Student evals 2: Absurdist Evals!

Some of the best responses to those inane evaluation questions. I wish I'd been able to think of something like this when I was an undergraduate!

"What one aspect of the teacher's teaching is particularly good?"
the teaching part of the teacher's teaching

"Comment on the course itself (e.g., subject matter, organization, text selection)."
It is a course.

"Comment on the readings and assignments."
There were readings and assignments.

"Add additional comments about the course or teacher."
additional Comments. add Comment ("Teacher");

I think I know who this is. . . why didn't I see this sense of humor in his writing in class?

class evals

It's that time of year again. . . I look through the sheaf of student comments to see what I did well, and what I didn't do well.  I actually really hate going through student comments, because I want to be liked, and my trusty "gain self-worth through praise of others" instinct kicks in pretty well.

As I anticipated, my 16th Century lit course was rough in spots.  Some students were really unimpressed; one reminded me several times that this isn't grad school.  the other one thought I was mad at the class all the time and advised me to find a job I actually like.

The best comment however:  "he rambles in connection to comedies [movies] that many of us have never seen."

perhaps I should make the Mel Brooks catalogue a prerequisite??

Strawberries!

It's not Jean's Berry Patch, but they're still pretty good.

Ilium

Meanwhile, I'm reading Dan Simmons' Ilium as a reward for finishing the term. I admire his serious science fiction because, among other things, he is so ambitious with the conceptual backstory. In his Hyperion Cantos, he heavily used Chaucer and Keats, and Shelley, even while telling a story about a far future. In Ilium he uses Homer's Iliad, Shakespeare's The Tempest, and Proust. While weaving a plot including neutrino streams, nanotechnology, quantum singularities, and post-Singularity humanity. It's a fun and challenging read. I've got the sequel, Olympos, but I will have to get to the Iliad and the Aeneid before I start on more SF.

Voice Lessons 4

or, "write to learn."

One of the major focus points in our reading this past week has been on ways to include more "low stakes" writing in our classes. I'm a writer, obviously, and have never been all that intimidated by a graded assignment. My students, however, have often suffered at the hands of their teachers, and come to my class in their first year of college with the idea that "writing" is something one does as a product to be evaluated. The most difficult thing for a writing teacher is to get students to loosen up, to be willing to take risks, to treat writing as a process and an act of discovery. Those of us who write a lot probably find that we do some of our best "thinking" while we are writing, for instance in our Moleskines.

So, how do I get my students to treat writing as a way to think, not just to produce something that will be evaluated? Well, give them lots of writing to do that will not be graded. Sure, except for the fact that they need some motivation to start doing that. Which is why one of the things I'm doing next term is having the students write when they first come in the door (in my Shakespeare class) or right before the end of class (in my survey class). In the first case, I'll give them ten minutes to respond to the reading they've done, and we'll have some folks read their material as we start talking about the day's play. In the second case, I'll use a classroom assessment idea that I've read about this week and that I discovered in a book recommended to me by Blakbuzzrd: have the students summarize the day's lesson, and any questions, in a a five minute slot at the end of the class. They'll hand it in as they walk out the door.

I'm really excited about trying this out. The key will be to stick with it.

Voice Lessons 3

One of our projects this week has been to record observations to relate to social psychology.  I was reminded my taste for the ironic:

1.  When someone is carrying a baby, every adult that comes up will speak directly to the baby.

2.  Folks will sit in "their" seat at church no matter how many people are actually present for the worship service.  Woe betide those who dare to usurp someone's rightful seat!

3.  Sunday School:  everyone has their Bibles open to the passage, but when the teacher asks the question or asks folks to read. . . silence.

4.  A student who walks into a darkened classroom will sit in the dark until a teacher/professor comes and turns the light on.

5.  It's fun to watch students when they come into a classroom before an exam.  

Voice Lessons 2

An exciting moment from yesterday:  in the course of a small group discussion on some reading we are doing, colleagues from nursing, music, and psychology were wondering out loud why there are no formal teacher-development programs here at what professes to be a 'teaching' university.  Well, that got us thinking and talking about the real benefits of a "Center for Teaching and Learning," or a "Center for Teaching Excellence," or something like that.  We should not just assume that professor = "teacher" (all of us have had experience that bears that out), but we should be willing to be intentional about at least discussing the art and practice of pedagogy.  I'm going to make it one of my projects over the next few semesters to do what I can to make that happen.

Perhaps I'll suggest that we hire a certain expert that I know of, whose initials are LRS.

Mommy

She doesn't get enough thanks for it, especially because of the natural narcissism of our Little Boy, but I have to say that I'm always amazed at what she does, the way she relates to him, the way she's always thinking ahead, the way she stays calm even in strange circumstances, the laughter and creativity she brings to every day. She'll say that it has been a hard adjustment, but I'll say that she has taken to motherhood like a fish to water, like a cat to . . . well . . . catnip (?), like a toddler to chicken nuggets, like a politician to Pork.

I'm being silly, but it's because this seems like an overly cliche sentiment. There's no way to say what's in my heart when I look at the two of them.

Voice Lessons

I'm spending the week at Voice Lessons, the UTM Faculty Writing Project. Lots of interesting reading, writing, and conversation going on. One of my goals for the project is to learn to make this blog more productive from a professional standpoint, so I'll be posting reactions and ideas, things I've been learning as we go through the week.

Tomorrow, I do a presentation on visual imagery in film, and will focus on a couple of films I used in my Utopias course this past semester: Blade Runner and Metropolis. I wish we had the Tezuka version of the latter as a third option, but I'll just do with Fritz Lang.

My Brother's Big Move

My brother and his wife visited NW Tennessee this past weekend in preparation for their move up here. Their goal: find a house to live in. I'm proud to report their rousing success . . . they found a beautiful, reasonably priced (and sized) house in a beautiful neighborhood not 10 minutes from Bethel College, where they will be working. And here's the kicker: it's on a golf course.

Oh, and he's got a massive yard . . . I see a lawn tractor in his future. Those of us at Luigi's Mansion are pretty excited about this!

Lawncare lesson

I've been having trouble with the lawn tractor. When I put gas in it on Monday, anxious to get the back yard mowed, I noted that when I turned the key, nothing at all happened. Well, I thought, the battery needs charging. Twenty-four hours later, I reinstall the battery. Nothing. Well, I thought, the battery needs changing. These things happen. I go to Rural King and get a new battery. Yesterday, I install the battery, then as I'm sitting in the seat ready to turn the key, I note a salient fact:

the mower deck is engaged.

the mower is designed so that it will not start while the blades are engaged.

recharging the battery? unnecessary. New battery? unnecessary.

all that mower trouble? it was all in my head, as in, in my inability to remember how to operate a lawn mower. sigh.

Oh, and then: I managed to kill a baby bird while mowing.

Now to the real work

Grades have been turned in, so now what? Well, as it turns out, I have three big projects for the summer:

1. the Herbert article
2. proposals and research on Martin Marprelate
3. a mock-up of a handbook for our department

Not to mention the mowing, gardening, playing with The Boy, and so on. I'm also planning a couple of other things for this blog, to give it some focus. First step: take stock of where I've been this year.

The move to West TN has been pleasant, but I'll also admit that it has been challenging. I'm an urban sort, so these wide open spaces, while pleasant, are a new thing for me. I very much enjoy the quiet, and the family loves the space in the yard . . . but there are things about city life that I miss: bookstores, specialty grocery stores, coffee shops, Target, variety.

The job has been most enjoyable. I've found a lot of fulfillment in working with my students, and I respect my colleagues. The challenges of time-management are considerable, and the work is unstinting. I'm also a little handcuffed by curriculum and faculty limitations here. . . some of the things I'd like to do will be major projects to get off the ground. I am prepared to brand my efforts this year a success, but I guess the student perspective will reveal how close my perceptions match those around me.

The biggest challenge for us right now is learning how far one can go on a meager assistant professor's salary. Answer: not far. There are some house-related projects, both outside and in, that we want to get to, but it's looking like the income is going to make that a trick. Thank goodness we only need one car. Speaking of which, the bike is put on hold, as is travel for the summer. We were hoping to make it to the SVHE conference in Chicago in July, but the money's just not there. In that way, it's good that we live where we do. . . there's nowhere to spend any money!

I'm glad for my friends that got academic jobs this year, and I'm distressed for those who didn't. . . we all love this work, but love and ability aren't always enough.

Portfolios done in 3 . . . 2. . . 1. . .

In the meantime, this clever page.

This is what I do to give my mind a break between pages of 1st year prose.

g-r-a-d-i-n-g

50 papers in about 24 hours.  How is everyone else feeling?  I need to go lay down.  Exams and portfolios still to come.

Book Bleg

Looking for a good translation of Virgil's Aeneid. Anybody know of one I should definitely get--or avoid?