Retrospective on Education and Literature is all very well, and what we need. With this new double-digit year (2010) though, I am using the education aspect of the website to write about a project: moving a course from classroom to online. The process is not interesting to the tekkies, probably – since they have been living and talking computer talk for years, but as more and more of us classroom people are asked (expected, required) to present material not only in the classroom but also online to the classroom students, to the students whose life emergencies have kept them from attending class, and to the world, online has become a significant factor in our lives.
If I could, I would draft Julie, the über-IT, to sit by my side, or at least to be on call. Julie, with good old MN independence, would point out that I learn much more when I do it myself. Maybe I don’t want to learn more, I think rebelliously, and my self responds just as rebelliously, ‘Then whyever did you enter education.’ I am checkmated, to use a mishmash of metaphors.
Each system is different and each class requires different information: we know that already. Now, though, I need to talk with a computer to stash (shovel, throw, catapult) what was in the classroom into its logical-to-the-tekkie format. Classrooms don’t run on logic. Computers do.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
With a Little Help from Our Friends
B-r-r-r-r-r: the sound of the Sawzall cuts through not only concrete block wall, but also our concentration. Ta-ta-tap: someone’s hammer tattoos the wall. This morning, when I left the faculty office, the door banged into lengths of aluminum and caught on a vacuum hose. “Just a minute,” said the friendly worker, as he moved things out of the way so we could go off to our classes. A metal toolchest the size of a pickup truck bed sits next to the door; a stack of fiberglass panels lies at the hallway juncture; a rack of brightly colored insulated wire waits to dispense its wares. The restroom is temporarily closed.
It’s lucky we weren’t barricaded into the offices because this is final exam week: students come to class frowning as they balance notes in their hands and thoughts in their heads. We come into the classrooms with crisp papers clipped into a pack, and leave with sheaves of hand-written answers. Calculators ponder averages and students hope for good results (or in some cases, the miraculous).
In the midst of this end-of-semester, one anatomy lab is being reconfigured to provide not only body part study, but chemistry and physics lab work. What took three months to complete in Room 228, should be happening over winter break in Room 220.
In theory, the liberal arts classrooms escape the technological updating and remodeling. In theory works for three hours. “Do you have a cable junction box here?” the man in the stocking cap and overcoat asks. I look up from grading exams and the students still writing theirs concentrate more fiercely on the thoughts they are putting on paper. “I don’t know,” I answer, hoping he will go away. Is any exam safe from disruption? “I’m a contractor,” he adds, looking around the room. He closes the door, but he’s back five minutes later, looking under machines and desks, moving around the students; he’s back again five minutes after that, with our IT person, discussing the frayed wires under a strip of plastic, studying the system. The students persevere.
When I come back to the offices after the first exam, the fiberglass panels have been set into place as a temporary vestibule; the tool chest and a companion occupy the hallway. I think how lucky we are. When some people can’t afford to have problems fixed, ours are being addressed. We see not only the standard wastebasket emptying and floor cleaning. Upgrades happen. Wires are mended. Labs are renewed.
The physical plant is being cared for, and the learning continues. We’re not only learning that people care about our well-being and classroom standards; we’re practicing our concentration and also learning flexibility.
It’s lucky we weren’t barricaded into the offices because this is final exam week: students come to class frowning as they balance notes in their hands and thoughts in their heads. We come into the classrooms with crisp papers clipped into a pack, and leave with sheaves of hand-written answers. Calculators ponder averages and students hope for good results (or in some cases, the miraculous).
In the midst of this end-of-semester, one anatomy lab is being reconfigured to provide not only body part study, but chemistry and physics lab work. What took three months to complete in Room 228, should be happening over winter break in Room 220.
In theory, the liberal arts classrooms escape the technological updating and remodeling. In theory works for three hours. “Do you have a cable junction box here?” the man in the stocking cap and overcoat asks. I look up from grading exams and the students still writing theirs concentrate more fiercely on the thoughts they are putting on paper. “I don’t know,” I answer, hoping he will go away. Is any exam safe from disruption? “I’m a contractor,” he adds, looking around the room. He closes the door, but he’s back five minutes later, looking under machines and desks, moving around the students; he’s back again five minutes after that, with our IT person, discussing the frayed wires under a strip of plastic, studying the system. The students persevere.
When I come back to the offices after the first exam, the fiberglass panels have been set into place as a temporary vestibule; the tool chest and a companion occupy the hallway. I think how lucky we are. When some people can’t afford to have problems fixed, ours are being addressed. We see not only the standard wastebasket emptying and floor cleaning. Upgrades happen. Wires are mended. Labs are renewed.
The physical plant is being cared for, and the learning continues. We’re not only learning that people care about our well-being and classroom standards; we’re practicing our concentration and also learning flexibility.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Extra Credit
Dear Teacher,
It’s near the end of the semester, and I’m worried about my grade. I missed a few assignments and there were some weeks I couldn’t do my assignments because I had family problems. I need to pass this class. Can you give me some extra credit to bring up my grade?
Dear Student,
You are right: we are nearing the end of the semester. In two weeks we will be writing final exams. I’m glad that you are working on your current assignments and also that you care about your course grade, because one of the best ways to earn a good grade in a course is to care about that grade.
I do not use extra credit in the course, for several reasons.
Extra credit means work beyond the required work in the course. We complete assignments each week, to practice the skills and ideas in the textbook readings and class assignments. Based on this work, a student should have accumulated over 100 individual grades – enough to create an average and result in a course grade.
In the past, some students have believed that they could ignore the required work and find extra credit work that would be fun. There are choices in each assignment; hopefully students will find some fun aspect in each assigned work.
As part of my work as teacher, I write assignments, teach about their ideas, and then grade the assignments students submit. I enjoy teaching; I spent a lot of hours each week on this job. Extra credit would mean even more hours for me: writing up assignments, explaining assignments, and grading additional papers. I would rather spend my preparation time, trying to make assignments for the complete class even better.
Keep doing your best on the assignments we are completing each week. Read the instructions carefully, ask me if you have questions about the work. Submit the work on time. In a few weeks I will begin averaging semester grades; I hope that yours average out to be what you wish.
It’s near the end of the semester, and I’m worried about my grade. I missed a few assignments and there were some weeks I couldn’t do my assignments because I had family problems. I need to pass this class. Can you give me some extra credit to bring up my grade?
Dear Student,
You are right: we are nearing the end of the semester. In two weeks we will be writing final exams. I’m glad that you are working on your current assignments and also that you care about your course grade, because one of the best ways to earn a good grade in a course is to care about that grade.
I do not use extra credit in the course, for several reasons.
Extra credit means work beyond the required work in the course. We complete assignments each week, to practice the skills and ideas in the textbook readings and class assignments. Based on this work, a student should have accumulated over 100 individual grades – enough to create an average and result in a course grade.
In the past, some students have believed that they could ignore the required work and find extra credit work that would be fun. There are choices in each assignment; hopefully students will find some fun aspect in each assigned work.
As part of my work as teacher, I write assignments, teach about their ideas, and then grade the assignments students submit. I enjoy teaching; I spent a lot of hours each week on this job. Extra credit would mean even more hours for me: writing up assignments, explaining assignments, and grading additional papers. I would rather spend my preparation time, trying to make assignments for the complete class even better.
Keep doing your best on the assignments we are completing each week. Read the instructions carefully, ask me if you have questions about the work. Submit the work on time. In a few weeks I will begin averaging semester grades; I hope that yours average out to be what you wish.
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