The School Thread

Me either. The class I absolutely need to pass I have NO IDEA what my grade will be. Did well on all the homeworks, barely passed the first quiz, outright failed the second, did extremely well on my final project. All of these things have percentages next to them in the syllabus, so going by that...it is not pretty. But they keep assuring us that they do "holistic" grading...whatever the hell that means.

So. Possibly I'll do better than I should? I guess? Hope?

Me three. :(

Today is econometrics. On one hand, challenging class; the hardest I had this semester. On the other hand, my current average is a 98.67%, the test is multiple choice, and like 2/3 of it are questions from previous exams. I haven't studied as much as I ought to have, but the fact that I know the material really well, and the fact that I've got a lot of wiggle makes me feel pretty confident I'll finish this class with an easy A.

I am still convince econometrics is a word you made up. But my iPhone just suggested it for an autocomplete so maybe you aren't full of it!

1.5 days of teaching left and I'll finally be able to focus on working on my own studies for a week!

I need your opinions on an assignment I'm putting together. For one of my classes next semester, I'm having my students pick one popular biology book from a list and read it. The purpose of the assignment is to help them understand that there are a lot of really good popular science books in print, and they're more accessible than our crappy textbooks.

My problem is that I'd like to tie it to an assignment that hopefully improves their communication skills. I'm currently divided between having them write a book review, or talk with me for a bit about the book. I'm not happy with the book review version of the assignment; it feels too much like a grade-school book report. So I'm leaning towards having a conversation with them about it, but I'm nervous that it will be really awkward when someone tries to bullshit me on it.

So do you have a preference between these two options, or is there another way I could be assessing the assignment that I haven't considered?

I am extremely interested in that list of popular biology books. Are any of them high school level reading?

How much time do you want to put into making this assignment? A literacy-circle style arrangement where a small group of people share different aspects of the same book would work, and then they could present to the class as a whole. But that takes extra prep time. The conversation is most interesting to me, but also is the most time consuming.

I'll send you a private message. I'd rather not have a student Google one of the more obscure books, find this post, and then find all of the ridiculous drunk posts I've made on this forum.

Why would the conversation be more time consuming? Compared to grading a three-page paper it seems like it would save time.

Just to depress you

http://www.centerforcollegeaffordability.org/uploads/From_Wall_Street_to_Wal-Mart.pdf

Happy Xmas!

Because you can grade papers on your own schedule. Conversations have to either take class time or accomodate the students' schedule. And if you think asking for extensions on a paper is bad enough, wait until multiple "emergencies" happen in a students life and he or she cancels your appointments.

Quackers I'd say back up, figure out what the learning objective is, and how the assignment fits that objective. I know that's vague, but it is what it is. Also keep in mind that students are conditioned to operate in a fairly narrow band of assignments, going too far out of that band is going to lead to some not good results I'd imagine. I like the idea of doing a discussion (maybe assign four or five students to each book so you can make it a group thing) but beware the inevitable pitfalls.

That wasn't my post!

I'm done. Officially officially done! Graded everything and from here on out it's RELAXATION!

...and trying to finish this god damn editing project for my friend.

I turned in my grades on Tuesday, and I've been basically relaxing ever since. I had to look over the proofs for my Superman and Philosophy article chapter, but that didn't take long and it was kind of fun to read through it again. I wrote it so long ago that it feels really fresh again, almost like someone else wrote it. It's funny, but sometimes, once you have enough distance, you can be surprised by your own ideas or turns of phrase.

I've been reading bits from a book about Batman and philosophy. It's fun!

Yeah, I think the series is fun. I do have article in the one on Family Guy (which is a popular one...you can find it in most bookstores, so it's the one that students ask me about the most), one on Heroes (the TV show), and one on Battlestar Galactica. I have fun writing for the series, and I think it's a good way to keep/get people interested in philosophy and how it can be applied. Obviously, these aren't deep articles or anything, but that's the point. They show how philosophy can be fun. Anyway, I like doing them, so I'll probably continue.

Are you in the Batman one?

Nope. Sorry. The Superman one is coming out with the new movie....I guess sometime this Spring, but maybe as late as June. I think they already have one, so this is another one, meant to coincide with the renewed interest the film should create.

Aw. I'll get the Superman one when it comes out, then.

I think your instincts are solid, and actually tie in well with the content.My advice would be to think about it in terms of working in a layered project on the book that focuses both on comprehension and on doing something with it, and a big part of that has to do with teaching it in terms of communication. So, for instance, what little I know about communication science comes from marketing, and one of the more accessible books I read there was Influence by Robert Cialdini. None of the things in there may be new to you, but what's handy about that and books like it (for instance, Predictably Irrational, is that they point you in a direction for thinking about teaching communication in both data-based and immediately applicable ways that have been field-tested). There are also a fair number of anthropological and other works that would fit with this, but I find these a lot more accessible and directly applicable.

Just pick your favorites and integrate them into the methods portion of your class, and you can demonstrate them by applying them explicitly and then explaining to people what they experienced if you're feeling adventurous.

So that would lead me to want to teach about how one establishes a bridge between expert opinions and business/the general public/politics. Basically, you scaffold a project where they break down a key concept in the book into a number of different pieces (ie 1) describe your concept accurately in ten words or less 2) what would an analogy from your world look like for this process? Where is that analogy accurate or inaccurate? 3) compare/contrast to other key concepts in the book and explain what makes you prefer this one and so on until they've hit the idea they want to work on from a number of angles).

Then they go from there to building a bridge between that concept and either business/political/popular dialog spheres, obviously once you've modeled what that looks like according to you. Why does second-rate science like x make it big? why does outright junk science make it big? What makes discredited concepts stick around past their due date, in concrete marketing terms? What makes something like [x successful crossover concept] a hit, and what are the limits of such an approach? How do you measure success?

The key is to keep it simple and focus on tangible indicators that they can tease out. The idea isn't to be the master of an idea, but to cross reference what they get out of the book with (ideally) other sources and put together a composite that they can redirect towards communicating outside of science. If I didn't utterly mistrust recommendations for group projects if I don't know the classroom context, I would make some here, but hopefully some of this is useful.

I finally worked up the nerve to make my way through the bureaucratic telephone labyrinth known as Vocational Rehab to find out where my case was transferred to, and then made an appointment for tomorrow to talk to my new counselor. Get this -- the new counselor hadn't called me because my file was sent to him in the wrong folder color, so he didn't know he was supposed to contact me. Siiiiigh.

Saw counselor this morning! He's going to get everything straightened out. I'll be able to start back to school in March. YAY.

Grades have finally come in! I got straight A's this semester. No transfer shock for me!

A few classes posted our actual grades online. In my econometrics class my curved grade was 100%. Woo!

Got an A in one class and the class that is MOST IMPORTANT TOTALLY UP IN THE AIR won't release grades until Tuesday night.

God dammit.

Grades still aren't up. Start classes next week. Fucking strike. :(

So I've been plodding away at my online courses, physics and chemistry, and this week I had to hand in my two final assignments. I've been getting good grades on my prior assignments and was generally feeling good. I hadn't done any work on these last ones before new years but no worries, I thought, two days for chemistry, two days for physics, and then I can read up on my finals. All that was left was to book in the webcam-based oral exam which was next week. Chemistry all set for thursday and physics....WTF zero timeslots for next week, despite that being the week when this crap is typically done. Last timeslot available was yesterday, friday night. So I worked my ass off on wednesday and thursday, finishing my physics assignment, started working my regular job again after the holidays on thursday, and friday night I hadn't been able to review even a single chapter of the course because there was just no time. Worse, I had worried so much about getting it done that for two days I had barely gotten four hours sleep per night.

So yesterday evening the exam starts and I feel groggy from tiredness. I fail pretty much every question asked, despite my examiner trying to point me in the right direction, because I just don't remember anything. I didn't even remember what my first assignment was about, nothing, my head is completely blank. And then she, out of pity I guess, says she's going to give me an E grade. On the entire course. The work I handed in doesn't mean shit. Which I can sort of understand, I mean, I might just have paid someone to do it for me, but it still feels shitty. And I'm just at loss because I know that on one hand an E grade counts as passing so it's enough for what I need, on the other hand I know that whatever my faults my performance at the oral exam was not indicative of how the course went. So she gives me an extension. Until tomorrow, 3 PM. And now I have to decide between my chemistry assignment and studying for my second attempt at the exam. And I'm just fucked whatever I do, because I don't have time to do either properly.

And I'm pretty certain that I hate oral exams. Give me a four hour written exam any day of the week.

In US universities, there's usually an alternative form of testing available in a low stress environment at a separate testing center. The spectrum for qualifying for it is extremely broad, and in many cases the counselors will work with you to make sure that testing anxiety or something of the sort is not the key variable in the outcomes of your assessments. Is there anything like a disability resource center for your school?

It's two distance learning courses I took because I needed something I could do in the evenings as I was working so that in itself pretty much eliminates my options for this exam. It has it's benefits, but the oral exam at the end is quite the hidden pitfall, atleast for me. That said, the major failure here is me not starting my studies on time but I honestly thought I had another week until the oral exam. If I hadn't panicked when I saw that the only option left was this week I might have been able to talk to the school and get it pushed back. Now that I took it, failed, and got a one and a half day reprieve I feel like I don't really have that much leverage. Technically I'd be within my rights to do it next week as the course doesn't end until next sunday, which was why I assumed that the final exam would be that week. The thought that they'd finish up the course a week early never entered my mind.

Anyway, no matter how it goes I'll get a passing grade so it's not a disaster or anything. It's just my pride getting bruised.

Can't stop sobbing. Every single class that I can take (which is essentially weekend and online classes) have closed. All of them.
All of them. I'd do weekday classes, but to get a TA position, you have to have your weekdays free. And if I take evening classes, I'll be too damn exhausted to go to work the next day.

BONUS! You have to be enrolled in six units to get a TA position.

why. why. why.

I'm presuming they're closed because they're full. Have you tried contacting the instructors and asking if they would be willing to add you in?

You may need to be ready to explain why you would be worthwhile to have in their class.

If you want it bad enough, sometimes you have to tough things out.

No, it's not that they're full. They are actually just closed. There have been a bunch of budget cuts around here that have made it so a lot of classes are being forced to close.

If you are a TA, that suggests you are in grad school (sorry if that is mentioned elsewhere too...didn't read all your posts in this thread to check). If so, you might try asking about an independent study. Undergrads can do those too, but professors tend to be more likely to do one for a grad student. I do these all the time (seems like every semester!) for students in situations like yours.

My employer just approved a reimbursement on the tuition I spent the month prior to my hire date. Woo! Now I need my grades to post so I can actually prove I passed. Boo.

So, my applications are set up, raring to go, and all I need is the third reference letter. I had emailed her about two months ago about it, asked for it in about a month to get things in early, and wrote out nearly 4,000 words in "important details" that she asked for in her guidelines...haven't heard any thing from her in response to my emails for a while, so I sent one yesterday that was basically "you need to tell me where you at in this process."

Her reply: "I don't know when, but I'll get it to you before the deadline." Fuck that, and fuck her. I know damn well what kind of schedule professors keep and I am definitely not going to wait until 48 hours before the deadline just for her. Seriously? You can't write three paragraphs in a month? You're putting my entire next year of life in peril because you can't sit down and type this shit out? I already wrote the damn thing for you. Fuck.

I'm going to get my anatomy professor to write one, since that's the next logical choice, but it infuriates me that I just wasted so much time. Fuck.

Grad school for a Teacher's Assistant position? Heavens no! There are plenty of TAs that haven't even come close to being finished with their undergrad situations that have become TAs. But I will definitely see about getting an independent study going on.

Huzzah. Grades posted. Straight As, natch. Transcript and receipts submitted to HR for a 75% reimbursement. The other 25% I can claim on my income tax return for a refund. Free school wooooooo!!!

Had a administrative error occur, dropping one of my marks from an A to a C. I went and straightened it up, but now I'm waiting for the mark change request to process and really hoping that it happens in time for it to be reflected on my transcript before I have to send them in for my grad school application.

I GOT A B+ IN THE HORRIBLE CLASS I SHOULD HAVE FAILED!

And an A in my other class that I didn't care about. While I am happy I passed, I am now annoyed that when I graduate my GPA will likely be a 3.93. God damn B+! Oh well. No one cares what your GPA is on your second masters anyway. They just wonder why it's not a PhD*.

A big thank you to Elyscape and everyone that listened to me have a breakdown every week.

*Aint no one got time for that!

Spent my afternoon off work writing 600 words on Stalin and 600 words on poems about cows. It's not the best assignment I've ever produced, but the deadline's tomorrow and 1% is better than none.
I've really got to give myself a bit more time for the next one!