Teaching

[gek-opel]

We all know I would choose the horse. Buh dump CHING.

Never mind the H this forum has become more addictive than crack of late...

 

[nomadologist]

Fetishize the bear? We're scared to death of em.

 

[nomadologist]

Never mind the H this forum has become more addictive than crack of late...

Word I need to pack and here I am.

Back like Cooked Crack Volume IXVIIIIII

 

[STN]

Fetishize the bear? We're scared to death of em.

over here we feed them to our horses.

 

[matt b]

We ended up having to introduce a basic grammar course that year - basic English grammar, for native English speakers who had somehow made it to university without learning to put a full stop (period) at the end of a sentence! I'm trying to remember a few choice quotes from essays - here's one, on "The Role of the Witches in Macbeth": "The witches sold their sole [sic] to the devil" - wtf?!

i read/ deal with 50 UCAS applications every year- the shit i have to read! personal statements are LOL funny.

e.g. 'i'm fascinated by english grammar [insert title of book on grammar here] is a kind of a bible to me'

'i love maths, especially the numbers parts of it'

etc

 

[matt b]

My mother teaches/lectures in sociology and some of the shit I hear about the flagrant stupidity of some of her students literally beggars belief at times. I don't know how people have the patience to deal with that kind of piss-taking really.

you have to revel in taking the piss back.

 

[gek-opel]

i read/ deal with 50 UCAS applications every year- the shit i have to read! personal statements are LOL funny.

e.g. 'i'm fascinated by english grammar [insert title of book on grammar here] is a kind of a bible to me'

'i love maths, especially the numbers parts of it'

etc

My mother just showed me some dissertation plans. Half of them were written in text speak FFS...!

 

[Gavin]

"Is It All Over My Face" is NYC disco by Arthur Russell & friends from 1980 or something - disabuse yr students asap before this leaks and gets you fired!

Hah, of course Chicago house was originally just NY disco... They played a snippet in a documentary (Pump Up The Volume?) that I showed; according to my students you are supposed to yell "Hell yeah" after "Is it all over my face" (guess it's still popular in some clubs here).

I was given a paper in ALL CAPS. Three pages. From a student who supposedly went through the 2 introductory English classes. I've also had plenty of "u" and even a "b4."

 

[gek-opel]

I was given a paper in ALL CAPS. Three pages. From a student who supposedly went through the 2 introductory English classes. I've also had plenty of "u" and even a "b4."

 

[jenks]

I have kept out of this as most of you seem to be discussing Higher Education. I teach in an all boys secondary school. Lots of my time is spent with getting pupils to actually see the value of what they are learning. A huge chunk of them are working at very low Literacy skills - full stops, capital letters/ simple spelling/ paragraphing etc.

I entered the profession with a missionary glee to teach kids like me - council estate boys who discover there is something exciting about 'words'n' stuff'. I still feel this but it is hard - the days when the great lesson plan lies in tatters because of some issue brought into the class from somewhere else or because it is windy or because it's the afternoon or ...(fill in your own irrational reason).

I was recently observed by my Head and given a 1 which is considered to be Outstanding - two days later i'm covering bottom set RE and i can't get them to stay sitting in their seats, hardly outstanding (upstanding perhaps...)

Much of what Matt B says rings true with me - the sarcasm, the disbelief at students who cannot construct a personal statement ( a child who wrote a whole essay on The Rape of the Lock and thought the poet was The Pope, we'd only spent 4 weeks on it!).

The only thing that is more worrying is the low level of literacy among staff - now that everyone emails we can see how poor the spelling (and I'm not talking typos here) and grammar is of my fellow professionals. In fact, we now have to check all reports not for content but for basic literacy. As a Head of English I find these qualities are harder to find in the new trainee teachers in every year that goes by

 

[matt b]

jenks - i'm so full of respect for what you do- firstly teaching in a secondary school (my pgce is in post compulsary ed. for a reason) and secondly for teaching english (it increasingly seems something of a thankless task- asking kids to read 300 words ALL AT ONCE is often met with cries of outrage).

i still adore contact time w/ students- the minority of arses is outweighed by the goodness of the human spirit which many show. the day flies by. seeing kids engage with stuff after weeks of exasperation is a beautiful thing.

apologies for my poor spelling and grammar- i'm a social scientist

i nearly wept today when a student whose family are asylum seekers told me her life story- assisting in the practicalities of supporting a keen student by giving her a ream of A4 paper, a folder and some pens is simple, yet somehow life affirming.

 

[Gavin]

Much of what Matt B says rings true with me - the sarcasm, the disbelief at students who cannot construct a personal statement ( a child who wrote a whole essay on The Rape of the Lock and thought the poet was The Pope, we'd only spent 4 weeks on it!).

Duh, everyone knows its A Pope... indefinite article of course.

Sorry couldn't resist the cheap joke... Appreciate the comments Jenks, and they're certainly applicable to universities because skill levels are so low everywhere. I can't imagine teaching The Rape of the Lock to college students let along high schoolers.

 

[matt b]

one thing i do feel strongly about, is that many of the problems you face day to day (and which we focus on because it's cathartic) are often not the direct fault of students- their expectations of what is 'normal' or acceptable are learnt, not innate. trying to unraval why they lie constantly to cover up for non-attendance or produce no work is of fundamental importance and often more important than actually teaching STUFF.

introducing the concept that actions have consequences is difficult, but has long term benefits to the individual concerned.

oh and also i love being able to slag the daily mail and everything it stands for everyday.

 

[jenks]

It's about your standards isn't it?

If they realise that you are going to pick them up on every knee-jerk Daily Mail moment they may well start to think about why it might be that Jenks gets on his high horse every time. Same with behaviour in class - generally kids don't wander around in my class because I make it clear that it's unacceptable - some others let them do it because it's easier than having the confrontation. No-one uses the word 'gay' as an insult in my class - i am sure they do elsewhere but it's a start (or a pointless gesture).

Your point about behaviours being learnt rather than innate is also fair. I think we deal with the results of poor parenting from parents who would never concieve that they are poor parents - how can they be if they provide all the X Box/sky tv/ foreign hols? Too often the expectation of education as a service culture results in a distortion of rights and duties, leaving pupils and parents expecting more and more with little acknowledgement of their own duties, whether it be handing work in on time, turning up to class, admitting to unacceptable behaviour or thinking it's reasonable to call a teacher a cunt.

Pile of marking in the corner and i feel the red mist descending I shall go now - all I will say is that they had the shock of their lives when they sneaked a peek at my itunes whilst I was out of the class

 

[matt b]

No-one uses the word 'gay' as an insult in my class - i am sure they do elsewhere but it's a start (or a pointless gesture).

i must say 'gay is a sexual preference, not a term of abuse' (or somesuch) nearly everyday

students often make the claim that i'm 'soooo old' because i don't like whatever shite's on their i pods (why should i take my earphones out, i'm not LISTENING too it?'...'you don't need THEM IN THEN' etc), then underestimate my age by a good 8 years and saying 'ooh i like bob marley, he's cool' when asking about what i do like.
plus being amazed that i might go out in a big city on a night out. they're very confused about adults in that they want to relate, but are (more than) a little scared when you do. i like that tension.

marking's saved 'till monday

right, off to get some red wine to forget the week's pain

 

[ripley]

That's an interesting question---given a range of ability levels, should one pitch high or pitch low? I tend to go high on the theory that it's nicer for both groups: the smart ones get what they need and hopefully something that excites them, and (I think) it's more exciting for the slower ones as well to see something they otherwise wouldnt get a chance to (though you have to be careful to make sure everyone is more or less following along).

yeah the problem is the kids who don't get it are usually utterly baffled, and then turn off or think that they are hopeless and quit trying. Not all at once, but surprisingly fast. I think I'm a reverse elitist, I figure the quick ones will do okay without me.. while if the weak ones drop out they may never come back.

Nomad, I'm in a Jurisprudence and Social Policy program in a law school. It's a PhD program not a professional law degree. I do empirical investigation of legal issues, but my TA jobs are all in undergraduate legal studies, either survey of Constitutional history (twice), a cool class called Property & Liberty (twice), or once I TA'd for Feminist Jurisprudence which was a total trip.

 

[matt b]

yeah the problem is the kids who don't get it are usually utterly baffled, and then turn off or think that they are hopeless and quit trying. Not all at once, but surprisingly fast. I think I'm a reverse elitist, I figure the quick ones will do okay without me.. while if the weak ones drop out they may never come back.

fuck, what am i doing here on a friday night?

regardless (i have the excuse of being alone tonight...) the guy who does the voice for homer simpson was on radio 4 a year back- he used to be a teacher- and he said that it's better to be a teacher who leads students up the hill rather than one who shouts from the hill top, telling them to climb it.

simple but true.

eric- has the concept of differentiation not hit your institution yet? (honest question)

 

[Eric]

saturday morning here ...

differentiation? what's that?

more seriously, the issue is structural: I currently give courses at three levels (intro, advanced, and seminar). none of these courses have prerequisites---this is not an option. so you get students in the courses of three types (at least): those who've had the intro stuff, so have a basis to move on with, students who have background in related areas, and students who have absolutely no idea what is happening (e.g. who have only taken courses on shakespeare, in `preparation' for a relatively advanced course on formal linguistics). so, no, there is nothing resembling differentiation here even in terms of background, much less `native intelligence' or whatever.

I feel genuinely bad for those students who have taken my other courses when I start at the beginning again. that said, I do it: but it is usually relatively quick esp at the seminar level.

I guess when I said `pitch high' I meant more something along the lines of being willing to go deep and do hard things, than not explaining anything. (lead vs shout) I remember so clearly being massively bored at various levels of education when the teacher either a) left things at the obvious level or b) wasn't willing to be rigorous. does this make sense?

 

[matt b]

^i try to have additional resources for students who find the basics less than challenging (which, tbh is an issue of motivation, not ability on the whole)

in other news:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7088383.stm

i'd take his views more seriously if he could make the website of the organsation he represents even remotely navigatable

and also if he used analogies that made even the vaguest sense:

"The head teacher that is good can take the necessary action,
you get the wrong people off the bus and get the right people on the bus in the right seats."

 

[Mr. Tea]

My mother just showed me some dissertation plans. Half of them were written in text speak FFS...!

I've heard of kids doing GCSE exams like this, but I assume you're talking about University students?