Spring 2009... promises to be extremely busy... but in a good way.
This post will build on the last one and perhaps give you an idea about why I'm not as prolific as I used to be... it's not a case of the resolution ending with the last year... my resolution worked and it's inspired me to have a new one this year but that's another post...
So... after I came back from Canada on Jan 5 (and that's an entire other post as well...), school started again on Jan 6. Last semester I had three classes and nothing else. I did not do much beyond my coursework but I did get to talk to a few people and have them notice me... That's paid off this semester.
This semester I'm taking three more classes.
1. Inquiry and Measurement with Dr. Shute which is a basic research methods class. It covers mostly all of what I've already covered in a few stat classes previously. It does do more in the sense, though, that we're required to conduct a small scale research study as the final product for the class - so again, application of knowledge is insisted upon and I'm grateful for that. I've always been a little uneasy with the style of teaching back home... flood the students with theory and expect/hope them to come up with it later during job interviews. I always wondered whether I would be able to put what I learned into practice or not... Here, I know that I will be able to do that when I go in for a job interview and moreover, I will also have a ready portfolio of work to take with me... good deal!
I won't really go into my research question here for it might not make a lot of sense for people reading but it's good... the teacher likes it, other people are excited about it and are even going as far as saying I could get a dissertation out of it. That's definitely not a goal... I'll be happy if I get an A on the course and more still if somehow I can get the paper published. It was not a goal to start out with but the question has potential, and who wouldn't like to see their name printed in some journal? Looks damn good on a resumé. No guarantees but it's incentive for me to do a really good job...
2. Development of Computer Courseware is my other class. It's pretty easy - taught by a guy called Dr. Allan Jeong. I've always been fond of techie toys and now I get to learn a little more about them... yet nothing really hardcore. Podcasts have been fun. We've played around with Dreamweaver but I actually prefer tinkering around with the code available in ready-made templates. Captivate and PowerPoint tutorials are also due. It should be good. Might push me to look into some more in-depth techie stuff later... Let's see.
Dr. Jeong also has a tool called jMap which I may use for my Inquiry and Measurement project. Good stuff. He gets excited about it and got me a little excited about it as well... I really need to keep the Ph.D bug at bay...
Like my friend said today, "Enough school! Go get some experience. If you're not going to stay in academia, get a job!" And since I'm not... I plan to! (Maybe a post on Ph.D thoughts later as well...)
3. Evaluation of Training Programs with Dr. Darabi involves us looking for some training programs and creating a proposal for evaluation. This seems to be a pretty interesting class - I have my program now, used some contacts from last semester's classes - just need to fine tune the scope of what I'm doing... It makes me complete. I feel good about it.
Those are my official classes.
I'm also auditing two classes. This means I just go sit in on them and get ideas.
One class is Classroom Assessment... I'm trying to get an insight into methodologies of teaching and pedagogy here so I can go back and apply the better ones in India... this class is an undergrad class but holds me in decent stead since it sorta overlaps both, Inquiry and Measurement, and parts of Evaluation of Training Programs. I explained something in the Evaluation class yesterday after hearing it in the Assessment class and it was right... so that feels good!
I want to implement my research study in this class... the instructor is a former classmate from last semester also... so it was easy to get in to this class. I'll need to use her as a contact for the rest of the classes I want to audit - Classroom Management, Pedagogical Methods and Curriculum Development. Let's see...
The other class I'm auditing is a class I may teach in the Fall if everything turns out in a particular way. It's a class for teachers of English as a Second Languge. My assistantship supervisor teaches it and I'm trying to get an idea of what it's about and what to expect... so that I may be better prepared when and if I teach it...
Which brings me to my assistantship. I'm working with the School of Teacher Education as the Graduate Assistant for the ESOL Program (English as Second/Other Language) and it grants me a full waiver for up to three classes. Guess what? Minimum enrollment for me to maintain status is 3 classes... so it's a perfect fit!
I help place student teachers for their field experiences and will help with building a course in the latter part of a semester... my supervisor likes me, I get paid and I may get to go to Peru in the summer because of that... AND potentially get another GA in the Fall... things probably couldn't get any better...
In other news, I also have a part time job as a minion to a Ph.D student. I am working with my adviser on an undergrad course which will be rolled out nation-wide this Fall and may count as my internship.
I am Vice President for Distance Students on the Instructional Systems Students Association.
I am also playing Ultimate every sunday in a league and plan on going swimming plus looking at Tango lessons on thursdays....
Are you bored/exhausted by reading that list by now? Perhaps it will help you understand why my posts may be few and far this semester. I HAVE decided that saturday will be blog day - but as you can see... it's tuesday/wednesday now and I suddenly seem to have been bitten by the writing bug... so you never can say...
I know now for sure what a juggler feels like, having many balls in the air... I can't complain because I asked for all of this work myself but must learn how to prioritize, re-prioritize, manage time effectively AND remember to breathe all along...
This post will build on the last one and perhaps give you an idea about why I'm not as prolific as I used to be... it's not a case of the resolution ending with the last year... my resolution worked and it's inspired me to have a new one this year but that's another post...
So... after I came back from Canada on Jan 5 (and that's an entire other post as well...), school started again on Jan 6. Last semester I had three classes and nothing else. I did not do much beyond my coursework but I did get to talk to a few people and have them notice me... That's paid off this semester.
This semester I'm taking three more classes.
1. Inquiry and Measurement with Dr. Shute which is a basic research methods class. It covers mostly all of what I've already covered in a few stat classes previously. It does do more in the sense, though, that we're required to conduct a small scale research study as the final product for the class - so again, application of knowledge is insisted upon and I'm grateful for that. I've always been a little uneasy with the style of teaching back home... flood the students with theory and expect/hope them to come up with it later during job interviews. I always wondered whether I would be able to put what I learned into practice or not... Here, I know that I will be able to do that when I go in for a job interview and moreover, I will also have a ready portfolio of work to take with me... good deal!
I won't really go into my research question here for it might not make a lot of sense for people reading but it's good... the teacher likes it, other people are excited about it and are even going as far as saying I could get a dissertation out of it. That's definitely not a goal... I'll be happy if I get an A on the course and more still if somehow I can get the paper published. It was not a goal to start out with but the question has potential, and who wouldn't like to see their name printed in some journal? Looks damn good on a resumé. No guarantees but it's incentive for me to do a really good job...
2. Development of Computer Courseware is my other class. It's pretty easy - taught by a guy called Dr. Allan Jeong. I've always been fond of techie toys and now I get to learn a little more about them... yet nothing really hardcore. Podcasts have been fun. We've played around with Dreamweaver but I actually prefer tinkering around with the code available in ready-made templates. Captivate and PowerPoint tutorials are also due. It should be good. Might push me to look into some more in-depth techie stuff later... Let's see.
Dr. Jeong also has a tool called jMap which I may use for my Inquiry and Measurement project. Good stuff. He gets excited about it and got me a little excited about it as well... I really need to keep the Ph.D bug at bay...
Like my friend said today, "Enough school! Go get some experience. If you're not going to stay in academia, get a job!" And since I'm not... I plan to! (Maybe a post on Ph.D thoughts later as well...)
3. Evaluation of Training Programs with Dr. Darabi involves us looking for some training programs and creating a proposal for evaluation. This seems to be a pretty interesting class - I have my program now, used some contacts from last semester's classes - just need to fine tune the scope of what I'm doing... It makes me complete. I feel good about it.
Those are my official classes.
I'm also auditing two classes. This means I just go sit in on them and get ideas.
One class is Classroom Assessment... I'm trying to get an insight into methodologies of teaching and pedagogy here so I can go back and apply the better ones in India... this class is an undergrad class but holds me in decent stead since it sorta overlaps both, Inquiry and Measurement, and parts of Evaluation of Training Programs. I explained something in the Evaluation class yesterday after hearing it in the Assessment class and it was right... so that feels good!
I want to implement my research study in this class... the instructor is a former classmate from last semester also... so it was easy to get in to this class. I'll need to use her as a contact for the rest of the classes I want to audit - Classroom Management, Pedagogical Methods and Curriculum Development. Let's see...
The other class I'm auditing is a class I may teach in the Fall if everything turns out in a particular way. It's a class for teachers of English as a Second Languge. My assistantship supervisor teaches it and I'm trying to get an idea of what it's about and what to expect... so that I may be better prepared when and if I teach it...
Which brings me to my assistantship. I'm working with the School of Teacher Education as the Graduate Assistant for the ESOL Program (English as Second/Other Language) and it grants me a full waiver for up to three classes. Guess what? Minimum enrollment for me to maintain status is 3 classes... so it's a perfect fit!
I help place student teachers for their field experiences and will help with building a course in the latter part of a semester... my supervisor likes me, I get paid and I may get to go to Peru in the summer because of that... AND potentially get another GA in the Fall... things probably couldn't get any better...
In other news, I also have a part time job as a minion to a Ph.D student. I am working with my adviser on an undergrad course which will be rolled out nation-wide this Fall and may count as my internship.
I am Vice President for Distance Students on the Instructional Systems Students Association.
I am also playing Ultimate every sunday in a league and plan on going swimming plus looking at Tango lessons on thursdays....
Are you bored/exhausted by reading that list by now? Perhaps it will help you understand why my posts may be few and far this semester. I HAVE decided that saturday will be blog day - but as you can see... it's tuesday/wednesday now and I suddenly seem to have been bitten by the writing bug... so you never can say...
I know now for sure what a juggler feels like, having many balls in the air... I can't complain because I asked for all of this work myself but must learn how to prioritize, re-prioritize, manage time effectively AND remember to breathe all along...
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