A few weeks ago, I bemoaned the fact that so many classes were canceled on Tuesdays this semester — Tuesdays being the two-hour sessions in a few of my content-focused classes — that I’d either have to hold make-up classes or drop some content from the course. (And holidays seem to sort of contradict the point of a holiday, right?) A former co-worker, Allison Bill, pointed me at a concept I’d never encountered before, in this interview with José Bowen (the video in the linked page), in which he explains ideas expanded upon here; but one idea not explored deeply in the …
Tag: teaching in Korea
Eerie…
Somehow, the almost completely nonfunctional lock on Torjan’s workchamber door was magically repaired over the weekend. It seems to work as good as new now. Er…? Torjan is somewhat perturbed at the moment, and wondering if his aetheric postings are either being examined by some High Administratae… or, more scarily, by some invisible beings that make his aetherically-posted demands come true? If so: this Hypagoran could use a couple of billion won. (It never hurts to ask.)
You Do Realize That You’re Baring Your Soul To Me, Right?
I’d heard from others that teaching Creative Writing to undergrads, one tends to see things that those students don’t or can’t express anywhere else. In Canada, I recall hearing classes tended to have to wade through story after story of students’ first sexual experiences, of their best or worst sexual experiences, of imagined sexual experiences, and of course the perennial fantasies of sexual violence (mostly by male students). Well, I am happy to report that this isn’t my experience in Korea.
English Made Difficult…
Last week, I happened to stop by the little used book shop area at my local train station and picked up some funny little books because, when I opened one, it was so mindblowingly awful and hilarious and sad all at the same time. The books are all by one author: a guy named Robert Bahk (1923-1991), about whom I’ve found very little online—though, you know, I haven’t searched too hard. His bio says that he did some school in the USA, and attended some Ivy League school—attended, yes, but no mention of graduation was made in the bio I …
Essay Comments Triage
The funny thing is, in one of my classes, almost every student made a serious effort to write a creditable, intelligent essay. Even those who I think missed the mark still made an effort. In another of my classes — one of the writing courses — there’s a kind of relentless bleah, f*ck-it, whatever attitude that persists from semester to semester. Though we have hour-long critique sessions wherein student work is discussed, as often as not the work comes back pretty close to how it originally was drafted. Even when everyone else has recommended a rewrite. Even when everyone including …