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School Talk

wakephan09

fuck duke
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This thread is for anybody interested in discussing the impact of covid-19 on education. From 2&2 rants about CMS closures to the horrors of homeschooling to stories from the digital front lines of tertiary pedagogy, this thread will have it all. Be cool, be respectful, trust the experts.
 
First online class starts tomorrow. This one will be weird as it is a half semester intensive so I haven’t met the students before. It will be a blend of asynchronous and synchronous. My other course will be synchronous but with some major changes. I’m sure my grand planning and ideas will all change after the first day goes terribly.
 
How are you planning on doing sections/student meetings, deacdixieboy? I start in a couple weeks.
 
I've got 70 students across two upper-division, majors courses. Gonna go mostly asynchronous with an optional, synchronous discussion on Fridays. I've got some assignments and activities to think through. Virus really fucking with my plans!

Y'all seen the Washington Post op-ed about giving everybody As? Some student organization was circulating calls at my institution for a "Double A" policy where everybody gets either an A or an A- as a way of making more equitable a semester where not everybody has equal access to resources, computers, internet, etc. I'm ambivalent, for now, but thinking through stuff
 
I start tomorrow as well because last week was Spring Break. We were original told to prepare for two weeks of online so the first two weeks is doing pre- and post-tests from the textbook (very low percentage of the grade) and short assignments.

My big challenge is I’m teaching undergrad research methods for the first time and now I’ll be teaching the heart of the class, qualitative and quantitative methods online. So far the class has gone well but that’s because it was pretty easy to lecture about the basics and then have free flowing discussions in which we put together hypothetical research projects and integrate what we’ve learned. They also do small group discussions and bring it back to the class.

I’m committed to doing asynchronous because I don’t know how their schedules have changed and I don’t know what our schedule will be getting our boys to do their school work. They got a ton of work to do and they’ve been playing video games and watching YouTube during their Spring Break.

On another note, my wife teaches an intensive focus group methods class during the week between Spring and Summer semester most years. It’s very popular and draws grad students from all over campus. There’s no way she can teach it online so she may end up having to postpone it until right before the Fall or teach a whole new course over the Summer.
 
How are you planning on doing sections/student meetings, deacdixieboy? I start in a couple weeks.

For the class that hasn’t started I am basically scrapping it. I am giving pretty in-depth question sheets for the readings to make up for course content. I am asking them to each post a question and respond to someone else’s question. I do this already in my other course and it works well as Friday’s are almost solely spent discussing people’s questions and responses. For now, my plan is to do in person Zoom meetings on Mondays and “office hours”/one on one meetings on Wednesdays. On Friday I will attempt to do discussion groups. Zoom has breakout rooms that I’ve never used before but there is a first time for everything.
 
I start tomorrow as well because last week was Spring Break. We were original told to prepare for two weeks of online so the first two weeks is doing pre- and post-tests from the textbook (very low percentage of the grade) and short assignments.

My big challenge is I’m teaching undergrad research methods for the first time and now I’ll be teaching the heart of the class, qualitative and quantitative methods online. So far the class has gone well but that’s because it was pretty easy to lecture about the basics and then have free flowing discussions in which we put together hypothetical research projects and integrate what we’ve learned. They also do small group discussions and bring it back to the class.

I’m committed to doing asynchronous because I don’t know how their schedules have changed and I don’t know what our schedule will be getting our boys to do their school work. They got a ton of work to do and they’ve been playing video games and watching YouTube during their Spring Break.

On another note, my wife teaches an intensive focus group methods class during the week between Spring and Summer semester most years. It’s very popular and draws grad students from all over campus. There’s no way she can teach it online so she may end up having to postpone it until right before the Fall or teach a whole new course over the Summer.

How are you going to teach qualitative methods, Ph?
 
Only thing I’m teaching this semester is a graduate level directed studies class. It is fairly discussion based but there are very few students so Zoom meetings should be ok. We’ve had one session online so far and it went pretty well. I went through a few slides on Ppt and then we all talked. Not too awkward, but again small number of students. I also had a lab meeting with all my grad students on line. We usually do a happy hour type thing at a bar, so instead we all crack a beer at home and chatted about each of our projects. That went surprisingly well. I do a lot of online collaboration and webinars with project and Reseach teams across the country so I was already pretty comfortable with the technology and the platforms going into this.
 
How are you going to teach qualitative methods, Ph?

I’m giving myself two more weeks to figure that out. I’ve actually never taken a qualitative methods course (thanks Duke). I’ve taught myself over the years. Thankfully my wife and my Co-PI are both qualitative specialists.
 
I’m giving myself two more weeks to figure that out. I’ve actually never taken a qualitative methods course (thanks Duke). I’ve taught myself over the years. Thankfully my wife and my Co-PI are both qualitative specialists.

Nice, I'm happy to share lessons that I've done in the past, too, if you have any questions. I can't imagine teaching ethnography right now, though. Strange times.
 
It seems like my kids' teachers are ramping up at differing rates. I have no idea how hard the grading is going to be for middle schoolers. We're trying to get them to engage in some kind of personal enrichment of their choosing, but what they want to do is play their team sports and hang out with their friends, which is why kids tolerate school in the first place.

I can't imagine what it would be like if we had 3 or 4 kids to teach to go along with two parents working at home. Expecting academic achievement in this environment from everybody is setting the bar pretty high.
 
Nice, I'm happy to share lessons that I've done in the past, too, if you have any questions. I can't imagine teaching ethnography right now, though. Strange times.

Thanks.

By the way, there is an NSF RAPID call for research on how coronavirus is impacting undergraduate STEM education. The goal is to quickly fund projects that could be conducted quickly. It’s a relatively simple process compared to the usual funding process. I’d be happy to work on a project with some of you. It would be a good way for grad students to get a year of GA funding and tuition covered. You wouldn’t have to be in a STEM field yourself to get funded.

If anybody here is interested, I can post more information.
 
Thanks.

By the way, there is an NSF RAPID call for research on how coronavirus is impacting undergraduate STEM education. The goal is to quickly fund projects that could be conducted quickly. It’s a relatively simple process compared to the usual funding process. I’d be happy to work on a project with some of you. It would be a good way for grad students to get a year of GA funding and tuition covered. You wouldn’t have to be in a STEM field yourself to get funded.

If anybody here is interested, I can post more information.

I’m definitely interested and am definitely not in a STEM field. This semester I’m teaching Intro Hebrew Bible and Exploring Religions which is basically an RS theory and methods course. I can also tell you how awful it is to write a dissertation with no library access!! If I can tag along please let me know!
 
It seems like my kids' teachers are ramping up at differing rates. I have no idea how hard the grading is going to be for middle schoolers. We're trying to get them to engage in some kind of personal enrichment of their choosing, but what they want to do is play their team sports and hang out with their friends, which is why kids tolerate school in the first place.

I can't imagine what it would be like if we had 3 or 4 kids to teach to go along with two parents working at home. Expecting academic achievement in this environment from everybody is setting the bar pretty high.

Any time my 6th grader (stepson) asks me a question, I say "that sounds like a great thing to look into" and make him go look it up for himself, then tell us about what he found out, what his source was, if there are any other things he learned that were interesting/might want to look into more...
He's groaning every time, and I just remind him this is basically school right now; how lucky for him he's getting to research things he actually wanted to know. 4th grader is doing ok with BrainQuest books and things like that, plus some online stuff they already had available.

At this point the state is basically putting their hands up; there isn't enough equitable opportunity for them to mandate online curriculum. Teachers are sending out some resources, but it can't be for grades. I won't be surprised if they just call the school year from here and then pick things back up in the fall. It's a very frustrating thing to imagine, but it also makes sense - otherwise we're basically endorsing systemic favoritism of those who can 'afford' to be educated that way. Usually I'm not a fan of sacrificing the good for the perfect, but from a public education standpoint I truly don't know how they could set standards/expectations in place KNOWING that the most underserved/at-risk populations couldn't comply.
 
Any time my 6th grader (stepson) asks me a question, I say "that sounds like a great thing to look into" and make him go look it up for himself, then tell us about what he found out, what his source was, if there are any other things he learned that were interesting/might want to look into more...
He's groaning every time, and I just remind him this is basically school right now; how lucky for him he's getting to research things he actually wanted to know. 4th grader is doing ok with BrainQuest books and things like that, plus some online stuff they already had available.

At this point the state is basically putting their hands up; there isn't enough equitable opportunity for them to mandate online curriculum. Teachers are sending out some resources, but it can't be for grades. I won't be surprised if they just call the school year from here and then pick things back up in the fall. It's a very frustrating thing to imagine, but it also makes sense - otherwise we're basically endorsing systemic favoritism of those who can 'afford' to be educated that way. Usually I'm not a fan of sacrificing the good for the perfect, but from a public education standpoint I truly don't know how they could set standards/expectations in place KNOWING that the most underserved/at-risk populations couldn't comply.

Same here. Alabama has mandated that schools cannot require online work because some kids don’t have internet. There are some teachers posting stuff on the school website but for my daughter the teacher posted “Read a book.” And then posted a link to National Geographic Kids to give them ideas for home science experiments.
 
Any time my 6th grader (stepson) asks me a question, I say "that sounds like a great thing to look into" and make him go look it up for himself, then tell us about what he found out, what his source was, if there are any other things he learned that were interesting/might want to look into more...
He's groaning every time, and I just remind him this is basically school right now; how lucky for him he's getting to research things he actually wanted to know. 4th grader is doing ok with BrainQuest books and things like that, plus some online stuff they already had available.

At this point the state is basically putting their hands up; there isn't enough equitable opportunity for them to mandate online curriculum. Teachers are sending out some resources, but it can't be for grades. I won't be surprised if they just call the school year from here and then pick things back up in the fall. It's a very frustrating thing to imagine, but it also makes sense - otherwise we're basically endorsing systemic favoritism of those who can 'afford' to be educated that way. Usually I'm not a fan of sacrificing the good for the perfect, but from a public education standpoint I truly don't know how they could set standards/expectations in place KNOWING that the most underserved/at-risk populations couldn't comply.

Check out Extra History on YouTube. My 5th grader basically watches it nonstop.
 
Honestly looking back on the last almost four years - if someone asked - I think I would actively discourage someone from getting their Humanities Ph.D. It's a really challenging and enlightening process - but the level of exploitation and lack of protection for graduate students at this point just doesn't make it worth it for the student. All signs right now (post-COVID-digitization) point to the admin here continuing to leave us behind when it comes to summer research grants and teaching. There's talk of further tightening budgets and rhetoric about how "difficult" it is to extend lines of funding for students. I've heard similar complaints from other grads elsewhere.

There are a lot of days where I feel like I made a mistake. It's sad because this feels like the right career for me, but jesus the admin is either clueless or evil when they talk about the realities of "tuition waivers" and "academic-training" (pedagogical labor) for graduate students. It's awful.
 
I've got 70 students across two upper-division, majors courses. Gonna go mostly asynchronous with an optional, synchronous discussion on Fridays. I've got some assignments and activities to think through. Virus really fucking with my plans!

Y'all seen the Washington Post op-ed about giving everybody As? Some student organization was circulating calls at my institution for a "Double A" policy where everybody gets either an A or an A- as a way of making more equitable a semester where not everybody has equal access to resources, computers, internet, etc. I'm ambivalent, for now, but thinking through stuff

Missed this before. I know some colleges and universities are considering going pass/fail. I don't know. I think I'd do it if midterm grades weren't already in the books.
 
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