Yadda Yadda--It's Week 9
Well, the end of the quarter is near.
No sobs here.
A brief update on classes:
WS100 in L is a total wash. Not sure what
I can even hope to gleam from it.
Except to never teach WS100
on a branch campus ever again . . .
and to never use _Feminist Visions_ as my primary text.
That text is a joke!
I think I'm going to be mean next time.
Yeah, mean.
Basically, I'm an accomodating push-over at the moment.
And it's not working out.
No where near the engagement I'm seeking . . .
So, I'm finished with carrots and on to the sticks!
Big ones.
The deaf student and her signers have taken over my class.
Disruptive, I'm afraid.
I should/could give brilliant examples,
but you will just have to trust me on this one.
Did even one student learn a d*mn thing?
I'm not convinced.
For starters (and finishers), their (the class
as a whole) writing is so terrible that I can't
tell what they know and what they don't.
Should I be taking off for bullsh*t?
'Cause I'm sinking in it.
And the excuses
that have come out of that class are unreal!
But my pedagogy requires that I accept
students' authenticity . . .
Did I establish our relationship as professionals
from the start?
If I can get out of there unscathed,
it will be a miracle.
My 152? Ok, but tired.
I think I've exhausted their minds.
They need a break.
We are working on the last paper &
I need to step it up a bit.
But generally speaking it's been a good class--
not stellar mind you, but good.
Their movie reviews?
I haven't graded them yet,
but this is the first class ever
that has interpreted my comments
on graphic design with, uh, construction paper,
glue, and crayola markers.
Yeah.
Sigh.
But I don't think I can count off,
or rip into them, because I never said
NOT
to use construction paper, glue, and crayola markers . . .
Sigh.
Just looking at the pile makes we want to
ax
them in half.
Shhh. Don't tell anyone about that image!
Highly unprofessional.
Speaking of professionality,
my personality is splitting more and more
(ie. people who work with me
and especially take class from me would probably
NEVER expect what swims around my mind
or on this blog),
yet, oddly enough,
I can feel my selves becoming more whole. . .
Don't freak out, I'm speaking in terms
of the postmodern, fragmented selves . . .
Well, and the troublesome doubleganger.
Why can't it teach my classes?
It's just as well.
I think I am pulling myself together,
finding out who I am through teaching . . .
we need a field trip.
I've got to step up my teaching b/c
I'm getting bored. Field trip . . .
community service project?
making a film?!
posted by SquirrleyMojo @ 9:27 AM
7 Comments:
I'm a disabled person who's had teachers like you and it sucks big time to have someone as skeptical as you as a teacher. Students are just trying to learn
PS.
My partner called me out: "Wait--how many students did that [used a rudimentary approach]?"
Ok. Three. But in my defense, having counted them, one even used GLITTER.
Should I take pics? ya? ya?
Anonymous:
That comment speaks more about you and your world view than me.
I'm sorry for your bad experiences. :-( That does suck.
But try not to generalize them onto all disabled people and/or teachers.
Mine are secret blog frustrations, directed at the interpretors who are constantly interrupting class lecture, holding conversations with the student when she should be writing, and diverting class discussion to the act of signing.
Obviously, this friction irratates an already open wound of insecuritites on my part (ie. have I screwed up? again? are the students learning? what happens when they go onto the next level of classes? will they get nailed by "real" professors?)
Sigh.
Double sigh.
Thanks for bring this to my attention A.
I know a student who once went to a professor at the end of term to explain why she did not have her final paper ready to turn in.
As it happened, she had written the paper two weeks before. Saved it to disk. She had done all her revising on computer, so she had no printouts.
And then, three days before the paper was due, she mailed her computer home. As she usually did.
Of course, when she went to print out the paper the night before it was due, the disk was not working. The best computer services could figure out was that half of it had gotten wiped.
The computer had not yet arrived at home. She couldn't ask her parents to open it and find the file, save it to a new disk, and email it to her. Which would have been risky anyway, because her parents were hit and miss with files and email.
Oh.
The student was me. Did I mention that? True story.
Always print a back up.
Bet your students look good now, huh?
So that last post was me.
glitter??
as a student, i was a complete slacker, i wasn't really trying to learn, i was trying to get by. i was trying to earn a grade. i was trying to meet the cute girl 2 rows in front of me. i was trying not to puke, becuz i had 3 too many beers at dime-beer night.
{rant} my opinion of myself, looking back, is low. it was rare that i would rise-to-an-occasion. now, i say: "don't dumb down, lift up." in a self-righteous tone...{/rant} one of my absolute favorite teachers, a chemistry prof, kicked my stupid, lazy, late butt out of class after being late for the 3rd time in a week. and that's when i started wanting to learn from her, cuz she set my expectations high for myself.
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