Not Free for You

I just read a short article about Italy changing its museums pricing policy. As of July 1, 2015 free admission to museums will be restricted only to students under 18 and teachers (no age restrictions offered). Those who fall within the ages 18-25 will be receive discounted admission, but there are no details what the discount will be.

Those over 65, both Italian and foreigners will no longer receive free admission after July 1, 2015, with the exception of the first Sunday of each month. It seems the Minister responsible read the data that showed discounted or free admissions were applicable to more than a third of the population, both local and foreign. Big bucks, er… euros being lost there.

I had to chuckle at this news. A few years back, Ron and I were at Pompeii. When I went to buy tickets, there was a sign offering free admission to teachers. When I asked for my discount, I was asked for a teacher ID. I had two with me; one ID was the STA International Teacher ID Card, the other was my ID card from my university.

The ticket seller took my International Teacher ID Card and threw it back at me saying it was not acceptable. Being nonplussed, I handed over my university ID card. He looked at it and said “The discount is only for EU countries.” Suppressing laughter mixed with anger, I shouted through the Plexiglas “Hungary IS in the EU as of 2004!” In his lackadaisical Italian manner of not giving a damn, he then countered with “Well then it is only for elementary school teachers.” That ended the argument, but I did secure a discount on Ron’s admission.

End note: As an instructor both in CA and here in Hungary, I have never once received any discount using my STA International Teacher ID Card. It was wasted money! 

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Do I Have a Job or ??

We had to have an emergency faculty meeting before school ended in May. The Minister of Education is slashing funds again like a medieval raid on the neighboring village. There are swords flying and the plundering is without sacrifice. Few knew to get into their armor as there was little warning. This was the end of my 9th year at the university and for 7 of them, we have heard that the native speaking instructors were going to be let go. 

For once, the native speakers were not in anyone's cross hair for extermination. All of those poor souls who never quite achieved getting that last level, earning their doctorate, were on the chopping block. All those who were a part-time instructor are now a no-time instructor. Bye, bye! Don't look back.

There had to be a catch, there always is. If nothing else, the native speaking instructors give veracity the programs they teach in. We have heard reports of some of the Hungarian language instructors in the romance or other languages who cannot utter a word in the tongue they teach. Yet, those of us who cannot climb the academic ladder due to our lack of Hungarian knowledge, carry the brunt of the load. 

When I first started, we had to teach 15 credits. That was not too bad considering one of my courses met 3 times and week for five hours and was 5 credits. Over time, this was changed to 18 credits, but the courses we taught had also changed over time making it bearable. Also, if you were a thesis adviser, you  received credit above your teaching load. Where I went to school, the advisers were paid extra for advising. 

Now with the slash and burn system in place, we have to teach 18 hours, not credits. At first glance that seemed manageable, but then the BUT came. But we cannot count our thesis advising toward our hours. But we cannot have tutorials. But we must have a minimum enrollment of 10 students in a class or our class will not count toward our mandated hours.

And the memo ends with this. Please know that the Dean is going to monitor the number of courses we teach + the number of students each year. And there will be faculty layoffs too, that is quite certain ...

Sometimes students cannot understand those faculty members that they feel are apathetic or are just not preparing enough for their classes. What they don't understand even when told is that it is sometimes difficult to know you job is on the line all of the time. With these new mandates for a minimum of 10 in a class, I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing advertisements in the hallways. 

Please let summer drag by, please...

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Jennifer writes in...

Jennifer has left a new comment on your post "Trivia of the Day":
The last time we had five weekends in a month was... last October. In terms of any particular month, it happens every 11 years, not 823 :)


Of course it was a teacher who caught this. Those weekends are holy days during the school year. You forced me to send a nasty note to the former friend who sent me the incorrect information on July.  : )

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What Students Think

Before anyone asks, no, this student did not attend the first meeting of the group. Perhaps the next?


Dear Dr. James,
I just wanted to tell you that I love your idea! It's so good to see that there are teachers actually existing  who are willing to go beyond what is expected from them by their employers and whose primary goal is not to fill our heads with textbook knowledge but to teach us how to think, think out of the box, and be creative. This is exactly what I am looking for.:)
So I have every intention attending the Creativity group, and if there's any way I can help you set this thing off, I am happy to help.
Take care,
Andrea

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Say Cheese!

Did you know that the famous photography quip "Say cheese", when you want people to make a facial expression for the camera does not work when translated? In Spanish "Decir quesos", French "Dire fromages", Italian "Dire formaggio",Swahili "Wanasema jibini", or even Hungarian "mondjuk sajt", it doesn't cut the mustard. The reason is that the words SAY CHEESE in English makes the lips move close to a smile formation.

What prompted this interesting tidbit? We had our 9th and next to last photography class last night. No, we did not learn about cheese,but we did have an excursion down to the river to take night photos. What I have learned most through the course of the course is that it is an expensive hobby. Last week, we used different lamps for lighting. Our instructor has four different types depending on what you are shooting. He also had these huge rolls of black and white paper that comes down the wall on a pulley system as huge sheets to cover the floor and behind a model as background. Not only do you need the money for such toys, but the space to store it. He is forfeiting one large room of his flat just for the equipment. 

What would have been handy for last night was a tripod. I have a full sized one in storage in NJ. All the good it will do me here. Since we did not have one, we had to use his. Thankfully, one of the other students bought her own. For the first half hour, it was only Ron and I sharing. Then my batteries finally gave out. I had another set already charged, but as we ran out the door, they did not shout out "take us along" from the wall charger, so they were left behind.

The three others in the class are teachers from the American School. They never show up on time! Thirty minutes into our class, they appear. Within the first ten minutes of their arrival, one of them drops her brand new $500 camera. That was the end of her participation. The camera refused to cooperate after that. The two of them decided to go drown their sorrows at a bar.

Ron decided he did not want to play nice with the rest of us, so went off trying to take night shots by holding the camera on the railing. All the while, I was not certain I really cared for my classmates. 

That brings me to the Advanced class this teacher is offering. Another 40,000 Huf is mucho dinero or sok pénz. I need more practice learning where all of the controls are on my Pentax K-x camera. Buying it here, I could not get an instruction manual in English, so I had to download it from the Internet. At 357 pages, I want to learn the basics and then print out the pages I will need to refer to most often.

I did get a couple of nice night shots, making me a happy camper. I have never been able to get a good one before. Hmm...tripod = good night shots. Okay, got it.

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So Proud

I remember reading years ago that teachers should keep a journal of their accomplishments, compliments from staff and students, and their successes and their failures. The point of it being that beyond degrees, diplomas, training, passing exams, the real proof of what makes a good teacher is in the daily doing. I had attempted this type of journal a few times, but then get too busy to keep it up. What I do instead is include these kinds of things in the blog, so they don't get lost. Every once in a while, I need a mood refresher, so I know where to come look. Yes, I put the screw ups in here also, so I can either go back and shake my head or have a good chuckle.

This was a response from one of my MA thesis students. I was honored to have had Anna in the classroom for more than 6 different classes. When she asked me to be her adviser, I had no qualms at all. She just recently defended her thesis and I sms'ed her asking how it went.

Dear Dr. James,
Thank you for sending the sms! I thought I would respond in an email, because it might be long...:)
I got a 5 for both my thesis and my state exam. YEEAAHH! I was very happy about it!

When I defended it, I got very good questions from Stanley, and some less relevant ones from Prof. F. She made a comment about the sources I used. She felt that I could have used other libraries than the ones available in Budapest. I didn't really understand what libraries she thought of. When I asked, she said that I should have registered in on-line libraries. I responded that I did not have the financial resources:) Anyway, they gave me a five.
I want to thank you again for all your help! Not just with my thesis! Your courses were the most helpful ones during my university career. I made good use of everything you taught us about writing or critical thinking in my other major as well. I'm sure that without those classes I would not be able to write my Italian thesis (for which I also got a five:)). It was an honor to be your student. Thank you again!!!
Anna

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