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11 Comments
natty Says:
That is awesome. I’ve felt that way on some tests myself.
PS: God has gotten tired of hurling hurricanes at us (for now), and has instead decided to give us earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Toby and I are going to Seattle on the 22nd so he can take more pictures for his thesis to match the stuff he did in Scotland (Washington state has similar enough topography, and certainly similar weather. Rains all the time). We may be landing just in time to watch Mt. St. Helens blow her top again. Toby says that’s ok, the rain of ash will be awesome on film.
columbia is pretty cool. I had a lot of trouble adjusting to the variety of groceies on the shelf initially, much better now. I am glad I didn’t go to IKEA, I think I might have camped out there after Kenya.
School is interesting. Two sets of people. Some with really good working experience before they come in, and others are just a few years of working from undergraduate. It gets frustrating after getting very idealistic answer from classes. Only TAing one class, thank God. I am not ready for this yet.
Columbia has some good connections, so far have met two presidents from Africa and one from Europe. I have no idea what it actually means.
Hey Will, just wait til it starts snowing. I don’t think New York gets quite as bad as Chicago in December, though. New Orleans has two seasons: summer and January. It maybe freezes here once a year, at which point the city goes into state of emergency and has to explain to everybody how to leave the water running so exposed pipes under everyone’s raised houses don’t burst.
piggie … no replies to e-mails … hope you are alright and no longer suffering from colds and power shutdowns. Drew and I listened to your lovely tape-letter together this last weekend. Miss you …
After all those wonderful comments, I feel slightly bad about changing the subject of this entry back to the original one, but I have to tell you… this story is going to run and run.
The student did not hand in an answer paper in that test.
The class complained to the principal about my approach to that subject (though in the other subject I teach them they were content)
I cried, a **lot**, hiding in the toilet so the students wouldnt see me, wondering why I had so many bottled up tears to deal with in such a dry climate.
When I felt better I went and spoke to the student who aranged to see me RIGHT NOW at 4 oclock for personal tutoring. [marks looks over his shoulder]
Your big Sis keeps on telling me I must look at your site. I have, it’s good.
The strangest exam paper I have come across was completed by a student in my class at uni a million years ago. he had been taking performance enhancing drugs to get him through the finals. When it came to marking, the prof told us over a post finals beer, that this student had written pages and pages of completely unintelligible gobble de gook.
Funny the student seemed to think he had done well!
Hugs. Lots and lots of them and a hanky and a whisky. It’s SO obviously not you - if they’re content with the other subject you teach then it’s not your approach. You’re a great teacher and an utterly fab person. They are being vile and for some reason they are kicking against The System and you happen to be the bit of The System they feel they can kick. What are they like to everyone else? How do they feel about college in general?
Hey, Mark. Take heart, buck up, you’ll be ok. Don’t take it personally that you can’t immediately rush in and change the way these kids think. They’ve been doing it this way their entire lives, and most people just can’t rise to the challenge when they reach a certain age.
I’ll let you know it often works the other way, too. At Tulane, the classes with the overwhelmingly largest fail rates were organic chemistry taught by Indian T.A.’s. They taught to the book and to the test on a very difficult subject and it might as well have been Greek to the more creative problem solver-style American kids.
It goes that way with just about anything. My parents have voted Republican their entire lives, and probably will this election year, though even I think that’s stupid and I’m usually a military hawk. But they grew up in the military, Dad was career military, and for some reason Kerry scares the absolute crap out of them. No amount of argument, debate or reasoning can sway my mother, and I’ve been at it for weeks. Sometimes, probably most times, you just can’t get people out of the box if they’re past a certain age. Think about it, you probably know people like this back in England.
natty Says:
That is awesome. I’ve felt that way on some tests myself.
PS: God has gotten tired of hurling hurricanes at us (for now), and has instead decided to give us earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Toby and I are going to Seattle on the 22nd so he can take more pictures for his thesis to match the stuff he did in Scotland (Washington state has similar enough topography, and certainly similar weather. Rains all the time). We may be landing just in time to watch Mt. St. Helens blow her top again. Toby says that’s ok, the rain of ash will be awesome on film.
October 4th, 2004 at 8:35 pmwill Says:
mark:
you have gone mad, which is nothing new. NYC in the fall is not too bad, central park is very nice this time of the year.
Have you had jail breaks in tala lately?
miss you
Will
October 5th, 2004 at 5:42 amwill Says:
columbia is pretty cool. I had a lot of trouble adjusting to the variety of groceies on the shelf initially, much better now. I am glad I didn’t go to IKEA, I think I might have camped out there after Kenya.
School is interesting. Two sets of people. Some with really good working experience before they come in, and others are just a few years of working from undergraduate. It gets frustrating after getting very idealistic answer from classes. Only TAing one class, thank God. I am not ready for this yet.
Columbia has some good connections, so far have met two presidents from Africa and one from Europe. I have no idea what it actually means.
Miss Kenya!!
Will
October 5th, 2004 at 5:47 amLydia Says:
I set a test for one of my classes that they would have loved to have scrawled on like this. How did you mark it? :hehe:
October 5th, 2004 at 1:57 pmDrew Says:
sleeping cats olympics:
October 5th, 2004 at 6:45 pmhttp://www.christymarx.com/moggy/olympics.htm
Natty Says:
Hey Will, just wait til it starts snowing. I don’t think New York gets quite as bad as Chicago in December, though. New Orleans has two seasons: summer and January. It maybe freezes here once a year, at which point the city goes into state of emergency and has to explain to everybody how to leave the water running so exposed pipes under everyone’s raised houses don’t burst.
What are you teaching?
October 5th, 2004 at 7:05 pmtygger Says:
piggie … no replies to e-mails … hope you are alright and no longer suffering from colds and power shutdowns. Drew and I listened to your lovely tape-letter together this last weekend. Miss you …
xxxTyg
October 6th, 2004 at 12:07 pmMark Says:
After all those wonderful comments, I feel slightly bad about changing the subject of this entry back to the original one, but I have to tell you… this story is going to run and run.
The student did not hand in an answer paper in that test.
The class complained to the principal about my approach to that subject (though in the other subject I teach them they were content)
I cried, a **lot**, hiding in the toilet so the students wouldnt see me, wondering why I had so many bottled up tears to deal with in such a dry climate.
When I felt better I went and spoke to the student who aranged to see me RIGHT NOW at 4 oclock for personal tutoring. [marks looks over his shoulder]
watch this space.
Sparky
October 6th, 2004 at 5:00 pmChris Harris Says:
Hi Mark,
Your big Sis keeps on telling me I must look at your site. I have, it’s good.
The strangest exam paper I have come across was completed by a student in my class at uni a million years ago. he had been taking performance enhancing drugs to get him through the finals. When it came to marking, the prof told us over a post finals beer, that this student had written pages and pages of completely unintelligible gobble de gook.
Funny the student seemed to think he had done well!
All the best
October 7th, 2004 at 4:05 amChris
Lydia Says:
Hugs. Lots and lots of them and a hanky and a whisky. It’s SO obviously not you - if they’re content with the other subject you teach then it’s not your approach. You’re a great teacher and an utterly fab person. They are being vile and for some reason they are kicking against The System and you happen to be the bit of The System they feel they can kick. What are they like to everyone else? How do they feel about college in general?
October 7th, 2004 at 4:21 pmnatty Says:
Hey, Mark. Take heart, buck up, you’ll be ok. Don’t take it personally that you can’t immediately rush in and change the way these kids think. They’ve been doing it this way their entire lives, and most people just can’t rise to the challenge when they reach a certain age.
I’ll let you know it often works the other way, too. At Tulane, the classes with the overwhelmingly largest fail rates were organic chemistry taught by Indian T.A.’s. They taught to the book and to the test on a very difficult subject and it might as well have been Greek to the more creative problem solver-style American kids.
It goes that way with just about anything. My parents have voted Republican their entire lives, and probably will this election year, though even I think that’s stupid and I’m usually a military hawk. But they grew up in the military, Dad was career military, and for some reason Kerry scares the absolute crap out of them. No amount of argument, debate or reasoning can sway my mother, and I’ve been at it for weeks. Sometimes, probably most times, you just can’t get people out of the box if they’re past a certain age. Think about it, you probably know people like this back in England.
Hold on, you’ll be ok.
October 7th, 2004 at 8:55 pm