what d'you mean, evals?
Oct. 19th, 2011 11:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lloll4It probably goes without saying that I'm stressed. I have a criminal law paper due next week and I'm still errrh on the topic. It's probably too late to change it? Besides, I've already sent the prof my outline, crappy as it is. I've written 10% of it so far. It's going to be a quick and dirty, I can tell. This sort of hurts me - or would if I could summon up the energy to be hurt over what is essentially a prideful matter, which is that I remember a time when writing a paper was, like, snap of the fingers. Now? Ahahaha, I'm lucky if I can put together a topic sentence without contradicting myself.
I think the sad thing about going back to school is that while yes, I now have all that 'leisure' that students are supposed to have, I'm actually too tired to enjoy it. I do like the routine of being a student, the odd hours, going to the library, not needing to wear office-appropriate clothes (though I still do most of the time, due to wardrobe), but am I tired!
It can't be the teaching, can it? I'm really not teaching all that much, just about 7 or 8 hours per week. Granted, the journey is irksome if I'm already at home. And then the guzheng/guqin classes - and practices. But still, not really a lot, about 2 hours per week.
Today got an email from department about evals for a professor in the legal research and writing class. I dunno. This class I have trouble with. I mean, at first glance one might think it's easy, research and writing, right? (We also have moots.) But it's like... I sound like I'm whining here, but I really thought we'd have more guidance on this legal writing business. I would really feel happier if the prof hand-held us more. My classmates seem to do better, and that just makes me feel even more self-conscious. Gah.
Here's what's bothering me. A few days before each class the prof sends out a lesson plan and it's full of readings on vanilla stuff like "how to write better", "how to cut out legalese", "how to write effectively", "how to listen to your client"... and then the class exercise/assignment is something like: X has been charged with blah blah blah, pretend you work in a law firm, write a legal memo to advise your partner. Or to the client. Or write a submissions. Draft a contract. I'm not disputing that those things are absolutely what one needs to learn to do. But. The readings don't communicate that to me! I do the readings, and nod, yes, yes, don't use complicated words, don't use the passive voice, yah, yah, and then bam! the assignment is about 20 times more sophisticated. And I'm getting... I dunno, learning whiplash.
I really, really wish the class readings - as well as the first few lessons - was about guiding us up to the level of a legal memo. Like, maybe we could learn to write a memo over two or three lessons, instead of telling me for two or three weeks how to write well, and then... bam! Show me what direction to look at - should I look only at this aspect of the law or at others, or would that be irrelevant??? - so next time I'll know how to do it myself. I think all that advice about writing well, while important, should be more peripheral.
Or if this was a class about writing well, then damn it, the assignments should be about writing well! If it was about legal writing, then tell more more about it. Give us more readings on it. More assignments on it, or maybe start with very simple types to more complicated ones.
Anyway. I dunno what to say for the evals. I don't know how much imput the prof has on the readings and assignments. Teaching style is ok; we're told what works is and what doesn't, and why, and that's fine, but I'm just worried we're (or just me?) not getting the preparation necessary. There's this mismatch in terms of what information we're given and what we're expected to do. I sort of feel like I'm being hazed. It's really annoying that when we go over the assignment, the prof says, ah, yes, you should start with this law, and infer from that, and then research this other part, and then "of course" cover that. I'm thinking, what part of the readings even suggest this approach? If it doesn't why are you assigning those readings? (Also, it's discouraging that some of my classmates do perfectly really well while I... suck.)
It just boils down to the fact that I'm really clueless in this class and I seem to be the only one AND the readings are, I dunno, maybe they are really full of guidelines and instructions but I'm too dim to get them.
ETA: Crim law prof emailed to say that outline is ok, only: what's my thesis? Erm, I'll let you know as soon as I figure it out...
I think the sad thing about going back to school is that while yes, I now have all that 'leisure' that students are supposed to have, I'm actually too tired to enjoy it. I do like the routine of being a student, the odd hours, going to the library, not needing to wear office-appropriate clothes (though I still do most of the time, due to wardrobe), but am I tired!
It can't be the teaching, can it? I'm really not teaching all that much, just about 7 or 8 hours per week. Granted, the journey is irksome if I'm already at home. And then the guzheng/guqin classes - and practices. But still, not really a lot, about 2 hours per week.
Today got an email from department about evals for a professor in the legal research and writing class. I dunno. This class I have trouble with. I mean, at first glance one might think it's easy, research and writing, right? (We also have moots.) But it's like... I sound like I'm whining here, but I really thought we'd have more guidance on this legal writing business. I would really feel happier if the prof hand-held us more. My classmates seem to do better, and that just makes me feel even more self-conscious. Gah.
Here's what's bothering me. A few days before each class the prof sends out a lesson plan and it's full of readings on vanilla stuff like "how to write better", "how to cut out legalese", "how to write effectively", "how to listen to your client"... and then the class exercise/assignment is something like: X has been charged with blah blah blah, pretend you work in a law firm, write a legal memo to advise your partner. Or to the client. Or write a submissions. Draft a contract. I'm not disputing that those things are absolutely what one needs to learn to do. But. The readings don't communicate that to me! I do the readings, and nod, yes, yes, don't use complicated words, don't use the passive voice, yah, yah, and then bam! the assignment is about 20 times more sophisticated. And I'm getting... I dunno, learning whiplash.
I really, really wish the class readings - as well as the first few lessons - was about guiding us up to the level of a legal memo. Like, maybe we could learn to write a memo over two or three lessons, instead of telling me for two or three weeks how to write well, and then... bam! Show me what direction to look at - should I look only at this aspect of the law or at others, or would that be irrelevant??? - so next time I'll know how to do it myself. I think all that advice about writing well, while important, should be more peripheral.
Or if this was a class about writing well, then damn it, the assignments should be about writing well! If it was about legal writing, then tell more more about it. Give us more readings on it. More assignments on it, or maybe start with very simple types to more complicated ones.
Anyway. I dunno what to say for the evals. I don't know how much imput the prof has on the readings and assignments. Teaching style is ok; we're told what works is and what doesn't, and why, and that's fine, but I'm just worried we're (or just me?) not getting the preparation necessary. There's this mismatch in terms of what information we're given and what we're expected to do. I sort of feel like I'm being hazed. It's really annoying that when we go over the assignment, the prof says, ah, yes, you should start with this law, and infer from that, and then research this other part, and then "of course" cover that. I'm thinking, what part of the readings even suggest this approach? If it doesn't why are you assigning those readings? (Also, it's discouraging that some of my classmates do perfectly really well while I... suck.)
It just boils down to the fact that I'm really clueless in this class and I seem to be the only one AND the readings are, I dunno, maybe they are really full of guidelines and instructions but I'm too dim to get them.
ETA: Crim law prof emailed to say that outline is ok, only: what's my thesis? Erm, I'll let you know as soon as I figure it out...
