tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27054305.post4231373520951822211..comments2023-12-23T04:56:29.702-05:00Comments on Ferule & Fescue: Where's my syllabus?Flaviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17832765671541392835noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27054305.post-14584883460955587182008-08-21T01:01:00.000-04:002008-08-21T01:01:00.000-04:00A coffin made of syllabi? That's your fourth marga...A coffin made of syllabi? That's your fourth margarita talking.<BR/><BR/>So good to have you BACK.Flaviahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17832765671541392835noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27054305.post-51025798629057179712008-08-21T00:51:00.000-04:002008-08-21T00:51:00.000-04:00I will dream tonight of being sucked toward a whir...I will dream tonight of being sucked toward a whirlpool and buoyed up by a coffin made of syllabi.<BR/><BR/>And you know, if the Reaper is going to come with an exam, I don't think I'd mind knowing the date. Always been a pretty good crammer.Jackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17311287744738993522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27054305.post-79824813118008183462008-08-18T23:00:00.000-04:002008-08-18T23:00:00.000-04:00Hm, I always feel like the most important part of ...Hm, I always feel like the most important part of my syllabus is the "significant learning outcomes." And I'd LOVE a life syllabus that told me what my learning outcomes were supposed to be! Not, you know, the schedule.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27054305.post-16757850310393034232008-08-18T22:16:00.000-04:002008-08-18T22:16:00.000-04:00Laughed out loud at your two dialogs -- because I ...Laughed out loud at your two dialogs -- because I have SO had those conversations before. I rely on my syllabuses to tell the students what to do because I usually don't know until 10 minutes before class starts myself. (Okay, *maybe* the night before ...)<BR/><BR/>BTW, have you read the novel /Special Topics in Calamity Physics/ by Marisha Pessl? It has a great riff on the syllabus as an organizational structure that gives meaning to life in the first few pages. Pretty good novel, too.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27054305.post-79231022619745506832008-08-18T16:43:00.000-04:002008-08-18T16:43:00.000-04:00Please note (Dr. C, Neo, Fretful, and others) that...Please note (Dr. C, Neo, Fretful, and others) that I am not wishing--however seriously or unseriously--for a syllabus for my <I>entire life</I>, just the next three to five years of it. And I hope my life will last rather longer than that.<BR/><BR/>I don't imagine there would be any exams, in any case--just lots of in-class essays. (The theoretical designer of this theoretical course is more of a softy--more forgiving of missed assignments, failures of retention, etc.--than is Dr. Fescue.)Flaviahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17832765671541392835noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27054305.post-52127851702561274632008-08-18T15:34:00.000-04:002008-08-18T15:34:00.000-04:00But the final exam for *life*? Do you know who pro...But the final exam for *life*? Do you know who proctors that exam?<BR/><BR/>I'm more interested in the extension policy, actually ....Doctor Clevelandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07326408523926507003noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27054305.post-39460496327454797632008-08-18T14:34:00.000-04:002008-08-18T14:34:00.000-04:00Not knowing when the exam is scheduled = every anx...Not knowing when the exam is scheduled = every anxiety dream I have ever had. <BR/><BR/>(At least as subject if not as cause. . . but surely the two are related.)Flaviahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17832765671541392835noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27054305.post-12531426456107238272008-08-18T09:51:00.000-04:002008-08-18T09:51:00.000-04:00Maybe it's me, but I really wouldn't want to know ...Maybe it's me, but I really wouldn't want to know when the final exam is scheduled.Doctor Clevelandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07326408523926507003noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27054305.post-34464602416238886922008-08-17T20:13:00.000-04:002008-08-17T20:13:00.000-04:00I get those questions all the time too...my studen...I get those questions all the time too...my students usually think I'm crazy, because I don't always remember what is happening next week.The History Enthusiasthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01920472487193649652noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27054305.post-31500451033189326322008-08-17T14:54:00.000-04:002008-08-17T14:54:00.000-04:00Neo: well, it would be dull indeed if we truly kne...Neo: well, it would be dull indeed if we truly knew what was going to happen to us at every stage of the game--and the one thing I have always feared more than feeling utterly at sea is feeling <I>trapped</I>. <BR/><BR/>So perhaps what I really want is a life syllabus to give me a sense of security and direction. . . which I can then crumple up and disregard.Flaviahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17832765671541392835noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27054305.post-748377012689802622008-08-16T20:34:00.000-04:002008-08-16T20:34:00.000-04:00As I am the sort of student who reads a syllabus o...As I am the sort of student who reads a syllabus obsessively and then promptly loses it to some abyss of crumpled-paper doom, and then skates by with falsified grace on a wing and a prayer, relying on her (already faltering, at her ripe young age) memory for deadlines and necessities, I can only imagine that the same would hold true for a life-syllabus. I cannot, thus, imagine that the results would be at all different from the present unplanned series of happy (in the early, more than modern, sense) accidents.<BR/><BR/>And there, I think, dear Flavia, is the difference between you and me.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27054305.post-77615893212327141372008-08-16T20:16:00.000-04:002008-08-16T20:16:00.000-04:00"Life is what happens to you while you're busy mak..."Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."<BR/><BR/>A life syllabus would be nice, lol.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27054305.post-18575572850819449782008-08-16T19:04:00.000-04:002008-08-16T19:04:00.000-04:00:: blinks ::I have to say that I think a syllabus ...:: blinks ::<BR/><BR/>I have to say that I think a syllabus for life would be a special kind of hell, but this may have to do with the fact that I always score waaaaay over on the P side on those Myers-Briggs tests.Fretful Porpentinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11165078003123517013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27054305.post-68758482757879002932008-08-16T19:01:00.000-04:002008-08-16T19:01:00.000-04:00Sis: yes, it's the personal stuff that's the bitch...Sis: yes, it's the personal stuff that's the bitch. Within certain parameters, I <I>can</I> work out a career syllabus--not everything's under my control, but large parts are, or at least partially. <BR/><BR/>But the rest of my life involves so many things over which I don't have control, or input (or even full knowledge about).Flaviahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17832765671541392835noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27054305.post-48231502072309079632008-08-16T18:27:00.000-04:002008-08-16T18:27:00.000-04:00Ah, a life sylllabus. Wow, wouldn't that be WONDE...Ah, a life sylllabus. Wow, wouldn't that be WONDERFUL?! I want mine to tell me when it's time to ask Bullock, "So, are we going to bother to get married or what?"<BR/><BR/>Btw, I laughed at your "If the syllabus says we're reading Othello..." dialogue. I do that *all* the time!Dr. Viragohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03960384082670286328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27054305.post-81953508262534682132008-08-16T18:05:00.000-04:002008-08-16T18:05:00.000-04:00It sounds like you also crave what Medieval Woman ...It sounds like you also crave what Medieval Woman blogged about a while ago: that writing partner who sat her down and planned out the entire research/book writing schedule, with room for having a kid, working backwards from tenure. <BR/><BR/>I want someone to do that for me with the book and also the social life!Sisyphushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09880634753539329199noreply@blogger.com