Image via WikipediaI'm having some trouble coming up with a thesis for my first essay-- the project it's part of is based on a philosophy (!) experiment, and I can't quite figure out what point I want to make. I had no problems with the lab report (the other part of the project), but the reflection essay is kicking my butt. My experiment (taken from the book Astonish Yourself!, by Roger-Pol Droit) was to "Dream of all the Places in the World." I spent about half an hour doing that, and it was actually fun, but the amount of thinking I've had to do since then is incredible. I hope I get some ideas from the peer review on Thursday.
Image by Getty Images via @daylifeI just finished reading "Grief," by Joan Didion. This is an excerpt from her book, The Year of Magical Thinking, which was recommended to me a couple of years ago when we had a death in my family. Her reflections on grief helped me then, and it's interesting to read it again, at a time when I'm not grieving myself.
What hit me this time was how she nails one of the things that irritated me back then, namely other people's insensitivity to people who are grieving. As if there's some kind of timetable we're all supposed to follow! She talks about the funeral as an event that many interpret as the end of grief, which I think reveals their stupidity: the funeral is -- at least in my experience -- a ceremony that marks the official start of grief, sort of like the way a wedding is the official start of a marriage.
A very worthwhile piece.
Image by claire_h via FlickrI happened to watch the news yesterday (I don't do that very often, since I have high blood pressure; I find written sources are less likely to make it rise) and caught a story on Matt Damon's encounter with an obnoxious reporter who was anything but objective about teachers. His comeback was priceless! (watch it for yourself at http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/actor-matt-damon-defends-teacher-tenure-testy-exchange-211042801.html, where there is also a link to the speech he gave at the Save our Schools rally earlier this week.)
Obviously, I agree with him. While I don't teach at the K12 level, I have listened to my colleagues who do, and I have seen the results of the policies Damon decried in the students who enter my college classroom each fall. Many of them have no idea how to be students. All they know is how to prepare for standardized exams. Unfortunately for them, life doesn't offer that option very often. Daily living requires critical thinking skills that cannot be developed by drills.
I cannot thank Matt Damon enough for using his position in the public eye to draw attention to this problem. Now, does somebody want to tackle the fact that around 50% of all college courses in this country are taught by part-time faculty, which has resulted in the elimination of many full-time positions at a time when enrollments are exploding and faculty jobs should be increasing?
If you are shopping schools for yourself or your child, be sure to ask what percentage of the faculty is full time and how many courses are taught by grad students instead of instructors or professors. It matters.
Image via WikipediaSummer term has ended, and Rhonda actually managed to get almost everything done. As you can tell from her postings, she stalled out on her journal. If you're a teacher, this won't surprise you; if you aren't, it probably seems strange. The research journal, at least in my classes, is an ungraded assignment. This means that all that matters is quantity. The students are free to discuss their projects and problems without worrying about the quality of their writing hurting their grade. It's worth 10-15% of their course grade, and it is possible to get full credit even if you are a lousy writer: all you have to do is submit the maximum number of entries. You'd think that all of them would be sure to max out on this, since it often means the difference between passing and not passing, but the truth is that around a third of each section (class) turns in the minimum or less. Even more strange is that some of these students are actually very good writers, suggesting that it would be easier for them to keep the journal up to date, but they don't care, I guess, and this often brings them down an entire letter grade for the course.
What a waste!
The flipside of this situation is that those who do max out their journals usually make comments in them near the end about how much having to do the journal helped them keep on track and think through what they were trying to do with their projects. And this is true for students across the board.
Image via WikipediaI'm having some trouble coming up with a thesis for my first essay-- the project it's part of is based on a philosophy (!) experiment, and I can't quite figure out what point I want to make. I had no problems with the lab report (the other part of the project), but the reflection essay is kicking my butt. My experiment (taken from the book Astonish Yourself!, by Roger-Pol Droit) was to "Dream of all the Places in the World." I spent about half an hour doing that, and it was actually fun, but the amount of thinking I've had to do since then is incredible. I hope I get some ideas from the peer review on Thursday.
