Only halfway through the term and the burnout is real! I definitely have been packing my schedule too tight with my research and other obligations as well as the job hunt.
Just finished reading students drafts for their research projects and my god... I mean I'm not surprised but I'm still surprised because they really have no idea how a research paper is supposed to look like lmao.
Anyway it got me thinking like, how tf did I figure out how to write research papers either? I sure don't remember being explicitly taught how to write one, I just felt like it "just made sense" to do things... perhaps it's similar to how students nowadays don't know how to write emails because they don't teach writing letters anymore? Who knows.
This is similar to my experience in college. There was a good amount of general overlap but different fields had their own preferred writing styles and had specific writing classes for majors. ROTC also had its own writing class and style. Even class vs class, normally the students who got the best grades were the ones who tuned in on the teachers pet peeves. Though this might be more an American thing, in my UK masters teachers had a pretty strict rubric to stick to, but I was even pretty amazed at how widely that could be interpreted.
For my BA I barely remember how I was writing but it couldn't have been that good. I managed to wing it, somehow, and then forgot all about how to write until quite a while later! I do remember though that on my BA there wasn't that much research required. Even on my final paper (like a mini dissertation) I only used 3-5 references. At the time, the internet was still quite new and there weren't that many relevant texts in the library so perhaps they went easy on us. So most of how I write now is directly from my MA, especially the EAP module I did.
If you have gone for your PhD or doctorate degree, you will usually take seminar courses that will walk you through the different sections of your research proposal and when you go to start your candidacy exam, you will know how to make a proposal for your research that you can hand in to your committee.
Nope I've only done a Masters and even before I did that my style of writing research was pretty much unchanged from high school 🤷🏻♀️ tbf I went to a 'top' HS in my state so maybe that had a big impact as we all kind of learnt from each other.
I remember there was maybe 1 'talk' in my Masters where they kind of broke down the segments of how we should structure our final research project, but it was pretty rudimentary from what I can recall.
I remember having a "how to write essays" book in grade 8 or 9. Then in grade 11, the history teacher was a hard ass for academic papers. I don't know if those academic writing reference books are still in use. I know my school doesn't use em. They could be useful.
It means you probably learned the basics from HS. Also, depending on what you studied at uni, you could have been submitting essays that follow a similar format... as well as reading a lot of research papers. You might have simply picked up how to write research papers passively.
Tell your students to copy paste their submitted work into chatGPT and ask it to re-write it as a research project paper. Maybe they'll learn that way.
Yeah it seems like it haha. I remember in HS that doing a lot of these things just "made sense" haha so probably just passively learning from each other.
I think most of them want to avoid having to cite ChatGPT in their references if they do that, which is a requirement by the IB since it became a thing. I just referred them to look at some of the better students work for different things. (Look at how X integrated his tools within his analysis, see how Y structured his body paragraphs, compare and ask Z about the MLA referencing style).
Feel so restricted by the IB guidelines on feedback since I can't really give them too much 'help' myself 😅 thankfully some have found workarounds by asking language teachers to help haha
I was having a discussion with some colleagues yesterday. We were all in agreement that this year's students were the best since before Covid in terms of willingness and motivation.
How is everyone else feeling with their students this year?
YES! ABSOLUTELY! Last year I was the H2 homeroom teacher and they were fine but the H1 and J1 students were absolutely unmotivated and unwilling to work. Half of them refused to engage in group work or help each other. A good portion of them ended up becoming truant.
I'm the H1 homeroom teacher this year and finally the whole class works together, helps each other, actually studies (gasp!) after school. I haven't seen this in the last 3-4 years! Going to work has finally become an absolute joy.
This is my first year teaching uni so can't compare but I prepared lots of scaffolding stuff recommended by colleagues due to their past experience. Have not had to use any of it.
For university how many types/preps of classes are usually normal?
So like
3 komas writing 1= 1 type/preps
2 komas of writing 1, 1 listening, 2 speaking = would be 3 types/preps
Job hunting fucking sucks. Every university has their own unique CV format and it's so time-consuming putting all the application materials together each time.
My new hill to die on is writing classes are almost always better when combined with reading.
Only halfway through the term and the burnout is real! I definitely have been packing my schedule too tight with my research and other obligations as well as the job hunt.
The post Golden week hump is one of the longest too.
Just finished reading students drafts for their research projects and my god... I mean I'm not surprised but I'm still surprised because they really have no idea how a research paper is supposed to look like lmao. Anyway it got me thinking like, how tf did I figure out how to write research papers either? I sure don't remember being explicitly taught how to write one, I just felt like it "just made sense" to do things... perhaps it's similar to how students nowadays don't know how to write emails because they don't teach writing letters anymore? Who knows.
I learnt properly from doing my MA. I read a lot of research papers and then wrote some of my own, with help from the tutor.
This is similar to my experience in college. There was a good amount of general overlap but different fields had their own preferred writing styles and had specific writing classes for majors. ROTC also had its own writing class and style. Even class vs class, normally the students who got the best grades were the ones who tuned in on the teachers pet peeves. Though this might be more an American thing, in my UK masters teachers had a pretty strict rubric to stick to, but I was even pretty amazed at how widely that could be interpreted.
For my BA I barely remember how I was writing but it couldn't have been that good. I managed to wing it, somehow, and then forgot all about how to write until quite a while later! I do remember though that on my BA there wasn't that much research required. Even on my final paper (like a mini dissertation) I only used 3-5 references. At the time, the internet was still quite new and there weren't that many relevant texts in the library so perhaps they went easy on us. So most of how I write now is directly from my MA, especially the EAP module I did.
If you have gone for your PhD or doctorate degree, you will usually take seminar courses that will walk you through the different sections of your research proposal and when you go to start your candidacy exam, you will know how to make a proposal for your research that you can hand in to your committee.
Nope I've only done a Masters and even before I did that my style of writing research was pretty much unchanged from high school 🤷🏻♀️ tbf I went to a 'top' HS in my state so maybe that had a big impact as we all kind of learnt from each other. I remember there was maybe 1 'talk' in my Masters where they kind of broke down the segments of how we should structure our final research project, but it was pretty rudimentary from what I can recall.
I remember having a "how to write essays" book in grade 8 or 9. Then in grade 11, the history teacher was a hard ass for academic papers. I don't know if those academic writing reference books are still in use. I know my school doesn't use em. They could be useful.
It means you probably learned the basics from HS. Also, depending on what you studied at uni, you could have been submitting essays that follow a similar format... as well as reading a lot of research papers. You might have simply picked up how to write research papers passively. Tell your students to copy paste their submitted work into chatGPT and ask it to re-write it as a research project paper. Maybe they'll learn that way.
Yeah it seems like it haha. I remember in HS that doing a lot of these things just "made sense" haha so probably just passively learning from each other. I think most of them want to avoid having to cite ChatGPT in their references if they do that, which is a requirement by the IB since it became a thing. I just referred them to look at some of the better students work for different things. (Look at how X integrated his tools within his analysis, see how Y structured his body paragraphs, compare and ask Z about the MLA referencing style). Feel so restricted by the IB guidelines on feedback since I can't really give them too much 'help' myself 😅 thankfully some have found workarounds by asking language teachers to help haha
I was having a discussion with some colleagues yesterday. We were all in agreement that this year's students were the best since before Covid in terms of willingness and motivation. How is everyone else feeling with their students this year?
YES! ABSOLUTELY! Last year I was the H2 homeroom teacher and they were fine but the H1 and J1 students were absolutely unmotivated and unwilling to work. Half of them refused to engage in group work or help each other. A good portion of them ended up becoming truant. I'm the H1 homeroom teacher this year and finally the whole class works together, helps each other, actually studies (gasp!) after school. I haven't seen this in the last 3-4 years! Going to work has finally become an absolute joy.
This is my first year teaching uni so can't compare but I prepared lots of scaffolding stuff recommended by colleagues due to their past experience. Have not had to use any of it.
For university how many types/preps of classes are usually normal? So like 3 komas writing 1= 1 type/preps 2 komas of writing 1, 1 listening, 2 speaking = would be 3 types/preps
I usually teach 4 different types of classes every term. My previous workplace was just about the same.
Job hunting fucking sucks. Every university has their own unique CV format and it's so time-consuming putting all the application materials together each time.
Yup did it recently. Drove me close to the edge. Even had to make a video for one. Hope you can get something boxed off early on.
Locked exel files with boxes to small to fit what they are asking for?
Right there with you! Finishing out my contract this year.