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!

Burned to a Crisp

I wouldn’t say that I am burned out, but hey, if you held a cigarette close to me, it would light on fire without a match. I am gaining popularity with scout troops for their camping trips when they want to start the campfire for cooking. As I write this, there are 24 days, 5 hours, and 42 minutes left before the end of my semester. There is nothing that could make me happier at this point other than finding out I have inherited a castle in Scotland, tax-free.

You will notice that I am using all numbers in digital form even 1-9, which would normally be spelled out in an academic format. They are more impressive as digits. Generally, I have to teach 9 classes a semester. This year, I was able to get by with 8 because we have a Fulbrighter teaching one of my classes. She taught one last semester also. Still, the classes that I have are teeming with writing, mostly my fault. However, if a student is getting a degree in a foreign language, shouldn’t they be able to communicate in writing? Duh!

I have four courses where the students are required to blog on a weekly basis. This adds up to over 60 blog posts to read or at least just skim over. There is no way I am going to correct their grammar on the Mystery Novel blog or the Corp-orocracy (a course name self-created), but I do pay attention to those in the Blogging and Website class as well as Race and Ethnicity 2 blogs. These are the journalism specialization students who are in the program due to some plan on getting an English speaking/writing job at some point. Having 115 students this semester if I counted them as separate students within different classes with different projects, I was overwhelmed. Consider that one class was The Methodology of Writing the Cultural Studies Thesis for BA and MA students. In this class, I had 13 students who were trying to meet the April 15th deadline for turning in their work. BA students only need to write 20 pages, but the MA students need to fill 60 pages. Each week, I had them write 3-5 pages depending on their degree for me to read and edit, making sure they were on track and their grammar was acceptable. One of my other courses this semester is Creative Writing. The 18 students in this class write a short story every week, not more than 2 pages, but add it to the pile; we are looking at a mountain of paperwork.

All of this work comes flooding into my e-mail as an attachment. This gives me the opportunity to check it in Word using Track Changes. However, I have gotten smarter over the years. When I return the assignment, I change the format to PDF. For those who need to use my comments for a revision, like the thesis writers, they cannot do Accept Changes and make short work of it. They have to look at my notes and comments, with a bit of hope, think about them, and then make the changes on their own. For others, it blocks them from making any changes and then resubmitting it to tell me I made a mistake, so the grade should be inflated. It has happened. Then there are the students who are enrolled in multiple classes that I am responsible for who send in an assignment as an attachment sans a name on the document, nothing in the subject line, the body of the e-mail or on the document itself to give me any clue as to what class to assign the grade. Perhaps, knowing how much I enjoy mystery novels, they are trying to infect me with their affliction of amenomania. Not!  It is a waste of my time.

I am not alone among the faculty, who are increasingly realizing students are lacking the satisfaction taken in an achievement well done. This semester, I warned that the semester essays would be run through 2 different plagiarism checkers making it a wise choice for them to do the same before their submission. The bonus suggestion was added that they should seriously consider using multiple grammar checkers in addition. If you write well, this will take minutes. If you cannot execute a document at a scholarly level, this will give you pause for thinking about editing.

The problem here for most students is that the last minute to turn in an assignment are the precious moments when they are finishing the works cited page. They haven’t a moment to spare to use superfluous (in their minds) outside aids when they have a pushover instructor who will do it for them. Oh, how they rage when they find that the instructor is no longer willing to be their full-time editor and requires their attention to detail. This is when the revolt begins.

To be continued…

Pin It Now!

The Lottery or The Hungary Games

If you have never read Shirley Jackson’s short story The Lottery, it really is a must. I first read it in junior high school and then again in college. It is still one of my favorite stories and has influenced some of my own fiction writing.

Due to my admiration of Ms. Jackson’s work, I include this story in my creative writing class at the university. This last week, I wanted students to analyze the story, but knowing that no one read it, I had them take turns reading out loud 2 paragraphs at a time. After each reading, we had a discussion of the setting, the characters, the time period, and all of the elements we had studied thus far in the textbook. I involved them in sharing what brought them to the conclusions they voiced. Initially, I was pleased with the responses, their take on the story.

By about the 10th paragraph or soon thereafter, when I opened it up for questions about the section just read, the responses ranged from “I’m bored”, or “There are too many characters, so I don’t care about them” or “Can’t we get to the point and stop rambling?” This was like putting a knife in my heart, since I felt like this was a personal treasure being shared with people I cared enough about to so. However, they not only snubbed my gift, but they denigrated it also. I was devastated and flummoxed as I had used this story in years past with much different results.

Around the middle of the story, when questioned, the student response was that this must have been taken from The Hunger Games. There were so many similarities between the two storylines. Well, this is true, but I bit my tongue. OUCH! That really hurt.

When we reached the end of the story, there was no doubt in some minds that this was a rip-off of The Hunger Games. This was my AH-HA! moment. I announced this story was first published in the June 26, 1948 issue of The New Yorker. It gave me some satisfaction to say that The Hunger Games may have been inspired by Shirley Jackson, not the other way around.

Still, this got me to thinking as I reiterated this story to a couple of friends. What occurred to me was that when I started teaching here 11 years ago, less than 2% of the students owned a computer of any type. Now, 100% of them not only have computers, but smartphones as well. There is no longer awe for the classics, as The Lottery falls into this category. Actually, one student had the audacity to say “Maybe it’s a generational thing that you like it.” To this I wanted to respond that perhaps it was a matter of taste and class. Damn, my tongue hurts from repeated biting.

It seems that even Hungarian students are no longer satiated without the bells, whistles, video, and all of the other accoutrements of the Internet or entertainment sources. If it was not created in the last five years, it cannot possibly be of any value for their education.

It is just about time for me to hang up my piece of chalk and call it a career.

Related articles

• Thoughts: Life Among the Savages by Shirley Jackson

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!

Semester Endings

Yesterday was the last day of my semester. Other than going in on Monday to sign grade books, and then two different Wednesdays to administer thesis defenses, I am free to do what I want until September. That is the luxury of being a university instructor. Of course after having to be responsible for ten classes this semester, this is a welcomed break. 

As the Coordinator of the Journalism and Writing Program, one that I created, I have been overwhelmed with the creativity that students exhibit. Each year, students seem to raise the bar one peg higher than the class before them. Although, they are not always performing to my expectations in all of their classes, the Creative Writing and the Blogging/Website classes are two where they shine. 

I want to share some of their blogs and websites that they created this semester. You have to remember, these students take an extraordinary number of classes, where fifteen a semester is just part of the norm. Some take more and some are enrolled in two universities at the same time. These are in the order that they sent them to me. There were other students as well, but they did not get their projects in by the deadline.

Istvan Szimhar:
Blog: Black and White Hungary
Website: Istvan’s bin

Marina Kompar:
Blog: Budapest with a Pinch of Music
Website: Vege Budapest

Gergő Holdosi:
Blog: The Healthy You
Website: Delicious Hungary

Emil Chalhoub:
Blog: Budapest Street Photography
Website: Emil Chalhoub  Photography & Journalism

Daniel Layko:
Blog: Musical Recreation
Website: Hungarian Breweries

Faisal Abu Ghaben:
Blog: The Faith Portal

Website: Abu Ghaben Photography

Orsi Horvath:
Blog: Unreality Series
Website: Orsolya Horvath Writings

Related articles

• Breathe

  ---

• Dining out in Budapest

  ---

• The end of Semester 2

  ---

• Letter: Jobs, but no work, in Communist Hungary

  ---

• Orsi Horváth: A Surreal Perspective

  ---

Pin It Now!

It is Nice to Be Appreciated

I received this note from a student who I had in a number of classes for the journalism specialty. Now, I don't see him very often. This is what he wrote me. I asked his permission to place it here.

Dear Dr. James,

While wasting my time on Facebook, I stumbled upon some status updates written by members of the current generation of journalism students. After using my critical thinking skills (), I figured out that it must be close to the due date for the Race and Ethnicity essays.

This reminded me of what I had planned to tell you earlier: I somewhat miss the assignments which you gave us.

I wouldn’t say that I thoroughly miss them, for there were times when I had no idea, and I was just staring at the computer screen for hours not knowing what to write about, but it’s indisputable that they were useful. I think I won’t hurt you if I confess that I never liked Race and Ethnicity. And, quite frankly, there were times when I just hated the blogging tasks. But every writing assignment is useful in some way.

The most difficult part of writing, as you told us at the beginning of our Creative Writing classes, is to start it. Indeed, it is. In this semester I only have to submit two essays. This makes me extremely lazy. Previously, I thought I couldn’t be any lazier, but I was wrong.

Since I don’t have to write, I really rarely do it. I even questioned whether journalism and professional writing are right up my alley. (I still don’t know the answer.) I am concerned that I might forget words and how to write in English. Interestingly, seldom do I update my Hungarian blog, so I’m also concerned about that, but to a less extent because I suppose it’s impossible to forget one’s mother tongue. To make a long story short, I think the assignments were really good for keeping us in the routine.

Of course I don’t say that I was always fond of what we had to do. But I realized that those assignments had helped us a lot.

There’s a nice quote, I think from Daniel H. Pink: “Write every day. Regaining momentum takes three times as much energy as sustaining momentum.”

So, to put it in a nutshell, this is what I wanted to say.

Enjoy the break (and have fun while grading the essays),

Árpád

Pin It Now!

Tis Better to Try Than Never Try at All

“It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.” — Edward de Bono

This is an idea that awakened in my for some time, but a former Fulbrighter brought it to the surface. Bruce Holland Rogers was a Fulbright scholar at my university. He taught creative writing and I did con him into teaching Ethics in Journalism. This was out of his repertoire, but he withstood the challenge successfully for all concerned. One other thing that Bruce did aside from the university was hold "parlors", a social space at his apartment. It was attending and listening to students, other instructors, and friends of friends at these groups that I realized it needed to continue in some form.

What I have become aware of over the years of living here is that my own creativity is like the stock market in uncertain times. There are frequent highs and lows that shift quickly and significantly. What I realized is I need some support group to balance myself, yet at the same time, realizing how creativity is lacking in the educational system. Just as I decided I needed to do something pro-active, I had read an article that admonished the US educational system for no longer teaching creative skills. How can they when they have to teach to the test?

Well, I am doing something for me and hopefully for others as well. I am planning on starting a "Creativity Group". This is not a class, it is not something for credit. What it IS as I envision it is...

• A safe place for ANYONE who speaks English to come to develop, share, or support each others' creativity.

My thoughts are that eventually it will split into other groups such as a prose writers support group and a poetry support group. Any other groups are waiting to be born.

Do I have this clearly organized in my own mind? NO! If I did, I would be limiting the creativity of the group. Flexibility is the key to creativity. Are others welcome to contribute? I am counting on it. I know some people including former students who have done some really creative things or are doing them now. I want them to come speak to us about how they develop ideas. 

Is this open only to students at ELTE? NO, see "ANYONE" above. Past students, current students, future student, you sister, your father, your boss, ANYONE is welcome to attend. The only requirement is a working knowledge of English.

Today, I received permission to use one of our large classrooms as I have high hopes of a good turnout. Now, I have to figure out days and times. My thoughts are one Tuesday and one Thursday a month. Those that cannot make it on Tuesday, have another opportunity on Thursday. At the moment, I am thinking something like the 2nd Thursday and the 4th Tuesday, at least until the winter break. We have to be out of the building completely by 7:45 pm, so my thought was starting at 6:00 pm to 7:00, which gives us some wiggle room if we run over.

If anyone has ideas, feedback, please send them in. 

Pin It Now!

It Has Finally Arrived

I was beginning to believe this day was never going to arrive, but it has and it is today. This is my last day of classes, which for the most part means that my obligations at the university are over until September. There are a few snags along the way, but minor ones. Throughout my 25 years of teaching, I have never failed to have all of my grades completed and ready to turn in by the last day of school. This year, I stumbled somehow. For my Creative Writing class, I put the last class date as the due date for their last and lengthy 12 page short story. Students being who and what they are, nothing arrives earlier than the due date and a handful ask for an extension on top of that. 

 

Not only do I have to hold off on end-of-term celebrations, but I have to read all of these stories this weekend to polish off the grades. 

The other minor hiccup in my spreadsheet of empty days are a few complications called May 26th, June 2nd, 16th, 23rd, and 25th I have to put in a half day's appearance for what they call State Exams. We call them thesis defenses and oral comprehensives.

So I have this whole great canvas of time to fill up with things to do. It is like New Years all over again. I make a list of resolutions about what I am going to accomplish that summer and then never get to a fraction of that wish list. Last summer, I was researching and writing my book, making any other project impossible. Three summers ago, it was the same story: research and write.

This summer, I hope to write and read, read and write and there were some other things that floated through my mind like dust mites travel past our eyesight, but for now they are gone. If they return, they will be duly evaluated and triaged by order of importance, perhaps to also be acted upon. After all, when I return in September, I need to fill an essay of "What I did on my summer vacation".

Related articles by Zemanta

• Are Writers Taught? Do They Learn? Or Both? (writeabetternovel.net)

Pin It Now!

Yesterday, All of My Troubles Seemed So Far Away...

Not really, I just like the song. Yesterday was the deadline for the MA students to turn in their thesis. Four of them managed to get it done. One, I had completely forgotten about, because that angel finished it last semester. She worked like a trooper with plans on finishing up, but the university has a policy of both theses from the two different departments having to be turned in at the same time. Students on the old program had to have two majors. 

The three who were running for the finish line yesterday, worked diligently, albeit at the last moments. One had the audacity to write me that "I just have not been able to motivate myself to write my thesis after returning from the U.S., but I guess I had better get a move on it." This was just three weeks ago. My knee-jerk response was to reply "I just have not been able to get myself motivated to read and make suggestions for your thesis. However, I did not. I knew he would turn one in whether or not I threatened to sign off on it; therefore, eventually, it is my name and reputation contiguously with his, putting them both on the line.

One of the others e-mailed me at the hour of doom to say that he had a dream that he forgot to include a citation for a quotation. When he checked he had, and missed two others besides giving instant cause for a failure if caught. He was getting his thesis bound at the 11th hour, but managed to turn it in on time.

Now, I can return to the world of creative writing stories for those students' papers have been neglected for the last two weeks. Just enough time to catch up before reading the doctoral dissertation for the committee I was volunteered to be on and before we pull the curtain on the end of the semester, there are always the BA student theses to finish up. There is something to be said for being a physical education or art teacher.

Related articles by Zemanta

• So Proud (budgetnomad.blogspot.com)
• advice: how to start my writing career (stephanieklein.com)
• U of R prof accused of plagiarism (cbc.ca)

Pin It Now!

Oh My Throbbing Head

I have been reading students' theses for the MA program. These are for the students that I advise. My criteria for taking them on is that they send every five pages that they write, so I can find errors in clarity, sentence structure, grammar, spelling, and so on and so on ad nauseam. My theory and what I share with them repeatedly is if there is something wrong, I can catch it early on and save time and energy for both of us later. This semester, I was supposed to have seven MA people writing and four BA students. 

The MA thesis has to be turned in April 16th. How many students have I heard from? Three! However, only two have sent me anything. What they did send was their whole thesis. So, I am juggling reading those, reading my Creative Writing class assignments, and then there are the essays for my Race and Ethnicity II class. 

Though I have taught "Academic Writing" to 99% of the R and E class, those who chose to grace me with their paper, turned in something I would be humiliated to turn in in junior high school, let alone university. These are students who are supposed to be going on a journalism internship next semester. Well, I am the Chairperson of the Writing Program, so I have final say. Until then...

Pin It Now!

Outcome of My Meeting

I am often reminded of the proverb "Be careful what you wish for". After going through all of the stages of death from denial to resolution in regard to my position at the university and my letter to her sent on Saturday. The reassurance was her reply that stated she could not agree more and we should meet. This happened late this afternoon. One thing that I am thankful for is her support for new ideas. When I have complaints, I accompany them with potentials solutions giving me the edge. The bottom line is her fear is that the university may not feel it is worth the cost of having two full time native language speakers with the new Bologna program. American Studies is no longer a major unto itself. We have to retool. As a result, I am now the creator of a new sub-specialization of Journalism, Academic, and Creative Writing. The program has to be 50 credits and completed in three semesters. Each course will be 3 credits each and we decided on an internship for the last 5 credits. I submitted a list of 22 possible courses with descriptions. I will design a program with mandatory classes to be taken the first semester of the specialization and then they will be able to select electives also. There is a journalist who works for NBC in NYC here for one semester teaching at the University of Szeged, but they want to keep him here another semester. I am hoping we can incorporate his expertise to kick start our journalism portion. In addition, the head-head of the departments of English studies forwarded an e-mail for me to respond to from a gentleman from an institute in Washington state would like to create a cooperative program with our university. They offer an MFA in Creative Writing. I was successful in getting a Writing Lab established with 10 computers, 8 of which will be connected to the Internet. Classes will be held in this room as well as a separate writing lab program that I will oversee. Being one who thrives on challenges, I could not be happier.

Pin It Now!

The Letter of Doom

I wrote a very strong letter to my department head about this new program which I am supposed to develop. My concerns revolved around the lack of money to make is successful. At one meeting when I mentioned that I ordered and bought books from the States for my own courses, one professor remarked, "You are such a perfectionist. Just download articles from the Internet and make a reader." This is what we did my first two years here, but good pedagogy requires something better than this. With such a reader, there is no consistency in reading levels, ideas, framing of concepts, and so on. Also the thought of teaching only the theory of journalism and medias studies without any practical applications did not seem that the program would be engaging for students. Therefore, we would start with a splash and then it would soon fade into oblivion from lack of interest. The thinking here is to just slap something together and call it new. When it does not work out, it is the students fault for not trying, not caring, not being interested enough, but never the fact that we cannot be on the cutting edge. Hungary is at the bottom of the list of European countries in technology, so what competitive advantage does this give our students once they graduate? Before they even get close to graduation, their education is already years behind other countries in some areas. With some forethought, I e-mailed my letter to my former teaching partner. He taught at ELTE for six years and knows the system as the players well. He agreed the letter was strong, made some points where I should cut and condense others. As he mentioned, it did contain many truths that they would not want to hear, but needed to be faced with. After making the revisions, I sent off the letter as a Word document with a note in the e-mail that this was a loving and supportive letter with my students in mind. I waited and waited, and panicked at the length of time it took for a response. This evening, I did get a response from my department head who stated right off that she could not agree with me more. We are going to meet to discuss the options. However, being the person I am, I did come up with 23 courses in the area of journalism, media studies, and academic writing along with course descriptions and sent that off too. It seemed to me that this would bring clarity to the points I made in my letter by showing that a media course needs to have movies if you are going to study the portrayal of race and class in American film. Additionally, what good are journalism classes if there are no hands on experiences? A writing lab would be perfect for this so students can create a newsletter, a blog or write an article for possible publication. Most of my colleagues are busy with their own professional development, which is not necessarily reflected back into the classroom. They look for grants and opportunities for themselves, but not for the program or the university. I feel if I expose a problem, I have to also offer solutions for it at the same time. Those ideas are cooking.

Pin It Now!

If One Door Closes...

When my students apply for a scholarship and do not get it, I always tell them when one door closes another opens, so perhaps it is for the best. This is a lesson I need to remember for myself as I teach it to others. I was totally infuriated over the fact that an American Studies department at the largest university in Central Europe could even think of cutting the position of their native speakers. As the universe responds to needs, the ultimate head of the English department forwarded an e-mail he received asking me to respond to it. This gentleman from an institute in Washington state was looking for a university to make a cooperative connection with in Budapest. Up to now, he has been hitting brick walls with no one giving a positive response before he was even able to explain what he wanted. I was not sure what powers my head of department was instilling on me; why would I be the one to write him back? I was given the warning though that the university had absolutely no money for anything new. How well I knew this mantra having my job threatened every two years. I wrote the writer back and it turned out we have extensive pages long 'discussions' in the course of the afternoon. He is currently in London. He represents a program that confers an MFA degree for Creative Writing. That is their only position in academia. Currently, they are working on accreditation. The US Embassy in both Finland and Portugal have flown him to universities in those countries to give seminars and lectures, thus he is trying to set up cooperative agreements in each region. By chance, he and his wife came to Budapest for a vacation and not surprisingly, he fell in love with the city and wanted to establish some working relationship here. Our students have been crying for a creative writing option for years. This would be a match made in heaven if we could do something like this. Before making any further exploratory commitments, I forwarded a note to the ultimate department head as well as my department chair who has been resistant to any creative writing possibilities. The suggestion was that this could fit into the new journalism, media program. With the ultimate head on my side, I knew that the department head had to be swayed to concede to our side. It worked! I received the affirmation that this indeed could be a bonus for our program. We are in the thralls of excitement, but first the institute needs to get the final go from their Board of Directors to actually make this happen. If it does, then our university will be paid for room rental, another coup. No money put out, but money coming in. This point brings me to another reason why I was angered over the positions being cut. It was due to me and my contacts that our department received eight brand new computers and a grant of two million forints ($12,600) for infrastructure from an American company based here in Budapest. Without my endeavors, this would never have happened. That amount is more than I earn in a year, so I have paid for my salary and still earned the department money.

Pin It Now!

The South Africans are coming

The South Africans are coming…

Well actually, I lied. They arrived this morning. Don and Patricia Pinnock arrived today from Cape Town, South Africa. Why are they worth writing about, you may ask, so I will share the info with you.

When we were in Cape Town, we rented their apartment. You can find their information in this blog, but to save you doing a search and ignoring me now, I will enlighten you. Don is the Associate Editor for Get Away magazine, a thick, rich, travel monthly that is distributed to eighty countries. He writes a number of articles as well as doing the photographs. His background was once in Criminal Justice, with a doctorate and specializations in gang behavior. He has some books to his credit in this area. After changing life paths, he has written Blue Ice about Antarctica and African Journeys.

Patricia has a Masters in Creative Writing and has written nine children’s books, a book of poetry, and three adult novels. Her writing name is Patricia Schonstein and Patricia Schonstein Pinnock. One of her books has been sold for movie rights to a company in the UK. Two of her books have won literary awards in France and the UK. Her poetry book is being translated into Spanish and Finnish.

As if this is not enough excitement, Don is here to write an article for the magazine that he dreamed up while we were there. The article concept is going anywhere in the world from South Africa on 10,000 Rand a person. They are here to make this happen. Since they are staying with us as B and B guests, our B and B will be in the article. So far, they are very impressed with the flat and the bed, which they tested for their post-travel nap. I will report back as the week develops.

Stay tuned.

Pin It Now!