Teaching

Gavin

booty bass intellectual
I have made a living teaching in one capacity or another for several years now, but I don't think I am any better now than when I started. Well, I think I am better at convincing my students I know what I'm doing, which is 75% of teaching, right?

I know some Dissensoids out there teach, formally or informally, so I thought I'd fish for advice, tips, bitching, hilarious stories, etc. I don't have any specific questions at the moment because I am rather exhausted and I'd rather just smoke a bowl and listen to mp3s while the genius rolls in. I'll start with a mini-anecdote though:

Today when discussing Fight Club, a student said I was "reading too much into" the film when I brought up the film's homoeroticism. This was from the girl with the perpetually sour face and anime hair, while the male students seemed to agree with me.

Oh, a question: Is "critical pedagogy" worth exploring, or is it just a buzzword for people who grumble "read some fucking Marx" at their students?
 

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
My favourite was from a friend who had decided not to undergo gender transformation surgery and go into teaching English as a foreign language instead. He did ALOT of drugs, and after a particularly heavy weekend - without getting laid, in spite of trying - walked into his classroom full of Japanese students and made them stand up and repeat after him (cue big booming queeny Kenneth Willliams voice) "I HAVE STRONG UUUUUURGES. I. HAVE. STRONG. SEXUAL. URGES."

It still makes me cry with laughter to think about it.
 

RobJC

Check your weapon
Its important to use modern examples to highlight or link to abstract issues, but most contemporary writing cleverly (or perhaps not) hints at deeper meaning rather than exploring them, and you can fall into the trap of presenting an example like Fight Club to try and explain the male condition and homoeroticism whereas the subject matter in the film is quite shallowly presented to begin with. Kick of with accessible parallel but try not to make them the focus just because they are accessible in the first place.

Which probably links in nicely to the general dumbing down of the teaching curriculum to make it "accessible" where I feel it can be necessarily abstract in some cases to be devise to promote achievement
 
N

nomadologist

Guest
My favourite was from a friend who had decided not to undergo gender transformation surgery and go into teaching English as a foreign language instead. He did ALOT of drugs, and after a particularly heavy weekend - without getting laid, in spite of trying - walked into his classroom full of Japanese students and made them stand up and repeat after him (cue big booming queeny Kenneth Willliams voice) "I HAVE STRONG UUUUUURGES. I. HAVE. STRONG. SEXUAL. URGES."

It still makes me cry with laughter to think about it.

i just cackled for 10 minutes
 

gek-opel

entered apprentice
I have made a living teaching in one capacity or another for several years now, but I don't think I am any better now than when I started. Well, I think I am better at convincing my students I know what I'm doing, which is 75% of teaching, right?

I know some Dissensoids out there teach, formally or informally, so I thought I'd fish for advice, tips, bitching, hilarious stories, etc. I don't have any specific questions at the moment because I am rather exhausted and I'd rather just smoke a bowl and listen to mp3s while the genius rolls in. I'll start with a mini-anecdote though:

Today when discussing Fight Club, a student said I was "reading too much into" the film when I brought up the film's homoeroticism. This was from the girl with the perpetually sour face and anime hair, while the male students seemed to agree with me.

Oh, a question: Is "critical pedagogy" worth exploring, or is it just a buzzword for people who grumble "read some fucking Marx" at their students?

I always read Fight Club as being about the impossibility of rebellion in the mediatised world dominated by the society of spectacle- the lead character is only able to commit terrorism under the auspices of Brad Pitt's perfectly toned, dressed and coiffured character- at one point he even points out a billboard with a male model on it and says something derogatory when for fucks sake it is Brad Pitt as cipher of marketing man's cool who is saying it. The ending is a twisted version of the kind of feel good hokum you would get in a mid 80s action/adventure romp- it rings entirely and deliberately false... the entire message being, to my mind, you can never get beyond an image of rebellion in a society which rabidly commodifies all subcultural capital- even the homoerotic "real" of man-on-man violence is just another image... ultimately facilitated by a "feminised" airbrushed version of masculinity itself... every escape is merely a more subtly marketed consumer choice, especially when it expressly disavows such an identity...
 
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Gavin

booty bass intellectual
I always read Fight Club as being about the impossibility of rebellion in the mediatised world dominated by the society of spectacle- the lead character is only able to commit terrorism under the auspices of Brad Pitt's perfectly toned, dressed and coiffured character- at one point he even points out a billboard with a male model on it and says something derogatory when for fucks sake it is Brad Pitt as cipher of marketing man's cool who is saying it. The ending is a twisted version of the kind of feel good hokum you would get in a mid 80s action/adventure romp- it rings entirely and deliberately false... the entire message being, to my mind, you can never get beyond an image of rebellion in a society which rabidly commodifies all subcultural capital- even the homoerotic "real" of man-on-man violence is just another image... ultimately facilitated by a "feminised" airbrushed version of masculinity itself... every escape is merely a more subtly marketed consumer choice, especially when it expressly disavows such an identity...

This is a great interpretation, and I did point out the irony of Brad Pitt criticizing the ad, though they didn't seem to remember that scene -- they are so ready to accept the texts at the superficial level of what they're being told -- thank god we aren't doing Lolita this quarter! You're absolutely right about the ending ringing false too... even down to the "last 30 seconds" that takes at least 7 minutes -- so 80s action as well!
 

Eric

Mr Moraigero
Record quick derailment.

several years in I think my teaching has improved---I am better at producing analogies to clarify the opaque subject matter. On the up/downside, I also am understanding it better as time goes on so as I clarify I usually also add commentary that makes it opaque again ...

Part of the issue is making the classes themselves enjoyable. It's half & half education and entertainment isnt it? If they're not awake they will not learn anything.
 

Gavin

booty bass intellectual
Jesus, it's got to be more than 50% entertainment... They called it "the song and dance" at my last uni... "Time to go do the song and dance..." God forbid you talk for too long; gotta have YouTube vids, group work, back massages with happy endings, etc etc. Damn kids don't know what it was like before streaming video in the classroom.

Actually I think I'm better at the entertaining part than the education part... maybe I am due for a career switch.

childrens-party-entertainer-in-Boston.jpg


I've had next to no pedagogical training, which is almost shocking. I'd imagine most of it is bullshit. What's it like? Did you ever learn anything useful from it?
 
N

nomadologist

Guest
? If they're not awake they will not learn anything.

If we were all sleeping, my professors would start peppering their lectures with the word "fuck" until we woke up.
 

gek-opel

entered apprentice
Jesus, it's got to be more than 50% entertainment... They called it "the song and dance" at my last uni... "Time to go do the song and dance..." God forbid you talk for too long; gotta have YouTube vids, group work, back massages with happy endings, etc etc. Damn kids don't know what it was like before streaming video in the classroom.

Streaming video!!?? We get two hour lectures with complicated diagrams.
 

Gavin

booty bass intellectual
Streaming video!!?? We get two hour lectures with complicated diagrams.

When we read The Practice of Everyday Life it took my classmate, the Romanian philosopher 30 min to interpret the diagrams in it. No one else could make heads or tails.
 

Gavin

booty bass intellectual
Usually I just let my students sleep since I teach pretty early in the morning. One semester at B0wling Gr33n I threw a piece a chalk at a student sleeping in the first row.

I drop F-bombs with some regularity in class, such an easy laugh.

Anyway, I need more SECRETS to EXCELLENT PEDAGOGY.
 

matt b

Indexing all opinion
Usually I just let my students sleep since I teach pretty early in the morning. One semester at B0wling Gr33n I threw a piece a chalk at a student sleeping in the first row.

i once threw a marker pen at a student who repeatedly ignored my requests to shut the fuck up.

pulled a chair from under an annoying student as she was about to sit down.

a student once got up and left the classroom to speak to her mate outside without asking. i grabbed her stuff and dumped it on the floor in the corridor and told the student not to return.


don't do that shit anymore. i always act with grace and charm. and sarcasm.
 
N

nomadologist

Guest
I always like my professors who didn't just write a short paragraph at the end of your paper, but who scribbled all kinds of things in the margins, and actually JUSTIFIED the grade they gave you.

I hated getting a good grade on a paper, but then just getting "good work" or something at the end, only to get a lesser grade in the class with the only comments on the final "you missed quite a few classes"...
 

Gavin

booty bass intellectual
i once threw a marker pen at a student who repeatedly ignored my requests to shut the fuck up.

pulled a chair from under an annoying student as she was about to sit down.

a student once got up and left the classroom to speak to her mate outside without asking. i grabbed her stuff and dumped it on the floor in the corridor and told the student not to return.


don't do that shit anymore. i always act with grace and charm. and sarcasm.

Holy shit, where do you teach where you won't get fired for that?

Here "students are our customers" :p
 
N

nomadologist

Guest
You would get fired in a second at any U.S. university if you did anything like that.
 

matt b

Indexing all opinion
as for hints and tips:

1) tell kids what they're going to learn

2) deliver it using a range of methods* (don't talk at them for ages, get them to manipulate information, test in a fun way- bingo etc)

3) tell kids what they've learnt

4) next lesson do a quick quiz checking learning from previous lesson




*geoff petty is ace: http://www.geoffpetty.com/
 
N

nomadologist

Guest
Gavin, do they make your students do end-of-class evals? At my undergrad school they made us do these, and they took them *really* seriously. There were several visiting professors who got asked to leave based on getting less than solid 4 out of 5s on everything...
 

matt b

Indexing all opinion
Holy shit, where do you teach where you won't get fired for that?

Here "students are our customers" :p

not where i teach now :)
and it was obviously unprofessional, so you learn from your mistakes. if not you shouldn't be teaching.

the above shit happened when i taught at a place where the kids would be having a bifta at the college gates before lessons- as teachers walked past them, and they once set fire to a classroom.

i now teach in post-compulsory- i always say to students if they don't want to learn they can leave the lesson. they never do.


remember all students are 'customers'- the disruptive ones stop the learning of those that do wish to learn
 
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Gavin

booty bass intellectual
Gavin, do they make your students do end-of-class evals? At my undergrad school they made us do these, and they took them *really* seriously. There were several visiting professors who got asked to leave based on getting less than solid 4 out of 5s on everything...

Yes and I am technically an independent contractor so they can fire me at any time for any reason... bad evals can be one... I think I will get enough good reviews to get rehired for next quarter though, but still, nothing like real job security. And they are forecasting a smaller student next year so the future is not exactly bright. Our generation's lot in life I suppose. They "redeployed" a lot of faculty last year, including some of the most popular ones, to make way for cheap hires such as myself, morale is not exactly wonderful.

Hopefully I can stay since I don't have job experience doing anything else!
 
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