1/2 of life is showing up: 50%= F, pt. 1
Teachers attend meetings. It's part of what we do. I don't know why exaclty; meetings are rarely more than a public forum for complaining about students. God help us all when the meetings are about more--a sure sign that the program director has read a new book and that you now have to teach "scaffolding" or teach using "scaffolding" or paint...I'm never quite sure.
Anyways, at yesterday's meeting, a sizable group of T.O.'s (Graduate Teachers) got together with our amazingly kind faculty supporter to discuss our syllabi. Ahem... You have to understand that I don't even discuss my syllabus in class; I consider it to be a gigantic waste of time, and yet I was handed (ahead of time, mind you) five syllabi for my perusal. Here's what I noticed:
Two teachers were teaching Midnight's Children (552 pages of Magical Realism) and they were teaching it on top of no less than 4 other novels. My God! At our meeting, however, we did not discuss the reading lists. Mine has lost a play since last semester, plus I've changed all but one of the novels. I don't like to teach the same thing semester after semester (I kept Dalloway). In any case, it's probably 700 pages total,
Instead, we met to discuss policies concerning late papers, absenses, late students, etc.. Really nuts and bolts kinds of stuff. Our faculty advisor was concerned that the syllabi suggested a level of book keeping that was utterly ridiculous. I went last to present my own syllabus and it was at that point that everyone noticed that I do not, in fact, have an attendance policy. I have something that says I don't like people who show up late or leave early and have mentioned that I grade late papers down, but I do not take attendance. The entire room looked at me...confused, honestly.
My schoool, last semester, sent out a memo concerning attendance policies. I will not repeat it here except to say that ANY medical or personal excuse was to be accepted without exception and without documentation. Why? Student rights, doctor-patient confidentiality, varying levels of socio-economic blah blah blah. Well, I explaind, if I can't do anything about their absenses, I sure as hell am not wasting even a minute of my 50 minute time slot in taking roll.
Anyways, at yesterday's meeting, a sizable group of T.O.'s (Graduate Teachers) got together with our amazingly kind faculty supporter to discuss our syllabi. Ahem... You have to understand that I don't even discuss my syllabus in class; I consider it to be a gigantic waste of time, and yet I was handed (ahead of time, mind you) five syllabi for my perusal. Here's what I noticed:
Two teachers were teaching Midnight's Children (552 pages of Magical Realism) and they were teaching it on top of no less than 4 other novels. My God! At our meeting, however, we did not discuss the reading lists. Mine has lost a play since last semester, plus I've changed all but one of the novels. I don't like to teach the same thing semester after semester (I kept Dalloway). In any case, it's probably 700 pages total,
Instead, we met to discuss policies concerning late papers, absenses, late students, etc.. Really nuts and bolts kinds of stuff. Our faculty advisor was concerned that the syllabi suggested a level of book keeping that was utterly ridiculous. I went last to present my own syllabus and it was at that point that everyone noticed that I do not, in fact, have an attendance policy. I have something that says I don't like people who show up late or leave early and have mentioned that I grade late papers down, but I do not take attendance. The entire room looked at me...confused, honestly.
My schoool, last semester, sent out a memo concerning attendance policies. I will not repeat it here except to say that ANY medical or personal excuse was to be accepted without exception and without documentation. Why? Student rights, doctor-patient confidentiality, varying levels of socio-economic blah blah blah. Well, I explaind, if I can't do anything about their absenses, I sure as hell am not wasting even a minute of my 50 minute time slot in taking roll.
posted by Monstro D. Whale at
3:37 PM
1 Comments:
Never got around to Midnight's Children, though I've always meant to. Maybe when I retire someday...
I did read about half of The Moor's Last Sigh, the hardback of which I found for a buck at a sale. I kept getting distracted, though (not by the text, but by outside stuff), and finally put it on the shelf. I'll get back to it.
Satanic Verses was profoundly influential on me, though, which is why I'll probably enjoy Midnight's Children.
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