
The 101 students--those who actually came to class (all six of them)--were mostly eager to talk about the sources they found and their concerns about writing their essays, but ... I kept them about 40 minutes, then let them go. They didn't have anything else to bring to the class, and I wasn't going to force them to stay and do busy work. Peer review on Wednesday. Conferences Monday. The painful process of grading those final essays next week. Then done.
Oh, god, we're almost done--but I feel like I'm barely going to make it over that finish line. I'm in a bit of the usual end-of-semester panic about all the work I have to do (grading those essays, yes, but also P&B stuff), but I'm even more just hanging on by my fingernails, which are bending backward with the effort.
I am going to move the deadline for revisions of second essays for the lit electives closer to the last day of classes; I want to give them a little more time, since I'm so late getting everything back to them. It will make the last days of the semester a little more harried for me, but I'll be doing the students a favor. I don't quite know what to do about the fact that their essays are so ungodly bad, but that's a worry for another day.
And the system keeps locking me out--when I'm typing in the correct password. So I have to wait until it unfreezes and try again. But not tonight. Tonight, I'm going to fold my tents and steal away. (I like the idea of stealing away, as in taking "away" and not paying for it...)
Thursday, April 26, 2018
The Mentoring rock star
In terms of my "seminar hours" obligations, I am turning out to be something of a rock star. Of course, a lot of my appointments are taking place outside the "grid" of when I'm technically available--and if I were to put down the actual amount of time I spend with some of them, I'd be putting in even more time than is appearing in the formal records. But not only do I enjoy those one-on-one conversations with students, they also seem to be very beneficial to the students.
I'm thinking in particular of one young man from the SF class. He's pretty bright--though he's seriously fucked up his transcript, through a lot of unofficial withdrawals (and a few too many F's)--but he hit a serious snag in his personal life a few weeks ago, and I've been helping him figure out how to handle the class (and his academics in general) while he's dealing with it. I do believe him, too; I know I tend to be a soft touch when it comes to students who talk about a crisis in their lives, but this young man is a little older than the run of the mill, and he was clearly, visibly shattered. In any event, I'm offering him an incomplete for the semester, and today we talked over the timeline for his completion of the work. He's not going to get the kind of grade he'd normally deserve, but he will complete the semester, and he'll pass the class. And he's truly grateful that I'm willing to work with him, spend the time with him as an individual. Which is, of course, one of the things I usually love most about this job.
I also met with two young women during my seminar/office hours today. One is the former "salon" member (and I guess I'll be seeing her pretty much every week now); the other is a student who was in a 101 class last semester (in the good 101, not the train wreck). Either one of them would have been happy to talk with me for the entire time I had and then some; I had to cut both of them off short.
Further, a student I mentored several semesters ago--one who was never in any of my classes, just a mentee--is coming to see me next week to say goodbye, as he transitions into the engineering program at Stony Brook. And several other students from the SF class will probably come to see me next week, about their essays.
Forget what happens in any of the classes; that stuff is good meat.
And for the record, the class today went very well. We didn't talk much about the book, but we talked about the Hainish "matrix" and the other novels set in it and some of the deeper philosophy that goes with it, especially in the conceptualization of the Ekumen. (If you don't know Le Guin, most of that won't mean anything to you, but trust me, it's good stuff.)
Now, however, I need to zip out of here to meet the colleague who wants to start up a journal on American mystery. I'm looking forward to that--and to the accompanying adult beverages, which will be just what the doctor (Ph.D. variety) ordered.
I'm thinking in particular of one young man from the SF class. He's pretty bright--though he's seriously fucked up his transcript, through a lot of unofficial withdrawals (and a few too many F's)--but he hit a serious snag in his personal life a few weeks ago, and I've been helping him figure out how to handle the class (and his academics in general) while he's dealing with it. I do believe him, too; I know I tend to be a soft touch when it comes to students who talk about a crisis in their lives, but this young man is a little older than the run of the mill, and he was clearly, visibly shattered. In any event, I'm offering him an incomplete for the semester, and today we talked over the timeline for his completion of the work. He's not going to get the kind of grade he'd normally deserve, but he will complete the semester, and he'll pass the class. And he's truly grateful that I'm willing to work with him, spend the time with him as an individual. Which is, of course, one of the things I usually love most about this job.
I also met with two young women during my seminar/office hours today. One is the former "salon" member (and I guess I'll be seeing her pretty much every week now); the other is a student who was in a 101 class last semester (in the good 101, not the train wreck). Either one of them would have been happy to talk with me for the entire time I had and then some; I had to cut both of them off short.
Further, a student I mentored several semesters ago--one who was never in any of my classes, just a mentee--is coming to see me next week to say goodbye, as he transitions into the engineering program at Stony Brook. And several other students from the SF class will probably come to see me next week, about their essays.
Forget what happens in any of the classes; that stuff is good meat.
And for the record, the class today went very well. We didn't talk much about the book, but we talked about the Hainish "matrix" and the other novels set in it and some of the deeper philosophy that goes with it, especially in the conceptualization of the Ekumen. (If you don't know Le Guin, most of that won't mean anything to you, but trust me, it's good stuff.)
Now, however, I need to zip out of here to meet the colleague who wants to start up a journal on American mystery. I'm looking forward to that--and to the accompanying adult beverages, which will be just what the doctor (Ph.D. variety) ordered.
Wednesday, April 25, 2018
Slogging forward
The number of students in Advisement was mercifully low today; they tended to come in little clusters, but there were moments in which I could get a little work done, which was nice. I have marked the notes submitted by the SF students yesterday (yes, already! might be a record), and I've started grading their second essays. I haven't gotten very far with that, but just having started feels pretty good.
I got a little work from the students in the 101 class today. Of course, there's never much, as there are only about seven students left, but even from those seven, I didn't get much. The student who was thankful that I pointed out her progress with her second essay had engaged in some "plagiarism by being sloppy," so I told her to come see me about it. She'd cited the sources (not following any format, but she did cite), but in two places she'd used the exact words from the source (not exactly but almost)--but she hadn't used quotation marks. I pointed that out and told her that I could have given her a zero for the assignment--and that some professors might fail her for the entire course just for that error. She expressed her gratitude that I gave her credit and instead used the error as a "teaching opportunity." You're most welcome.
Shifting gears entirely, last night when I checked my email, I saw a message from the adjunct who wants to start up a scholarly journal on American mysteries. We were supposed to meet at a nearby restaurant--and I completely, utterly spaced it. Fortunately, he didn't wait around for me very long--and I apologized profusely, when I at last got his email and saw how remiss I'd been. I'll see him tomorrow instead--and I've set several reminders for myself so I don't space it again. It will be very pleasant to talk with him about it, and it could be an interesting project. Even if I don't get involved in it, it will be fun to hear what he envisions and what he thinks would be required to get the thing rolling. I'd probably be more useful on the technical side (copy-editing, proofreading, perhaps developing a house style) than on the academic side (because, really, I've never done any scholarship on mystery--just enough to teach it but not enough to have any claim to know the field, which is why I don't teach it any more), but at this point, it's all just talk, which I can do. Especially over what Scott calls an adult beverage.
Shifting gears again, I've signed up to attend some kind of workshop being offered on Friday by the Distance Education folks. I don't even remember what the topic is, but it sort of doesn't matter. I need a "professional development" event of some kind to fulfill my contractual obligations, and that will count. My only area of grumpiness about it is that it starts at 8:30 a.m., which is insanely early for me under any circumstance but especially on a Friday. My hunch is that, as soon as I can after, I'll head home for a nap (unless I have a riding lesson scheduled, in which case, I may find things to do to keep me occupied until it's time to bounce around on a horse).
And that's about all I've got for now. I'm getting things set up for the last day of conferencing with the 101 students (which will be easy as the proverbial dessert, since I'll be seeing so few students)--and I keep reminding myself that there is very little more I will need to do with them. The SF students are another thing entirely (not to mention the students in Nature in Lit), but no matter what, in three weeks, it's all over but the shouting.
I got a little work from the students in the 101 class today. Of course, there's never much, as there are only about seven students left, but even from those seven, I didn't get much. The student who was thankful that I pointed out her progress with her second essay had engaged in some "plagiarism by being sloppy," so I told her to come see me about it. She'd cited the sources (not following any format, but she did cite), but in two places she'd used the exact words from the source (not exactly but almost)--but she hadn't used quotation marks. I pointed that out and told her that I could have given her a zero for the assignment--and that some professors might fail her for the entire course just for that error. She expressed her gratitude that I gave her credit and instead used the error as a "teaching opportunity." You're most welcome.
Shifting gears entirely, last night when I checked my email, I saw a message from the adjunct who wants to start up a scholarly journal on American mysteries. We were supposed to meet at a nearby restaurant--and I completely, utterly spaced it. Fortunately, he didn't wait around for me very long--and I apologized profusely, when I at last got his email and saw how remiss I'd been. I'll see him tomorrow instead--and I've set several reminders for myself so I don't space it again. It will be very pleasant to talk with him about it, and it could be an interesting project. Even if I don't get involved in it, it will be fun to hear what he envisions and what he thinks would be required to get the thing rolling. I'd probably be more useful on the technical side (copy-editing, proofreading, perhaps developing a house style) than on the academic side (because, really, I've never done any scholarship on mystery--just enough to teach it but not enough to have any claim to know the field, which is why I don't teach it any more), but at this point, it's all just talk, which I can do. Especially over what Scott calls an adult beverage.
Shifting gears again, I've signed up to attend some kind of workshop being offered on Friday by the Distance Education folks. I don't even remember what the topic is, but it sort of doesn't matter. I need a "professional development" event of some kind to fulfill my contractual obligations, and that will count. My only area of grumpiness about it is that it starts at 8:30 a.m., which is insanely early for me under any circumstance but especially on a Friday. My hunch is that, as soon as I can after, I'll head home for a nap (unless I have a riding lesson scheduled, in which case, I may find things to do to keep me occupied until it's time to bounce around on a horse).
And that's about all I've got for now. I'm getting things set up for the last day of conferencing with the 101 students (which will be easy as the proverbial dessert, since I'll be seeing so few students)--and I keep reminding myself that there is very little more I will need to do with them. The SF students are another thing entirely (not to mention the students in Nature in Lit), but no matter what, in three weeks, it's all over but the shouting.
Tuesday, April 24, 2018
Progress has been made
Despite my lack of sleep and thanks in no small part to the fact that today's P&B meeting was canceled, I not only got everything marked for the 101 class, I got all the reading notes marked and back to the students in SF--and I just went through last week's discussion board posts from the Nature in Lit students. (I haven't given them grades yet, but at least I provided comments.)
That was feeling pretty good--until I realized that I have two sets of essays to grade (the second essay for both lit electives) plus a batch of revisions from the SF students.
The fun just doesn't quit until the semester ends, does it.
I also was--I admit somewhat shame-faced--delighted that a dinner tonight with Paul and Cathy was also canceled. I was simply not in the mood to be social. I think I'm having a slightly delayed difficulty with re-entry after my weekend upstate; I was fine Sunday night, but last night, oof--and today I was carrying last night's existential malaise with me. Just as well to avoid a situation in which it would behoove me to be pleasant.
Class today was fine; they weren't on top form, but they still were doing well, and they're still a grand bunch to work with. They're all sort of imploding over essay due dates and requirements (as in "forgetting" or not checking Turnitin uploads, not turning in required hard copies until ridiculously late), but ... enh. I'm not inclined to fight 'em too hard about it.
I did get the final essay assignment cleaned up a bit and copied to give to them on Thursday. Part of me hopes that there is some kind of miracle tomorrow, so I can get a whack of work done in Advisement, but I know that's a pretty forlorn hope. It's not the kind of mad scene we can get between fall and spring, when students know they don't have much time to register, but it's still a pretty steady stream of students, wanting everything from "I need you to do my schedule for me" (um, no; we don't do that--but I can make recommendations for which courses to take and show you how to make your schedule) to "I don't know what I want to do with my life" (which makes it a bit difficult to know what courses to suggest). I think enough of them have had the experience--or have heard from others who have--of not being able to put together a decent schedule because classes are filled to the cap or canceling for lack of enrollment, so more of them are taking the whole "register for fall in the spring" thing a bit more seriously than used to be the case. That's great for the students, and I'm glad to see it--but, well, selfishly, of course, I want the time to grade.
I also have some P&B stuff I have to crank out soon, but, well, I'll figure out when to do that later.
Now, while there is still some light in the sky, I am going to toddle off into the evening, secure in the knowledge that tomorrow will be yet another in a long series of days--which I hope continues for a long time into the future.
That was feeling pretty good--until I realized that I have two sets of essays to grade (the second essay for both lit electives) plus a batch of revisions from the SF students.
The fun just doesn't quit until the semester ends, does it.
I also was--I admit somewhat shame-faced--delighted that a dinner tonight with Paul and Cathy was also canceled. I was simply not in the mood to be social. I think I'm having a slightly delayed difficulty with re-entry after my weekend upstate; I was fine Sunday night, but last night, oof--and today I was carrying last night's existential malaise with me. Just as well to avoid a situation in which it would behoove me to be pleasant.
Class today was fine; they weren't on top form, but they still were doing well, and they're still a grand bunch to work with. They're all sort of imploding over essay due dates and requirements (as in "forgetting" or not checking Turnitin uploads, not turning in required hard copies until ridiculously late), but ... enh. I'm not inclined to fight 'em too hard about it.
I did get the final essay assignment cleaned up a bit and copied to give to them on Thursday. Part of me hopes that there is some kind of miracle tomorrow, so I can get a whack of work done in Advisement, but I know that's a pretty forlorn hope. It's not the kind of mad scene we can get between fall and spring, when students know they don't have much time to register, but it's still a pretty steady stream of students, wanting everything from "I need you to do my schedule for me" (um, no; we don't do that--but I can make recommendations for which courses to take and show you how to make your schedule) to "I don't know what I want to do with my life" (which makes it a bit difficult to know what courses to suggest). I think enough of them have had the experience--or have heard from others who have--of not being able to put together a decent schedule because classes are filled to the cap or canceling for lack of enrollment, so more of them are taking the whole "register for fall in the spring" thing a bit more seriously than used to be the case. That's great for the students, and I'm glad to see it--but, well, selfishly, of course, I want the time to grade.
I also have some P&B stuff I have to crank out soon, but, well, I'll figure out when to do that later.
Now, while there is still some light in the sky, I am going to toddle off into the evening, secure in the knowledge that tomorrow will be yet another in a long series of days--which I hope continues for a long time into the future.
Monday, April 23, 2018
Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow...
..because maybe, tomorrow, I'll be stronger. Well, you don't know. It could happen.
I started to work on the grading for the 101 class, because I very much want to get that stuff back to them on Wednesday--and really, there are so few of them, how hard could it be?
Well, hard, actually. Because they just fucking will not do the work--and even when they do, it's generally so ungodly awful.
Cathy thinks I'll be great at any of the courses that essentially work with students who need "developmental" writing as they merge into credit bearing; I don't know how to convince her that I would completely suck at it, because I have no patience for this shit. Oh, I have patience with individual students up to a point, but I passed that point a long while ago.
And I realize that I have to redo a lot for the Nature in Lit class--because the students don't even begin to understand my essay assignment questions, so they can't possibly write papers for the class. If there weren't the requirement for students to use some critical material, it would be easier to come up with topics--but the critical material isn't for undergrads, and I don't know how to get them to understand what we need to do. I met with a student today; she truly didn't understand in the least what she was supposed to do with the critical material--and she clearly hadn't read past the first page, so she didn't even understand the critic's real argument. I don't blame her, though; she can't really understand a lot of the primary material, so it's hardly surprising the secondary stuff baffles her, and in her shoes, I might read to the point where I feel like "I don't get this at all" and hope that just the bit I got would be enough.
Oh, god. I really just need this semester to be over.
But laughing with Paul helps. (He came in at that point, and I showed him a little cartoon I posted on FB. He and I both laughed pretty hard. That was good.)
Right now, however, my head is hurting--again--and I am tired and hungry and cranky (not a good combination). I'm going to go home ridiculously early (unless I sign off here and suddenly think of something I really must do), and I'm going to hope I get a good whack at the work tomorrow. It may never be "tomorrow," but it will--we assume--eventually be Tuesday, April 24, 2018, and when it is, I hope I am more able to approach the bolus of work I've collected from the 101 class so I can return it on Wednesday. If I'm super efficient (unlikely), I may even be able to return some stuff to the students in the SF class, which would be great.
But we'll see. I'm not taking any bets at this point.
I started to work on the grading for the 101 class, because I very much want to get that stuff back to them on Wednesday--and really, there are so few of them, how hard could it be?
Well, hard, actually. Because they just fucking will not do the work--and even when they do, it's generally so ungodly awful.
Cathy thinks I'll be great at any of the courses that essentially work with students who need "developmental" writing as they merge into credit bearing; I don't know how to convince her that I would completely suck at it, because I have no patience for this shit. Oh, I have patience with individual students up to a point, but I passed that point a long while ago.
And I realize that I have to redo a lot for the Nature in Lit class--because the students don't even begin to understand my essay assignment questions, so they can't possibly write papers for the class. If there weren't the requirement for students to use some critical material, it would be easier to come up with topics--but the critical material isn't for undergrads, and I don't know how to get them to understand what we need to do. I met with a student today; she truly didn't understand in the least what she was supposed to do with the critical material--and she clearly hadn't read past the first page, so she didn't even understand the critic's real argument. I don't blame her, though; she can't really understand a lot of the primary material, so it's hardly surprising the secondary stuff baffles her, and in her shoes, I might read to the point where I feel like "I don't get this at all" and hope that just the bit I got would be enough.
Oh, god. I really just need this semester to be over.
But laughing with Paul helps. (He came in at that point, and I showed him a little cartoon I posted on FB. He and I both laughed pretty hard. That was good.)
Right now, however, my head is hurting--again--and I am tired and hungry and cranky (not a good combination). I'm going to go home ridiculously early (unless I sign off here and suddenly think of something I really must do), and I'm going to hope I get a good whack at the work tomorrow. It may never be "tomorrow," but it will--we assume--eventually be Tuesday, April 24, 2018, and when it is, I hope I am more able to approach the bolus of work I've collected from the 101 class so I can return it on Wednesday. If I'm super efficient (unlikely), I may even be able to return some stuff to the students in the SF class, which would be great.
But we'll see. I'm not taking any bets at this point.
Saturday, April 21, 2018
You'd think I'd know myself better by now...
I brought all kinds of student work with me upstate for this Breath-Body-Mind teacher training workshop that I'm doing--and of course I realize I'm not going to even look at it. Even thinking about it increases my anxiety levels about a thousand-fold, so ... no. I'm not quite sure where the anxiety and resistance come from; it's not like I don't know what I'm facing or how to handle it. This is just situation normal: some of the work will be good, some will be awful--but it's at the point in the semester when I don't need to drive myself nuts trying to shift anything better: they've gotten all my feedback, so now it's just about them using what they've learned to work on themselves.
Kinda like what I'm doing up here. But in a really nifty turn of events, one of the organizers--not even one of the teachers--had great ideas. I mentioned the panic response students have--especially in the comp classes--when faced with their first assignments, and he suggested that their first writing assignment of the term should be to write as badly as they can imagine writing: make every mistake they can think of to make, break every rule, really suck on purpose. I'm not sure how the students would respond to that, as so many of them think they suck no matter what--intentionally or not--but it's certainly worth trying, just to see if it would loosen up anything in them.
The other idea was that I can present a calmer, less daunting persona to the class the first day (or days) if I do some of my Breath-Body-Mind practice immediately before entering the classroom. So often I see the students almost recoil when I first walk in, as if they were expecting a mere teacher and instead are faced with a dragon--a friendly and smiling dragon, but nonetheless.... That's a bit of an overstatement, but it certainly can't hurt me to practice reducing my own stress, anxieties, tensions, before I walk into the classroom.
In fact, it can't hurt me to practice reducing all that stuff period. So even if I never end up teaching the BBM stuff, it sure is great to learn.
I get to be a student again all day tomorrow, then drive home and settle into being home before I go back to wearing my dragon disguise.
Kinda like what I'm doing up here. But in a really nifty turn of events, one of the organizers--not even one of the teachers--had great ideas. I mentioned the panic response students have--especially in the comp classes--when faced with their first assignments, and he suggested that their first writing assignment of the term should be to write as badly as they can imagine writing: make every mistake they can think of to make, break every rule, really suck on purpose. I'm not sure how the students would respond to that, as so many of them think they suck no matter what--intentionally or not--but it's certainly worth trying, just to see if it would loosen up anything in them.
The other idea was that I can present a calmer, less daunting persona to the class the first day (or days) if I do some of my Breath-Body-Mind practice immediately before entering the classroom. So often I see the students almost recoil when I first walk in, as if they were expecting a mere teacher and instead are faced with a dragon--a friendly and smiling dragon, but nonetheless.... That's a bit of an overstatement, but it certainly can't hurt me to practice reducing my own stress, anxieties, tensions, before I walk into the classroom.
In fact, it can't hurt me to practice reducing all that stuff period. So even if I never end up teaching the BBM stuff, it sure is great to learn.
I get to be a student again all day tomorrow, then drive home and settle into being home before I go back to wearing my dragon disguise.
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