I recently had a conversation with one of my Dance students who was in crisis. The student was concerned about the practicality of a career in Dance versus finding another major that would give her a "practical" job once she graduated. Now, I know we've talked about this before, but it's an important subject and I thought I would approach things from a new prospective.
Everyone is concerned about money, but money should never (ever, ever, under penalty of death) be the thing that keeps you from following your dream. So let me ask you this: what would you do if money wasn't an issue? If you are doing something you truly love (be it something in the arts or animal husbandry...hey, I don't know what your passions are...) give yourself the Lottery Test.
The Lottery Test is remarkably simple; ask yourself what you would do if you won the lottery tomorrow. Would you still study the same things (now with the benefit of not incurring hideous student loan debt and scoring a kicking new pad)? Or would you study something else entirely?
The challenge comes after you have administered the lottery test...because you need to live by the results. What is the point of studying something you hate just because it is "practical"? You're still going to hate it. You need to start removing money from the equation of your education and do the things that make you happy (yes, I have said that before...repetition makes the heart grow fonder).
Why do I stress this so much? Because I adore my students (even the ones who frustrate me) and I want to see them happy. And because I am fortunate enough to LOVE (all caps) my job and I want my students to have that same satisfaction when they leave their time in college behind them.
If you were wondering, I took the lottery test myself not too long ago. What would I do if I won the lottery? Pay off my student loans, pay off my parents' mortgages (they've given me a LOT of money over the years)...and then show up to work the next morning. After all, we've got Orientation coming up, a new class of students coming in the fall, new curriculums to learn, new technologies to explore to help my students...I'm not done learning yet.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Monday, May 4, 2009
Grades You "Deserve", Grades Your Professor "Gives" You, and Grades You EARN!
It's finals time...that magical time when students spend 23 out of 24 hours each day in the library (the remaining hour is spent playing beer pong). My students are preparing to take their final exams and head home for the summer and maybe (just maybe) check their final course grades on eServices. So this seems like a delightfully appropriate time to talk about grades.
There is an enormous disparity in the way different people on a college campus view grades. A recent article in the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/education/18college.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=grading%20colleges&st=cse) talks about the expectations that college students have for the grades they receive. Students frequently talk about a course grade as something they "deserve", or that a professor "gives" TO them, whereas college professors refer to grades as something a student "earns". So what causes all of this miscommunication?
As students progress through junior high and high school, they are given certain standards for their work. They are told that if a project incorporates certain factors (X amount of visual aids, Y number of pages in a written report, etc.) then they will receive an A in the course. This is the standard in the public school system, for good or ill. The problem occurs when students enter college.
College students (again, for good or ill) are held to a higher standard. Yes, there are certain things that each student MUST do, and those things are usually spelled out in the course syllabus. But just because you do the bare minimum of things spelled out in the syllabus does not mean you are guaranteed (or deserve for that matter) an A in the course.
Let's use a fairly recent example: because I work with Performing Arts students, I'll talk about an "artist" who did the bare minimum of work, and was absolutely slammed by critics. I am speaking, of course, about Britney Spears at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards. Take a second and refresh your memory of this truly atrocious performance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HTnWbIyx2g
Now Britney did the "work" for the performance: she memorized her song (to be fair, she didn't sing the song, but who does nowadays?) and she memorized all of her steps. But there was something missing, wasn't there? There was no extra effort. Britney did the bare minimum of work to get by--she practically slept through the performance. If you were a professor of "pop studies", what grade would you think Britney earned for that performance?
Because at the end of the day, you (the student) EARN your grades. Your professor doesn't just randomly assign grades. He or she doesn't "give" out A's or B's to the students that he or she likes and D's and F's to all the rest. The work that you put into a course is directly correlated to the grade that you earn.
So if you find yourself disappointed by your grades this semester, think back. Did you sleepwalk through the semester, miming all of your choreography and lipsynching your songs? Your grades probably reflect that you pulled a "Britney" this semester. Maybe some changes are in order for next semester?
There is an enormous disparity in the way different people on a college campus view grades. A recent article in the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/education/18college.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=grading%20colleges&st=cse) talks about the expectations that college students have for the grades they receive. Students frequently talk about a course grade as something they "deserve", or that a professor "gives" TO them, whereas college professors refer to grades as something a student "earns". So what causes all of this miscommunication?
As students progress through junior high and high school, they are given certain standards for their work. They are told that if a project incorporates certain factors (X amount of visual aids, Y number of pages in a written report, etc.) then they will receive an A in the course. This is the standard in the public school system, for good or ill. The problem occurs when students enter college.
College students (again, for good or ill) are held to a higher standard. Yes, there are certain things that each student MUST do, and those things are usually spelled out in the course syllabus. But just because you do the bare minimum of things spelled out in the syllabus does not mean you are guaranteed (or deserve for that matter) an A in the course.
Let's use a fairly recent example: because I work with Performing Arts students, I'll talk about an "artist" who did the bare minimum of work, and was absolutely slammed by critics. I am speaking, of course, about Britney Spears at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards. Take a second and refresh your memory of this truly atrocious performance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HTnWbIyx2g
Now Britney did the "work" for the performance: she memorized her song (to be fair, she didn't sing the song, but who does nowadays?) and she memorized all of her steps. But there was something missing, wasn't there? There was no extra effort. Britney did the bare minimum of work to get by--she practically slept through the performance. If you were a professor of "pop studies", what grade would you think Britney earned for that performance?
Because at the end of the day, you (the student) EARN your grades. Your professor doesn't just randomly assign grades. He or she doesn't "give" out A's or B's to the students that he or she likes and D's and F's to all the rest. The work that you put into a course is directly correlated to the grade that you earn.
So if you find yourself disappointed by your grades this semester, think back. Did you sleepwalk through the semester, miming all of your choreography and lipsynching your songs? Your grades probably reflect that you pulled a "Britney" this semester. Maybe some changes are in order for next semester?
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