...grading.
Nor am I looking forward to the inevitable emails whining that the group work isn't working, because nobody is responding to emails. (I've been telling them to just do the work on their own if nobody is willing to work with them, mostly because I refuse to let someone harm someone else's grade through their own laziness.) I hate group work, and wouldn't have assigned that particular project (a group Power Point presentation) in a composition class anyway.
I am also not looking forward to the panic that I am sure will ensue when the students realize that they have spent ten weeks on a completely worthless series of worksheets, and the last three assignments (a memo about the project, the presentation, and a ten page research paper) are all due within the last five weeks. I DID NOT DESIGN THIS CLASS, but I will be taking the brunt of the complaints and the bad teacher evaluations that the course designer deserves.
I really wish I could get my writing career off the ground enough to replace my income, so that I could quit and write full-time.
29 minutes ago
Ah, at what point in history did Power Point become Composition? Color me confused.
ReplyDeleteAt the point when "submittals" replaced "submissions."
DeleteI kid you not--that's what the course designer uses when talking about turning in homework.
Yikes. I do not envy you your job.
DeleteI occasionally chat with the high school kids that work at the local pizza shop. Most of them complain about not really learning anything at the local high school. It's pretty rural and I suspect a lot of the kids if they have more than one parent, then both work.
From asking questions it's pretty obvious that they don't learn anything about history, finance, and economics and their understanding of current events is not great although they all seem to realize their futures are looking pretty bleak.
They always have the option of educating themselves. It's what I did. Most people are either too lazy, or have no clue where to start. I just read everything--which meant I learned a little bit of everything.
DeleteAnd, a few years ago, I tutored Russian students in a two week English camp. They told me that with my wider interests and knowledge, I was the most intelligent person they'd met in the U.S., that everyone else was too mired in their own little sphere of expertise. Then they said that that reminded them of tradesmen in Russia: too focused on a very narrow aspect of life.
In other words, we're going the exact wrong direction in higher education: instead of specializing, we need to be learning more about other disciplines, and how they interact and intersect with our own.