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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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.

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Umm...I Am Not Out of Here Yet

Hmmm…current events have brought to mind the misquote of Mark Twain “Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated”. (‘The report of my death was an exaggeration’. It was his cousin James Ross Clemens, who was seriously ill and he was confused with the author).

Reports of our leaving Hungary have been greatly exaggerated. It is funny; I resigned from ELTE at the end of the semester. Wednesday was my last official day at the university, where I spent close to five hours administering thesis defenses with three of my colleagues. After each student defended, I kept thinking this is the last time I will have to do this. The night before, I was awake most of the night, so this was the one thought that energized me through the tedium of the exams. When we finished grilling the last student, there were two hours to spare before a faculty meeting scheduled at 2pm. I gave serious thought to skipping out on the meeting; whatever they discussed no longer pertained to me. However, it did occur to me that there was still a paycheck hinging on my being cooperative, so I decided I had better go.

After everyone was there our department head announced there was a long agenda. As it turned out the faculty meeting was a ruse for my goodbye party. She said that my students will probably remember me for many years to come and of course I had to add that I hope that some of those remembrances would be positive. This provided a chuckle.

She reminded me that I should take all of the equipment I have purchased over the years, since it is mine and not ELTE’s. She didn’t know was that my office was wiped clean weeks ago.

The television that sat in there for the last 5 years, which I had purchased for my classroom was given to an orphanage in Göd. They also received a large bag of Legos I used in my Critical Thinking classes. My printer went to a former student. I took home my laptop, speakers, and of course the projector; all of these were my purchases. Every book that had accumulated on my bookshelf, came home in small easy to carry bundles until my bookcase space only had old theses I advised and books donated by former Fulbrighters.

At the party, all of the women colleagues gave me a hug, while the two male colleagues who showed up, shook my hand. The ‘refreshments were Hungarian pogácsás, a tray of chocolate chip cookies, but the highlight was special.  One of my colleagues thought enough of me to go out to buy three pieces of diabetic cake.

My going away presents were a novel by a Hungarian writer translated into English. Another present was a travel coffee cup with the ELTE insignia on it. I was assured that the top could be flipped around to I would not have to look at ELTE any longer.

Funny, but each of my colleagues had a different version of what my plans were now that I have left the university. They ranged from my leaving the country to move back to the US, to South America, to another European country, to sailing the blues seas in a life raft.

So I am officially or unofficially no longer working although my contract continues until August 31. I'm not sure what I'm going to do beyond that, but as always, I have some ideas brewing.

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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.

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Crispy Critter Part 2

One of the problems I have created for myself is that I explain most everything to my students. I share with them all of my background thinking which forms the foundations for my motives in how I plan out class procedures. Included in this is an explanation of how I perceive them fulfilling the demands for each class. What seems to me as a transparency in teaching translates to them as a democracy; they have this sense that they should get a vote on each of the assessment components. Whenever something changes without giving them advance notice, they huddle like the crowd outside Frankenstein’s castle ready to lynch the monster. Generally, there is always one spokesperson who claims to have been appointed to be the champion of justice as if by some royal decree. However, time and again, when I question other students, they have no memory of appointing any person to be their spokesperson.

This happened yet again this semester where someone from the Justice League had issues with my assignment. It has happened in the past over minor issues, but this one seemed to be a significant event, at least in some of their mercurial minds. Prior knowledge of having 115 students, to deal with this semester, with 18 of them being in creative writing, it was a no-brainer that I would be drowning in a student writing pool of papers. This led to my creating changes to maintain my sanity assuring I would still have some of it by April and with any luck possibly still by the middle of May. By May 15th, I would need a mental douching.

There had to be a reduction in the number of pages assigned per assignment. Both Race and Ethnicity and Religions Born in the US had their required essays lowered to six pages, not including the works cited pages. To substantiate this change of expectations, there was the added requirement that once they wrote their essay, they were to create an online magazine with it. Pictures or video clips could be added to provide a real magazine feeling if they chose. Three online magazine sources were provided as well as a sample magazine created by one student last semester. I also shared that the student admitted it took her a week to format the magazine properly. This tip fell on deaf ears. An additional peremptory warning was that the essay would be run through two grammar checkers and two plagiarism checkers. I also shared that I would send out the magazine with the accompanying essay to all friends and acquaintances who were willing to read at least one.

Again, they unquestionably want to believe this is a democracy. As one student claimed, “Students don’t want to learn, we just want to accumulate the credits.” This is where the war began, so I had to write this disclosure statement.

If you look at the essay/magazine grading rubric, you will have to notice there is nothing there pertaining to the magazine itself other than the word at the top. The word is there just to clarify that the magazine is created from the essay as I mentioned in class.

Some of you are more advanced than others with technology and will have different outcomes in negotiating the magazine. The intention for having you turn in the essay with the magazine was because editing a magazine, to show you the errors, would have been impossible.

The reason for having you create the magazine at all was to expand your thinking and creativity. In the Hungarian educational system, expanded thinking and creativity are in short supply. Students have complained to me about this for over eleven years.

This project was meant to assist you in developing critical thinking skills that still need developing.

You knew about this assignment from the beginning of the semester. If you did not plan ahead to find sufficient research material, this is a student issue.

Please do not insult me by speculating that you or anyone else can send me mediocre, shoddy work and expect to get a gold star.

This is the 21st century, yet Hungarian students are far behind the times of many other countries, not just the US. Before they pointed to other countries where they consider it to be far worse than here, I warned them to ask themselves if this alone makes them proud of their education.

I sent these to educated friends to review. Initially, my reasoning was to brag to others about what my students are capable of doing. In addition to this, I wanted to have an objective point of view about the essay/magazine. Unfortunately, what I discovered was that many of these reviewers were more concerned with protecting student egos than they were in giving an honest critique, but hinted at their concerns. Those who were honest were quite harsh in their comments about the limits of research, the poor grammar, and all of the other issues that I had also identified and marked in the essays.

My hopes that knowing a stranger would read their work, would have pushed them into being higher achievers, never came to fruition.

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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…

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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.

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The Tech Teacher

I subscribe to a professional teaching blog which has some great articles that I find really pertinent; however, they are not always applicable to teaching here in Hungary. This last week, there was one called How Technology Can Improve Learner Centered Teaching. I thought it was a great article and felt the need to send it out to students old and current. Along with the newsletter, I sent a note asking if they thought I should send it out to the entire faculty besides. Actually, I was just joking and had no intention of doing so.

The student reactions I received was surprising, but this is one typical example.

"I am flattered to see that you are interested in my opinion. 

You know, when I read the article I had this 'why does this sound so familiar' moment more than once, when the article mentioned email notifications, blogging, surveys, online tests, online syllabus, peer review, etc. Than I realized that basically this is what your classes look like.

Hmm, as for sending this to faculty members, I don't know... There are certainly some members who would rather die as a "sage on the stage" than to use technology to improve classes. I remember for example one instructor who banned laptops from classes."

Another student informed me that her prior university in Hungary had an interactive white board. What I wouldn't do for one of those. Even within a university, there are the haves and the have nots. Science and those more 'elegant' departments always get the goodies first.

What experiences do some of you have with eduction in different countries?

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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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Don't Get Greedy With That Black Hole

Today is my last day at school until November 2nd. Because I don't teach on Fridays or Mondays, I have some extra days. That does not mean I can lounge and take it easy. There are a number of essays needing reading, correcting, and grading. The fortunate part is that my students are so superior, this is more of a joy than a dreadful task.

Even joyful tasks are aided by a bit of humor. This morning, this video was brought to my attention. There is not dialogue making it perfect for anyone to watch. It is a no language barrier video. If you are a subscriber to this blog, it may not appear in your e-mail, hence you will have to visit the blog here or you could also go here.

 

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Just Something Else to Worry About

For the Unemployed Over 50, Fears of Never Working Again

It is a pain when you have to repeat yourself a thousand times a year for various people. Now when someone asks me "Why don't you return to the US, I will just point them in the direction of this post. All they need to do is click on the title above to read the article.

Those innocents who think that because I have a doctorate, it makes a difference, it doesn't. Most employed professors in the US will tell you that their university is eliminating all full-time staff that does not have tenure only to rehire them as adjuncts. No benefits: no health insurance, no vacation time, no sick time, no nothing. They cancel a class, you don't get paid because you are not working. Someone sent me a YouTube video of students having to suffer a lottery system to get into classes due to increasing demand, but lack of instructors. You would think that $50,000 a year would guarantee you the availability of the courses you needed to graduate. Guess again.

You think my fear is exaggerated? Read the articles below. When someone offers me a long term binding contract that includes a decent salary with benefits, then I will rethink this. In the meantime, I still love my students here.

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• Where's My Professor? (forbes.com)
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Teaching Position Opening

If you or someone you know may be interested, contact me at drryanjames@gmail.com. However, getting a Work Permit and Visa are exercises in patience, which the university offers no assistance.


Dear Ryan,
Our colleague Tamás Magyarics is about to leave us for some time to become the director of the Hungarian Institute for Foreign Affairs. This may last for several years and we are now desperately looking for someone to take over all or half of his classes for at least the coming academic year. His subjects include current US history, diplomatic history, US politics and the US Constitution. Anybody to teach 3 or 5 courses in any or some of these subjects would be welcome, provided he/she has the appropriate academic background to teach at ELTE. Teaching could be done at the BA level. No PhD is required at this point.

Please do let me know if you can think of someone so that I could help Enikő to overcome this troublesome issue.

Thanks for your help and best regards,

Tibor Frank

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Fulbright Evaluations

For a number of years now, the Hungarian Fulbright Commission has asked me to be an evaluator for applications for those Hungarian hopefuls who wish to go to the US to study, lecture or research.


Each application is reviewed and scrutinized by one American and one Hungarian reviewer whenever possible. Generally, in the past, the request comes in at the very end of the spring semester, one of the worst possible times to fit in yet another activity, but I have never said no. Not only do I enjoy it, they pay me besides.


This year, it seemed that they had forgotten me, at least until a couple of days ago when I received the call to action. They had 8 proposals that needed to be examined. All were in the field of literature, not my area, per se, but I am able to muddle through with some Internet research where needed to fill in my information deficits. 


Basically, I examined two categories: Lecturer/Research all those from here with a doctorate already and those who are applying for student status. Ninety percent of the time, I can say that the Lecturer/Research proposals leave me feeling like a total underachiever, waste of professional life slug. The list of publications, conference lectures and other professional activities makes my head spin. My only consolation is that they have access to the foundation research, which is in Hungarian. I don't have access to databases in English.


Then again, I do justify my sloth with the fact that I try to put the majority of my energy into the classroom and working one on one with students. This leaves less time and much less energy to pursue tracking down professional resources as the foundation for further research followed by writing and publishing. That is my justification and I am sticking to it. 


For those outside or within the US, I highly recommend you check out the Fulbright Commission Scholarship program, but clicking here. To learn more of its history, you can check out this article.

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High School Pranks

When I was in high school, we would never have thought about a senior graduating prank, but then again, my senior class numbered 51 students. 

Somehow, I came across this story. I just love the creativity the students used and from the looks of it, there had to be a great deal of teamwork involved, not to mention the collection of allowances to afford all of these Post-A-Notes.

Check this out: Awesome Class of 2010 Senior Post-It Prank

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How Much Do You Invest in an Old Workhorse?

If you have an old workhorse that has put in a number of good years and has been productive, how much more do you invest in him? I subscribe to a educational newsletter called Edutopia. This last week's issue was a bit different as it had an advertisement from Drexel University in Philadelphia. What piqued my interest from this where the online certification programs they were offering for teachers or would-be teachers. The hook was in, now they were reeling me in; I read further. 

Taking a step back, let me say that many, many years ago, in a land far from here, in a section of a city that was not real pleasant, I taught elementary school. I did not have a certification at the time, just my BA degree. After three years, I decided to start on my MA in Education from what was then La Salle College, but is now La Salle University. After one semester, the funds ran out. There were some funds though for the MSW program at Temple University, so switching gears, that is where I headed.

As it turned out, I eventually taught social work, psychology, and sociology amongst other topics before coming to Hungary. California awarded me a Lifetime Credential for college and university teaching. My teaching record now spans 20++ years. However, I still do not have that desired credential for K-12. 

Looking at the Drexel site, there was one program that I could lust over. Technology Teaching Specialist! When I was an undergraduate, this field did not exist. Breathing heavy and adrenaline pumping, I look over the program. Due to an agreement with Drexel and the State of PA, this certification is accepted in a number of states. The whole thing is done online, so no community, getting more excited, then the kicker, crash landing. The tuition...$686 PER CREDIT. The program is 29 credits, which let me save you from running to grab a calculator; it is $19,894. This is just a certification mind you, not a full and complete degree. Applicants have to have their degree already. 

With an outstanding student loan of $70,000 and rising due to interest compounded, there is no way this is possible. As it is, if I return to the States before I go on Social Security, I am looking at a $524 a month student loan payment now. So this old horse is not getting any upgrades before being put out to pasture.

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Precious Multiple Tongues

My former doctoral dissertation adviser and mentor sent me this link to a video that someone had sent to her. Although I have known about international schools, both the "American" and the British, for years, what did not occur to me was the ESL aspect of it. I just presumed that all children had to pass English exams to be admitted. All of the children I knew who attended the American International School here in Budapest, were those of Embassy employees. Speaking with these kids, I did know the classrooms were mini United Nations, but using native languages did not creep into my conscious thoughts. 

I have been an advocate for multilingual education for decades, but this video was especially eye-opening in regard to the international schools. My hope in posting it here is that it is as consciousness raising for others to see the need for multilingual education in all schools. Not only do we need to promote the teaching in native languages, but also teach "foreign" languages. 

There is something about the phrase "foreign languages" in a school system that sets me on edge. The "foreign" sets us up for the us VS. them paradigm that so desperately needs deconstruction. 

“Research shows that language immersion and other world language programs promote academic achievement for English Language Learners as well as English-speaking students,” Superintendent Goodloe-Johnson said. “Students with a global perspective have a better understanding of the world around them, the language skills to communicate across cultural boundaries, and a deeper knowledge of the connections that link our community to those of the world at large. These skills help our students and our country to thrive in an increasingly global society.”  This quote comes from this article.

Watch and enjoy!

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