The "Education" Thread

[Einherjar86]

General Business degrees are typically considered to be pretty pointless among other forms of business majors.

A doctorate in economics is actually one of the most practical and lucrative degrees you can get. Economics PhDs are almost guaranteed a job.

EDIT: in the meantime, I'm teaching The Turn of the Screw to my kids. They're loving it. This is a great example of "high" literature that students actually really enjoy.

 

[unknown]

I'm always blown away by students. Last semester when I taught Foucault's "On Panopticism" they absolutely loved it. You never know what's going to work, and it changes every damn time

 

[Einherjar86]

Oh man, I hope I can teach Foucault to my kids next year. It isn't really part of the curriculum this semester.

 

[Zephyrus]

My students are taking well to Nicholas Carr's The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains. Well, they at least like the parts that seem most relevant to them, and not the parts that I like the most when he draws from historical material to build his argument.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

I'm always blown away by students. Last semester when I taught Foucault's "On Panopticism" they absolutely loved it. You never know what's going to work, and it changes every damn time

Makes sense. It's super relevant and applicable to contemporary issues (i.e. NSA). And Foucault's just has a compelling writing style (or at least I think so, don't know if that's a generally held opinion).

 

[unknown]

yeah. Once they dig into it, they start seeing it everywhere. Last semester I paired it with "The Lives of Others", a German film about the Stasi, and they loved it.

 

[Einherjar86]

I have to teach writing next semester, so I'm thinking of assigning Foucault's "What is an Author?" in order to get them to think about the nature of assuming a discursive position in an argument.

 

[Der Morgenstern]

So is anyone on this forum not a teacher?

Me.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

Did a really fun assignment with my 8th graders today. We're studying "seperate but equal" in preparation to read I Have a Dream. So I broke them into groups of 3 and gave them newspaper and tape. The catch was the ammounts of supplies were ridiculously unequal. Some groups got stacks and others got like three sheets. The goal was to create the largest "tower" using the supplies. The only rule was that they couldn't use any other supplies. Whoever built the largest tower won extra bathroom passes (gold to 8th graders).

The students in the group with few supplies are begging myself and the other groups for paper and tape but get rejected, while the group with the most resoruces built a tower that hit the ceiling. However, their giant tower was too tall and couldn't stand. Actually, the group with the least supplies built the biggest standing tower (which was awesome but I totally didn't expect.) Afterwards, I asked them why they didn't all work together to create a tower and they said "because you didn't say we could." I reiterated that the only rule was that they could only use tape and paper.

Afterwords we read the Power of Nonviolence by John Lewis and analyzed the lyrics to The Times they are a Changin by Bob Dylan. Most of the students are really getting into this unit. Also, my advisor was actually part of the sit-ins so she's gonna come in for a Q & A with the students later in the unit.

 

[Carpe Mortem]

^Really cool idea, I remember something kinda similar when I was that age. I believe we just got different kinds of materials though and the point of the lesson was probably... most assuredly... something less memorable haha. There was no catch about the possibility of working together with other groups either, very nice.

 

[Dak]

The study I am assisting with has passed the IRB stage. Just waiting on data collection dates.

 

[unknown]

very cool

 

[Einherjar86]

This is a random contribution to this thread, but I just have to say it:

Ultimate Apathy, based on your responses in the Guns thread, and elsewhere, I would have never guessed you were a teacher. I actually assumed you were an angry teenager. Are you as abrasive toward your students as you are toward others on this board?

 

[crimsonfloyd]

Almost to the end of the brutal 60 page standardized assessment I have to finish to get my credential. Basically it involves explaining all your reasons behind your lesson plans, then recording yourself teaching, explaining the reasoning behind your teaching, and then evaluating student work and explaining the reasoning behind your grading and feedback. Then you state everything you would change and why and connect it all to theory. It is the most boring, time consuming and tedious thing I've ever written. Most of the writing is done, but I still have to compile all the data for the student papers and write a transcript of the lesson because some of the students are too quiet. Ugh. I cannot wait to turn this thing in and never have to think about it again....

 

[Funerary_Doom]

Man I want to sit in on one of crimsonfloyd's classes. They sound fun and productive!

Apparently I'm going to be the only one doing this new program called "discovery". And basically what it is is that our new guys who are coming into the program (either from school or other places) have to go through a 3-6 month "training" where we discovery their likes, dislikes, talents and things they need to work on. Also if our guy needs a lot of support (maybe they are in a wheelchair or something) we can help to make an individualized employment plan for them. The hours seem less chaotic than what I'm working now, but I'm still nervous about new things but we'll see.

 

[unknown]

crimson: I remember when all of my friends were doing their credential program were doing their final report. I laughed and then typed my 90 page thesis

 

[UltimateApathy]

Are you as abrasive toward your students as you are toward others on this board?

Even more so - after all, there's no way I can bitchslap people on this forum without magically reaching through the screen. In fact, I'm so utterly atrocious to my students that they leave me messages like this on Facebook: "Thanks for being my friend and for always checking on me. Thanks for helping me out. You saved my life, you have no idea. I am very grateful. I hope you have a great life ahead too."
Wow, I really fucking suck...

 

[crimsonfloyd]

crimson: I remember when all of my friends were doing their credential program were doing their final report. I laughed and then typed my 90 page thesis

The difference between the EdTPA and a thesis is that at least a thesis is on a topic you actually give a shit about. While I love teaching, writing 60 pages describing every fucking thing that I'm doing and the reasoning behind those actions is absolute torture. Anyway, it's over! Submitted! I never have to think about it again! Unless I fail...

Anyway, now I have less than 24 hours to get lesson plans ready for two classes! Awesome!

On the positive side, now that this beast is out of the way I can start to focus on really searching for a job for 2014/15, which I've totally neglected because I simply haven't time.

 

[Nephilim96]

Even more so - after all, there's no way I can bitchslap people on this forum without magically reaching through the screen. In fact, I'm so utterly atrocious to my students that they leave me messages like this on Facebook: "Thanks for being my friend and for always checking on me. Thanks for helping me out. You saved my life, you have no idea. I am very grateful. I hope you have a great life ahead too."
Wow, I really fucking suck...

Even though you're total piece of shit on this forum, props to you for teaching and helping kids overseas.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

Today I asked my 8th graders to write about whether or not men and women are treated equally in today's society and more specifically at school. One of my students, who I'm pretty sure was stoned, decided to write about race instead and included this golden line: "Everytime a black man or woman goes in (a store) the owners or employees think they're going to steal and honestly 70% don't."