Finito

I just turned in my last assignment for my last class. I am now officially finished with my coursework. Of course, there is still the dissertation to muddle through, but at least I'm one step closer.

I will say that I'm pretty sure that my classes this term blew my GPA. The one class was an incredible waste of time with group work and everything. And my group sucked. And our final product sucked. And I'll be happy if we just at least pass. And this instructor was gung ho on the "reflection" for huge parts of the grade. Why? Why do they want you to sit and contemplate your navel? I did the work, I earned a grade, I pretended to learn something. Isn't that enough?

The other class was more navel contemplation - this time with learning theory! I actually found that one pretty interesting, except that I am so incredibly old school that every time I wrote a post to the discussion group everyone jumped down my throat. For example, they were all talking about how it's our job as educators to motivate and inspire and shape the moral fiber of our students and I happened to ask 1) why those aren't the job of the parent and 2) when, in the midst of all this, are we actually supposed to teach subject matter? They didn't much care for that and said that since parents weren't doing it, it was up to the schools to step in. And all I could think was that if the schools (and culture as a whole) stopped being enablers, then maybe parents would actually step up to the plate. That went over really well, as I'm sure you can imagine. This morning I was greeted with a post explaining that to be a good teacher you shouldn't let your religious preferences influence how you treat people but should, instead, rely only on science and maintain detachment. Umm...ok. Cause I guess compassion, patience, and love are bad things?

Anyway, I am finished for now. I plan to take the weekend off and then hit up the idea paper revisions that have been languishing on my desktop for a month now. Cross your fingers that I can actually get this thing approved!