Last night was my college's faculty in-service. Since my college small and has many evening instructors who have day jobs, we have our beginning of the semester meeting at night. This was the five longest hours of my life. At one point, I was playing Tetras on my cell phone. I did not get home until 10:30 PM! At least Husband was waiting for me with the lights dimmed and a glass of whiskey, ice and water.
We spend most of the evening doing stupid activities involving Writing Across the Curriculum. Things really came to a head when one English instructor stated that most of the faculty probably does not use proper English in the classroom, so we are inadvertently teaching our students improper English. Another stated that since she teaches courses included writing and 20th century literature, she is more of an expert than the rest of us. I wonder if anyone followed them into the parking lot after the meeting.
My two cents is it all depends on how one defines teaching writing. I am not an English instructor. And I am not a writing instructor. But I think I can look at a student's work and correct it for grammar, mechanics and overall structure. If I could not do that, I would not be teaching.
I am pissed at GE Dude. GE Dude is the director of the general education program at my college. He axed a project for the Critical Thinking program that I, along with two other colleagues, worked to develop over a year ago. When I asked why, he just gave some song and dance about not wanting to overload the program with required elements. Yeah right. But you added two new assessments in place of the one you nixed! Asshole!
Tomorrow is the first day of class. I have to implement the changes in Critical Thinking into my syllabus. My classes are small. Survey of Law has six students. Employment Law and Criminal Law have four. Critical Thinking is the winner with 11. But, drop/add begins tomorrow and the college is still registering students, so my numbers may change.
OK, off I go. Can someone write a note excusing me from class tomorrow?
About Me
- Seeking Solace
- I am a college professor who is fumbling through the chaos of academia, rheumatoid arthritis, working on my PhD and just being a 40 something woman. I used to be a lawyer, which made me a snarky little person. I have a wonderful Husband and a German Shepherd named Junior. They help keep me sane.
Paws to Consider
My Sister's Keeper
3 comments:
Please excuse Seeking Solace from teaching duties due to useless information overload. Done! :)
Alice: I love it!! Thanks!!!!
GE dude is just plain wrong... the students we get aren't good critical thinkers -- even my honors students are only fair at it.
At my CC they say that the Critical Thinking goal is "infused" i.e. it is presumed that if students get all the other requirements completed, that they'll also get Critical Thinking skills. I can tell you that isn't happening around here.
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