Bye Bye UNIV

It is almost the end of the semester. Students have begun giving their final presentations summarizing everything they did and loved during their two semester journey in UNIV 111 and 112. I have really enjoyed the presentations they gave, each one of them stood out in some way. They pointed out how much they learned and how much they are expecting what they learned in UNIV to be useful in future courses they may take at VCU.
As for myself, it was a pleasure watching each and every one of them grow mentally and develop their skills. I appreciate their interaction with one another, I appreciate the way they interacted with us (the professor and the TAs) and lastly I appreciate the effort they put forth to learn.
Some of these great students are going to move up to being TAs themselves next semester. As a TA, I had some input into whom I thought would fit the job. I was happy to see that the professor and I both agreed on those personalities that just popped. The personalities we thought would make great role models. I am looking forward to seeing the difference they would make.

As for the program as a whole, I am getting much more out of it than I had expected. I had previously thought that my journey would end here, at the end of the second semester. It is however about to extend for another semester or two! there is a new course developed for third year TAs who want to guide future TAs in their tasks. I am really excited in starting that course, and I am really grateful that I got involved in this opportunity.

It is opening a lot of new doors for me, I have learned a lot, and I would definitely recommend it to every Freshman in UNIV 111 and 112.

Trust

When I was chosen to become a T.A exactly one year ago, I was very excited about the experience that I was going to have. In addition to feeling compatible, I felt that I was chosen because my professor saw a person she can completely rely on in me andI felt the same way. From that day forward, I made it my goal to always perform to the best of my ability and to carry on the responsibility that was given to me by my professor. My fellow T.A and I had the opportunity to give a few classes in their entirety when our Professor was out of town or simply could not make it. We saw this as our job, but mostly; we felt it was our privilege to do so while she was gone. It made us feel responsible, mature, and accomplished. It was definitely one of my most fond memories of the T.A program.

Recently however, we were told that from now on, we would have to always have a substitute professor with us in the room when our main professor was not able to make it.

I am aware that we are approaching the end of the semester now, and that there probably will not be anymore classes where we would have to take over for the professor. I still however feel the need to express my disagreement with the idea that two fully capable T.As should not give a 50 minute class to a group of well behaved students every now and then.
It completely defeats the purpose of having T.As. We are there to help the professor and run their work for them when they are gone. If we needed someone to watch over us doing so, I do not think we should have been chosen for this position.

My hope is that this will not continue in the future. It is important for the T.As to feel the responsibility a professor feels when giving a class.

Man on Wire

In class lately, we have been watching a documentary called Man on Wire. Professor Lucas had told Hayden and I about it before we saw it in class, but I honestly did not expect it to be as good as it is. Man on Wire is a 2008 documentary film directed by James Marsh. The film chronicles Philippe Petit's 1974 high-wire walk between the Twin Towers of New York's World Trade Center. It is based on Philippe Petit's book, To Reach the Clouds, recently released in paperback with the new title Man on Wire. The title of the movie is taken from the police report that led to the arrest (and later release) of Petit, whose performance had lasted for almost one hour. The film is crafted like a heist film, presenting rare footage of the preparations for the event and still photographs of the walk, alongside reenactments (with Paul McGill as the young Petit) and present-day interviews with the participants.
It competed in the World Cinema Documentary Competition at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize: World Cinema Documentary and the World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary. In February 2009, the film won the BAFTA for Outstanding British Film, the Independent Spirit Awards and the Academy Award for Best Documentary.

After we watched the movie in class, I asked the students what they thought of Petit himself. They all agreed that he was very self absorbed. He let go of his friends as soon as he achieved his goal. They all worked hard to help him achieve what he wanted but once he became the New York star, he forgot all about them.
The movie was quite inspiring, but Petit's personality was definitely a turn off.
never the less it did not take away from the enjoyment of the film.

I recommend it to anyone who likes an adventurous inspiring film!

Research Paper

Writing annotated bibliographies and developing a strong research paper is one of the most important parts of UNIV 111, and 112. When I was in 111 and 112 myself, I was not particularly fond of writing annotated bibliographies. I perceived them at unnecessary extra work that I could write a good paper without.
It was not until I moved on to English 200 that I realized the importance of the work Professor Lucas made us do. For my research paper, I had to write a minimum of 12 Annotated bibliographies in order to learn more about my topic to develop a coherent argument. Many of the students in my class had a very hard time during that period of the semester. They either had not taken UNIV 111 or 112 yet, or had not put much effort into it when they did. I found it fairly simple to perform these assignments because I was pushed to do so many in the former semester.
I had to talk about my experience with research paper to the my student in 112 this semester. I think I was able to tell them what I wish someone had told us when I was in their place.
I told them that it may seem difficult, or too much to do at this point, but that they would eventually see the benefits when they had to do it in coming semesters.
I hope they take their assignments in 111 and 112 as stepping stones to their future classes.
I wish them all the best in everything they do in the future.

Impressive Touches :)

It is my favorite part of class when I see students take something that either professor Lucas, or Hayden and I have said to heart. They listen to it, think about it, and show us that they have been paying attention in classes that follow. The 12:00 class has been a living example of such great qualities for the past couple of semesters. I have recently been taking some photos of our activities in class however, to show just how elegant and careful our students are. They are the future of VCU!

One of the assignments that Professor Lucas required the students to do was to present on the Vietnam memorial, a controversial issue that has a few main points that were inevitably coming up in every group's presentation. Having to deal with such topic with certain information that most of the students would probably be presenting on as well requires the students to go the extra mile to make their presentation memorable. All of the groups in the 12:00 class did a fantastic job, but one group stood out to Professor Lucas, Hayden, and I because of one small touch; they dressed up.

A Clean Slate

Today I am writing as I look out the window at the new batch of snow that came to visit us to remind us that the cold is yet to be gone. I have never wanted warmer weather so much in my life.

The first three weeks of school have passed and the Focused Inquiry class I help teach gets better everyday. Flight was great, discussing it was greater, and I must say I have grown a bit jealous from my students who got to read two novels that I found to be much more interesting than the two I had to read when I was a freshman. I hope they know how lucky they are.
over the past few weeks we have gone over many discussions of Flight, its content, its author, what it means and does not mean and how it relates to us on a personal level. All of this has gone exceptionally well, the students in my class are full of insight, interesting opinions, thoughts, and ambitions. In my blog today though, I would like to focus on the two opportunities Hayden (my fellow TA) and I have gotten to do.

On a Wednesday last week, Professor Lucas had to go out of town and Hayden and I were left to be in charge of the classroom for the first time this semester. It went great, we discussed more of Flight and showed them some videos on YouTube. It was a more laid back atmosphere and they seemed to enjoy it.

The second time we got a chance to do this was today, Friday, Feb. 5th. This time however we were in charge of the whole class period from beginning to end. We were planning to show them a video of an interview Sherman Alexie had gone through on the Colbert Report. Unfortunately though. the video would not play. so we ended up just talking about the interview without actually showing it to them. which again, went amazingly well. after that we just talked about different blogs out there and how some were turned into books because they were so interesting. we found this particularly interesting because we were talking about how books were fading out and that new technology was taking its place. yet we turned a blog into a book because we found it interesting enough...

something to think about :)

Approaching Semester.

So there is about one week left before the Spring Semester of 2010 begins, and I figured i should get a head start on writing in the blog again to get in the habit and make this a successful project.
I have been reading Flight by Sherman Alexie, and let's be honest, SO MANY CURSE WORDS!!!!!
so that's all I could think until I reached the part when he talks about how he thought it was funny that some people are intimidated and offended by curse words. and how you could technically make up a word, use it when your angry, and have it become a curse word. so it really makes no sense to view them the way we do... from that point on, I had no problem reading :D Although I still don't think I would use them personally...

On a different note, I am looking forward to this spring semester, I am looking forward to being the best TA I can be and to help everyone do their best.
I miss seeing everyone and I can't wait to be back in front of the class and to discuss this new awesome book. :)