Monday, August 19, 2013

Assessments

About half of my students were dressed decently nicely--clean, mostly whole, clothes. 

A few came in dirty-looking, with clothes ripped or stained, or otherwise unkempt.  Several had visible tattoos.  A few had multiple piercings in their faces.

A few of the girls (maybe three out of ten girls per class) came in with very little actually covered, to the point where I wanted to remind them that, while that is a valid career choice, it might not be a good idea to advertise on campus.

The rest?  Just looked like standard high school students: tee shirts, jeans or shorts, and tennies or flip-flops. 

Majors leaned heavily toward the practical--dental hygiene, STEM, business, etc., with a few undecided, and a few teacher ed (most of whom are a couple tacos shy of a combo plate)--and most had a plan for what they wanted to do with it. 

I feel hopeful.

10 comments:

  1. Well, if any of your students want to do well in the food service industry, they should get liberal arts degrees. At my wife's school, she is constantly bombarded with sad tales from other teachers about how little Johnny went to some super expensive college, and now he has graduated with his degree in Coptic Religious Literature but can't find a job! I have a nephew who was a professional student. He got his BS, stayed on as a grad student, eking out a living as a toady to some professor, but he was happy. It was the environment he liked. Then he got his Masters. Then he got his Doctorate. In Astrophysics. Can't find a job. Just moved back in with my sister.....

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    1. Has your nephew considered teaching college? It's not bad pay for a full professor, even in smaller schools. Maybe not the best, but certainly enough to live on.

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    2. I tried to help him find a job doing just that. Unfortunately, a guy who spent his entire adult life at school, and who has his doctorate in astrophysics, seems to be of little interest to anyone. There was a college near here that had an associate professorship for a physics instructor, and I called them but they didn't want an astrophysicist. Other than NASA and the JPL where would someone like that work? He's late twenties now and no experience of work other than as a grad student. I think he's going to have to learn to say "will you have fries with that" in Spanish, myself. God help me if my sister ever reads this and figures out it's me. She'll cut my heart out with a spoon and eat it.

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    3. Best place to find jobs in field is to go to conferences for it. Most English department job searches are filled by people our faculty meet at the MLA (Modern Language Association)conventions.

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    4. How would I find out where conferences on astrophysics are being held? Can anybody just walk in and attend? Sounds like a route no one in my family was aware of.

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    5. Go to the nearest university with any journals--peer reviewed journals, not just magazines--in the library. Pick up the most current issue and check in the back. There's usually a list of conferences coming up, and locations. Yes, it costs a bit, but if it gets a job...

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  2. Sad, isn't it. But as they say, nothing new under the sun. I went to university and earned a PhD in Microbiology and crawled away from univ just in time for the Arab Oil Embargo. Guess what? No jobs. I ended up making my living where I started out...in the construction industry.

    LOL, you feel hopeful about them. Well good, you're gonna need it.

    By the way, still with computer problems so few comments from me, but I'm watching you!!!!

    LMHO

    Winston

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    Replies
    1. Mostly hopeful that they'll be taking class seriously, not hopeful that they'll manage to find a job after college.

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