The "Education" Thread

[Einherjar86]

First day of classes went well. My students actually laughed a few times. Today we dig into the nitty-gritty, so here's hoping they have something to say.

I'm going to do a mini-lecture on where we stand in the course of literary history (I really only teach nineteenth-twentieth century prose fiction, with some twenty-first on occasion) and try to provide some foundational methodological information for studying literature. They also read Ambrose Bierce's short piece "The Damned Thing" for today, so hopefully we'll have some fun things to say about that story.

 

[dwellerINTHEdark]

Got my BA in medical laboratory science in 2006. I then got my medical doctorate in 2011. I'm currently in my third and final year of internal medicine residency. I'm currently applying for a hospitalist position near the coast somewhere; Ideally New England, the pacific northwest, or the southeast.

 

[Nephilim96]

^Wow, awesome! If you get mulitple offers or whatever, try to pick the best location, even if it's slightly less pay.

 

[dwellerINTHEdark]

^Wow, awesome! If you get mulitple offers or whatever, try to pick the best location, even if it's slightly less pay.

Thanks man. Yeah, my priorities are location, time-off, and not too high of a patient load. I'll take less money for improved quality of life any day.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

Had a great class with my 8th graders yesterday. I'm getting better at keeping them engaged and when they're engaged it's a really lively group of kids. But man, when you lose them it's pretty much chaos. But we're doing the play adaptation of Anne Frank's diary and they really love it. I'm gonna have them do a historical narrative from WWII for their final assignment for the unit, so starting next week we're gonna start a lot of creative writing, which I think they'll really like.

As for my own classes, I'm taking a class on language acquisition and one on positionality. The positionality one is gonna be intense because we really have to open up about topics that aren't comfortable, but I do think it's important for teachers to understand their own positions of privilege and disadvantage if they expect to connect with a diverse student body.

 

[The Ozzman]

It seems like many grade school teachers make you do things to "prepare" you for the future, when you never actually have to do such in the future. Like I remember my 4th and 5th grade teachers making us practice cursive, as we were supposed to use it in middle school and beyond, which was a complete lie.

Haha, the only thing I do in cursive is my signature. I forgot how to write it otherwise.

 

[Dak]

Have my own side project as a part of my research assistantship. Pretty stoked. Studying stress and related information in medical students.

 

[Eligos]

My tuition refund check for the semester was twice as big as it normally is, which is good, because a couple of my textbooks are customized and can't be purchased secondhand, cornering me into a deal with the bookstore

 

[Einherjar86]

Have my own side project as a part of my research assistantship. Pretty stoked. Studying stress and related information in medical students.

That's going to be awesome. I know I already said it, but congrats!

 

[SentinelSlain]

The mature students on my course didn't tend to fit in very well. Some of them were really working class and felt they had some kind of enormous elevation in social status due to being a student, which entitled them to being treated a certain way by staff. They also always seemed to think that knowing, or at least regurgitating muddled ideas about economics in other random classes somehow proved this elevated importance, that reached, apparently, far higher than that of the lecturer or anyone else.

 

[Carpe Mortem]

Started my business law class, good stuff so far. Definitely helps that my teacher is basically a skinnier George Carlin.

 

[unknown]

back in the classroom today at one of the colleges. syllabi and rosters are printed. go time

 

[Dak]

Is anyone here a member of Phi Kappa Phi, or considered joining but didn't? I'm not sure of the benefit for grad school, particularly considering that I don't really have time to be an active member.....

 

[Zephyrus]

I joined Phi Beta Kappa for the sake of bolstering my CV. Helped me get into one of the best grad programs in the country for my discipline.

 

[Dak]

Does it bolster your CV even without any sort of notable participation? Unfortunately PBK doesn't have a chapter at ECU as far as I can tell.

 

[Zephyrus]

I've done jack shit for them. No dues or anything.

 

[Einherjar86]

Not that I disbelieve you, but how do you know it helped get you into your program?

 

[Zephyrus]

It was recommended to me by several people to accept PBK's invitation to join for that express purpose. Simply another distinction that demonstrates one has high academic achievement and potential. I'm not really sure how much it has helped, since grad schools saw my transcript and letters of recommendation to prove my merits in greater detail. I suppose it's more of a thing that people skimming a resume/CV would notice and think casually that this person is valuable.

 

[Dak]

I'm working hard on padding my CV, and I've never been more slammed in a week of college I think than I am at the moment, primarily because of the difficulty of Neuroscience and additional language for me. I just completed a research award submission, and am in the process of completing a second one, with my first neuro test tomorrow and my research methods and german test monday, while working on the introduction for my research methods paper. Oh yeah, and I work all weekend and have a Business ethics class to keep up with as well as a honor student dinner thing to attend this week. Also two toddlers in the house. Woot.

 

[Zephyrus]

Should have used protection.