This is my last semester of classes. WTF?
Tag: university
From college funding to anti-discrimination to my using a weird word in a headline — it’s time for another sampler platter of news stories to see you into the weekend.
The end of a class is bittersweet. After nine weeks, I’m tired, too, and ready for a break. But I’ve gotten to know my students, and wish I could spend more time with them. I think about them after class has ended and wonder if they use what I have taught them. I hope they […]
I tend not to respond to op-eds, columns, and blog posts about adjuncting. I’d never have time for anything else. But Charlotte Allen’s recent op-ed for the L.A. Times contains a worn argument that I can’t ignore anymore: “Don’t be an adjunct.”
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Start MOOCing about
These days I’m attending the University of Rice and the University of Michigan. Without ever leaving my chair. Let me tell you about Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs).
As a child, I hated beginnings. So much was unknown: What would the teacher be like, the other students? What would we learn? I always longed for October, when routines had firmly taken hold. But now I prefer those beginnings because they are so full of hope.
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Dispatch from Adjunct Land 1
“Have you always wanted to teach but can’t full time?” -From a want ad for adjunct instructors.
A few days ago, an article by Richard Vedder on the lack of benefit given the costs of research was published at Bloomberg.com. In the article, Vedder argued that the benefits and quality of research conducted at many U.S. universities may be greatly overstated and that the ongoing push to limit teaching in order to emphasize […]
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Do You Use the Services?
The title is not particularly catchy. None of mine usually are, to be honest, but at least in this case, it is accurate. Without further (or any, really) exposition, let’s get down the heart of the matter: universities offer many services that appear to be underutilized. I want to talk about this a little bit […]
I can clearly remember a phone call I had with my mom five years ago, when I was still a junior in college. She was telling me the great news that she was getting promoted from an on-call mail route carrier to a permanent position but I begged her to not take it. “Please, just […]
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How to Get a Job as a Teacher Overseas
For the second installment on my teaching overseas series (you can find the first one on the pros and cons of such employment here), I’d like to tell you how to get a job. It’s both remarkably simple and remarkably complicated.