I know the reasons why there should be breadth requirements, but when I was in college there were not nearly so many as now, and there were many more courses allowed to fulfill them. And in the end, I do not like required courses beyond prerequisites and corequisites for the major. Am I terribly left … More On Required Courses
The students are desperate to know if they can pass the course and how much work it will or will not take. What easier work can they substitute for the required work, they ask. The instructors are desperate to teach in as expedient a way as they can. This is so they can avoid considering … More High Stakes
It was for a while the case that rest did not rest me but now it does because I am in serious resistance against Dat Whiteman, the result of which is that rest really is rest. Ergo: resistance enables rest and does not disturb it. Axé.
Remember as you read this: all of my stories are mixed in terms of place and time, and my characters are distorted composites created as types; you do not know for sure how many universities I work for or have worked for, or from whose traits my composite characters have been built; I am a … More Still More on Why I So Dislike Teaching Foreign Languages
Too tired to sleep, I am musing on the blog but what the random kids at the corner store said was: “Wow! You have cool shoes. Your whole atmosphere — you don’t seem like someone from here!” Why not I asked, and they said, “Because you have so much energy, and such a calm energy!” … More Down on the Corner
Question: There are all these blogs about writing, and how hard it is, and how to get it done anyway, and all these blogs about teaching techniques and enthusiasms. Am I the only one who talks about how just plain hard teaching is? It seems that the level of difficulty I have with it – … More Another Question and Comment
…that, incidentally, almost never appeared when I was a TA: 1- Papers with unexpected problems, having to do with lacking K-12 skills that I hadn’t planned on confronting and also don’t know how to teach. Trying to figure out how to address these papers is much harder than grading papers written, well or poorly, but … More The Two Hardest Things About Grading
Well, second language acquisition isn’t my field, so doing it means preparing something out of field. Any time management expert can tell you that that is a huge distraction from the real work. Then there are the politics around it; the personalities one has to deal with are often very unpleasant. Next, I’m not the … More More on Why I So Dislike Teaching Foreign Languages
I am overworked and I know it is a crime, but that has not been the point of the last two months of posts. My small point is, do not overdramatize because I can show you overwork and this person can show you still more. My larger and real point, and this is an individual’s … More Rainbow Sign
Remember, you may find a cathartic post here at any time. I realize how Gothic these sound but I have absorbed many decades of dire warnings and discouraging words. Every post in which I repel those who say you cannot do it makes me stronger and I am going for that, full on. Y’all don’t … More Advertencia al lector
