First Day of School!

[elpollodiablo]

phone everything else in and focus on getting published.

This sounds like sage advice.

Does anyone have any tips for fostering discussion? My kids were totally silent last term, and I couldn't stand it, so I ended up spending a shitload of time writing lectures to fill time*. Now that we've got some material to discuss that isn't wholly based on *shudder* rhetoric, I'm hoping I can engage them a little more and take some of the pressure off.

*I made the mistake of mentioning in a required essay for the teaching practicum that I had a lot of trouble filling time, and the comp director had something of a fit. Which was utterly bizzarre to me, because about 90% of the discussions I had about teaching with people in my cohort revolved around the best ways to fill time, kill time, run out the clock, etc. I thought that was just kind of par for the motherfucker.

[hannah]

I'm sort of kidding, except that this really did work for me: show them Blood of the Beasts. It's twenty minutes. It's from 1949 and i's black & white and in French—three things that normally would've caused my students to snooze, but they really responded to it—we were able to talk about representations of the Holocaust, and from there moved onto a discussion of torture and the Iraq War, with some detours into the rhetorical effectiveness (ohhh, rhetoric) of documentary filmmaking, why some students were vegetarians, why some students didn't believe what they were seeing or were moved to cover their eyes, etc. I know you're not necessarily keen on relying on YouTube, but I kept at the ready a list of provocative short films along the same lines that both connected to the broader themes of the course I was teaching and almost always generated (often heated) discussion.

[davy]

A grad student who taught one of my English courses during my sophomore year brought in an unstrung 6-foot tall great bow when we were reading The Odyssey. When we got to the part where Odysseus proves his identity by stringing the bow, we all got to attempt the stringing of a bow ourselves. That was awesome.

This guy had been pretty unassuming up to that point and the class had been a bit of a drag, but after that day, it seemed like a different class. He'd done something unpredictable and exciting and fun...and relevant. And he didn't have to do something like that everyday--he'd already achieved something. He was more relaxed, we were more attentive. It broke the ice and woke us up, I guess?

[davy]

Then there was another grad student who gave us Milan Kundera's "The Hitchhiker" to read one week. The discussion/battle of the sexes that ensued at the next meeting completely changed the dynamic of the group. Several people dropped the class (it was seriously heated/desks were pounded on/a book was thrown) but the ones who stayed had a sort of relationship-forged-by-fire thing going on.

[auto-da-fey]

assigning anything by andrea dworkin will also achieve that end, I think.

[jess]

Sometimes there's something to be said for just waiting for them to talk and proving you are really not going to fill the silence if they don't. Just sit there and WAIT. If whenever they are quiet, you jump to try to prompt them, they learn they don't have to do shit, whereas if you prove that you are totally fine with uncomfortable silence, they will likely break first. Sometimes that can be good for getting the quiet kids to talk too, vs the controversial discussion starters, which in my experience leads to loud discussion dominated by the usual several students.

[dumbfish]

That approach can yield some comedy gold. My buddy was leading a discussion, and the silence apparently got so bad a student piped up with,""I didn't do the reading, but based on the cover, it looks like this character has real problems."

[Little Sixes Little Nines]

...working on short stories to apply for creative writing next year

...Which of the writing courses are you applying for?

oh hey remember this?

i got in! it's the short fiction workshop, CREW254. so excited however it means i either have to drop spanish or take 5 courses next semester (standard is 3 or 4). CHOOSE FOR ME, LPTJ

[jm]

Congrats!  and also yeah drop spanish

[Bernard]

drop spanish, gratz

[Good Intentions]

Does anyone have any tips for fostering discussion?

When nobody answers a question you've asked, light some matches and throw it at them.

[jm]

now I want an animated GIF of that scene from Charade.

[Bernard]

This is a terrifying look at what happens on the other side of the classroom.

[elpollodiablo]

We masturbate everywhere after you leave, count on it

[Bernard]

I KNEW IT!

[auto-da-fey]

after they leave? stand behind a podium and join the pros, son.

[auto-da-fey]

there were extenuating circumstances beyond the ever-present procrastination that made handing out a syllabus that ends with the midterm and just says "rest of readings TBA" arguably not the lamest pedagogical moment I've ever had . . . and then I decided I really like the idea and did the same for a second class, so hooray for experimentation.

six weeks from now, I may rue this day, but I'm thinking it should work alright.

[hannah]

Someone, please kick me in the rear.

[ellaguru]

This one course that I'm taking is a non-graded, Pass/Fail course. Now, one of the university regulations is that there is at least one piece of work graded before the drop date, so students have some sort of idea of where they stand before it's too late to quit or whatever. But we aren't getting a grade, just a credit. So, I just got a feedback email from the professor of this course, confirming, basically, that I have been successfully turning up for class.

I was hoping that I'd at least get a

[hannah]

Here, Arlo:



In other news, I finally finished a paper that was due in December. It was supposed to be fifteen pages, it ended up as twenty-eight. Oh, well. Just glad it's done.

[ellaguru]

Yeah, that's what I wanted. Thanks, hannah!

[kyle]

A Spanish test and a History test in one week, no biggie. But then I got food poisoning.

I hate playing catch up.

I also hate all discussions that have arisen in my eng 111 class. There's a dude in there that smokes too much weed and gets really amped on his theories about racism in marketing and so on. The worst is that I agree with most of his views but he makes such a defined line in the stand while at the same time not actually fully defining his points.

Also it's annoying because the professor panders to him and won't let anyone interrupt him, but then allows him to interrupt other students.

Luckily he hardly shows up.

[G.C.R]

My friend kept telling me last year that my Honours year would be super hard all the time and that I'd cry lots (though this is from a smart, smart lady who worked hard enough that her department offered, on the basis of her Honours marks, for her to skip her masters and go stright on with her Phd: no wonder she found it strenuous). Man, don't even start until next week and I'm already a fucking wreck, nervous and weepy and just terrified of meeting my supervisor and scared I'll be frightened of everyone in my classes and that they'll all say words I don't understand. It's fucking ridiculous.

[elpollodiablo]

What's an honours year?

[Good Intentions]

Around here undergraduate degrees are three years. You can go on and do a fourth year, a lot like an American senior year (it includes a sizable dissertation), though you count as a postgraduate student while you're doing it and you are awarded a separate degree afterwards. It's called an honours year because you don't receive any academic honours like cum laude and the like (we use the British system: first class, upper second class, etc.) for just a 3 year Bachelors. Many professional degrees are 4 year degrees and are equivalent to a 3-year degree + honours.