So today, I withdrew from my classes. As far as my major goes, I don't think English is the right path for me. Sure, I do okay/good in English classes, and I read a lot and deconstruct things and all that jazz, but as time marches on, I don't feel it's something that's it's something I have the desire to finish.
What do I plan on majoring in? I have no idea. I'm off to find that out. To take some time to figure things out. There's got to be something I'm good at, that I enjoy, that I can work with. Several people, and even my father have said that when you find what you wanna do, you'll do insanely well at it and do better than most people. And for the most part, apart from core classes of course, that's about right.
Even though every college has its faults, I did kind of get a little sad going to Seton Hill for the next-to-last time. But then again, I did a lot here than I've done anywhere, so of course it means something. The air was nice, the potholes weren't, and I came across Mike Cooper's adorable doggies. Very, very cute.
Now, before some of you jump on me and say I'm just quitting and I'm a cop-out, this has nothing to do with recent events. This is something I've had a long time to think about, and over break, I came to my decision. This does not affect, nor has anything to do with, how I feel a class should run, so with my previous entries in mind, don't think I'm taking back my words or giving up. I got at least one person to stand beside me, and to me, that's worth it.
Anywho, in the meantime, I'll be at the DDR tournament on Thursday to strut my stuff. Shame after this week I won't be able to participate in them or write for the paper anymore, but thems the breaks. I might be back if what I want is here, but by then I think the only people I'll recognize would be the teachers.
I'll also have a bit of extra time to finally work on my website, so that's a plus. I can still of course work on mywritings and my little artsy projects, as I don't need a degree to submit such things for publication. It helps, but I'm also kind of starting out in that respect.
I'll leave you to google who sings that song. I haven't made an update until now, because with renovating my room, work, Warcraft, and setting up a wireless internet network, I've been busy and have been taking full advantage of the word, "break."
First off, I want to apologize, some comments, including some of my own, got eaten up or disappeared thanks to the wonderfulness that is Moveable Type. I tried posting that a few times, but it apparently some of it didn't work.
Anywho, I'm sure that some people have wanted a proper, calm-looking update on the status of things. I'll admit that I do appear a lot angrier online, it's easier to type up a short bit of text that can blow things out of proportion. I've been known to come off like that.
I will admit that the last update was written with a little hasty frustrations in mind, due to the aforementioned distraction of Jerz's PDA and my ass going numb, and something which I'll mention later in this post which offends me (properly this time) a good bit.
Bottom line, I am a strong advocate in the belief that using the internet to teach, or as a major function of the class, is a bad method of doing things. E-reserve, or usage of Jweb's facilities are fine, they're there for a reason. It's one place where students can convene or get a certain text. The blog system is separated, and with only anonymous comments on, discussions are hard to come by. As far as class goes:
"And how is students expressing their opinions about the texts not learning? It brings up discussion about the text, which, i thought was the whole point? We learn things about the texts such as themes, and symbols, for example, i mean really, how else do you learn about lit?"
A greater discussion can be developed if a teacher suggest a few themes. If you ask anyone, "What did you think about this?" You get, 99% of the time, the same response. Either, "I liked it," "I didn't like it," or, "It was okay." If you ask further, they'll either say, "I don't know," or give a half-assed answer. I do it. You do it. We do it until the day we die. But if you have someone who has experience with the text, and asks more involved questions, then students pick up on other themes they didn't notice or were unaware of, possibly changing the relevance and meaning to a story. If the whole class is just the students talking about what they liked, why do we have a teacher? Let's just get a referee to take attendance and make sure we don't get off-topic, because we don't go to class to listen to other students all day. We go to class to be taught; if you want to sit in a circle and hear what everyone thinks about a text, join a book club.
As stated, using texts which are googled and have typos looks very bad and unprepared. Using texts that they teach in Intro to Lit course also leaves this impression. Class should function without the use of a glowing box. While not every class should be a lecture, a portion of the class should be information and themes given to the students. Discussion is vital in a good class, but it shouldn't be the driving factor, which is something I think the class is focused on. Posting, "Hey, I wanna know what you think," in someone's blog isn't very good motivation. What does it achieve? It's no different than the silence that follows in class. Honestly, if the internet MUST be used, a place where we can all get together is best, and not 20 different URLs, and only being able to comment to a short few. Hell, You can see how little comments I got over my last two entries. Moveable Type and motivation don't go hand in hand.
And as a side note, I find it odd that we're at the midterm, yet we're still stuck in the Great Depression. Go fig. There's a joke in there somewhere, I know it.
But my last gripe, which you can stop reading at this point if you like, is about referencing 9/11 in class. Anyone, and I mean ANYONE, can get in front of a group of people, mention 9/11, and spark a discussion. It's a cheap, low, dirty, and terrible tactic to pull in class, and it's one of the few things that will actually get me truly pissed off. It's something that's so recent that any yokel can get people involved into talking about it just by mentioning it's name. If any of you have listened/watched to Dane Cook's standup... "Yeah, I was in my pueblo, and i heard the noise..."
Now, I'm sure my ten or so readers are wondering what my plan of action is. Something as far as complaining to a higher board is unecessary; I'm not trying to get Jerz fired or anything silly, he's a cool guy. But yes, he is wrapped up in technology to the point that it dampens the class. There is a flare to a book, to a printed, hard bound, flippable copy of something we can hold in our hands, and to a class that doesn't need a projector to function. While the facilities are there, and I'm sure they cost a lot and are well used in classes that need them, but anything apart from the text and the ELMO (why it's called that I do not know) is not needed. Lastly, when students don't get something or are confused, you can't expect someone to chime in with what you're hoping, a stronger gameplan or idea must be established.
And since I don't have any way to end this....
http://www.shadowtherat.com/temp/danceflash.html
Here's a video of me badly dancing to Dragonstea Din Tei from Haducii, a Romanian pop band. I'm sure you've heard it before, if you haven't, google Numa Numa and watch that fat guy dance in his chair much better than I.
From what I heard Jerz did this last week too. Right at 7:30, everyone looked at the clock, a few people said "break" in an audible voice since it's always so quiet, and Jerz continued the class. Thanks, it's gonna take a day for my rear-end to recover.
I made a few footnotes and addendums in my portfolio to my previous blog entry, for the matter of interest, here's what I put:
-Added a footnot after the word "disorganized" that read: "constant pauses finding what you want to talk about tonight, you should know what you're doing beforehand"
Added a proper addendum at the end of the blog entry:
"It reflects bad on you when:
-The students use a lo less "Ums" and pauses when talking/presenting
-one of your internet sources has a typo
Call me a jerk for criticizing, but how do you expect a student to discuss when you expect them to carry the whole class for you? Your motivation is just asking, 'Well what do you think?' which does nothing but break a silence that comes back immediately afterwards. You offer little to no help to your students and leave them high and dry. When someone is not on the same page, you expect them to just be on the right track. And there were certainly most, as in one or two or three excluded I'm assuming, that either talked about what I said [regarding my previous entry] or told me personally they agreed. Students have even dropped out of your class over your methods of teaching."
And these are some things I noticed that I didn't have the room nor desire to write:
-When the first presentation was going on, Jerz was playing with his PDA, and made himself look like a bigger jerk than I when he was finished and we had to wait for him to be done toying with things, or maybe the silence tipped him off. That's VERY rude. That's just as bad as Dr. Alexander sleeping with a constipated face when we did presentations for him. How is a student going to get motivated when the teacher can't even look at his students?
And the comment about how the blogs helps the students with thier papers I found humorous at best. The only thing the students can do is help themselves, because Jerz wants the students to motivate each other. How can we motivate each other when you have a teacher that isn't motivated enough to remember what hes talking about and spends more time asking the students to teach themselves?
I'm sorry if I'm in a very ranty mood. I'm sorry if I am lax and unmotivated to do the work, but I don't have faith in someone who is going to run a Deism-style class, i.e. make the syllabus and expect everything to fit together the way you want.
I'm sure the few, few critics of my harsh evaluation of class will say that the students need to band together. Well as Stormy said in the last entry, we have lives. We have things to do. People like me who commute don't have the time to lounge around and hunt down various students.
Take a look at how many little comments everyone has in thier blogs. Take a look at how many people don't update or do half-hearted updates.
I said it before, I'll say it again: For a literature class, we've done more about the internet and new media. And if I may rant about the typo in the Pound poem tonight... A TYPO. A FLIGGING TYPO. Doesn't sound like a big deal, right? Especially after the class finds out it's a typo during the middle of class. Something like that... the laziness of using common poetry they teach in Intro to Lit just because you can find it on Google really makes me angry and not wanting to do the work out of spite. Why should I try when the teacher doesn't?
Jerz, you are a fine person, and a fellow comrade nerd-at-arms. Just have subjects to talk about, don't sit there like a bump on a log and give your job to the class.
So this is the cover entry of the measly things I've done. Not much, but hey, better than nothing I guess.
I'm sure you have better things to do than to see this blog entry, so let's get to the meat the nitty gritty.
The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock
And looking through my comments, this is going to be a pretty weak portfolio, moreso than my Writing For The Internet ones.
And the following can be ignored since I know I've missed two classes, almost 1/6th of the whole semester, but there's something which I know others have mentioned (names excluded) that bother me.
Although with no offense to you, Good Sir Jerz, this class feels a lot more like a New Media Journalism class, and not at all like a Lit class. I feel like I'm in WFTI all over again, and the fact that class was hindered when the internet was down reflects that. Sure you continued moving along, but not as well as you normally could. But there's another thing that I think reflects poorly on the class: When the reading material consists of things most people read in high school or in basic, Intro-to-Lit classes, easily googled poems/stories, and the professor's own book, that definitely puts a damper on student motivation.
There was a lot of time spent on setting up the blogs and this whole silly trackback thing... sure, it makes it easier for you, but not for the students if every time they update they have to go through the horrendous process in the NMJ tutorial (since some of us update from random school computers which means you have to do it every time you log in practically), when all they need to do is copy and paste the trackback link in the bottom of a new entry.
I understand that you are the head honcho of New Media Journalism, but that shouldn't mean you should force that on other classes. Many people still don't know what the hell to do with these blogs, or they (well at least one other person) consider it pointless as more work is done outside of class than inside. It comes off as convenience for the professor, but not the students. Come on, anonymous comments are always on, so there's no way to track where you've posted, you just have to hope and remember.
Bottom line: The internet is seriously slowing this class down. Everything looks like you are very disorganized, and that also causes confusion in the ranks and a lack of motivation to do the coursework. A teacher that gets students doing the work is one who at least acts like they have things under control. Like when the blogs got hacked. No one knew what the hell to do because we were so dependant on blogs.
And I quote this from Rate My Professor.com
"Energetic and demanding. Very caught up in new technology. Prefers students who think the way he does. Tries hard to do a good job, sometimes too hard."
That sounds about right. Your heart's in the right place, and I understand that New Media is your bag, but you need to step out of the Internet zone and into the Classroom zone, if you know what I mean. I spend most of my days playing World of Warcraft nonstop, but when I need to do serious work, I walk away from the computer or go to the Maura lounge to get focused. The internet distracts a lot of students, or since it's online they don't view it as anything more than busywork, and in a way it is. You try so hard to get people to comment and discuss things via the blogs, but that's something that should be done in class.
That's why we go to class. If all our discussions are online, why waste the Thursday night to sit around and hear what we can read online? A lit class is supposed to be energetic, and to spark discussion, not make a two sentence entry on what you read and expect it to blossom into something big. Once again, students prepare for class and not for the internet.
I know lots of students feel this way too, and I don't expect them to have the cahones to publically admit it like me. All I'm saying is this: I'm paying ten grand a semester for this, so I'm going to make DAMN sure my money is well spent. Students can either stand up and criticize and decide for themselves how their education goes, or you can sit around all day outside of class and we can complain about it for the rest of your years at Seton Hill. And if you're just going to complain, and not do anything, then shut up. I know I don't swear in this because it's the shcool blog, but Shit Or Get Off The Pot. even if you're here on scholarship, someone's paying good money for you to be here, don't muck it up.
Read this a billion times in high school/community colege lit classes too, so there's not much more I can say on it besides the obvious. Funny last name, undesirable guy, so on and so forth to emphasize the fact that he's not a casanova or anything. An okay poem.
But here's the real scoop: T.S Eliot is amost Toilets spelled backwards.
Initially I assumed that given the title and the events that were unfolding, Machinal was just your standard, done to death (well, maybe not in 1928) story of life falling into place and doing things because you have to, and not because you want to, much like a machine. But Helen killing her husband really came off as cliche. All she wanted to do was escape from life, but kept trudging on with it.
Granted, this could all be foreshadowed by her mother, and the monotonous office scene in the beginning, but after that I felt like I was just skimming the pages until the final realization, to which for Helen there was none. Her name would be read in the paper by another couple or other people, and get passed up like everything else. The wheels of the cog move on, so to speak.
Yes, I am a bit biased since I've seen this theme played out a good bit, but like I said, the play was dragging. The dialogue just felt forced and filled in places. I know not every single word has to be important, but the pacing was just very slow. This could be a reflection of Helen, however, since it took her so long before she snapped, and it's kind of ironic how on page 58, after talking about drowning and prisoners and dead husbands:
Helen: Any Prisoners?
Husband: No.
Helen: All free?
Husband: All Free.
But the irony is that it didn't help, she still felt trapped up until death, not knowing if that was the final solution for her.
eh, it was okay I guess, but as stated, maybe it's just modern convention affecting my opinion. Given the original context arounf the Great Depression, I'm sure many people felt like this, just a part of somethign that is a never-ending cycle of loathing and unwanting.