Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Tonight I read ahead in the course material – glanced through to the end to see what was in store for me, you know? I can’t say that I’m too impressed with the idea of having to go out and buy a book in order to (essentially) destroy it. I’m not comfortable with that. I would liken that to book burnings or the defiling of art pieces. I’m not comfortable with compromising my beliefs (that books are to be treasured because they are words written by people in time who had something to say, be it good or bad) and I’m not sure what scrap-booking has to do with a writing class. I’m not comfortable with any of this last assignment.
Why do I have to go out and purchase someone’s book in order to destroy it? And I’m certainly not going to use one of MY books for this project – there’s a reason why I buy the books I buy and there’s a reason why I keep them (and in pretty darn good condition, too).
I find more and more with this course that I am falling into the abyss of apathy – my group mates do not comment on anything I post and I, in turn, do not feel all that inclined to post responses to anything they put in the forums. This was one of the concerns I had from the start with this course, especially when the Tutor Marker doesn’t check anything during the weekend, a time that I believe most of us are finally able to sit down and crank out the work and be in the position to request feedback.
I know I’m being critical, but at this point, for the amount of money I’ve dished out (honestly, how does the government expect to get students fresh out of high school in this economy that they have allowed to backslide to this point into post secondary for more than a semester before they cannot afford to take classes?!) and the level of the course itself, I expected a lot more out of it. Dozens of times I have logged on to check and see if anyone had posted to something I’d put into the forums to generate discussion, only to see that nothing had been added…or the fact that there is the resource of having a chat room that no one goes into. It’s…sad.
Tomorrow I begin a new intersession for my Education 471 class: Curriculum. It should be interesting to see what happens as it’s an evening course and we can be expected to have up to 50% of our grades based on attendance and in-class responses to whatever is going on. I am wondering how strenuous this new course will be in comparison to this course or my EDUC 475 course with Peter.
On a very positive note (and one that will hopefully continue to be positive, please, please, please!), I am going to be getting an interview with Langley school board soon. This means I have to finish my portfolio (7/12ths there!) and start practicing my responses to possible questions. I don’t want to, but I know I will inevitably stress myself out over this – my only hope is that I don’t stress too much and I get into the district. Everyone I have told has been of the opinion that Langley isn’t hiring…here’s hoping I’m the exception to the rule.
I’m also hoping that this good news pulls me out of the funk that I have gotten into these last few weeks. I haven’t felt like I’ve made any progress (mostly in a personal way, not so much with my writing as I’m confident I’m ‘getting’ the assignments) so I haven’t felt like I’ve been worthy to write in my progress log. Little accomplishments like doing well on my math problem log and the group problem assignment help boost my confidence that I can do this, and getting a reflection of a good mark for a good writing piece (‘Henry’) helps, too. It’s tough to be more than half way through a course and not be more than 20% of the marks, though.
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