It should be noted by readers of this blog that I'm starting my first year of teaching on Monday. I'm a bit anxious about it but also a bit excited. We've had a lot of teacher in-service and time to prep so, in theory, I'm completely ready. In practice, well, we'll see.
So, school hasn't started but I've already received my first parent complaint. Apparently, I'm not being a "good role model" by not sitting in a chair properly during the parent orientation. I'm the first to admit that I could be unprofessional, but then again, I challenge anyone to find a comfortable position in those little, hard-backed chairs. My principal called me in to discuss it. He said, what I will generously paraphrase as, "haters gonna hate." And on the one hand, I do think it's silly to complain about a teacher in the back of the room not sitting still, it is a good reminder that teachers are constantly being scrutinized. So, fair warning. The game is afoot.
19 August 2011
04 August 2011
On teams, appropriateness of online learning
One of the main reasons that I wanted to do the MLIS program at San Jose State is because their program is 100% online. The thing that I've always hated most about school is always the actual, physical necessity of being in class. I felt like it would be more effective for me to just stay home and read the book. Unfortunately, many a "participation" grade prevented that. I just get really bored in an actual class, as my teaching cohort, in particular, can attest. I think that I absorb information faster than most people, so classes feel slow for me. I'm always in the back, reading a book or something in a class.
The SJSU School of Library Science has this checklist to help determine if online school is "right for you." I laughed when I read it because I am like a check + for all of those. As readers of this blog doubtless know, I'm always taking up languages and learning them on my own time. I'm (usually, barring everything in my life happening at once) really good about keeping up on them. Readers may also recall that I have tested out of language classes more than once through a self-directed summer of studying. Take that, elementary Persian.
My introductory SLIS class has a segment that is meant to prepare everyone for working in teams. Apparently, I'm not the first person to dislike teamwork. Probably the best advice from the slew of information about how not to completely fail at teams is that the group has to set up clear rules and goals at the very beginning. This is to prevent one person from doing all the work while the rest do only some work. I'm still a little skeptical about that, being someone who always does the work. I am, however, willing to give it a go. And hopefully, people at the graduate level are the sort who really have their shit together and take care of business in a team situation. We shall see.
The SJSU School of Library Science has this checklist to help determine if online school is "right for you." I laughed when I read it because I am like a check + for all of those. As readers of this blog doubtless know, I'm always taking up languages and learning them on my own time. I'm (usually, barring everything in my life happening at once) really good about keeping up on them. Readers may also recall that I have tested out of language classes more than once through a self-directed summer of studying. Take that, elementary Persian.
My introductory SLIS class has a segment that is meant to prepare everyone for working in teams. Apparently, I'm not the first person to dislike teamwork. Probably the best advice from the slew of information about how not to completely fail at teams is that the group has to set up clear rules and goals at the very beginning. This is to prevent one person from doing all the work while the rest do only some work. I'm still a little skeptical about that, being someone who always does the work. I am, however, willing to give it a go. And hopefully, people at the graduate level are the sort who really have their shit together and take care of business in a team situation. We shall see.
02 August 2011
And now for something slightly different
As usual, I have overestimated the amount of things I can do at one time. Now that I'm starting my teaching job and my MLIS (masters in library and information science for those who haven't been paying attention), I don't think I'm going to have a lot of time for language learning, and hence, blogging about language learning. However, I will definitely blog about that when I do it. For the moment, let's talk about information science.
Being the--I hesitate to say over-achiever so,--early-achiever that I am, I've already read 4 of my textbooks for this semester. I hope they aren't representative of the whole thing because, while they were interesting, I found the information fairly repetitive. The possibility exists that I am, actually, over-achieving and don't have to read the entirety of all these books. In which case, I guess it's my own fault for reading repetitive things. So far, I've read This Book is Overdue, Glut, Everything is Miscellaneous, and I'm about halfway through Ambient Findability (thank you, Kindle editions!). The first three (and to a small extent, the fourth), dealt a lot with the history of information and information management, which was interesting the first time, but less so the second and third. They all seem to use the same anecdotes as well. There's one about Borges making up a ridiculous system of categories for a Chinese emperor, which, I suppose, is used to illustrate the point that categories are only useful to us if things that make sense are grouped together and if the categories are functional. This feels self evident to me. In fact, a lot of it felt self evident to me. I guess it's because I've grown up as a "technological native," but long discussions of the usefulness of tagging or that information is no longer limited by physical space just make me say, "duh."
I am, however, hopeful that the MLIS program will be interesting. I really like information and I am looking forward to learning how to manage it. I just hope that things get more challenging soon!
Being the--I hesitate to say over-achiever so,--early-achiever that I am, I've already read 4 of my textbooks for this semester. I hope they aren't representative of the whole thing because, while they were interesting, I found the information fairly repetitive. The possibility exists that I am, actually, over-achieving and don't have to read the entirety of all these books. In which case, I guess it's my own fault for reading repetitive things. So far, I've read This Book is Overdue, Glut, Everything is Miscellaneous, and I'm about halfway through Ambient Findability (thank you, Kindle editions!). The first three (and to a small extent, the fourth), dealt a lot with the history of information and information management, which was interesting the first time, but less so the second and third. They all seem to use the same anecdotes as well. There's one about Borges making up a ridiculous system of categories for a Chinese emperor, which, I suppose, is used to illustrate the point that categories are only useful to us if things that make sense are grouped together and if the categories are functional. This feels self evident to me. In fact, a lot of it felt self evident to me. I guess it's because I've grown up as a "technological native," but long discussions of the usefulness of tagging or that information is no longer limited by physical space just make me say, "duh."
I am, however, hopeful that the MLIS program will be interesting. I really like information and I am looking forward to learning how to manage it. I just hope that things get more challenging soon!
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