Back to School
A title that is neither in reference to the time of year or a fantastic Rodney Dangerfield movie. It denotes the completion of my first year back in grad school. Although I'm only going part time (ie one class a semester) the experience has educated more than just what was in a standard syllabus.
Student's Schedule
I forgot how difficult a student's schedule is. As a student affairs professional it's often easy to enjoy the academic year without worrying about similar academic deadlines. This past year, I was reminded what it was like to have a duty night with a paper due the next day. That last minute scurrying that makes you think someone intentionally planned it just to torture you. Even getting into a new eating schedule interesting...here at Oshkosh it's easy to go eat at noon; lines are relatively short, you're feeling pretty relaxed. My first semester I had a class that ran over lunch and in order to eat and make it back into the office, I was humbled like every other student waiting to eat.
As student affairs professionals it's easy for us to forget about the 'other side' of the University. My suggestion is that if you haven't been to a regular class in over three years, take a class again. Take something you wanted to take as an undergrad. And don't audit it either. Go through the homework, remind yourself what it means to be a student again.
Re-Evaluated
Something else that I hadn't experienced in a while which came as some adjustment for me, was being the neophyte in a room full of younger experts. Many times I was humbled, forgetting that I had a master's degree, as I listened to younger students say wiser, smarter things in class. I'll admit the egotistical feeling when the professor would constructively criticize my writing. Internally I'd feel as if I didn't need the class, that I had already been through grad school, and who was he to tell me in such an undeveloped manner what was wrong with my work?
Yeah, that's something I needed to get over quickly. Our expertise on students cannot solely rely on our day to day interactions with them. As a field, we need to take the time to read and engage in healthy philsophical discussions about what we do. I imagine at most of your universities there are some professors who would be more than willing to to engage in such a discussion. And as far as the reading goes, I admit, I haven't read a journal in a while. But I do have a friend who sends me regular clips about higher education. It's also good to read something that your students are also reading to gain an understanding for what is entertaining or relevant to them.
Lesson 1: Reading is Fundamental
My first semester class was a literary history and criticism class. Lots of reading. Tons of reading. As an undergrad I didn't often put lots of time into my reading. I skimmed, I got over a 3.0 with little work. That semester, I finally learned how to read, and how long it takes me to read critically.
Reading helps us twofold in life. One, it expands our mind and challenges our creativity, whether your book is fiction or not. Our brain still must take all of what we know and stretch and work it out so it's stronger. Second, reading us allows to learn how we view the world. As I was reading an article on the creative writing process by Sigmund Freud, I was fighting it the whole way through. I was thinking, "well Freud is just a perverted quack." I had to actually force myself to read it twice, the second time around letting down my individual bias in order to fully hear what he was saying.
Lesson 2: Focus
My second semester class was Playwrighting with a brilliant and witty professor who has had many plays performed on Broadway and around the world. He would often refer to as the economy of a play. In short, it means how can you use the least amount of descriptions to accurately portray the idea you want the audience to experience. He also talked about knowing why you're choosing to write something before knowing what you're willing to write.
This is hard for us as people. Not hard when we're inspired or have a muse in our lives. But creating focus can be done without outside focuses. Strangely it's simple. Visualize the target, visualize the end. While that vision is there, create, or do. Just by having the vision in your head, you'd be amazed how even unconsciously you will start to include parts of your vision in your actions.
Lesson 3: Discipline
This ws the lesson I wish I would have learned academically a while ago. In my Literary Criticism class, it took discipline to keep up with the readying, and challenging myself to share ideas in class. In Playwriting it was the discipline to keep at your work, even if it is creative and doesn't constitute research. It takes work to go with that focus.
The largest lesson here was actualized when I was writing the major projects for both classes. For the literary criticism class it was a 15 page paper with an annotated bibliography that needed constant revision and research. It took a month to write it. For the Playwriting class it was the need for constant revision. And not just, you change a page or two or some lines here and there. I went through four different drafts before I finally felt comfortable with the story I was telling.
In anything that you do, you have to keep at it. Small or large tasks, you have to keep pusing yourself to get to the point when you can comfortably say, I've looked at it many different ways, it may be able to get better after time, but right now, it's good.
I thank both Professor Henson and Professor Kalinoski for the experiences this past year. I'd like to thank all the cool students I met who reminded me of the hard work students do go through (often unseen by the eyes of the people not in the academic house). And I again feel humbled from having learned that the focus, discipline, reading, and even patiently waiting in a lunch line can help someone grow.
pb
Student's Schedule
I forgot how difficult a student's schedule is. As a student affairs professional it's often easy to enjoy the academic year without worrying about similar academic deadlines. This past year, I was reminded what it was like to have a duty night with a paper due the next day. That last minute scurrying that makes you think someone intentionally planned it just to torture you. Even getting into a new eating schedule interesting...here at Oshkosh it's easy to go eat at noon; lines are relatively short, you're feeling pretty relaxed. My first semester I had a class that ran over lunch and in order to eat and make it back into the office, I was humbled like every other student waiting to eat.
As student affairs professionals it's easy for us to forget about the 'other side' of the University. My suggestion is that if you haven't been to a regular class in over three years, take a class again. Take something you wanted to take as an undergrad. And don't audit it either. Go through the homework, remind yourself what it means to be a student again.
Re-Evaluated
Something else that I hadn't experienced in a while which came as some adjustment for me, was being the neophyte in a room full of younger experts. Many times I was humbled, forgetting that I had a master's degree, as I listened to younger students say wiser, smarter things in class. I'll admit the egotistical feeling when the professor would constructively criticize my writing. Internally I'd feel as if I didn't need the class, that I had already been through grad school, and who was he to tell me in such an undeveloped manner what was wrong with my work?
Yeah, that's something I needed to get over quickly. Our expertise on students cannot solely rely on our day to day interactions with them. As a field, we need to take the time to read and engage in healthy philsophical discussions about what we do. I imagine at most of your universities there are some professors who would be more than willing to to engage in such a discussion. And as far as the reading goes, I admit, I haven't read a journal in a while. But I do have a friend who sends me regular clips about higher education. It's also good to read something that your students are also reading to gain an understanding for what is entertaining or relevant to them.
Lesson 1: Reading is Fundamental
My first semester class was a literary history and criticism class. Lots of reading. Tons of reading. As an undergrad I didn't often put lots of time into my reading. I skimmed, I got over a 3.0 with little work. That semester, I finally learned how to read, and how long it takes me to read critically.
Reading helps us twofold in life. One, it expands our mind and challenges our creativity, whether your book is fiction or not. Our brain still must take all of what we know and stretch and work it out so it's stronger. Second, reading us allows to learn how we view the world. As I was reading an article on the creative writing process by Sigmund Freud, I was fighting it the whole way through. I was thinking, "well Freud is just a perverted quack." I had to actually force myself to read it twice, the second time around letting down my individual bias in order to fully hear what he was saying.
Lesson 2: Focus
My second semester class was Playwrighting with a brilliant and witty professor who has had many plays performed on Broadway and around the world. He would often refer to as the economy of a play. In short, it means how can you use the least amount of descriptions to accurately portray the idea you want the audience to experience. He also talked about knowing why you're choosing to write something before knowing what you're willing to write.
This is hard for us as people. Not hard when we're inspired or have a muse in our lives. But creating focus can be done without outside focuses. Strangely it's simple. Visualize the target, visualize the end. While that vision is there, create, or do. Just by having the vision in your head, you'd be amazed how even unconsciously you will start to include parts of your vision in your actions.
Lesson 3: Discipline
This ws the lesson I wish I would have learned academically a while ago. In my Literary Criticism class, it took discipline to keep up with the readying, and challenging myself to share ideas in class. In Playwriting it was the discipline to keep at your work, even if it is creative and doesn't constitute research. It takes work to go with that focus.
The largest lesson here was actualized when I was writing the major projects for both classes. For the literary criticism class it was a 15 page paper with an annotated bibliography that needed constant revision and research. It took a month to write it. For the Playwriting class it was the need for constant revision. And not just, you change a page or two or some lines here and there. I went through four different drafts before I finally felt comfortable with the story I was telling.
In anything that you do, you have to keep at it. Small or large tasks, you have to keep pusing yourself to get to the point when you can comfortably say, I've looked at it many different ways, it may be able to get better after time, but right now, it's good.
I thank both Professor Henson and Professor Kalinoski for the experiences this past year. I'd like to thank all the cool students I met who reminded me of the hard work students do go through (often unseen by the eyes of the people not in the academic house). And I again feel humbled from having learned that the focus, discipline, reading, and even patiently waiting in a lunch line can help someone grow.
pb
posted by Peter Brooks at 12:15 AM
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