back in black on the internet: teaching and fandom wittering
Fun story, for some reason the rich text version of LJ is not working today, which is kind of hilarious. I'm really hoping that the 404 error shows up when I post.
The kids and I had a good time today. This is the first time I've forced a class to analyze how a classroom looks/works for an observation paper. AWESOME. Mainly, it was me having fun and mocking their habits a bit, but I think they maybe understood the point. I even had some insight to break down. (Most of them agreed that while all classes are boring, the most boring classes are ones they don't plan to major in, and also the ones that they received their first "bad" grade in as kids. I LOVES IT).
Other good news, my "problem" student, who isn't a problem so much as a puzzle because I don't know how to teach her actually has a disability. To me, this is a good thing because she is 18 and has never been diagnosed with a learning disorder. No wonder she falls asleep during class. The first time I've ever heard her sound excited about something was when she said she was going to get tested. I feel bad for her because she's gone this long with a problem and no one has noticed, but at the same time, I'm so glad that it is a problem and that we've found it. This means we can actually work on teaching her in a way where she can actually learn, YAY!
I find that my teaching style works really well for kids who know how to be students, and okay for kids who are lazy, but don't want to do the work. (These kids frustrate me because they could earn an A easily. I don't hoard As in this class, but these kids make me want to.) Then there are all of the disadvantaged kids who have given up in some way, or who are trying, but NEED to take my first semester course twice to get it, and would probably be better off with another class before it.
You know that whole "turn back time" concept? I don't want to change my life because I am proud of what I accomplished, but I do wish I had at least 1 education course under my belt so that I would know some tricks for reaching all of the kids. I have so many kids that I am ridiculously proud of, but the ones that don't get by? I always wonder what I should have done that would have helped them get through it. I do have some of them again this semester, and in some cases, things are working very well.
I think I'm more invested in their success in this class than they are, which isn't surprising.
I need to start working on my PhD application process. When I'm qualified to teach a few more classes, maybe I'll figure out how not to let the classes/kids dominate my life.
Then again, when I have a PhD, I probably won't have to teach 4 first year writing courses per semester 2 semesters in a row. I'm only teaching 3 in the fall. YAY!
There is nothing like commenting on 60 drafts in 3 days to make a person really loathe process as a pedagogy. I love making students reflect on their writing and plan to revise it before its due, but I get tired of writing the comments. Thankfully, as the semester progresses, I give fewer and fewer comments.
Next semester, I might just give 10 comments per paper throughout the semester. They seemed a bit overwhelmed by the 35+ comments on their first drafts . . .
I don't have anything to grade until Wednesday. So I'm playing on the internet. Amplificathon is having a podfic recathon, which is awesome.
Also, I appear to have this thing going, where I wait for a fandom to be fully established before venturing into it, and I have to tell you, it is like falling into a fandom treasure pot.
I started this with SGA. I literally could NOT watch the series, but then I began to read the fic, and let's face it, during its prime, SGA fandom had some of the most interesting, well written fics out there. They were EPIC. and AU. and TEN TIMES MORE AWESOME THAN THE SHOW. It's true, I'd watch the show and think, "Gosh, I can't wait until next weekend when fandom takes this and makes it better." or "GD show! Fandom will fix this obvious error on your part."
Same thing happened with Merlin. It started in the UK and became popular, so I began to read the fic. By the time I watched the show, tons of established fic, and tropes, and loveliness.
Most recently, I've become attached to the BBC Sherlock Holmes and to Inception. With both of those, I scrolled past all of the fics that began to be posted back in August and waited. As of December, I finally watched both and I am CRAWLING through MILES of FABULOUS FIC.
To conclude, I no longer pick my own TV shows to watch. I wait for you guys to sound enthusiastic and then order things off of Netflix. And then wait for you to out do the shows through fanfic. I feel like fandom should be renamed "things they don't do on television because they aren't cool enough". It's a little wordy, but all of you guys are totally worth some expository length.
On that note, good evening!
(p.s. sorry that I couldn't put the link over all of this, but as I mentioned at the beginning, rich text isn't working, so no LJ cut for you!)
The kids and I had a good time today. This is the first time I've forced a class to analyze how a classroom looks/works for an observation paper. AWESOME. Mainly, it was me having fun and mocking their habits a bit, but I think they maybe understood the point. I even had some insight to break down. (Most of them agreed that while all classes are boring, the most boring classes are ones they don't plan to major in, and also the ones that they received their first "bad" grade in as kids. I LOVES IT).
Other good news, my "problem" student, who isn't a problem so much as a puzzle because I don't know how to teach her actually has a disability. To me, this is a good thing because she is 18 and has never been diagnosed with a learning disorder. No wonder she falls asleep during class. The first time I've ever heard her sound excited about something was when she said she was going to get tested. I feel bad for her because she's gone this long with a problem and no one has noticed, but at the same time, I'm so glad that it is a problem and that we've found it. This means we can actually work on teaching her in a way where she can actually learn, YAY!
I find that my teaching style works really well for kids who know how to be students, and okay for kids who are lazy, but don't want to do the work. (These kids frustrate me because they could earn an A easily. I don't hoard As in this class, but these kids make me want to.) Then there are all of the disadvantaged kids who have given up in some way, or who are trying, but NEED to take my first semester course twice to get it, and would probably be better off with another class before it.
You know that whole "turn back time" concept? I don't want to change my life because I am proud of what I accomplished, but I do wish I had at least 1 education course under my belt so that I would know some tricks for reaching all of the kids. I have so many kids that I am ridiculously proud of, but the ones that don't get by? I always wonder what I should have done that would have helped them get through it. I do have some of them again this semester, and in some cases, things are working very well.
I think I'm more invested in their success in this class than they are, which isn't surprising.
I need to start working on my PhD application process. When I'm qualified to teach a few more classes, maybe I'll figure out how not to let the classes/kids dominate my life.
Then again, when I have a PhD, I probably won't have to teach 4 first year writing courses per semester 2 semesters in a row. I'm only teaching 3 in the fall. YAY!
There is nothing like commenting on 60 drafts in 3 days to make a person really loathe process as a pedagogy. I love making students reflect on their writing and plan to revise it before its due, but I get tired of writing the comments. Thankfully, as the semester progresses, I give fewer and fewer comments.
Next semester, I might just give 10 comments per paper throughout the semester. They seemed a bit overwhelmed by the 35+ comments on their first drafts . . .
I don't have anything to grade until Wednesday. So I'm playing on the internet. Amplificathon is having a podfic recathon, which is awesome.
Also, I appear to have this thing going, where I wait for a fandom to be fully established before venturing into it, and I have to tell you, it is like falling into a fandom treasure pot.
I started this with SGA. I literally could NOT watch the series, but then I began to read the fic, and let's face it, during its prime, SGA fandom had some of the most interesting, well written fics out there. They were EPIC. and AU. and TEN TIMES MORE AWESOME THAN THE SHOW. It's true, I'd watch the show and think, "Gosh, I can't wait until next weekend when fandom takes this and makes it better." or "GD show! Fandom will fix this obvious error on your part."
Same thing happened with Merlin. It started in the UK and became popular, so I began to read the fic. By the time I watched the show, tons of established fic, and tropes, and loveliness.
Most recently, I've become attached to the BBC Sherlock Holmes and to Inception. With both of those, I scrolled past all of the fics that began to be posted back in August and waited. As of December, I finally watched both and I am CRAWLING through MILES of FABULOUS FIC.
To conclude, I no longer pick my own TV shows to watch. I wait for you guys to sound enthusiastic and then order things off of Netflix. And then wait for you to out do the shows through fanfic. I feel like fandom should be renamed "things they don't do on television because they aren't cool enough". It's a little wordy, but all of you guys are totally worth some expository length.
On that note, good evening!
(p.s. sorry that I couldn't put the link over all of this, but as I mentioned at the beginning, rich text isn't working, so no LJ cut for you!)