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So classes are due to start on Monday and of course, that has my sister (first year undergraduate) and me (first year postgraduate), very excited. We're both doing education degrees in exactly the same fields, the only differences being that my course goes for 2 years while hers goes for 4, I get less field experience overall than she does (except that about half of hers is all observation, while mine consists of maybe 1-2 weeks observation and the remaining four to six weeks teaching) and I do some topics that are postgraduate only, while she does the undergraduate equivalent.
Our university has a database of sorts that students can either submit assignments, discuss the classes, fire off interesting debates and such or even contact tutors and other students, however seeing some of the stuff up there at the moment is making me wonder just how bright some of the students actually are. (some of you may be familiar with the system: we used to use WebCT up until this year, which has been replaced with what I THINK is Moodle)
In addition to the topics I'm studying, I also have access to an area set up separately for the field placements (every education student has this) and every time you miss a lecture that contains important information for those field placements, you have to complete a declaration saying that you understand the material. For the first and third year students, the lectures are linked to a particular topic: the topic in question varies according to your program of study and also if you're a primary or middle school/secondary student. For the individual topics themselves, some tutors have already started to get discussions going.
(quick note: when I say first-year, I mean first-year undergrad. My degree pretty much has me doing the third and fourth year topics, plus several postgrad topics)
Here's where the stupidity comes in:
-Even though classes haven't started yet (and the undergrads actually don't have their field placement lectures for another 2-3 weeks!) about 20-30 people have pre-emptively posted declarations before the semester has even started.
That applies for both the first-year froshies AND the third-year students (which is about the equivalent of a first-year postgrad student).
-For one of my topics, the head of the topic has already posted up a little discussion to get us thinking about the topic ahead. There was a short reading and we were encouraged to respond. Someone asked if we had to read it before the first workshop (which is either on Monday, Thursday or Friday), which was understandable. Another student however, started up a new thread AND posted in both the threads already running, asking where the short reading actually WAS. It was in the top right hand corner of the original post. I was wondering why she didn't look there in the first place!
-In the third-year field placement section, we have our own separate area to post declarations. A few questions have popped up, asking what time, where and if it applied to them. The co-ordinator has ALREADY responded in kind, explaining that the primary students have their own session and it's here, the middle school/secondary students have their session here and so on. One first-year student asked "I'm studying <topic that all first-year undergrads regardless of what year level they're teaching take> and it says that my lecture's on Wednesday, why isn't a Monday lecture on my timetable?"
What. The. Fark.
Seriously, if the section SAYS "third year undergrad/first year MTeach students", it should be CLEAR that it doesn't apply to you!
(and for the record, my sister understands perfectly that she doesn't have lectures for a few weeks and that her lectures are in a different time-slot and location)
Our university has a database of sorts that students can either submit assignments, discuss the classes, fire off interesting debates and such or even contact tutors and other students, however seeing some of the stuff up there at the moment is making me wonder just how bright some of the students actually are. (some of you may be familiar with the system: we used to use WebCT up until this year, which has been replaced with what I THINK is Moodle)
In addition to the topics I'm studying, I also have access to an area set up separately for the field placements (every education student has this) and every time you miss a lecture that contains important information for those field placements, you have to complete a declaration saying that you understand the material. For the first and third year students, the lectures are linked to a particular topic: the topic in question varies according to your program of study and also if you're a primary or middle school/secondary student. For the individual topics themselves, some tutors have already started to get discussions going.
(quick note: when I say first-year, I mean first-year undergrad. My degree pretty much has me doing the third and fourth year topics, plus several postgrad topics)
Here's where the stupidity comes in:
-Even though classes haven't started yet (and the undergrads actually don't have their field placement lectures for another 2-3 weeks!) about 20-30 people have pre-emptively posted declarations before the semester has even started.
That applies for both the first-year froshies AND the third-year students (which is about the equivalent of a first-year postgrad student). -For one of my topics, the head of the topic has already posted up a little discussion to get us thinking about the topic ahead. There was a short reading and we were encouraged to respond. Someone asked if we had to read it before the first workshop (which is either on Monday, Thursday or Friday), which was understandable. Another student however, started up a new thread AND posted in both the threads already running, asking where the short reading actually WAS. It was in the top right hand corner of the original post. I was wondering why she didn't look there in the first place!
-In the third-year field placement section, we have our own separate area to post declarations. A few questions have popped up, asking what time, where and if it applied to them. The co-ordinator has ALREADY responded in kind, explaining that the primary students have their own session and it's here, the middle school/secondary students have their session here and so on. One first-year student asked "I'm studying <topic that all first-year undergrads regardless of what year level they're teaching take> and it says that my lecture's on Wednesday, why isn't a Monday lecture on my timetable?"
What. The. Fark.
Seriously, if the section SAYS "third year undergrad/first year MTeach students", it should be CLEAR that it doesn't apply to you!
(and for the record, my sister understands perfectly that she doesn't have lectures for a few weeks and that her lectures are in a different time-slot and location)
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