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JerseySmarts.com

Gotta Love This Ridiculous “Path” to the Answer

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Sometimes I get e-mails from the local college where I teach a course and it just makes me laugh. An e-mail came in the other day reminding professors about where they can go on the college’s website in order to find the building codes in case students ask. Building codes are the abbreviations that the school uses to squeeze the name of a building onto a small piece of paper. For example, JerseySmarts.com Hall would either break into JSH or JH. Get it?

Anyway, I got a kick out the e-mail below because it shows just how “easy” it is to find these building codes on the college’s website.

Good morning, faculty. This is just a reminder that classroom building codes and locations may be found on the college website at academics, registration and records, important information and links, resources, classroom locations.

Am I the only one who finds that hilarious? Ha ha! “Please go to point A and then look for Point B. Once you find Point B, please search for Point C. At the time when you find Point C, there should be an option for Point D. Now, when you’re at Point D you should have access to Point E – and that’s where you’re trying to go!”

Wouldn’t it have been easier for the folks who sent this message to just put the actual link in the body of the e-mail? Ha ha!

My Teaching Schedule Gets Completely Rearranged at the Last Minute

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Many of you know that for the last four years I’ve taught a variety of introduction to political science courses, part-time, at the local university. In fact, I was actually fortunate enough to create my own course and teach it for the first time last spring and the word that I’ve heard is that it went over really well with the end-of-the-semester student reviews. That’s good news because it helps elevate me in the lineup of potential instructors for political science courses.

This fall (and for the first time since I’ve been teaching) I was scheduled to teach Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights for about an hour and fifteen minutes each night. Typically, I teach only Monday and Wednesday or Tuesday and Thursday so this arrangement was new for me and definitely more of a challenge. However, at the last minute (late last week) my classes were rearranged and it turns out that instead of teaching each night of the week I’ll probably only wind up teaching on Tuesday and Friday mornings. This, of course, is a big change for me.

In order for me to be even able to teach the morning class I had to get approval from my job (which both my direct supervisor and the President of the company approved enthusiastically – they love that I teach). So once that was taken care of, I had to think about my schedule for the coming semester and I think that this could work out very well. You see, to date the university has only canceled my Monday / Wednesday class which means that there’s still a chance that I’ll be teaching on Tuesday / Thursday nights. I’m fine with that since the Tuesday / Thursday night class starts at 6:00pm and I’ll be home by 7:45pm each night (if not slightly earlier). That’s fine with me! Plus, I was thinking that what I might do is schedule myself to have meetings with clients for my day job on Tuesdays in the late morning and early afternoon. That way I can avoid traveling from West Long Branch to Trenton and then back to West Long Branch at night, you know? At least if I have meetings during the day, I can schedule them within a reasonable distance of Monmouth County and not drive myself crazy driving all over God’s Creation.

Anyway, that’s what the face-to-face teaching schedule is looking like for the coming semester. In addition to that, I might be teaching another few sections of online courses for the state’s online college. One way or another, I’ll certainly be pretty busy in the coming months…

A Gym’s Atmosphere Really Matters to Your Workout

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At the end of May/beginning of June, I decided not to renew my membership at the local gym. There are a few reasons why I didn’t renew the membership, but paramount among them was the fact that the atmosphere in that place wasn’t what I needed for physical fitness success. What does that mean, you ask? Well, it means that the gym where I was a member turned out to be the type of place that I couldn’t get a good workout in and feel comfortable – the atmosphere in that place was all messed up for my tastes.

The primary issue that I had with the gym was the fact that the owner (who also offered personal training sessions to the members) was really rude to his clients. Look, I played sports in high school and I didn’t ride the bench – I was right in there in the mix of things as a starter on championship teams. I “get” that there is a certainly level of playing around and cynical insulting that goes on in the locker room and among the guys when they’re training at the gym. In fact, that was one of the most enjoyable aspects of being part of the football and wrestling teams in high school.

However, there is a big difference between me telling one of my fellow lineman, “You can’t lift that weight because you’re a gigantic load of marshmallow fluff you fat, disgusting wildebeest,” and the owner of the gym that I was attending telling his clients, “You’re a weakling and you make me sick. Why can’t you lift this weight? You’re a fat mess and a joke.” Good grief! There is no connection between that trainer and that client other than a financial arrangement based on training services to be rendered. And I understand that different trainers have different styles, but this idiot would say these things out in the open in a gym that was no bigger than 30 feet by 40 feet in total (no locker rooms in this place).

The way this guy insulted his trainees in public was way too awkward for me to continue going to that gym. About one year ago (May 2009), I was going there everyday – everyday. But after hearing the way this guy berated his clients, I stopped going completely. Sure, every once in a while I’d feel like I should utilize the membership so I went there and worked out a little bit, but I’d always see the same thing – this guy was riding his clients by using degrading insults and he was doing it out in public in front of everyone. It was disturbing.

The other major reason why I didn’t renew at this place was because as an Adjunct Professor at the local college, I get to utilize their brand new, one-year old gymnasium for free. The option of choosing a $550, 16-month membership at a really tiny gym with a horrible atmosphere or a completely free two-year membership at the brand new gym on the campus of the college where I teach was a pretty easy decision to make!

Unnecessary Complications: Dealing with the Pampered Generation

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Finals are over and some of my students are getting ready to walk across the stage during graduation this week. It’s pretty cool to say that I’ve now taught college graduates. However, with the end of the semester comes a bit of a pain in the ass. You see, I’m one of these professors that puts out a syllabus and then (gasp) sticks to it. In other words, when the syllabus says, “Cell phones use is not permitted in the classroom,” that means (get ready for it) that you can’t use your cell phone during class. Shocking, right? When I write that not participating in class discussions can negatively impact your class grade by dropping it more than a full letter grade, guess what that means?

That’s right! It means that if you opt to have a blank stare on your face during the entire semester then you get pretty close to 0 of the 25 points allocated for participation!

Let’s face it – many of today’s college students were whisked through high school and really not properly prepared for the rigor of college-level study. To make matters worse, these students were typically pampered all of their lives by hyper-protective parents, teachers that opted to teach plain vanilla course content as opposed to creating an engaging classroom, and an overall failing educational system that doesn’t mind giving students a higher grade for their “effort.”

That crap doesn’t fly in the real world. If you miss a deadline for your company or submit work that is riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, you get fired. Period.

You might say that if it is the job of the secondary education system to prepare students for the rigor of college study, then it is the job of the college system to prepare students for the rigor of higher level occupations. That’s my job as an adjunct professor. In fact, I believe that my job as an adjunct professor is to bring outside experience into the classroom and show my students what happens in the real world through the scope of the course that I’m teaching. It’s a tricky game, but I enjoy doing this type of work because I see the quality of students coming out of most colleges and they’re just not prepared to be engaged employees. It’s a damn shame, really.

To some degree, I think that for most students I unwillingly represent the exact opposite of what they’re used to from their high school teachers. I stress “unwillingly” because I don’t think that I’m doing anything outlandish or crazy in my grading. I think that when a student does not engage herself in class discussion because she is clacking away on her BlackBerry device for the majority of the semester in a class that places 25% of the final grade on participation, then the best that student can hope for is a 75 in the class. Okay, maybe if she engages in a few discussions throughout the semester, she can find herself with a 78 or 79.

Too often, the pampered generation of students expects that if they receive a B average on their written submissions and have spotty attendance and no participation, then they’ll just get the B average. I’m not sure on what planet that would make sense, but it doesn’t work in my classroom. I create a grading matrix in an Excel spreadsheet and detail for each student how they can receive an A in the course. In fact, I give them a copy of the spreadsheet so they can track their grades throughout the semester. I also suggest to the students when/if they need to be more engaged in class discussions so they can get some participation points. There’s not much more that I can do to help these students other than resemble some of their pampering high school teachers and I’m not interested in that at all.

Thus far, about 15% of my students have questioned their final grade and I’ve suggested that they lacked on the participation requirement. None of the questioning students have responded to my replies on their participation, but I expect that in a generation that has rarely been told, “no,” or “bad job,” that a few of them will lash out at my responses. Unfortunately for them, I don’t have to worry about getting tenure or receiving any type of accolades from my students since I’m given teaching assignments when/if the college needs help.

If you’re a college student out there contemplating complaining about your final grade, I would suggest that you get out your syllabus and look at how your grade is calculated. If participation is 15% of your final grade, then ask yourself if you participated in each class session. If not, then do you think that you deserve those 15 points? If you answer, “yes,” to that question, then you’re probably the result of a pampering system that doesn’t teach you in the context of the real world. If you answered, “no,” to that question, they you probably wouldn’t complain about your final grade anyway.

Unnecessary Complications: Graduate School Work

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In case you don’t already know, I have a Master of the Arts Degree in Public Policy with two concentrations – one in nonprofit management and the other in community economic development. Since I have this degree (it’s called an MPP degree for short), I’m allowed to teach undergraduate courses in Public Policy and related disciplines.

Well, since I have some bills that need to be paid (i.e. student loans) and since I always thought that I would make a great teacher or Professor, I decided to accept an adjunct teaching post at the local college. It’s a lot of fun and you can usually come to this blog to read some of my observations with respect to teaching today’s undergraduate students.

Everything seems okay thus far, right? Good!

Well, one of the perks of teaching at the local college is that you can take a certain number of credits for free during the semester that you teach. Again, as I racked up over $120 thousand in student loan debt on my way to my MPP degree, it’s very hard for me to turn down the possibility of taking free classes that will ultimately lead to a graduate certificate in a discipline that I am interested in pursuing as a future career. Further, it is hard to say no to these free classes when they might also lead to me receiving a second Masters Degree in this same discipline. And yes, that would be a free Masters Degree…

Anyway, the unnecessary complication that is related to this scenario is the work that comes along with being a graduate student! I should fully explain this, though. I’m not suggesting that graduate students should do less work. In fact, I would argue that graduate students should do a higher difficulty level of work than the undergraduate student population. Makes sense, right? And I’m not saying that the work that I have to do in this graduate program is either too hard or too remedial. Actually, the two professors that I’ve chosen to take most of my classes with are excellent, former real world practitioners who “get” that graduate school isn’t about busy work. They assign projects that are of real use in the real world – and that’s really important if you ask me.

However, I think that I get a bit exasperated with the work that is assigned because of the fact that I already have an advanced degree. Maybe it’s an inner elitism or a subconscious knowledge that I don’t really need the additional graduate certificate or potential Masters Degree – I don’t know. On a conscious level, I do know that I don’t particularly have the time in an already overcrowded schedule to set aside hours for researching and writing papers.

But that’s what you get when you enter this type of program, so I won’t complain about the work associated with the classes too much. I will, however, complain about some other observations that I’ve made while being in this program…more on that to come in a future entry!