Newsweek: The New First Grade

This is frightening.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14638573/site/newsweek/

and the trials of the online class begin

I really do not like to complain about my students, and I am frequently annoyed by others who do. I believe that many problems teachers have with students can be addressed by considering the teacher's approach to the situation and the way the teacher/student relationship has been established (I am speaking very broadly, I know). But I am not immune to being frustrated with my students, and a specific problem I frequently have is exacerbated by the nature of an online course.

People just don't read instructions. They glance over them, perhaps, but rarely do people set out to read and follow instructions carefully until they have made mistakes that require them to go back and look again. In a traditional classroom, students have opportunities to ask questions and express confusion in person, and a lot of problems are handled in that way before the assignments are due (while wasting valuable class time going over what they would have already known had they simply read the instructions!). The online class depends ENTIRELY on the student's ability to read and follow instructions. These instructions are delivered in a number of ways, with written documents and podcasts and samples and all kinds of things. But, alas, many students have failed to submit work this week because they just didn't know that it was due.

I must add here that I have spent A LOT of time online. I have frequently posted prominent announcements of impending due dates and reminded them which documents they need to have read and reviewed. I have sent messages to individual students when I see that they have fallen behind (already!!!). But I just spent a good ten minutes answering questions from one student, all of which are answered quite clearly on the documents that the announcements tell her in bold letters to read. And several students have told me that they just didn't realize that materials were due this week, when a really nice, very clear chart gives them dates and step-by-step instructions for completing assignments.

In a traditional classroom, I repeat my office hours and email address at every single class meeting and remind students that I am available to them. I was concerned from the beginning of the online class that my students would feel alone, and I have worked to make my presense seen and felt online. But I have students who have not asked questions until things go wrong--or until I contact them to let them know that things are going wrong--and they constantly apologize for bothering me. I am terribly frustrated right now.

I have some ideas about why this happens, but I will leave them for another day. Now I must turn away from this class that has taken up most of my day and prepare for something else. Tomorrow I have lunch with my advisor.

I will look like a slacker

Nothing gets a blog post going like posting that I will not be posting. That consistently revives my blog.

Next week I have to meet with my director. I have to. I have not met with him since June 20--my prelim exams. I have nothing to offer at this meeting. Seriously nothing. I don't know what is going to happen. I think that I will for the first time look like a slacker to him. I am decidedly not a slacker, and he has complimented my efficiency in the past. But this time I have slacked. I have accomplished many other important non-dissertation-related academic things in the past two months, but I have not done anything on the diss. Except read, but that doesn't count. Really it doesn't count. A mentor once said to me that research is endlessly seductive. So true. Reading is easy and fun and obviously necessary to the process, but if we're being truly honest, we are not actually accomplishing anything--not "producing knowledge" to borrow a phrase I heard from a professor last week--unless we are writing. That is at least true for me--I do not begin to truly synthesize ideas until I write.

I am not being lazy. I am being scared. A paralyzing anxiety keeps me from this project.

hanging in

Things are rough in the Mommy, Ph.D. household. My husband's crazy job has him working 70 hours a week lately, and it looks like that's going to keep up for a couple more weeks. And I'm sick and tired. Pregnancy sick and tired, but sick and tired just the same (this one is definitely sticking around and letting me know it). And school's in. And there's the whole dissertation thing (yeah, right, like that is happening). And RB insists on being two years old. So blogging will continue to be light for a while. I promise I'm still here.

P.S. I think it's a girl. But I don't put much stock in that particular intuition. I just knew that RB was going to be a boy. She is not.

Teaching carnival

Everyone go read the Teaching Carnival!

student participation in online courses

Oxymoron over at The Rhetorical Situation is actually teaching the same class I am teaching this semester. He has a good post about students' activity in online courses, and a discussion has begun in the comments. I won't copy my remarks here--check out the post. And for those interested in online courses, be on the lookout for further interaction between our blogs. I have admired Oxymoron's teaching for as long as I've known him, and I hope to see more from him on this topic.

politics of motherhood reading list

I am taking a Women's Studies course this semester to complete my certificate requirements. I purchased my books today, and I'm really excited about reading them. I want to share the list with you. I especially appreciate the diverse disciplines represented in the list--business, politics, science, sociology. It should make for interesting blog fodder.

Elizabeth A. Armstrong, Conceiving Risk, Bearing Responsibility: Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and the Diagnosis of Moral Disorder.
Alison Clarke-Stewart and Virginia D. Allhusen (eds.), What We Know About Childcare.
Ann Crittendon, The Price of Motherhood: Why the Most Important Job in the World Is Sill the Least Valued.
Dorothy Roberts, Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty.
Deborah Spar, The Baby Business: How Money, Science, and Politics Drive the Commerce of Conception. (This is the one I'm most anxious to read and, fortunately, the first on the schedule)
Joan Williams, Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and What to Do about It.

A different sort of first day of school

Tomorrow is the first day of school, and I am teaching technical writing online. I have the jitters I always get before the first day of school even though I will not be speaking in front of anyone. Part of it is because I am excited, but I am also anticipating a lot of "freaking out" emails from students. Here's why.

I did not design this course. Rather it is a "canned" course that provides consistent content across many sections with different instructors and also serves to train new instructors in the course management program (we're using Moodle). The course is designed to train the students to use the course tools as they complete steps in the first assignment. I think that is an excellent way of going about it--much more efficient and effective than trying to show them the nuts and bolts in the first week and expecting them to remember. The problem I foresee is that students are going to want the nuts and bolts on the first day. And I don't actually have all of that down, myself. I am going through a similar training in the process of teaching that will show me how things work shortly before I need them. So I expect a barage of questions, some of which I will not be able to answer. I expect high anxiety for the first few weeks.

I recorded a podcast last week with all the stuff I normally say on the first day of class and a little bit of here's this and here's that. That was fun, and I like that my students will hear my voice and see my photo. I don't want them to feel all alone. I really like the personal contact I have with students in a traditional classroom, and that will be quite different this semester. I won't see as many of them in my office, I'm sure. But as one who enjoys the blogging community, I am confident that personalities will make it through the electronic interface and personal connections will be made. I am excited to see how.

for a conversation on professional boundaries

I direct you to B*'s post here. I weighed in myself, and I am of the opinion that the situation is not that big a deal and a big deal shouldn't be made of it. But it does present the opportunity for discussing issues that are important and would be interesting to many of my readers who are not regular readers of B*.

quick update

The ultrasound went well and my pregnancy symptoms are increasing rapidly. Looks like I'm having a baby!

good baby vibes

I am feeling good baby vibes today. I am getting really sick in the mornings now, so good sign. I am so pleased to hear that my blogger friend Anastasia is pregnant (I assume your secret is as safe on my blog as it is on yours!). That has had me smiling since I read it. And I got a call from my sister-in-law that she is having a girl (really, there are a disproportionate number of pregnant women in my life right now--it's a bit crazy). I knew her ultrasound would be this week, and my ultrasound to find out the sex of the baby that I lost would have been this week, too. But tomorrow I have an ultrasound for the new baby, and my mom is coming today, so I am not feeling as fearful as I anticipated. I really have a strong feeling that this one is going to stick around. It took a while, but when I started feeling hopeful about this pregnancy, I embraced that feeling. After all, being miserable and afraid and expecting the worst will not make it easier to take if something bad does happen. Today I'm downright happy. For the first time since I found out I was pregnant. Feels good.

getting ready for work

I don't know if I'm ready to work from home. I have done nothing on my diss since my exams in June, and today I announced to my husband that I was going to actually work on it today. So far I have vacuumed and Febrezed the carpets and couches and done some other cleaning and straightening. I excuse it by saying that because we moved and things are not all in place yet. The fact is that home carries with it a lot of distractions (but the office does, too), and I don't know how things are going to go this fall. It is going to take major adjustments in my work habits. Last year was a bit shocking because I was out of coursework for the first time since, well, five years old, and I also was not teaching, which I had done for four years prior. Teaching was fantastic this summer, but the fall is a whole different animal: online class. And working on the dissertation, something I have also never done before. I feels like a huge unconquerable monster looming over me. And that is not conducive to self-motivated work. I am taking a class two days a week, and I now think that it will actually help keep me on track with two guaranteed days a week on campus and some required work that will force me to schedule time for the diss.

I have also considered going to the public library to work, which I am still doubtful about because when I took Rebekah, the lady who was painting the Sesame Street characters on the wall in the children's section glared at me when Rebekah was rocking in the rocking chair that is in the children's section and I guess being too noisy asking for me to read books to her. Maybe I don't understand children's library ettiquette, but I assumed that the short tables and chairs and picture books and the section itself separated from those of interest to adult library patrons indicated an invitation for reading aloud and, horrors, rocking in the rocking chair. When doing my own work, I would not take her, but I am holding a grudge. Sad, because she has asked to go back, except for some reason she thinks that the library is Walmart. She asks to go to Walmart to look at books.

I am going to start following the guidelines from Bolker's Write Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day today--I have been finding reasons to put it off for a long time, but I can't afford to say I'll do it tomorrow. My mom is coming next week, but I have to stick to the plan, whether that becomes working all except those couple of days or actually working on those days, too. Either way, I'm starting now. After lunch.

The demon barber of Fleet Street

Awesome!

I have high speed internet, la la la la la la

I know you can't see me, but I am doing a happy dance.

teaching carnival

Teaching Carnival is coming Sept. 1.

teacher/counselor

The past summer session was a record breaker for students' personal crises. Frequently students come to me to talk about the problems in their lives. It usually begins in the context of explaining why they cannot complete their work on time or why they did so poorly on their last assignment, but the office quickly turns into a confessional (to use an analogy appropriate to the O'Connor class). I used to think that this was a freshman thing and that students would not feel compelled to reveal everything about themselves to me once they became more comfortable with college life and being away from their parents. Not so much.

I am not complaining about this--it usually doesn't bother me (in fact, it only bothers me when I get unecessarily long emails about strings of insignificant events that basically amount to disorganization and procrastination on the part of the student and waste five minutes of my life). I take my responsibility to my students very seriously, but it is hard to know what my responsibility is. What is the appropriate response? What is too close? How involved should I be when they come to me for. . .well, what is it that they are coming to me for? Reassurance? Help? A sympathy grade? Or just an ear?

I know that some people will advocate a completely professional relationship, which to me means that there is no room for students' problems and there is certainly no place for revealing information about my personal life. But I do not feel comfortable with such boundaries. The way that I typically handle these issues is to never ask questions but always be willing to hear--something tells me that if they feel like it is important for them to tell me, it's important for me to let them tell me. And most of the time that's all that happens. They tell me their life stories, and I hear them, and then I tell them that they should do this, this, and this to complete their requirements for class. Sometimes I can relate to students' concerns because I have gone through something similar, and I am tempted to talk to them about my experiences, but the only personal experiences I ever talk about are common college-related issues like sleep deprivation and time management. That's the only kind of advice I feel comfortable giving, even though I often want very much to offer more. This semester I referred a student to the crisis intervention services on campus. I don't know if she called.

I feel a great deal for my students and have a tendency to carry their problems home with me. I will often bend over backwards to help them get through the semester despite their major or minor personal catastrophes--but I have also found that when I express to them how willing I am to work with them and help them, their efforts in class increase, as if my concern for them gives them a sense of personal responsibility to me. I know that I always wanted to perform well for teachers who I knew cared about me. Rarely have I felt like a student has taken advantage of me.

With this post, I am trying to hash things out for myself, but I also hope to get some response from other teachers on this topic. I would love it if some of my readers would weigh in in comments but even better if some might offer their own posts on the subject.

Today is good

Today I submitted my final grades for the summer, and I got a phone call that cable internet is coming THIS WEEK! Woo-hoo! And I saw a baby who is very cute and little (and his lovely and brilliant mother, of course).

And Jeanette has been so pleased with her discovery of Google Reader that I thought I should share it with more of you who might not know its beauty. And since I no longer get the glorious time-sucking, brain-rotting channels VH1 and E!, I subscribed to this blog. I have about thirty NPR feeds in there, so I feel justified. Don't judge me.

Female characters in children's programs

The big news lately is that Sesame Street has introduced its first female leading character. The controversy is that she is very "girly"--a pink and sparkly fairy princess. What I haven't heard discussed is how ridiculous it is that this is Sesame Street's first female leading character.
Here are a couple of short NPR stories on Abby Cadabby:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5641456
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5638389
The person interviewed in the first story comments on the controversy over the "girly-girl" character, say that "Creating characters for girls is the 'challenge of trying to write so that they're reflective of girls and their character, but also are strong and smart and funny.'" This bothered me tremendously because, while I am not a creator of children's programming, I believe that if anyone created a character reflective of my daughter and her character, it would, by definition, be strong and smart and funny.

The lack of female characters in general, especially those in leading roles--whether they are "girly" or not (if you haven't guessed, I am increasingly annoyed by that word)--has bothered me for some time and even more lately. At RB's age she is just beginning to construct a gender identity--she described herself to me as a girl for the first time last week, in the context of trying to get everyone in their proper categories--Mommy and RB are girls and Daddy is a boy. She's learning right now what it means to be a girl. And in the majority of children's books and television shows, what she is being shown is that male is the default gender. The lead characters in children's books and shows are almost always male, and if the lead is female, it is packaged as a "girl's" product, not one that might appeal to all children. I had read about this issue long before I had a child, but I have still been surprised as I have been exploring it myself.

In addition to the lack of female characters in general, so many of the most popular and beloved Disney films are based on an inherently sexist marriage plot. And I don't mean just the ubiquitous princesses, whom I have not yet allowed to infiltrate my home--Lady and the Tramp, The Aristocats, many adorable little animals engaged in the same process as Cinderella and The Little Mermaid.

I am not rejecting these images wholly. In fact, I see an advantage to watching these programs with her, allowing her to enjoy them, but also using them as a vehicle to provide the language to ask important questions and challenge limiting stereotypes as she learns how to be a girl. But I want to balance these with positive images of active girl and boy characters so that she does not, at this crucial stage in her development, learn that male is the right gender and that boys are somehow more active, more powerful, more human, than she is.

I think that Disney's Jo-Jo's Circus, starring a girl clown but not a "girl's show," does a good job with this, and I also appreciate Little Einsteins. A couple of times Little Einsteins has referred to the white male child as the "leader," and he pilots the rocket, but in most of the episodes, I see none of them standing out as in-charge. The team of two boys and two girls work together equally, which is important because RB has already begun to identify herself with the girl characters, especially the blonde girl, Annie, who looks the most like her. Of course, I have yet to see them feature any female artists or composers in their episodes, but RB is too young to realize that.

electronic grademarking

I'm using a new feature on Turnitin.com, with great success as far as I can see. I plan to ask some students how they feel about it after official grades are turned in. I'm very into paperless classes, and this service has contributed to that goal (although as much as I may try to have a paperless class, my students still print out the electronic materials I provide them--oh, well.)

For those unfamiliar with Turnitin.com, its primary function is plagiarism prevention. Students upload papers and the program checks them against the Internet, all papers previously submitted, and ProQuest. I've found it's mainly a plagiarism deterrent. But that's not the reason I use it. It has a gradebook feature that allows students to check their grades as the semester goes on, and I don't have to come up with any spreadsheet formulas. But it is smart to download the gradebook every time changes are made for a backup.

So what I'm excited about now is electronic grademarking. I had not tried it until this week because I was unconvinced that I could mark papers as efficiently and communicate what I wanted to show electronically. Turns out, I'm getting through my papers faster than with pen and paper grading! And I am totally comfortable with the marks I have made--the program gives a lot of options. The extra convenience is that students were required to submit them electronically and they do not have to meet me in class--especially nice since I have moved a half hour away from campus. I know that email is effective for that purpose, but this way not only do they give me their papers, but they also get them back right away with my marks.

Downside: Now that I live in the boondocks (again) I only have dial-up internet, and it is taking a while to download papers. And while I'm at the task of reviewing on-line services, I officially do not like Earthlink. And the "accelerator" they're so proud of is laughable. I've been promised cable internet by mid-September. Monday I'm going to school early to turn in grades and will stay for a while to do some blogging and relish the high speed connection. Now to upload my post, which will take three hours.

P.S. The blogger spellcheck does not recognize "blogging" as a word.

still grading

still grading, still grading . . . but there are posts simmering on the back burners.