The Boast Post

[AdoreroDio]

Ooooohhh this place looks like fun....what should I brag about...hmmmmm....

I have been a straight A student (plus two Bs) my whole life- I'm a freshman in highschool now and am taking one honors class and two college prep.

[hockeychick8792]

I am finally getting around to writting my poem for English. Writers Block has been killing me!!!

[Schokokeks]

Congratulations, Tal, if that isn't something ! Do show us some pictures of Vietnam once you've been there .

thanks schoko. hehehe, I don't think I'm a great tutor, but I've seen worse.
why was your tutorial a waste?

Hm, I guess there were several factors playing into it. First, the tutor's didactic was very ill-thought out, if indeed there was to be any: we always started with someone's summary of the lecture, whose quality depended of course on my fellow students. After that, we had an opportunity to ask questions about just anything, but we seldom had any, just because the topic (intro to lit) was pretty clear. After this silence followed, well, an awkward hmm, what could we do now ?, which either lead to us doing a 3rd library ralley or exercises like Pick any book from the shelf and identify the narrative situation...
I guess the tutorial was fine and helpful for people who placed Shakespeare into 19th century Ireland (yes, there were some !), but most of us felt that it was just completely sense-free . I would have loved to do some group work or discuss concepts instead of dully revising the stuff which I could have done in half the time at home. And not on Friday afternoon . Sadly, my linguistics tutorial this semester has started off in a similar non-promising way .
Sorry for the rant ! I'm pretty sure you do a better job .

[SleepyWitch]

Congratulations, Tal, if that isn't something ! Do show us some pictures of Vietnam once you've been there .


Hm, I guess there were several factors playing into it. First, the tutor's didactic was very ill-thought out, if indeed there was to be any: we always started with someone's summary of the lecture, whose quality depended of course on my fellow students. After that, we had an opportunity to ask questions about just anything, but we seldom had any, just because the topic (intro to lit) was pretty clear. After this silence followed, well, an awkward hmm, what could we do now ?, which either lead to us doing a 3rd library ralley or exercises like Pick any book from the shelf and identify the narrative situation...
I guess the tutorial was fine and helpful for people who placed Shakespeare into 19th century Ireland (yes, there were some !), but most of us felt that it was just completely sense-free . I would have loved to do some group work or discuss concepts instead of dully revising the stuff which I could have done in half the time at home. And not on Friday afternoon . Sadly, my linguistics tutorial this semester has started off in a similar non-promising way .
Sorry for the rant ! I'm pretty sure you do a better job .

i see... but hey, summaries sound great... i hadn't thought of that... of course, my students summaries would run along the lines of "I don't remember" or "We talked about sounds" FULLSTOP, but it's a good way to get them started.... on the other hand... it's not, seeing as they come to my tutorial before they've read the text book, which means they only remember bits and pieces, but don't know how they fit together.... *ramble*

i usually do some excercises (e.g. transcription, morphological analsysis, syntax according to CGEL) and then revise stuff with them afterwards or answer questions as they arise from the exercises...

[Schokokeks]

on the other hand... it's not, seeing as they come to my tutorial before they've read the text book, which means they only remember bits and pieces, but don't know how they fit together.... *ramble*

I think this was the point why it wasn't as effective as was hoped. What annoyed me most was the fact that the attendence of the tutorial was obligatory, which might have been okay for those people with general problems (force them to their luck...), but half of us would have liked to never go there again after the first few weeks .

i usually do some excercises (e.g. transcription, morphological analsysis, syntax according to CGEL) and then revise stuff with them afterwards or answer questions as they arise from the exercises...

Your giving your students exercises is a huge step ahead of what I've seen .

[SleepyWitch]

I think this was the point why it wasn't as effective as was hoped. What annoyed me most was the fact that the attendence of the tutorial was obligatory, which might have been okay for those people with general problems (force them to their luck...), but half of us would have liked to never go there again after the first few weeks .


Your giving your students exercises is a huge step ahead of what I've seen .

well, I suppose it's easier to think of linguistics exercises than literature ones because in linguistics you can do all these analyses. so. e.g. every student can transcribe one or two words or analyse a sentence, whereas in Lit. they have to write essay-style answers in the exam, so you can't really split it up into nice little chunks...

[Schokokeks]

well, I suppose it's easier to think of linguistics exercises than literature ones because in linguistics you can do all these analyses. so. e.g. every student can transcribe one or two words or analyse a sentence, whereas in Lit. they have to write essay-style answers in the exam, so you can't really split it up into nice little chunks...

Yes, I agree that in-class preparation for the exam essays can't be done on a regular basis, but a mid-semester mock essay done at home wouldn't have hurt .
Moreover, I think there are fun exercises for literature, although maybe they don't prepare you directly for the exam, but at least they might have served to anchor the knowledge of concepts, terminology, and so on. I'm thinking of 'who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire'-quizes on the books we read, a round of 'Tabu' for explaining the stylistic devices, 'pick one branch of literary theory and explain why you find absolutely crappy' etc.
But I suppose preparing all this would mean a lot of work...

[SleepyWitch]

Yes, I agree that in-class preparation for the exam essays can't be done on a regular basis, but a mid-semester mock essay done at home wouldn't have hurt .
Moreover, I think there are fun exercises for literature, although maybe they don't prepare you directly for the exam, but at least they might have served to anchor the knowledge of concepts, terminology, and so on. I'm thinking of 'who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire'-quizes on the books we read, a round of 'Tabu' for explaining the stylistic devices, 'pick one branch of literary theory and explain why you find absolutely crappy' etc.
But I suppose preparing all this would mean a lot of work...

i see your point... about mock exams, the problem there is that if I set my students a 'mock exam' they will think I know what will come up in the actual exam. --> they'll learn the mock exam by heart and if there are different questions in the exam, they'll be at a loss.
plus, there are only so many questions you can set in the real exam, so I might actually hit on some of them and the boss(es) will be grumpy coz I guessed right and mollycoddled the students.
hehe, if/when you become a tutor yourself, you could have your students in one tutorial set a mock exam for those in the other tutorial. That way, they have to work with the texts and find questions themselves and you can't be blamed

[Schokokeks]

i see your point... about mock exams, the problem there is that if I set my students a 'mock exam' they will think I know what will come up in the actual exam. --> they'll learn the mock exam by heart and if there are different questions in the exam, they'll be at a loss.
plus, there are only so many questions you can set in the real exam, so I might actually hit on some of them and the boss(es) will be grumpy coz I guessed right and mollycoddled the students.

Oh, I see. Hadn't thought about this .

hehe, if/when you become a tutor yourself, you could have your students in one tutorial set a mock exam for those in the other tutorial. That way, they have to work with the texts and find questions themselves and you can't be blamed

He he, I'll remember this .
Good luck with your tutorial, then .

[Lioness_Heart]

Yay!!! Just finished my Numerical Methods coursework!!!!

[Schokokeks]

Congratulations, Lioness, you've deserved a decent cup of hot chocolate now ! *offers one*

I've just finished preparing my oral presentation on Renaissance Attitudes to Magic, Witchcraft and Astrology *sigh of relief* (too much work for just 30 min of presenting, but quite a fascinating topic).

[SleepyWitch]

congrats Lioness and Schoko!
Schoko, your topic sounds really interesting

[Virgil]

Oh I just remembered. I've got some health news on my front. If you remember from another thread (I forget which one now), I had reported from my check up in early january that the doctor diagnosed me with fatty liver. Well since then I've been working out three times per week at the gym and occaisionally adding a running day when the weather is nice. I've been doing this pretty religiously since mid January and now the results are in. I have just gotten my results from a recent blood test. Success!!!! The liver function that was high, ALT (SGPT), has gone from 59 to 46. Normal range is 0-56. But listen to the rest. My overall cholesterol has gone from 205 down to 173. My bad cholesterol (LDL) dropped from 143 to 107. Now I've only lost 5 to 6 pound (2 to 3 KG) but I've been doing some weight lifting at the gym as well as cardio and i've definitely put on more muscle and muscle is at least twice as dense as fat. My waist is slender; I've gone in two notches on my belt. I bet I've easily cut out 10 pounds (4 - 5 KG) of fat from my body. I really feel great. My blood pressure has come down too. I was beginning to tell myself I was getting old when I struggling doing what i used to, but that has turned out to be a fallacy. Getting rid of some fat makes a world of difference. I don't think you should ever tell yourself you're getting old as an excuse. And the best part is, I can drink wine again.


Edit: I found that original thread where I first mention the fatty liver problem. It was in the chocolate lover's thread (how appropriate ) and you can find it here on post #55: http://www.online-literature.com/for...ht=fatty+liver

[BibliophileTRJ]

Well done, Virgil!

It's Boast Posts like that one that (almost) make me think I should put down my book and go get some exercise!

[Scheherazade]

It's Boast Posts like that one that (almost) make me think I should put down my book and go get some exercise!

But instead you turn your computer on?

Way to go, Virgil! Even though I don't have any problems worth mentioning, I'd like to get some tests done too... Just to see how things are going in 'there'.