Kelly in Kansas

Scholars and the open market from the Chronicle:

That makes for a steep learning curve, all the more so because of Google's haste to complete the project so that potential competitors would be confronted with a fait accompli. But whether or not the needs of scholars are a priority, the company doesn't want Google's book search to become a running scholarly joke. And it may be responsive to pressure from its university library partners—who weren't particularly attentive to questions of quality when they signed on with Google—particularly if they are urged (or if necessary, prodded) to make noise about shoddy metadata by the scholars whose interests they represent. If recent history teaches us anything, it's that Google is a very quick study.

Labels: books, Chronicle, Google

This article bears repeating given today's real circumstances at most colleges and universities across the country. We're lucky that our upper administration successfully planned ahead and we haven't had to deal with furloughs or non-renewals. So far, we're just not filling all the spaces people leave behind. And while we will do our best to meet students needs, they will have to deal with more financial realities - not taking classes they don't need and following advisement to take required classes when available instead of putting them off until it's too late.

Luckily, we have an upbeat mood on campus and that's always a good way to start the semester.

Labels: Chronicle, finances, professors, reality, students

This quote from a recent Chronicle article says it best:

"They were killing me on my reviews," he told me. It wasn't that his courses were boring or irrelevant — they were just too hard. "So after a year or two, I started giving better grades," he said. "And what do you know? My scores went up."

So, do we focus on doing our jobs helping students learn for the long-term or focus on short-term likability factors (sometimes known as the path of least resistance)?

Labels: Chronicle, student evaluations

James W. Fraser asserts in this Chronicle editorial that "Reform of teacher preparation is once again in the air". It only makes sense given the reform measures that are part of No Child Left Behind.

The challenge at the college and university level is a unique one. We have students who think they might want to be teachers but may not be sure. Yet, unlike some other majors in which you can't remain in and/or graduate from that major unless you can PERFORM well in the courses, students expect that if education is what they pick as a major or, as their "fall-back" option, they should be allowed to pursue and complete that major.

Our program has some very good students who care deeply about history and want to share that passion and knowledge with future generations. We have other students who have not done well pursuing other majors, or even began their college career as a history major, that think that "liking" history is enough to teach it. It is only the tip of the iceberg and I struggle with ways to convey that to them.

Having to pass the national Educational Testing Service's Praxis II 0081 Social Studies content test is not the best way to test potential teachers but, so far, it hasn't kept anyone out of the profession that should have been there. In fact, most students who don't pass it on the first try eventually admit that they did not study for it (despite our best suggestions).

How does this connect to the editorial? We need more examples of excellent models to which we should strive to raise the bar at all levels of teacher education. One of the reasons that society does not necessarily hold teachers to higher levels of respect is that so many lower level students opt for this particular major. This situation makes it extremely difficult for the majority of students who work their tails off to do a good job and to educate students.

I'm a former classroom teacher - junior high (even that term is now "historical") and high school for four years - before returning to school because my principal said students and parents complained I made them "write too much". It was a history class, after all. Just pick the best answer from the multiple choice. (The Language Arts (now Communication Arts) had a different outlook, however, given that my having them write meant that students wrote in other classes besides theirs.

The bottom line - we're feeling more pressure to keep enrollment up in these poor economic times. Yet how do I reconcile a student who resists (and sometimes belligerently) my advice that they need to pick another major? Like the PK-12 teachers, I'm eventually graded on their success even if they have trouble writing complete and coherent paragraphs before leaving college. I can't be the only "stop gap" but as long as public education makes it possible to "just keep rolling", we'll not have the solutions available that we need to offer those who work hard a better education and a better future.

Labels: Chronicle, college education, colleges of education, ETS, James W. Fraser, No Child Left Behind, Praxis, Praxis II, student teachers, student teaching, teacher education

I was reading the latest Chronicle that showed up in my mailbox. In reading the Observer column, That Side of Paradise, by Thomas Washington, I wanted to share his final paragraph.

While I contemplate, from my chair at the library reference desk, the other side of paradise (however delusional) inside the university walls, maybe I need to follow the example of Emily Dickinson, who left Mount Holyoke after just one year. Reclusive yet alive with imagination - she wrote poems on the back of candy bar wrappers - she created lifelong bliss within the confines of her own homestead in Amherst, Mass., just beyond the college gates.

Labels: academic life, Chronicle, Emily Dickinson, ivory tower