Motivational Teaching

I was advising a BA thesis student. His topic concerns teachers’ motivation and its impact on student learning. He sent me this story he found particularly enlightening. It came from the book Teaching Well and Liking it: Motivating Faculty to Teach Effectively. This is the story as the student sent it to me. Since this has been published in the book above, I am leaving the names intact.

Dr. Ralph Connors and Dr. Carol Raynor have been colleagues for eleven years. They have adjoining offices in the modern science center of Eastern State University. Both teach introductory physics to undergraduates. They have much in common, but they are entirely different teachers. Among the undergraduates, Dr. Connors is known as “Dr. Snores.” As he lectures, Ralph has the curious habit of looking down at his weathered boots while constantly counting and recounting his pocket change. Occasionally his right hand emerges from the side of the podium to add emphasis to what is being said or to flip pages. But only his hand is animated. His speech is soft and slow. There is little life in what he says or in the way he says it. All the fraternities have copies of his notes, copies of copies that date from 1984. But he is popular with them because “Snores only gives two multiple-guess tests, and if you’ve got his notes, you can skate his class.”

Dr. Raynor has a different reputation on campus. Students call her Dr. Rap because in the spring of 1990 she invited to class a local group to rap about Ohm’s law. Midway through their performance she suddenly turned off the lights and told her two hundred students to join in: “The louder you sing, the brighter the lights will become.” Sing they did, much louder than she ever expected. The lights swiftly rose to glaring intensity and then flickered and began to fail. After their applause she said, “Now let’s talk about the role that resistance can play when circuits get overloaded.”

Dr. Raynor no longer needs the rap group; it has become a tradition for students to rap on their own on the day that Ohm’s law is scheduled. She constantly works on her teaching. She enjoys physics and shares her enthusiasm with students. When asked by a campus reporter about the best class she ever taught, she replied “Teaching is a work in progress; I’ve been pleased with some of my classes, but I have yet to teach my best class.””

On that note, I want to share my pride in all 9 of the students who I advised for their thesis this semester. For some I was their direct advisor and for others, they were part of my thesis writing class. Each and everyone of them received a grade of 5 (the highest possible) on their written thesis. So far, they each have received a 5 on their defense as well.

Related articles

• Quit Before You Become Dr. Snore
• Area nets seven schools on states' most-improved lists

Pin It Now!

Read and Red, But Finally Done

Well, I did it! I finished reading the last thesis for this semester. During the semester, I have 13 students in my thesis writing class, so I was reading and editing their work all semester. After they all get turned in, we are assigned theses to read and grade.

I was actually hoping to get one or more of the theses from within my class; I was not the advisor for all 13 students. This would have cut some of my reading down a bit since I already knew their work intimately. However, Lady Luck was not to be my friend this time around. I received four BA theses and one MA thesis.

These arrived on the heels of my completing the essays for both the Race and Ethnicity class as well as the Religions Born in the US, but concurrent with the short story assignment for the Creative Writing class. This was all juggled with reading the students’ blogs and websites for the Blogging and Website class. Those in my Mystery Novel and Corpor-ocracy classes were severely neglected.

I read and read, so my eyes are red. However, I am almost finished! I am seeing the finish line up ahead and it looks spectacular. The only exercise yet to read will be one more creative writing piece and that will end the semester.

As of now, there are 11 days, 4 hours, 28 minutes until I am crossing that finish line.

Related articles

• End of Semester Vent
• Farewell Spring Semester, Fire up for Summertime!

Pin It Now!

The HIghs and Lows of Teaching

What you will read here are the actual e-mails that went back and forth with one of my students. This particular student was in my thesis writing class as my advisee in addition to being in my Religions Born in the US class. I had her last semester for Social Problems in the US. The first part is in regard to her thesis and my having edited it before submission. I did not change language, grammar, or spelling, so all mistakes are part of our human nature when writing an e-mail.
 
Student:
Dear Professor James,
Thank you again for all your work.
I am so sorry for all the stupid typos! It must have taken you forever to correct all this I feel so bad.
April 15th will be here soon and part of your torture will end.
For the record, I have learnt a lot from your comments and corrections. Wish I had learnt from you from the beginning of University. My writing would be much better.
Only 28 days left and 1 chapter to go.
See you tomorrow,

Me:
I should have you speak to my journalism class. They think I am the devil incarnate.

Student:
I would talk to them. They should be glad to have you. I have had teachers at ELTE who demanded nothing, gave me 5s, but I learned nothing. That is not how it should be. This results in students becoming so lazy that they end up hating a teacher just because they have to do something. Even though your comments sometimes make me want to jump into the Danube I greatly appreciate them. There is always room for improvement and I strive to be the best I can be. You can motivate me and I am so thankful for that.

Student: after the thesis was submitted:
Dear Professor James,
Here is the very final version of my thesis.
I can't believe that it is done!
I am so happy that you accepted me as your advisee and I got to work with you. I couldn't have hoped for a better supervisor. You have helped me so much and I couldn't have done this thesis without you!
Thanks for everything!!!

Me:
I have faith in you. I think you could have done it alone! But thank you...

Student:
Having someone believe in you when you don't believe in yourself makes all the difference!

Me:
Bear that in mind for the exams. I continue to believe!

Student:
I have been thinking how to respond to this email for the past hours but still haven't been able to come up with anything except for a huge thank you. You made me cry.. I am going to print this, put it in my notebook that I take everywhere, and every time I feel bad or sad I will look at to feel better.

Thank you so so so much. Really!!!


Student:
Dear Professor James,
I just found out that Professor X is going to be my opponent. 
Frightened does not even describe what I'm feeling right now.

Me:
Well, we both know you did an exceptional job. Reading a thesis can be subjective, so remember no matter what she says, we know you are 5 (A) quality.

Then she received her grade for her Religions Born in the US project. Things had a slight turn-around.

Student:
Dear Professor James,
Thanks for the feedback and the evaluation!

I was just thinking. Right now I am at -10 points in the course. We have still 3 classes - 6 points for participation plus 30 for the quizzes. I think there is no problem with my participation so I should have no problem with getting the total points. However, I stink at quizzes. Of course I will prepare for them but for some reason I always mess something up.

The questions are (in advance): Can I do anything else to still get a 5? I can do another essay (although I’m pretty sure you don't want to read any more than you already have to) or whatever extra work you can give me. Grades don't really matter to me, I just want to learn as much as possible, but having a 5 in your class is a prestige thing. I prepare the most for your classes; your courses are the ones worth taking at this university so I want to leave ELTE with not being just one of your average students.

With that said, I am going to try my best to ace those quizzes.

Me:
I have been thinking about this all day. I am still reading student papers and have 5 theses to read and grade still. I was supposed to write a book proposal for myself over 6 months ago, but never got to it. It has to be done by the middle of May or I stand to lose a great deal of money. Do I want anything else to read? NO WAY!

Confidentially, I had some talks with other class members about their performance, grades, and potential outcome with their grade. All of this reminded me of something that happened to me in my doctoral program. I took a course on Psychology of Education. I loved the instructor and the course. The only assignment for the entire semester was to write one 60 page research paper. I cannot remember what the topic was now, but I was so engaged with it that I knew I was doing my best work. This was still in the days of Windows 95, not even Windows 98. I didn't have MS Word back then; the main program was called WordPerfect. About six times, during that semester, my computer crashed and each time, I lost all of the work I had done up to that point.

By some stroke of luck, I had backed up part of the psychology paper on a floppy disk. This was before USB ports or external drives. After I continued writing where I had left off, I printed the essay and turned it in. I was thrilled with the way it turned out and knew the professor would be just as excited with reading it as I was with writing it. When she returned the papers, she made nice little comments to each person as she handed them their paper. "Nice work on this" or "I really enjoyed your topic" or other things in this vein. When I received mine back, she just looked at me without a word. I received a B-. I was horrified and wanted to cry. As I looked through the essay there were red marks everywhere. I could not understand it at all.

When I took a closer look, I realized that the first part of this essay that I assumed was the latest version was an older unedited version. I had not bothered to reread it since the deadline was so close and I was so certain it was a good copy.

After class, I went to the professor and apologized for giving her substandard work. I offered her an explanation. She offered me the opportunity to rewrite it and turn it in again. At first I said, yes, I would like to do this. Then I changed my mind and said this has been an important lesson for me that I will never forget. As much as I don't want that grade, it will be a constant reminder that I need to check, double check and if need be triple check my work before turning it in.

After all of this thinking about your grade today, someone posted this on Facebook. Not that you did not do the work, but I think this will be a lesson you will never forget.

Student:
Dear Professor James,
I just found out that Professor X gave me a 5 (A) for the thesis. I am beyond happy!! Thanks again. If this makes you 1/10 as happy as it makes me that would make me even more content.

Me:
Congratulations! I had a feeling… The last time she read one of my student’s thesis, she suggested it be published.
Does this now make up for you being upset with me about the potential Religion grade?

Student:
Thank you! I am very happy!! She had some minor remarks - she especially disliked the fact that I did not refer to myself as "I." She said it was "awkward" :-) Oh, well. Overall, she said she really liked it.

Well, I won't say that it makes up for it. I am so frustrated. I can't even tell you. I have to be honest regarding the quizzes. I feel like no matter how much I study, I will never get a 100%. I worked my butt off and studied for the whole weekend and made two outlines for the 3 religions. I have a nice word document besides the highlighted texts. I wouldn't say this is it weren't true. I knew everything that was to know about them. I reread everything, did extra research and even found some online tests. I knew everything except whether only psychologists, anthropologists, or sociologists use the term cultural relativism. Also, I don't know how to interpret when only half of a statement is true. If you say Jehovah's Witnesses refuse blood transfusions for medical reasons only - this is partly true. They do refuse it for medical reasons as well but mainly for religious reasons.

I had the same problem with the quizzes last semester and I cannot tell you how frustrated and sad this makes me. If you asked what cultural relativism was or to write a short essay on any of the religions, asked to define any of the terms I could do it. I am 100% sure of that.

I know life isn't fair but I just feel stupid. The fact that no matter how much work I put into it, I won't get a better grade. I cannot help but feel like an idiot.

I don't mind the studying and I am happy that I am so motivated (even though I know that I screwed up the last quiz as well) to learn. This is a great thing, really. I hope you know that I have learnt a lot and will continue to study this hard for the rest of the quizzes as well. I am not upset with you particularly. I am upset because I cannot seem to change anything regardless how much effort i put into it.

Your quizzes are my enemy, not you. You are a great teacher.

Pin It Now!

I Remember...

This is always a tough time in the semester for students and instructors alike. Those students who are writing a thesis this semester have Monday, April 15th as their deadline. I offer a thesis writing class for students from either the American Studies or the English department so they can write their thesis under close supervision. There were 13 students in the class; this meant volumes of reading/editing/advising. 

Add to this the seven other classes I have this semester, I am ready to topple over. Thankfully, there is a Fulbrighter teaching one class under my name or I would have eight other classes.

To give the journalism students a bit of a break, I did something that our guest speaker, Dana Sachs did last year. I read the poem I Remember by Joe Brainard. Then I asked them to write twenty lines of their own ‘I Remember…’. I thought it was only fair that I Remember too and shared it with them. Here is mine.

I remember discovering there was an opening in the American Studies department at ELTE, just days after I voiced my desire to teach university once again.

I remember printing out my CV and taking a taxi down to the university to hand it in.

I remember my interview with Dr. Bollobás, who ended the interview with “I will call all the people I interviewed on Tuesday at 5pm. You will be home then won’t you?” She repeated the last sentence five times and then gave me her mobile number in case I had to go out.

I remember working with Aaron Hunter, who was much younger than me. He said “Don’t worry if students don’t come to your office hours. It could be your age.”

I remember having an office full of students who just wanted to hang out with me until their next class.

I remember Aaron being confused about all of the students who came to see me for no particular reason.

I remember students who were doing their student teaching when I was teaching Teacher Training. They came to my office crying about how rigid and unaccepting their mentor teachers were in the schools where they were placed.

I remember the department giving a written and oral exam before admitting students to the American Studies program.

I remember how I had to perpetually remind myself that English was the second language for these students.

I remember wondering if a Spanish, French, Russian, or Hungarian major in an American university gets off easy because it is not their first language?

I remember the joy and horror of having the same class for five lessons each week.

I remember assigning five essays a semester with each one having the opportunity for one revision while having thirty students in a class.

I remember not enjoying reading 2,620 pages of students’ work a semester, but I did it in hopes the students would learn something.

I remember discovering when the students accidentally disclosed that all they did for a revision was ACCEPT ALL CHANGES in the essay I returned to them for revision.

I remember learning to lock the essays so they could no longer do that.

I remember the first student who asked me to be his thesis advisor and how nervous I was about being up to the task.

I remember when he received honors on this thesis and how proud I was for both of us.
I remember the first six years of teaching at ELTE when students wanted to hang out as much as possible.

I remember holding coffee meetings twice a month on different days and times so students could come to practice their English.

I remember how those coffee klatches were meant to be an hour, but sometimes I was still there three hours later than planned.

I remember the time when twenty-five students showed up at one time. I was flabbergasted.

I remember the first group of students who gave me five books for Christmas. I cried so hard in front of the class; I was mortified while being humbled at the same time.

I remember the first student who asked if he could come to our home. He spent so much time there, we almost adopted him.

I remember when he left for the Kellner Scholarship; he was so concerned about us that he found a replacement student.

I remember wondering how we would deal with the loss and if this ‘replacement’ would fill his shoes.

I remember the day it occurred to me that we now had two adoptees, because both guys became our family.

I remember the joy I felt when I was able to get the ten computers donated by my friend’s business.

I remember writing the proposal for creating a writing center where students would aid students and I would be in the background as a guide.

I remember my department head deciding that these new computers were perfect for creating a journalism program and made it my task to develop it.

I remember when she told me to come up with 60 different courses that could potentially be our offerings, each with a few sentences detailing the course.

I remember spending days searching American universities websites for their course listings for ideas.

I remember the sense of relief I felt when I finished the task and turned it in with great pride in my achievement.

I remember her response “Wow, Ryan! You really put a lot of work into this, but we only needed about 10 courses worth 60 credits.”

I remember wanting to do damage to someone or something after that.

I remember not being thrilled about the changes in the university policy; we no longer were able to test students for admission.

I remember writing the curriculum multiple times and then having someone in the ivory tower refute something or other.

I remember asking other faculty for their willingness to teach courses within the specialization. Some were willing, others not so much.

I remember the class where they confided that they never paid attention to my editing comments and only looked at the grade.

I remember learning each semester how I had to be tougher if I really wanted these students to get educated.

I remember thinking it was only the credits that mattered to students in the end.

I remember a student telling me this was a true thought.

I remember questioning why I continued to care.

I remember when it dawned on me that I don’t need to care, but then it is time to move on.

Related articles

• I Remember by Joe Brainard - review

Pin It Now!

With All Good Intentions

Just about every day I have good intentions of sharing some piece of my ex-pat life, yet most times I get blindsided by something unexpected or planned, but repressed. At this time of year, there are over a dozen reasons keeping me from fulfilling my personal desires, holding them at arm’s length. This is encapsulated in two words – thesis advisees. Not only is April 15th, the day every American dreads, but it is also this year’s date that all ELTE University thesis composers dread also. It is their deadline.

Quite often, I get a rampage of students who plead “Be my adviser! Pleaseeeeeee”. Suddenly, the word ‘please’ is turned into a multi-syllable word with multi-dimensions too. Thanks to a ruling by my department head, we can no longer cross train. Another words, our department will not take on any of the English Department students and the English Department instructors will flick off our students like a pesky mosquito. Generally, their charms sway me into saying “Sure, I will advise you” to about a dozen students a semester. Because history has taught me that less than half of these who are eager beavers in October or March when the thesis forms need signing, turn into three-toed sloths come writing time. There are a few on my rolls that signed up in 2004, but I have not seen or heard from them since. It is like the Bermuda Triangle of university students. If we ever find it, I will bet there is one hell of a party going on.

This semester like many in the past I have offered a thesis writing course. Generally, I want my own students to attend, but as my luck runs, there are more strangers than familiar faces. In the past, students start the semester charged with writing energy, wanting guidance, and have sugar coated dreams of completing this lingering burden that hangs over their heads. About three classes into any given semester most students have fallen by the wayside while others send me ‘reasons’ why they cannot attend that week’s class. Suddenly, I am provided with a 1 ½ hour free period to either grade papers or do a coffee run.

Are The Gods Are Not To Blame that this semester, the wheel of fortune shifted one click too many? I have 11 students in my thesis writing class, all champions who have serious intentions to complete their hurdles this semester. Nine of these young scholars are not part of my herd; therefore, my workload has increased significantly. Generally, I have to teach 9, yes NINE classes a semester. Each semester has some class that is heavy on the writing component. This semester it happens to be this thesis writing class in addition to creative writing. In addition, I have four classes where I require the students to blog on a weekly basis. This is one heck of a lot of reading/editing/offering suggestions for improvement. My one lucky break is that we have a Fulbrighter teaching one of my classes. Woo-Hoo! I only have 8 classes this semester. Aren’t I the lucky one!

When there is some light piercing through my tunnel of things to do, I take advantage of it to check something off of my Wish List. Currently that happens to be working on a writer’s website that I first started in 2010. I won’t even mention the URL; it is embarrassing how far it has not progressed. Initially, I started it with WordPress, but then found it too cumbersome to learn or to get it to do what I wanted it to do, not what it wanted, like an untrainable puppy. There it sat for years, because I had other things to accomplish that found their way higher on the chain of demands.

Having now co-created a website in Joomla with my never-have-met-friend Nigel, I decided it was time to branch out on my own and create a site from scratch. Throw the bird out of the nest and see if he flies. Obstacle one, WordPress refused to leave the administration area of the site. It basically was rusted into place. I had to reach out to Tom at TRK Hosting for assistance. He not only vacuumed out all remnants of WordPress, but installed Joomla 2.5 for me. My other site is still Joomla 1.5, so this was still going to be a new learning curve to master.

With YouTube at the ready, I had a tutorial all set. Play, pause, and apply the knowledge. Play, pause, and apply the knowledge. This is my SOP (standard operating procedure). I was 32 minutes and 27 seconds into the video when it instructed to install the new template. Here is where the hurdles started. It turned out that the template that really softly and elegantly, although authoritatively sends the whispering tune of ‘professional writer’s website’- is only available in WordPress format. UGH!! After spending hours searching and posting on forums, I raised the white flag of defeat. The only solutions were to install a template temporarily and then try to change the components or switch back to WordPress. Solution one will take numerous hours in setting it up, but once it is, I already am familiar with the basics of Joomla and only need to negotiate the changes from 1.5 to 2.5. Solution two will take numerous hours not only in setting it up, but then numerous hours trying to figure out WordPress thereafter.

After finding three templates for Joomla 2.5 that I could live with, if by chance I would not be able to modify it to my heart’s desire, I tried installing them. Not one would install. Two just gave up before even starting. I take that FAILURE message very personally. The third showed that it had installed 100%, but then there was nothing there. At first I thought it may have been Firefox playing games, so I tried Chrome and Internet Explorer. No dice! I changed computers, but still no prize. Finally, I sent a note off to Tom for help, but have not heard back yet. We will see what happens with this, but I am stubbornly clinging to the template I love. If it cannot be salvaged, it just may be time to learn WordPress.

One thing is for sure, with all of this mental engagement, I am warding off dementia.

Related articles

• Joomla vs WordPress (or why most infographics stink)
• No rest for the wicked: what not to do when you're writing a thesis proposal.
• Joomla The Open Source CMS build your website now..!

Pin It Now!

And the Winner Is...

I am proud and thrilled to announce that my thesis student LÍVIA MARIÁN was nominated for and won the Outstanding Student Thesis of the Year Award. I am so proud of her. Her thesis title was The Megachurch Phenomena in the American Society: The Marketing of Religion in the United States. 

I have had other students who I have advised be nominated, but as their adviser I cannot promote their winning in any capacity.

On another note of congratulations, one of my current journalism specialization students, Orsolya Horváth. She entered a creative writing contest after I sent her the information. The contest was in the US, but participants were from all over. The contest was very controlled. On a pre-arranged date, they sent the applicants the theme for the story, the length required, but they only had 24 hours to write it and send it in. She won Honorable Mention with a prize of a subscription to a writing magazine. From the list of winners, there were only 2 people who were from non-English speaking countries.

Pin It Now!

Too Much Excitement

How much excitement can one person take on a day, I ask you? I woke up knowing that today was the day that Ron would leave for the US. It is exciting for him, but for me it is so-so. I do enjoy the alone time, time to get caught up on ME time. 

But, this morning, when I turned off my school laptop, I was greeted with the screen showing there were Windows updates. Great! Almost immediately, it was followed by that nasty blue screen warning you it is up to no good at all. Then it turned itself off and on again with nasty messages that were not going to make my day brighter. After a mental scan, I remembered the Windows 7 disk for this computer is in my desk at school. There were State Exams today, so I would be there anyway.

Goodbye to Ron, his shuttle was coming at 10, I had to be at school by 9am. 

Five hours of exams where BA students defend their thesis and do the comprehensive oral exam. I had hopes it would be a quick and easy day until I noticed one of my colleagues packed a picnic lunch with afternoon snacks. How can you realistically justify grilling students for 20-25 minutes over a 20 page thesis? If you want more details, make the thesis longer. A page a minute for interrogation is way too long. Then they continue with the orals for the two subject areas. These kids could earn another BA in the amount of time we spend harassing them.

When I came home, I found a letter in the mail. It had those two side strips on the back like there was a form that needed signing, but was ripped off. It was from the electric company, but they did not say which apartment it was for. Of course, I couldn't read it so I sent it to Arpad for translation. 

Translation: The letter says you have run up a 1,336-forint debt, and this seems like a final notice. They claim to have sent you notifications, but you have not responded.
Unless you pay the debt off, which you can do until June 27th, they will shut down electricity in the apartment. This would happen sometime between July 2nd and July 9th.

For a total of about $7.00 they are threatening to turn off the electric? We give them over a hundred bucks a month as it is and for this piddly sum, they are threatening. I know there has not been other notices. Well, I wasn't sure which apartment it was for, but I paid it. Now, I am paranoid about whether or not they received it and credited the account. I went to the website, but it is in Hungarian only and will not work in Chrome so that I can have it translated automatically. The site says you have to use IE or Firefox. Geesh!

Home again with my Windows 7 disk, I tried repairing the laptop. Didn't work. I Googled every possible issue that I could identify and tried them. Still nothing. It seems the hard drive has died. It will not even recognize there is a hard drive there when I was going to do a clean install. The joys of daily living.

Related articles

• One Thesis Proposal and One Thesis Defense

  ---

• When Life Gave Me Melons

  ---

• Research on Quality in interpreting

  ---

• The Secret Teacher damns the exam boards

  ---

Pin It Now!

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

Pin It Now!

Proud Papa Teacher

Well I cannot really be proud papa, but I can be a proud teacher. I have heard from three of my students whose thesis I had advised so far. All three received a 5 (A) on their thesis defenses. Two of them received a 5 on the written work, one a 4. I really argued with the instructor who gave a 4, because the thesis was on uses of technology in the US classroom. She has no concept of technology and did not think much of it was relevant. The unfortunate part is she is young and molded into the traditional outdated, outmoded way of teaching. She did bend to give him a 5 for the defense, so he is happy, I am satisfied.

Pin It Now!

Almost at the End

Tomorrow is the last day of school for this semester and then SUMMER vacation starts and lasts until September. Glory be, I thought it would never get here. Burn out is when you take on too many new classes, too many thesis students in one semester, and then have to chase after them. The chasing was my choice, hoping to avoid last minute disasters. Hungarians are major procrastinators. Three of my advisees really did exceptional work on their thesis. One student did excellent work on Information Technology in Education, but unfortunately, it was read and graded by my office-mate, a young Hungarian. She mentioned to me that she only gave it a B grade or a 4 in this system. It took self-control not to lunge over the desks at her throat, but I asked why. She said that "Everyone knows that information systems are taught in the Hungarian curriculum" so it was not relevant since he did not state where this type of education should take place. After I relocated my jaw, with tact I responded that since this is an American Studies degree and since this is an American Studies thesis, it should not be relating to Hungary at all. If there is so much technology in the Hungarian school systems, why do student come to the university not knowing anything about it? Then I went on to say that the only division of the university to use Moodle for online teaching was the Psychology Department and when I wanted to teach an online course, no one in the department knew what I was talking about. She said "Moodle? What is Moodle?" If she had indeed read the thesis, she should have known what Moodle is. Teaching with Luddites is getting on my nerves. One of my former students who will soon be graduating with her MA came to ask me if I could supervise her for the doctoral program. While trying to explain that although I am on the doctoral faculty, I would not have time to do it with the new MA course I will be teaching come fall. She said if I couldn't do it she would not even apply. Although I was flattered, this is not the way to make life decisions and I told her so. She responded with the fact that all of the other instructors would make her conform to doing what they wanted her to and not give her the freedom to pursue her own interests. After the confrontation with my colleague, I was reminded yet again that this is the sad truth.

Pin It Now!

Dear, Dear Students and Other Musings

Due to some poor note taking and short term memory loss, I ended up with twelve thesis students this semester. The average is two, the usual maximum is four. How could I do this to myself? Well, it is a systems problem. They must turn in their title, which is engraved in stone, one year ahead of time. As they meandered into my office at various times, I said yes, but not really making notes of the semester they were planning on the actual work. I arranged my other course workload accordingly, when the reality hit me. All of the essays I had assigned were pushed back on each syllabus, due after April 1st. The theses would all be due March, so it would give me time to focus on the essays without stress. The university had other ideas. They too extended the deadline for thesis submission to April 15th for the first time in my seven year tenure. Why? Do they need a valid reason? Surely not! Two of the twelve were great achievers and had their thesis completed to my level of perfection by January. That left ten to chase. Each student I advise gets a calendar of due dates. They have to submit five pages a week and meet with me once every two weeks. Rules are made to be broken and they did. I still have four Masters thesis students struggling to make the deadline. Two others are BA students and their deadline is May 1st, so the suffering still had time to fester. Thursday, I had a computer technician here for issues beyond my scope of knowledge. I felt justified in calling him in when it took him five hours to resolve some issues and he will return the first of the week for others. Handing over a wad of cash was satisfying in the fact that these were not simple band-aids I could have solved with some critical thought and Google. This put me yet farther behind in a writing assignment that has been waiting for my attention. Hating procrastination, this has been eating at me knowing it needs my attention. Even blogging has taken a backseat. Yesterday, putting other students at an arms length, I started the assignment, but first had to review a list of 222 restaurants to be certain they still existed. With the restaurant culture being what it is here, the life span of a restaurant is usually death within the first year. Often, another restaurant will move into the same space, spend a fortune remodeling, even keep the same phone number, only to repeat the process nine months to a year later. There seems to be no learning from history and demographics...they have no clue what they are. One area had four Indian restaurants within two blocks. Three are now history. So from the list, an overwhelming number of them have gone by the wayside. The Hungarian Restaurant Association predicts that with the economic crisis, 30% of all restaurants in the country will close up shop within 2009. That is not to say that some optimistic, dare I say 'fool' will believe he or she can beat the odds and succeed. If nothing, it does bring continual variety to the food culture, but it is a horror when writing for travel publications. My first Frommer's book, three restaurants went out of business after the manuscript was submitted, but after it went to press and before it came out in stores. The total sum cost of reviewing those restaurants was over $100. of wasted money.

Pin It Now!

Thesis Students and other Dilemmas

Somehow, I wound up with eight Masters thesis advisees this semester, more than anyone else in the department. Knowing I was instituting a new program in Journalism this semester, I encouraged all of them to start their writing over the summer. I met with three of them consistently and they worked diligently easing the semester for all concerned. At the last minute, another student popped up from the clear blue. I had been her adviser of record over three years ago, but she disappeared. Now I have nine students. Each student has to write a minimum of forty pages, not a big deal for a thesis, but think about trying to do this in Hungarian if you are not a native speaker. Most of them are so fluent, I forget English is not their mother tongue and wave off their concerns about filling forty pages. The worst of it is that they are required to have twenty-five books and four journal articles cited in their work. Considering the resources here, it is as possible as transversing the Appalachian trail without leaving Europe. Amazon.com becomes their best friend because they spend an inordinate amount of money on books, many that look great with the description, but are left wanting once they arrive. The solution I have found for them is Questia online at www.questia.com, an Internet library. They can either use the free library or join for one month, get their research done, note the information they need for the Works Cited pages and voila, they have saved a ton of money. Anyhow, reading, editing, suggesting, commenting on chunks of students' work while still carrying on with the regular reading, editing, suggesting, commenting on students' work in the semester classes, can seriously cause brain strain. After poring over one student's thesis, I sent it back and she replied that she also went over it and found a number of spelling errors. My response was "Gosh if you found typos in the first 20 pages, I should be fired for not finding them first. Distance is a great thing for improving your perspective from you own work." Her response was what makes this worth the effort. "I don’t think you should be fired! J It is not you task to correct every little bit of mistake. The depth of the comments that you make is exceptional, in any case." On to the next thesis with a smile rather than a frown.

Pin It Now!