Friday, March 11, 2011
Updates
Hi there...(whether anybody still reads this blog or not!)
I am finally back after a loooong hiatus. Spent a good part of the 1st 3 months of the year moonlighting. Yes you heard me right. Been working as a part-time lecturer at some place every Wed evenings. Now that the stint is finally over, I am having a ball just chilling away the remainder of my time in this jail again. No, actually, I'm waiting impatiently for some late paper submissions. What are these guys thinking of??? I never thought mark deductions are fun. Anyway, let's start the story from the very beginning.
Let's just call the institution I was lecturing at "X." From the very beginning, admin there had been very screwed up. I went for interview in Dec and din hear anything more about them. So I spent X'mas and New Year in a sort of desolation that no institution want me, I screw everything in my life up these days, and what other self-pitying thoughts you can have. Then, all of a sudden, in Jan, I was informed by email to attend training for teaching. A bit annoyed that my weekend had to be partially burnt, I went, after inquiring as to what the matter was. After abt 2 trainings, I was informed at the last min to meet my co-tutor, who passed me all the reading list for the 6 weeks less than a week before the 1st lect as well as spent 3 hrs briefing me when it could have been done in 1 hr due to her propensity of wasting time. Apparently it spoke a lot about how she conducts her classes as well, according to my colleague who had worked with her b4. After that I was basically pushed off the shore to sink or swim in my 1st ever lecturing stint.
1st lect: disaster. The 21 slides of Powerpoint presentation, which I thought should have been sufficient for 3 hours, were completed within 1 hr. Upon looking back, I had also not managed to provide much content, spending too much time on "entertainment" such as Youtube videos. And discussion was managed badly. Exhausted, I let them off early and went home to a sleepless night (which was to follow every Wed evenings with active brain and headaches).
2nd lect onwards, I got better and better at time management. I also tried to improve on content, which the co-tutor who designed the course obviously never provided for. I was annoyed at how she structured the entire course, but of course it would do no good to redo the entire thing except to tweak it to suit myself here and there. She had suggested that we do half of the Powerpoints each, but under my colleague's advice, thankfully I rejected it in the end. I don't think I'm a terribly entertaining person when it comes to presentation; at times I believe my students fell asleep or chose not to come any longer for class because of this dull girl standing in front of the class.
Having said that, there is much to be said about the quality of the students. Of course, there are brilliant ones who managed to provide pleasant suprise in their assignments. But in general, many are not bright. In fact, I feel a deep sense of annoyance at our system of edu, which emphasized far too much on results rather than learning process. I only got undivided attention whenever I spoke about assignments. At times, some decided that discussing essay questions during class discussion was much more interesting. Spoonfeeding seemed to be the expectation of every student. I was flabbergasted to find out that most of them cannot tell the difference between an e-journal and an actual book in their reading list. Many did not seem to know how to use the library catalogue. That showed a lot from an organization who photocopied every reading for the students and hand them out every sem. It is a contrast to NUS students, who generally can qualify as photocopying uncles/ aunties by the time of their graduation.
Many of the conceptual issues I tried to instill was also lost on them. I try and tell myself that these are not the guys who would go on to become professional social scientists, so don't take it personally. But the sense of disappointment can be acute.
In addition to all these was the continuing ineptitude of the X admin. I was not given the marking guide and proceeded to give them grades that are too high for the 1st assignment. And my co-tutor, whom I tried to avoid talking to because she talks too loudly and too much and gives me earache everytime I speak to her. And because of the general dissatisfaction with how she handles everything.
I also tend to get insomnia after every lect.
Anyhow I'm glad that the stint is more or less over. I did learn something and could add a thing or 2 into my CV. But I have learnt that I am 1) not a night person, 2) cannot do more than 1 job at a time.
I am finally back after a loooong hiatus. Spent a good part of the 1st 3 months of the year moonlighting. Yes you heard me right. Been working as a part-time lecturer at some place every Wed evenings. Now that the stint is finally over, I am having a ball just chilling away the remainder of my time in this jail again. No, actually, I'm waiting impatiently for some late paper submissions. What are these guys thinking of??? I never thought mark deductions are fun. Anyway, let's start the story from the very beginning.
Let's just call the institution I was lecturing at "X." From the very beginning, admin there had been very screwed up. I went for interview in Dec and din hear anything more about them. So I spent X'mas and New Year in a sort of desolation that no institution want me, I screw everything in my life up these days, and what other self-pitying thoughts you can have. Then, all of a sudden, in Jan, I was informed by email to attend training for teaching. A bit annoyed that my weekend had to be partially burnt, I went, after inquiring as to what the matter was. After abt 2 trainings, I was informed at the last min to meet my co-tutor, who passed me all the reading list for the 6 weeks less than a week before the 1st lect as well as spent 3 hrs briefing me when it could have been done in 1 hr due to her propensity of wasting time. Apparently it spoke a lot about how she conducts her classes as well, according to my colleague who had worked with her b4. After that I was basically pushed off the shore to sink or swim in my 1st ever lecturing stint.
1st lect: disaster. The 21 slides of Powerpoint presentation, which I thought should have been sufficient for 3 hours, were completed within 1 hr. Upon looking back, I had also not managed to provide much content, spending too much time on "entertainment" such as Youtube videos. And discussion was managed badly. Exhausted, I let them off early and went home to a sleepless night (which was to follow every Wed evenings with active brain and headaches).
2nd lect onwards, I got better and better at time management. I also tried to improve on content, which the co-tutor who designed the course obviously never provided for. I was annoyed at how she structured the entire course, but of course it would do no good to redo the entire thing except to tweak it to suit myself here and there. She had suggested that we do half of the Powerpoints each, but under my colleague's advice, thankfully I rejected it in the end. I don't think I'm a terribly entertaining person when it comes to presentation; at times I believe my students fell asleep or chose not to come any longer for class because of this dull girl standing in front of the class.
Having said that, there is much to be said about the quality of the students. Of course, there are brilliant ones who managed to provide pleasant suprise in their assignments. But in general, many are not bright. In fact, I feel a deep sense of annoyance at our system of edu, which emphasized far too much on results rather than learning process. I only got undivided attention whenever I spoke about assignments. At times, some decided that discussing essay questions during class discussion was much more interesting. Spoonfeeding seemed to be the expectation of every student. I was flabbergasted to find out that most of them cannot tell the difference between an e-journal and an actual book in their reading list. Many did not seem to know how to use the library catalogue. That showed a lot from an organization who photocopied every reading for the students and hand them out every sem. It is a contrast to NUS students, who generally can qualify as photocopying uncles/ aunties by the time of their graduation.
Many of the conceptual issues I tried to instill was also lost on them. I try and tell myself that these are not the guys who would go on to become professional social scientists, so don't take it personally. But the sense of disappointment can be acute.
In addition to all these was the continuing ineptitude of the X admin. I was not given the marking guide and proceeded to give them grades that are too high for the 1st assignment. And my co-tutor, whom I tried to avoid talking to because she talks too loudly and too much and gives me earache everytime I speak to her. And because of the general dissatisfaction with how she handles everything.
I also tend to get insomnia after every lect.
Anyhow I'm glad that the stint is more or less over. I did learn something and could add a thing or 2 into my CV. But I have learnt that I am 1) not a night person, 2) cannot do more than 1 job at a time.
Labels: Saya Affairs
// posted by Jenn @ 10:38 AM 
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]