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When I was a kid, I always thought the early decades of the 21st Century would feature the usual exotic gear of science fiction. Perhaps we’d have HAL 9000s without homicidal tendencies, teleport systems and the like.
Instead, when I walk into a classroom, here is what I have in the year 2011.
1. I have a computer console, perhaps as old as three years maybe more. The computer contained therein is at best, a slow, fickle device which runs about as reliably as my radio teletype rig did when I was in the Army.
2. I have a projection system which, unfortunately, is only as good as the computer it is hooked up to. It projects images either onto a “Smart Board,” or a screen.
3. In some classrooms, I have the aforementioned “Smart Board.” This device is designed to incorporate multimedia on a traditional wall type surface.
4. I have PowerPoint, which is one of the programs in the computer.
No holograms. No time machines. No smart boards which really are smart. No voice activated computer system which will instantaneously respond to my commands CORRECTLY the first time and every time after that.
5. Oh, I have the Internet.
As a published science fiction writer, you’d think I’d be the first to use all of this technology to maximum effect. I am the second youngest history adjunct we have, which means by virtue of my age, my presence on the net, and a dozen other factors, that I am most likely to embrace the tools in my classroom.
Do I?
No. In a word, I hate them.
Why?
1. The computer is slow, unresponsive and does not respond to intuitive moments when you have to improvise in a lecture in order to make a point. It also vectors you straight into an inflexible presentation mode.
2. The projector is only as good as the computer you have. If the computer is having a good day, then it works fine. If the computer is not having a good day or someone prior to you did something to it, you’ll have trouble. This chews up valuable class time which would be spent doing other things.
3. The smartboard isn’t that smart, is not responsive enough for my tastes and like the projector, is only as good as the computer it is attached to. After a semester of experimentation with the smartboard, I stopped using it.
4. PowerPoint.
My frustrations with PPT are nearly endless. When forced to sit through a PPT presentation, I find myself looking at the clock, wondering if the Presenter or Lecturer is simply going to read from the script. If they do so, I shut them out. Further, in my experience, students will compulsively and more to the point, mindlessly write down EVERY THING THEY SEE BECAUSE IF IT IS ON THE PPT IT MUST BE IMPORTANT!
This slows the class down even further while you wait for the slow writers to catch up.
5. The Internet?
We have campus wide wifi. Guess what the students do with it?
Surf facebook, look at porn and generally do nothing productive.
In other words, I have a room full of what are supposed to be shiny toys designed to help me teach my students. Instead, they are very much like the plagued M-16 which American soldiers and many others have suffered with for decades. Fickle, prone to failure and not terribly effective.
What I’d like is a classroom filled with intuitive technology which could respond instantaneously to my commands, something which is fluid and not limited to a mere linear sequential process. Here is my wish list.
1. A smart board that is essentially an oversided iPad. I could swipe the screen, write on it with a device, tap commands to activate videos, utilize a Skype style function to contact historians for impromptu conversations, link classrooms for learning across disciplines and the like.
Yes, our “smart board” is supposed to be capable of all of that. It is slow, fickle and too unresponsive for my taste.
2. A hologram of some type, something which could conjure three dimensional images of historical figures, give them a voice and allow them to move about the classroom. Even better yet would be a hologram which can interact with the students in scenario based education.
3. A gaming system which allows students to actually enter a historical world. Those who play video games such as Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, L.A. Noire and a host of others know what I am talking about. A virtual world where students can be given assignments where they go in search of various, programmable research assignments. Part of the game would be to successfully interact with the inhabitants of a given time period, conduct interviews and gain further knowledge in that fashion.
This would give them exposure to material culture, technological culture and most important for many, social history in general. It would augment the standard traditional political historical narrative.
4. A computer system which is simple, robust and responsive.
What do I use since I don’t have any of the items on my wish list?
Oral tradition, also known as lecture. I use my dry erase board to draw concepts, stick figures and the like in order to illustrate concepts. I use my storytelling ability to try and conjure that hologram out of thin air, using the student’s own imagination to the best of our collective abilities.
In other words, I use what is essentially ancient, reliable technology to teach in a 21st Century classroom because the other gear is unreliable and interferes with my teaching style.
So it goes. Discuss.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
The Teaching Front: Pondering Points
I teach history, not math. We should get this off the deck immediately. My math skills are, to be honest, atrocious. So when I sat down to figure out how to build my first batch of tests four years ago, it seemed to me that the best solution was to build a 100 point test. There would be four such tests in a semester, which matched my own experiences as a student. Issuing the grade the student earned would be a simple matter. Deduct points based upon errors, mistakes and wrong answers, subtract from 100 and there you have it, a grade to issue. If they lost 3 points, they got a 97 percent which would be an A. If they lost 65 points, that would be a 45 percent, which would be an F.
The thing is this. Just what, exactly should something be worth?
I’m not the first person to wrestle with this and there are all sorts of philosophies on what assessment should be used for, how many points to issue, should it be high stakes or low stakes and so on and so forth. An instructor’s assessment methodology, or lack thereof, is probably one indicator of their overall teaching philosophy.
I started with first principles.
First, I always hated homework in high school. To me, it was not much more than paperwork which had to be mindlessly completely. When I did it, which was not always the case, I ground through it reluctantly and turned it in. As soon as it was turned in, I forgot about everything except what the item was worth. If I really hated the class, and I hated half of them in any given year, I probably forgot the point value as well.
One pleasant aspect of college is that in many classes, you do not have homework. This often comes as a culture shock to freshman students, who are used to grinding out the assignments. You still have to do the assigned work, such as reading and study guides, but in most traditional college classes in the social sciences, homework isn’t issued.
It is worth pointing out that once someone pulled the gun away from my head per homework, which were now called study guides and reading assignments, I popped through them pretty quickly. I also retained the information for much longer than I might have otherwise. Not issuing homework also cut down on a number of other issues, such as allocating time to grade the assignments and the fact that most students probably cheat on the homework assignments. My summer working as a lifeguard around a bunch of high school students served only to reinforce that latter notion.
That leaves me with tests, quizzes and essays.
My first year exams were modeled on those issued by Larry Cox for American History at Maple Woods Community College. They were multiple choice exams only, 100 points, each question is worth one point each. It was the type of test I took and I remembered happily blasting through them without any real effort, though I messed up the scantron on the very first test which gave me a fright. Fortunately, we fixed the error and I got a solid A on my first exam.
The problem? Students were having trouble finishing the test. This is something I still struggle with, most people read v-e-r-y . . . s-l-o-w-l-y. The more important the item, the slower they go. They more nervous they are, they go even slower still. If they are prone to test anxiety, more on that in a bit, they tend to freeze up completely.
Another problem is the fact that other students who put in a minimal amount of time memorizing bits of data simply regurgitated the data onto the test, earned an A, just like I did, and moved on without really learning much. Given that survey classes are supposed to be preparing the students for advancement to higher levels and remembering my own troubles in that transition, this didn’t sit easily with me.
A final problem is that I was advised to issue some portion of the test with a writing component. Over the semesters I experimented with short answers, which are maddening to grade and issue points to. Just how much should a short answer be worth? Five points or ten? Twenty or two? It also seemed to me that the short answer wasn’t much better than the multiple choice in terms of assessing their understanding of the material. It was just another version of the multiple choice only I had to suffer through their bad handwriting.
There is cheating on tests as well, I might add.
So I pulled a page from the Western Civ classes I took years ago. On those exams the Instructor used a fifty-five point essay question. There were three per exam, he would pick one at random. Then you’d write. It was a harder test, to be certain, but it did force you to memorize the facts, think critically about the question at hand, organize a response and economize your words plus your time in order to complete the exam before the end of class.
I generated my first essay based exams with a point value of fifty points and issued them to my classes with fear in my heart. There was a lot of nay saying about the average student’s ability to write an essay, some of it well founded I might add. I’d still have the problem of bad handwriting and poor organization to deal with.
But why fifty points? Here is my reasoning.
First, if the point value is too low, like say 25 points, then the student will wargame the exam and figure they can skimp on the effort. At best you’ll get what is basically a short answer paragraph of maybe three to eight sentences which fails to answer the question on any level.
Second, if the point value is too high, then the student worries too much about the essay question, focusing on it to the exclusion of the rest of the exam.
Third, if they blow the essay, that is over half of the exam. Fifty points out of a hundred is a nice, round number to work with. They can’t blow it off, but they can’t blow off the other part of the test either. If they at least put some effort into it, they can get a passing score.
How do I grade the essays? On that matter, it becomes rather subjective and it is often a point of contention.
For one thing, I actually READ each essay. Students frequently assume that what I will do is skim their essay, looking for key terms. I do skim the essays the first time just to see how long it is, how it is organized, what I am dealing with over all. Then I read them.
I look for the following things when reading.
1. Is the essay well organized? Does it have a beginning, a middle and an ending which makes sense? Did the student accurately lay down the historical sequence of events in order to build their answer properly?
Often a badly organized essay is very much akin to a three year old with a box of crayons. It is all over the place and when I talk about essays I actually take a marker and scribble a line that goes in loops all over the board. This graphic representation sinks in for many of them.
2. Did you indent your paragraphs?
Some students do not know how to indent for some reason. When I get their essay, it is a solid block of text which is virtually unreadable. I warn them in advance to indent their essays, tell them how to do it if they have a doubt (place your index finger on the page and start writing from there) and I tell them that if they have a new idea, it probably needs a new paragraph. After all, Thomas Jefferson probably doesn’t want to share his paragraph with Alexander Hamilton.
Failure to indent costs a student one point per each offense to a maximum of five points. Five points is enough to hammer the point through to them without actually failing them if they executed everything else properly.
3. Factual errors.
Telling me that George Washington was at the Battles of Saratoga (for the record, he wasn’t) constitutes a factual error. I can’t brush it off as an opinion or an argument. When a student makes a factual mistake it shows me that they have not mastered the basic details required by the question. Thus I deduct points, anywhere from one to five, depending on the severity of the error.
These errors can and do add up very quickly. I also think this separates the adults from the kids in that someone who is good at memorizing bits of data often lacks the practice and experience of putting the puzzle together. It also serves as a pretty good indicator of what is going on in their headspace.
The complaint, often leveled by students against this element of the grading is that they have no real way of knowing EXACTLY what to put on the test. This type of student is one who still thinks, in spite of everything I have taught them, that history is merely about memorization.
“If only I can memorize the RIGHT details, I can ace Mr. Murphy’s test,” they must say to themselves.
The funny thing is, I do tell them EXACTLY what they need to know. It is called lecture and part of what I am looking for is their ability to summarize their understanding effectively.
4. Lack of details.
This is perhaps the most maddening aside from poor organization. Here is an example.
These guys were mad about taxes so they started a revolution. They fought against those other guys, I can’t remember who they are. It was a long fight with a lot of dead people in it but when it was over, our country was born. I’m sure glad they fought for us because I wouldn’t have my freedom without them.
A student will often say, “This is right, isn’t it?”
Yes.
And no.
Yes, it is a description of something I cover in class. It is right, vaguely. It also lacks nearly every detail one would need in order to figure out exactly what the student was talking about. If the student were to give an informative speech on a lecture in my class using the above paragraph, they would probably fail the assignment. It lacks the standard who, what, where, when, how and why that one needs in order to flesh this out.
Lack of detail will cost a student one to five points per instance.
5. Insufficient length.
This usually goes hand in hand with the above. If I get a blank essay, I’ll issue zero points. If I get a paragraph like the one I mentioned in italics, I’ll be charitable and issue ten points for effort. If the student nails the multiple choice then they’ve got a 60 percent, which is just barely passing.
While disappointing in many respects, these are the easiest to grade. You put ten points on them and move on.
The essay questions themselves are challenging yet if you read them and answer every component of them, it is possible to build a framework from the question itself.
Here is a question from my Western Civ One class.
Describe the causes and motivations of the Peloponnesian War. Identify the major combatants of the war and provide details on the nature of this conflict. Furthermore, was the war inevitable? Did the major combatants want a war and could it have been avoided? Provide your opinion supported by sufficient historical evidence and reasoning.
Students often ask, “Why is this one single block of text?”
I tell them, “I want you to get into the habit of taking blocks of text like this and breaking them down into component parts. When you reach upper level courses, you’ll look back on this question and see it as pretty clear cut in what I’m looking for.”
During the same semester that I issued this question, I brought a 300 level essay question from Trinity’s classes in to read to my students. Even with a Master’s level education, it took me a lot of effort to pull apart exactly what that instructor was looking for. My question simply asks you to tell me what you know about the period in question, lay down the causes and motivations, and provide evidence for your opinion.
The evidence, in this case, was to be pulled from a survey of the historigraphic (a history of history) lecture which detailed what previous historians had said about the war. It was probably one of the most complex lectures I’d ever given a college level course and perhaps a bit too hard at the 100 level. On the other hand, my Western Civ students beat the living daylights out of the question in spite of the difficulty.
In an opinion based question like this one, opinion counts for ten points. If you give only an opinion not supported by knowledge of the facts, you’ll be lucky to get any points at all.
So, to rift off of something Terri Lowry once said, what are my objectives?
1. I want to impart to the student that the study of history is more than mere memorization. They must be able to think critically about the information in order to, at later stages of the game, have a defensible opinion based upon the evidence at hand.
2. I want the student to gain the ability to write a critical essay outside of the core composition courses in preparation for advancement to higher level college classes.
3. I want the student to develop the ability to summarize their argument effectively, balancing the need for time conservation in class against the need to provide as much detail as possible.
4. Finally, I want the student to actually REMEMBER something from my class for longer than sixteen weeks.
In this bit of pondering I’ve only covered the essay portion. I still issue a multiple choice component which is worth two points a piece for a subtotal of 50 points.
Why two points per question? Again, it gets down to time. I think, even though the essay is worth half of the exam, that it is the more important component of the exam. I have to balance that view against the fact that not all students are good essay writers and they have a limited amount of time to complete the exam. If I issued one point per question for a maximum of 50 questions, they would be back to lack of time, which would affect the quality of their essay.
I could simply make the exam a 75 point exam but then we’re back to the problem of a student worrying more about the essay than the multiple choice. I want to get them into the habit of taking both sections seriously.
I didn’t get to test anxiety on this run. Maybe I will later, but this particular essay is long enough already.
Oh, what would I give this entry if I were grading it?
To be honest, it does wander around a fair amount and it does lack detail in places. In other places, it is vague.
I’d give it an 80 percent. Barely a B.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Before the Army, yours truly slugged his way through the mandatory experience known as public education. To be honest, I hated the experience but there were a few exceptions. It turns out, if you look at my High School transcripts, that I had some aptitude for Biology. In fact, I have, to some degree or another, modeled my own teaching doctrine on those of my biology instructors.
If you look a little further, I did well in Basic and Advanced Composition, probably because I was allowed to write what I wanted to write. Granted, I did not do so well in Reading, Composition and Grammar courses, simply passing instead of excelling. I passed those classes probably due to the fact that I was, when possible, allowed to write what I wanted to write.
I was always told, “You are a good writer,” yet I never quite understood what everyone was talking about. Grammar gives me fits and it still does if you ask me to explain the mechanics of the language. Only recently, as a college instructor, do I really understand what was meant by that compliment.
What about history? Well, I passed my classes. I liked reading about history. I checked out lots of history, biographies and autobiographies from the library.
And yet I hated my history classes with an unbridled passion.
Why? Well, they never seemed to teach me anything I didn’t already know. They glossed over or skipped the wars with frequently abandon. They never spent anytime explaining why certain periods of history were relevant with the present. Given that these courses were, with one exception, taught by coaches from the phys ed department (a common problem in the United States) I suppose it is no surprise that the material was watered down pap. We did have one New Age type instructor (she taught Citizenship) who was pushing a forerunner of the politically correct version of history but her class was a chaotic nightmare run by the folks with behavioral disorders. Today we’d call those folks Goths but back then we called them Freaks or Freakers.
In her class, coupled with subsequent experience in college, I learned how NOT to teach or manage a classroom.
None of which gets to the meat of the matter. When I left the Army in 1993 for college, I was interested in history as a possible major. I took every history course offered at Maple Woods Community College and picked up an A for each class. For some reason, I just seemed to have a knack for history, one that I had previously been unaware of.
Biology, on the other hand, didn’t go so well. The Instructor came from another country and while I liked this instructor and respect them, their English and mine did not mesh. Too bad as I think an MS in Biology would probably have served me better fiscally and as a science fiction writer.
So history it was. Years later I earned my Master of Arts in European History from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, burned out, suffering from clinical depression and a deep malaise about the field in general not unlike the one I currently experience with regard to the American Science Fiction Community.
I’ve experienced the teaching of history in a number of manifestations. At Maple Woods the method was a traditional lecture format. The Instructor lectured, you took notes, you read the textbook, studied and took the test. Depending on the Instructor, you might be able to ask questions and make comments though for the most part, they preferred that you did not interrupt the lecture. At Park University in nearby Parkville, the Instructor preferred to dole out reading assignments from the textbooks, have you write a two page essay (which seems, and still does, pathetically easy for a 200 to 300 level course) followed by a discussion of the material.
These discussions often degenerated into politically correct bull sessions (the term came into widespread use during the 1990s). I learned to argue in a spirited and passionate manner. I polished some of my public speaking skills, but to be honest, I do not believe I learned much about history at Park. I learned more about the instructor’s love of baseball and catholicism than anything else, when there wasn’t an ongoing discussion about politics.
I also learned, at Park, just how much some academics hate soldiers and veterans. It was at Park that I experienced a political conversion away from the Democratic Party. These days I wouldn’t say I’m a Republican (I’ve always registered as an Independent) but I’m definitely not a Democrat. As for Liberal or Conservative? I’m finding that the terms really do not apply to my personal beliefs.
So at Park I learned that Instructors preach their politics, something which I experienced again when I moved on to grad school at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Part of what drove my decision to specialize in European History (aside from the very real fact that I like European History) was a deep desire to escape the political editorials which so many American History instructors since Maple Woods seemed prone to. I encountered the editorials in any event, often hearing absurd comparisons of William Clinton to Julius Caesar in Ancient Roman History.
At UMKC it was back to exams and term papers. I learned more at UMKC as a historian than I did at Park and my research methodology certainly improved. Unfortunately one negative aspect of hearing, “You are a good writer” is that one does not edit their papers the way they should. I suffered accordingly when papers which should have received an A got a B+ or a B instead.
At UMKC I first encountered the History of History, aka Historiography, something which had not been discussed elsewhere. In my classes we often examined not just the historical figures, events and motivations but also the varying interpretations of those events by professional historians. Also at UMKC I learned not to take a printed source, primary or secondary, on face value alone. We were encouraged to read and offer our own interpretations of this material.
Additionally, I learned about a couple of schools of history. I learned Marxist History, which takes any historical problem and arrives at the same conclusion. It is the conclusion most blue collar types already know, namely that the poor get screwed by the rich. One didn’t, I suspect, need a specific school of history to figure this out.
I also learned about gender studies.
Now folks, it is possible for a Feminist Historian to look at a historical event and not see the Evil Hand of Patriarchy guiding every decision, every exploitation, but unlikely.
My problem, now that I teach history myself, is that a school of history that arrives at the same general conclusion no matter what question you ask is probably too simplistic to provide true depth of understanding.
So how does one teach history? Well, that is an interesting question. I fell back upon what I liked when I was a student, namely the traditional lecture format I enjoyed as a student at Maple Woods.
What are some problems I have encountered?
First, students seem to have difficulty with the concept of concurrent events. They do not seem to understand the notion that the textbook may not be organized in linear sequential format. As a result, they are unable to see the interelated nature of history on a wider scale.
Second, many students do not seem to be able to associate facts in a manner that allows them to naturally form the historical narrative in their own mind. At best these students memorize small bits of data and spit them back out on a test. However, ask them for the meaning or to describe the sequence of events and what you’ll get is a lot of gibberish. They will parrot the information back at you without organizing it into a logical fashion.
Third, students do not see why history is important at all. Punch into google, “I hate History” and read the first result. Such people seem to think that they are completely insulated from the past and that current events (which are products of past decisions, actions, agendas and motivations) have very little bearing upon their very small lives.
It is funny. One thing you can say about the Vietnam Era is that the Draft Card brought history up close and personal to many young men, including my father, during that time.
Finally, they think it is all about dates.
Geniuses in the field say that the best thing to do is find a way to get students to relate to the material. To which this published writer of science fiction says, “Duh.” If you can find a way to generate emotional resonance in the student then you might be able to get them to see the material as more than dry facts in need of memorization.
How do you do that? That is one question worth pondering. Another question worth pondering is whether or not the new educational doctrine of the last forty years is worth spit. One might also ponder whether lectures are the way to go. Not a semester passes that I do not have students demanding the use of Powerpoint slides (something I absolutely hate, both as a student and as an instructor) or more discussion groups (something dominated by two or three strong students while everyone else nods off).
Of course, the final question to consider is just what should you teach the students in the first place. History is so vast, so wide, so deep that it is impossible to get to it all. It is all important at the end of the day but as the saying goes, some are more equal than others. How does one pick?
The current trend is to spend more time on social history, which I think is a ghastly mistake. If the student doesn’t understand the political framework of the time period then how are they going to understand the lot of a steelworker at the Homestead Steel Mill when confronted by Pinkertons followed by the Pennsylvania National Guard?
One politically incorrect tactic is to find an individual and use them as a focal point. If I describe the life of Andrew Carnegie and outline what a hypocrite he was in many respects, the students understand the social ramifications for the mill worker at Homestead. On the other hand, if I stand around talking about progressivism and labor unions without attaching any faces to the intellectual concept, the students (and their instructor for that matter) glaze off.
Anyway, these are things I am pondering today. Maybe I’ll ponder some more on this topic.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Aboard the Battlestar Steven Francis Murphy BSG-71
Location: CIC
Mission: Damage Control and Assessment
I’m running on three hours of sleep after learning that my father is back in the hospital last night. He is having heart trouble, trouble breathing, etc, etc. So that was part of my evening last night on the eleven month anniversary of Trinity and I. Mom’s down with illness as well and I’m having a bitch of a time finding the time and energy to get enough lecture material scraped together for Western Civ.
The problem isn’t knowledge or material. That I have plenty of. No, I just need the time to write the lectures into something useable so I don’t stand there in class and babble on like an idiot. I call those lectures Falling Down the Stairs Lectures. I used to give a lot of them during my first two years of teaching and it is a horrible experience that ranks right up there with a dream where one is naked in public yet no one notices.
In other words, I hate not being fully prepared.
Worse, I hate not getting at least four hours of sleep. It is a wonder I didn’t stand there in class and drool all over myself. As it is, my military bearing and two years of experience allowed me to slug my way through both lectures this morning. I wouldn’t say it was a cheerful experience but my 0800 students seem to know that crossing me is unwise.
Apparently tales that I threw someone out at 0830 for tardiness have gotten ’round the campus (though they are somewhat inaccurate, the general gist is true). My 0930 class is a bit more spirited but that isn’t a bad thing. Some of them will get a wake up call here in a couple of weeks.
Of course the other problem is that running on three hours of sleep makes doing physical fitness training problematic. It is a great way to injury yourself and for those that aren’t following John Birmingham’s blog, be advised that he snapped his ulna in martial arts last week (probably not due to fatigue). I’ve already got some problem spots, notably along the upper right arm near the tricep, some elbow and some shoulder trouble. I don’t need to blow something out when I have a 145 pound stack of weights over my chest because I wasn’t focused.
On the other hand, I was able to get the iPods operational using a campus computer to download iTunes. The iPods are both synced and prepped. I didn’t load any music onto Trinity’s iPod as I only had one of my CDs with me. I’ll try to reload iTunes on my laptop and see if that will work. If that doesn’t work, I’ll load a few songs onto Trinity’s iPod on campus while she is at an extra credit lecture.
As for Dad, well, he’s terminal, kids. We’re all terminal but he is closer to it than most of us are. Estimates range from tomorrow to a year from now. That said, Aunt Margaret said over at my facebook that we Murphys tend to be a stubborn lot (all those bad genetics I guess). He may well outlast all of us, beat the lung cancer and come in under the five percent statistic on remission/cures.
Makes you wonder how long he’d live if he hadn’t gotten Agent Orange related crap.
YouTubeage Action: James Bond OSTs to listen to while writing
When I write some action scenes, I tend to draw upon movie sound tracks, notably those by John Barry but he is not the only one. Here are a couple of my favorites.
This is called “Space March” and it is from the You Only Live Twice soundtrack. It matches the opening scene where an American space capsule is captured by a mystery spacecraft. The scene, if you haven’t seen it, is akin to watching a snake unlock its’ jaw to consume its’ prey, slow but inevitable. The Americans, of course, blame the Russians for the incident, which gets the movie going.
In a similar vein is “007 and Counting” which is matched to the video you see now. A rocket is hijacked by our bad guys in Diamonds Are Forever. It happens to be carrying a diamond augmented laser satellite and you can see where this is going.
So it goes, kids. Repair operations continue. I’ve got to pick Trinity up later from her therapy where she is trying to get her ship back to 100% or at least as close to it as she can.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
The Writing Project: Trying on Steampunk
I threw the book out this morning, found a quiet spot on campus where I would not be bothered and actually managed to get three pages written for a Steampunk short story. I try to keep the ball rolling daily.
Right now I’m writing what I’d want to read which means I threw out all of the crap I had to put into my first two story sales to make them work. It is working a lot better that way.
We’ll see how it goes.
The Fitness Front
I’ve been eating too much crap. I can’t keep eating endless gobs of fried food, fatty crap and mountains of meat. Days pass without a decent salad and I sometimes wonder what it will take to get the venerable salad back into my diet. I’ve got from 195 to 200 and a waistline of 37 inches (probably closer to 38 inches).
I’ve got to get this under control.
The good news is that we started our workouts in Body Building today (yes, I signed up for a class). The first thing I learned is that one probably needs twelve exercises for their program. They need to work their legs first, then upper body, then arms. One is probably looking at three sets per exercise but I am thinking five for dropsets is what I am going to do. I didn’t get through the entire workout (I had to go pick Trinity up from UMKC as we still have only one car) but I got through enough of it to see that it will probably work for me.
The plan, starting tomorrow, is to get in an hour on the strength training and body building. Then I’ll follow it up with an hour of cardio. I have to work out an hour for each of my classes (the other is Physical Fitness) until I reach 30 hours (which is an A). If that doesn’t start to strip the fat off of my body, then I don’t know what I’ll do.
The Teaching Front
I’ve got the last of the Quakers for American History tomorrow. I think I may chat with them about primary and secondary sources first. They’ll hate that. In Western Civ I’m moving into the Egyptians. We’ll have the same chat about primary and secondary sources. Some might actually like that discussion.
On Wednesday I am going to have to hack out some time to work on Thursday notes. I’ve not written a single word for my notes since Thursday. And I’m behind on study guides. They should have gone out already.
Trinity’s Big Day
Trinity started pre-law today, working toward her BA in Sociology. She was nervous about it and I tried to reassure her that she’d do fine. She did as much for me back in August 2007 when, terrified out of my mind, I started my first day of teaching.
Problem is, Trinity doesn’t always listen to me. In fact, a lot of people do not listen to me even though I am bound to be right. This seems to be a recurring theme in my life, so much so that I think my nickname should be Cassandra.
In any event, she had a great first day. And she has homework.
Now I’ve got to try and get some work done.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
The Teaching Front: The First Day
When I first started back in Fall 2007, I was all about the soft, easy going start. I was trying to emulate a Western Civ instructor I knew who could enforce his will and yet still be a very likeable person. I was fortunate in that my first two classes were fairly responsible and it seemed to work. With a few exceptions but I figured that was just part of the mix.
Then I got what I call hard case classes, students out of high school or somewhere else who didn’t want to be there. They were going to disrupt and derail the process at will. After a very rough class during my second semester, I changed my classroom management style.
I execute a hard start now, much akin to basic training (light). I enter the classroom, lay down the law in no uncertain terms in much the same manner I used to deal with clowns on 10th and Main. The rules are strict and for the first few weeks there is very little room for deviation. It is during those first few weeks that many of the students feel that I’m being a bad nasty man who has nothing better to do but torture them.
It goes against a lot of the educational nonsense I’ve been hearing for twenty years now. Coddle their self esteem, be nice to them, try to be their friend, etc. I’ve given up on all of that. I’m there to run a class, to teach history and to make the best use of the time. Their job, whether anyone realizes it or not, is to learn the material. If they can’t do the job, then they need to go find someone else.
Here is the odd thing. I do not pander to my students. I do not make any effort to be popular or easy. In fact, I am trying very hard to earn a reputation as an instructor not to be crossed or triffled with.
What feedback do I get? Well, from those that stick it out, the feedback has mostly been positive. I get excellent evals from my full time peers and from the students I teach. I’m one of the go to instructors, which makes me a little nervous as I do not like the idea that students are picking me over someone else. That can lead to trouble.
In other words, I’m popular.
How the fuck that happened, I’ll never know.
Knowing all of this, yesterday when I entered the classroom I had one thought on my mind. Not how I was going to whip the students into shape or what new trick I was going to try. No, this thought was for me.
Pride goes before a fall.
I’ve got to remember not to get too big for my own britches.
Classes went well over all (except for a few very late students who provided the examples I needed for classroom policy enforcement). We got through the How to Study History lecture aka: Lecture Zero and are well on track towards Lecture One in both courses. The plan is to drop the first exams by mid-September.
It was a good day and it was great to be back in the saddle again. I’ve got to get a tenure position no matter what because I think this stuff is in my blood now.
Other Fronts
Nothing major to report. Student front work started yesterday in Terri’s class. I’ll be popping over to the virtual classroom to check on that here in a bit. Trinity is off at physical therapy, leaving me with time to write this entry, do the homework and perhaps review some material for tomorrow’s lecture.
Otherwise, that is pretty much it.
So it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Aboard the Battlestar Steven Francis Murphy BSG-71
Location: Deployed in the Field.
Status: Fall Operational Prep, Condition Two.
Taskings for the First Two Weeks of the Semester
I’ve got a full plate on the teaching and writing fronts, kids.
1. Prep the first half of the semester for American History One. This includes study guides, lecture revisions and master templates for the exams.
2. Prep the first two weeks of lecture notes for Western Civ One. This includes study guide work and lecture revisions. I’ve also got a lot of reason to do in order to tie the lectures into the textbook we are using.
3. Assist Client on Research Project Number -04 Final Revisions before that project goes off for publication.
4. Begin spin up for Research Project Number – 05, which will tie in with 04 and complete the current trilogy.
5. Begin a creative writing project for the Fall Semester Creative Writing course I am taking. Assume this will be a short story of some type. Though I could revise and recycle older projects, I really want to write something new for a change.
I’ve got my hands full here onboard the Battlestar Steven Francis Murphy.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
The Teaching Front: Ongoing Prep
Some prep is scut work, basically administrative stuff. I’ve learned over the last two years that the best thing to do is get that crap out of the way first. That usually means generating the following items:
1. Syllabus
2. Grade Roster
3. Attendance Roster
4. Student Data Sheet and Survey
5. Initial Study Guides if possible
6. Overall Semester Course Plan
The great thing about some of these items is that once you have a general format established, modifying it becomes easy. I had syllabi ready on Tuesday for the copy center, a day before my classes received final confirmation.
The SDSS takes a little more time because I change the historical survey questions which the students love so much. It is amazing how much you can learn about a student from just a few questions. You learn about their writing skills, their ability to reason, their philosophy as a student, and their level of historical knowledge (usually awful, thanks to our Public School System). Last semester I used these surveys to identify problem students early on. In some cases I was able to help, others not so much.
Other things take a bit longer and can’t be done until the last minute, such as grade and attendance rosters. The nature of life in Adjunctland is that you won’t have this information until the last minute and it is still subject to change. That said, especially with attendance, I’ve learned the hard way that it is best to stay on top of it on Day One.
The Study Guides always require some level of modification. In fact, my American History I study guide for the first quarter is next on my Things to Do list. I remove, add, and tweak things depending upon the Overall Semester Course Plan. And that requires a bit of thinking as well. How do you cram all of this information into what will essentially be 24 to 30 class sessions (minus exams, four days lost, and holidays)?
And a plan for a Tuesday-Thursday is different from a MWF or an eight week plan.
Finally, there are binders to set up for each course. While the extemperanous lecture method is the preferred model, I like to be sure that I have the information if my memory fails me. So each course has a lecture binder and I try (if at all humanly possible) to review the given lecture the night before.
I’ve tried, yet again, to adopt some organizational tricks from the Uniguard-Fiction Writing Era for the courses I’m teaching. They include an Activity Log (so I can be honest about how much work I am doing on each class), an Internal Course Journal (so I can generate a Things to Do list and reflect on the course), and breaking everything down into standardized sections so I can find the grade rosters, the student records, the lectures for various quarters and so forth.
I even keep track of the breaks like the one I am taking right now to write this blog entry. Which probably ought to double as a course journal entry.
On other Teaching Fronts, I looked over the Ancient Egyptians for possible topics of interest. So much of lecture prep involves taking the time to read and survey source material. It can be the most time consuming aspect of writing new core lectures for a course. I also looked over some of my material on Ancient Greece, specifically the Peloponnesian War.
So it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
The Teaching Front: Prep Work
By Thursday or Friday I should know for certain about the Western Civilization course. In the meantime, I have to get started on preparing a new set of core lecture notes. This means blowing the dust off a batch of knowledge that is nearly ten years old in many cases. It also means trying to find the best way to manage the twice weekly meetings of a hour and fifteen minutes a piece for roughly sixteen weeks.
Preparing core notes is akin to writing a novel in many respects. I have not written a complete novel myself but I have provided assistance to my client on their novel. It is a massive, time consuming operation which requires a lot of late hours, endless reading and revision. There are missteps along the way, almost always, and you will almost invariably make mistakes.
In other words, even with help, you can’t pull them out of your ass. The only two lectures I have ever pulled straight from my brainpan are Operation Olympic (the planned Invasion of Japan at the end of World War II) and my lectures on the American Civil War (I was a reenactor for four years after all). Everything else requires research, reading, writing and time.
Each time the experience is different. My core American History II notes were difficult because they were my first and I was absolutely terrified that if I didn’t get it right, I’d be out of a job. After six years of playing security guard, I was desperate to avoid going back to that field. Over the past two years they are much improved but they are still a work in progress. I had plans for heavy revision of these notes but they will probably have to wait.
My American History I notes were difficult because there is a greater span of time to cover and a wealth of topics to get bogged down in if one is not careful. It can be difficult to complete the course if one is not careful, leaving students in the early 1800s. My tack, these days, is to summarize 1492 to 1750 and move forward from there.
The other difficulty, of course, is that of the four courses we offer, American History I interests me the least. The catch as catch can nature of the AH-One core notes reflect that lack of interest in some ways though I suspect my students can’t quite tell (I’m always happy to be teaching, trust me). These notes still need an Andrew Jackson lecture for one thing and they could use some improvement on the Constitution lecture, which is barebones at present.
In some ways, the Western Civ One notes will be easier in that I have graduate material available for use. I have all of my Ancient Rome lecture notes from way back in 1998. I also have a number of my papers from those courses, including a useable paper covering the Pelopponesian War.
In other ways it will be tricky. We start with pre-history and move toward the early civilizations. As with American History One, I can see that it would be very easy to get bogged down in endless lectures on Egyptian History (another field I do not have much interest in). I’d like to get to Greece as rapidly as possible. So I need to make a call right now.
I can cover Egypt, or I can move rapidly past it. That will be my big issue over the next few days. In the meantime, to make the best use of what time I can scrape out of my schedule, I’ll start converting my Greek and Roman materials for use.
And of course for the last fifteen minutes, they’ve been testing the fire alarm.
Great. I’ll never get these notes done at this rate.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
The Teaching Front: Course Prep
So, on contingency I started prepping course binders for the Fall Semester. No one at my campus has assignments yet but we know the reasons for that. For once, oddly enough, I do not have my usual dose of the Big Fear about teaching. Our enrollment is through the roof and all classes are either full or on their way to getting there. This can be traced directly to the crappy economy and the need many see for retraining.
Thus I have a notch of job security. Or at least I’m in a better position to weather the current economic downturn than I might otherwise be. If I were still at Uniguard, they’ll be looking to cut people and I’d be at the top of that list. I’d be vulnerable at other security companies as well.
I started with the easiest first after assessing my probable assignments. I have three courses I should prepare for.
Foundations of Western Civilization, aka Western Civ I.
American History to 1865, aka American History I.
American History since 1865, aka American History II.
I started with American History II first since that one has the strongest core of lecture notes. It is the first class I taught as a college instructor and while the notes have room for improvement, they are in a condition where I could start teaching tomorrow.
We have new American History textbooks so I have to line the lectures up dress right dress with the sections. Most of our students won’t read the textbook and to be honest, if I could do away with textbooks, I would. Or I’d go with a series of individual books concentrating on specialized topics. However, it isn’t my call.
The first hurdle to cover is a problem with my lectures on the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution. I’ve been looking for a better way to explain it and I think I finally found one. The next hurdle is to tweak the Grant Administration lectures. After that, I may, yet again, cut down on my Battle of the Little Big Horn lecture. Each semester I shave and water it down a little more. Our students are trained by the public school system to react negatively to any lecture on military affairs. The fact of the matter is that the time can be spent on other topics.
The first quarter in American History II will look roughly like this.
How to Study History (aka Lecture Zero)
American Reconstruction to 1868
The Grant Administration 1868 to 1876
End of Reconstruction 1877
Boom and Bust in the West 1865 to 1900
Andrew Carnegie and the Industralists 1860s to 1900
Hopefully I’ll drop the first test in mid September, quicker than before. Hopefully I’ll weed out the students who do not want to be there. The first half of the semester is pretty much tied up with weeding in any case.
Oh, I know. Someone will say that my job is to work to keep those students, encourage them, be their friend, etc. Well, this isn’t High School and my job, if you ask me, isn’t to hold their hands, wipe their asses and help them breathe. My job is to teach history. Their job is to learn it.
Another change will be to utilize a master course binder for each subject. In the past, each class had a dedicated binder, which led to a lot of replication and redundancy. I think I am advanced enough that I can get by without that. I’ll keep all records for all of my assigned courses in the master binder for the respective subject.
I plan to reintroduce the Activity Log and Internal Course Journals for each subject. This is something I used to do with my short story projects. My time management is crap when I fail to perform these tasks.
Right now I’ll prep the courses out to the mid term. So I’ll finish American History II up to the mid term around the end of World War I. With American History I I’m going to try to drop their mid term somewhere around 1800. There is a lot of important material to slug through between 1750 to 1800 and from what I understand, instructors find it difficult to get out of the period and break out into the 19th Century.
The Western Civ class will be the hardest and perhaps the most enjoyable. I’ve trained for most of my college career to teach this class. Hopefully, if I get this class, it will run well. I have my notes from grad school to help but the biggest obstacle will be Ancient Egypt (not my favorite topic to be honest). This will be an ongoing project through the entire semester I suspect.
So it goes. I should know something before the 18th.
Other Fronts
Not much to report to be honest. I had to mow my parents lawn yesterday, which went without incident. At some point I’ll need to clean out their gutters.
Trinity is excited about her school plans, prepping for classes, making sure her ducks are in a row. She tends to be a long range planner (I have morphed into a more ad hoc planner to be honest, which drives her insane) so she’s been busy with that. She will be helping her grandkids get school clothes this coming weekend. I think I’ve got that set up so I will be able to slip away and get my own work done. Clothes shopping is just not my idea of fun, especially when I have a growing mound of work to do.
Sunday she’ll hit the stores with a couple of friends to search for clothing for herself. Again, per agreement, I’ll either stay behind or land at a Panera’s or something.
Aside from that, all is quiet.
The Writing Front: Submisions
I did finally get a report back that Maternal Soldier arrived at the market target on time and on target.
Nothing back on Healing Hands of the Killer, which is still out. Either the reject went out and got lost or it is on hold. I’m hoping for the later.
Be nice if I got a sale this year. That would keep up with the current trend of one sale per year, one publication per year. But sooner or later, I’ve got to write something NEW.
Probably going to be later at this rate.
So it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Those that done said stuff