Hallelujah!

Today was my last day of the semester. With just a wee bit of grading, this semester will be completely behind me. I think this was one of my better semesters. Not sure if it was because of changes I implemented or because I had a good crop of students, but I have some theories.

Highlights:

• Attendance system = Awesome!
• Personal Learning Plans = Good (minor tweak)
• Self-assessments = Good (another minor tweak)
• Paper audience for final project = sorta (needs tinkering, but I'm hopeful
• Excel integration with Alchemist = Awesome! (tiny tweak and will be perfect

Low points:

• Grade reports (switch to auto generated and emailed)
• Following instructions (constant battle)
• Format (GRRR! Make 'em use a template!)

That's all for now. Overall, not too much to revamp for the fall, so I should have a decent amount of time to work on writing (Yaay!)

Chicken Little

            No, this isn’t a folktale post. This is me freaking out because “The semester is coming! The semester is coming!” I put off preparation for the semester because I wanted (needed) to focus on other projects, which I don’t regret at all. But now I need to get everything wrapped up and good to go for teaching. Hopefully, the ideas I have had here and there over the summer will help ease the teaching burden.

            Here’s hoping that I don’t get crushed by a piece of the falling semester.

Know Your Audience

            There’s obviously a writing connection to this post, but I’m actually thinking more of teaching. See, writers know their audiences pretty well. There’s mystery, fantasy, sci-fi, romance, horror, western, etc. Sure, there are subgenres, mixed genres, and even tight niches, but we have a pretty good idea of who would want to read our books. We write for them.

            But with students . . . we don’t know. I was talking with some teacher friends, and we’re at a loss to understand this particular audience. We used to. But over the past few years, it’s changed. We’ve all experienced the students who stop showing up. We could deal with that. It’s easy, we either withdraw them or we fail them. No problem. But we’ve got a new type showing up, now. They attend all classes, but never hand in assignments.

Reflections

            I’ve been pondering reflections, but not the ones in mirrors. I’m more interested in societal reflections. I’ve had a theory that the news and media do less to shape events and attitudes than they do to reflect them.

Skill & Knowledge Plateaus

            Long ago, I started monkeying around with Excel. And when I learned the vlookup formula, I thought I was an Excel master! I could rule the world with this knowledge . . . until I got a handle on the offset formula.

Idea Transplant Rejection

            Ideas are like transplant organs. No, hear me out. I think I’m on to something, here. So we all know about Inception as a way to inspire someone to create an idea, but what about giving a fully formed idea to someone else, and having it take?

Unconventional Methods

            I’m trying something a little new with my teaching this semester, which should not come as any surprise. Last semester, I was able to make a connection with my students in a way that I hadn’t previously. It came from not talking about the course material.

That Time Again

            Here it is again, the semester about to begin. I’m ready. I’ve been ready since May, but I’ve got a few more tricks up my sleeve. Hopefully they’ll take.

            I wonder at which point a teacher qualifies as a magician. We all have our acts, we all come up with our signature tricks to try and wow the audience. And we have to keep coming up with new ones all the time as the audience will grow bored with the old ones.

           

Post-Semester Shock Syndrome

            I’ve alluded to it in previous posts, talking about the malaise that accompanies the end of the semester; however, now I’ve come up with a clever name that seems to most accurately capture the idea.

            I’m not trying to belittle those who suffer from PTSD with this name; if anything, I’m trying to draw a very real comparison to how the end of the semester affects me and other teachers.

Teaching Future

            I go back and forth on this. I have a deep core in me that really loves to teach, especially mythology, but I’m not sure it’s really for me anymore. I have to adopt a wait and see attitude. I keep pondering a question: If I had the chance to be financially well-off without teaching, would I continue to do it? And I don’t’ know the answer. If I’m not financially bound, then there’s an aspect of leisure to teaching, so I can approach it differently. I can get an increased sense of satisfaction from the endeavor when it’s leisure.

            But that’s largely speculation. I think I’ll have to try it out empirically.

           

The. End.

            Another semester over. Yes, there’s a little bit of grading to do, yet, but it’s inconsequential. The pressure has fully lifted. Time for a brief respite, and then a longer one from all things school related.

           

Nervous Energy

            This close to the end of the semester, and I start getting a nervous energy. I want it to end. And with all of the major grading out of the way, I don’t have a lot to concern myself with, just run out the clock. Of course, I start considering what went well, what didn’t, what to improve, etc. Sometimes I can get a jump on the next semester by carrying out little tweaks in advance.

            Despite telling myself I don’t need to worry about it right now, I’ll probably do it, anyway. It’s something to do, after all.

           

Lull

            It’s the semester lull. All major class projects are in, and we’re largely on autopilot, which is good for me. I can get back to other projects. I’m glad I always plan for these parts of the semester. The semesters are easier on me and easier on the students when these lulls come.

            Now, back to other, more pressing work.

First Blush

            I watched “The Saint” recently. the Val Kilmer film, not the Roger Moore series. Get over it. And there’s a scene where a Russian scientist is trying to make a formula for cold fusion work, but can’t, and he says something to the effect that “the formula appears revolutionary at first blush.” This is exactly how new curriculum is. We come up with an idea, develop it for the whole semester, and then implement it.

From the moment we conceive it and throughout the semester, we’re hopeful. We can even experience great successes during the semester, but the first blush impression is not the whole story. Only when the semester has ended can we determine if the curriculum was a success.

We’ve all been burned by the final projects of the semester where the students simply give up. I can’t blame them (at least not entirely) because I remember my days as an undergrad and the need to simply finish a course. But when the numbers are stacked against us that the majority of students didn’t get it, it’s back to the drawing board.

Student Exploration

            Before the semester began, I helped a friend develop her curriculum for a composition class. After throwing out several ideas because of the massive work involved and the unlikelihood of getting a positive student response, we finally hit upon an idea of personal exploration. It revolves around three questions, each one to become the heart of an essay: Who are you? Why are you here? Where are you going?

            We’re hopeful that this will elicit the correct response and critical inquiry from the students, but, like any curriculum, it’s a gamble, one we won’t know if it worked until after it’s all over, when those final essays and grades are tallied.

            Oh, and I realize now that I kind of cribbed the personal exploration theme from Crusade, hence the video. 

Tools

            The details are where things matter most, and I’ve found that having the correct tools makes the detail work easier. Unfortunately, there are an abundance of tools available, not all of them equal. Trying to find the right ones to fit your particular needs is a daunting task. Also, there’s a budget to consider.

            In preparation for my Kickstarter campaign, I had to look at tools to help make my video, both on the physical side and the digital side. A tripod, mount, microphone, lighting, and more had to be considered for the video. I needed to enlist a friend as a camera man (and co-director since I was in front of the camera). And then on the digital side, I needed a computer with enough processing power and the correct software to edit the raw footage into something presentable.

            I don’t have professional film school hardware or software. I don’t claim that my film is anywhere near that quality. I wish it was. Not because I think that makes a video better, but because the right tools make a job and the finished product better.

            I reach for my tools whenever I have need. The best tool in the world is no good unless it is used. Moreover, there’s no shame in using tools. That’s what they’re for.

           

When Everything Stops Working

            What do you do when teaching methods fail you? When methodologies that used to work no longer do? What do you do when the bag of teaching tricks is empty? What do you do to try and remain effective? What do you do when every new trick you come up with flops?

            What do you do when you no longer care to try finding new tricks?

Going Gradeless

            I read a blogpost by a high school English teacher on this novel idea of not assigning grades to student writing throughout the semester. It’s a novel idea, but I don’t think it’s one that can actually translate to the college level, mostly because of time.

The high schools have 18 week semesters with class 5 days a week (most of them, anyways), making for roughly 85 days of class (depending on the holidays). The colleges, typically, have sixteen week semesters with class occurring 2 or 3 times a week, making for between 30-43 days of class, again depending on holidays.

            With so much extra time, it’s easy to see how this teacher could afford to spend many days in conference with students about their writing, but colleges expect students to shoulder the majority of work outside the classroom.

            So I’m not sure I could justify attempting a gradeless system such as is described, but I am intrigued.

Higher Education Paradigm Shift

            I wrote earlier about de-specialization, and I think that is the key to saving higher education. The first two years of any college experience should revolve around showing students how subjects relate to one another, and how to view subjects with a critical eye towards making still more connections. English, math, psychology, history, and art are not separate subjects, but rather pieces of a whole education that is the very baseline of higher thinking. It is for this reason that colleges and universities require subjects in what is termed general education, but the term and lists of classes are as far as anyone has taken it.

            The fact of the matter is that various departments segregate these general education courses from one another. Each department concerns itself only with its internal business and the competition to make it rise above its peers.

            Complicating this structure is that the general education courses within a given department are disdained. They are not real courses that the department cares about. The courses are relegated to teaching assistants and adjuncts as full professors feel such subjects are beneath them.

            It’s time to pull these courses away from their departments to form a new collective group purely for general education. It would take all of these courses from the various departments and coordinate them, teach them in such a way that the connections between subjects are emphasized. Let the individual departments worry about further specializing the students.

The Next Semester

            It begins today. I’ve got a couple of more tricks up my sleeve. So I’m optimistic on those fronts. I hope it pays off. Teaching’s harder this time around as my excitement has bled off into other areas, especially my kickstarter. Maybe after that’s over I’ll be more renewed.