Jamie Iredell's Blog, page 17
April 11, 2011
April 8, 2011
I'm in New York. The sky is grey. I'm thinking of Amelia ...
I'm in New York. The sky is grey. I'm thinking of Amelia Gray. You can spell that color either way, or wey, I just learned that by looking it up because the Internet is fucking amazing. Blues/soul surrounds me in the form of Otis Redding oh shit Credence just came on it's time to leave. Going to this reading at the KGB Bar tonight. Tomorrow and Sunday I'm reading. If you live in this fucked megacity you should get stuck in traffic to come see me and I'll not swear, my god, I swear.
April 1, 2011
I don't know what to say about this review of FREAKS. Com...
I don't know what to say about this review of FREAKS. Comparisons to Voltaire, Joseph Heller, Airplane!, Gummo, and Dr. Strangelove. Shit. Amazing.
Thanks Matt Ferner!
Thanks Matt Ferner!
March 30, 2011
I was talking to a friend earlier today and he was like, ...
I was talking to a friend earlier today and he was like, "You should publicly acknowledge the fact that out of all your classes there's only one that's making you crazy and the rest are great." And at first I was like, fuck that, it's a blog, whatever the fuck. But upon recollection/refiguration a la a transformer, it's true: only one of my classes is certifiably disastrous; the rest are actually amazing. that's partly because I've weeded out bullshit from day one, but nonetheless. I have this remedial writing class (the one with the girl who wanted to "devastate them from the beginning"--probably my favorite quote ever from a student) that, for the most part, has been full of people eager to get the hell out of their "Learning Support" status and on to the actual college writing courses. There has been a lot of dead weight, too, more than half the class either dropped or I had institutionally withdrawn for not coming to class and/or failing. But the ones still around are great. They want to learn. Take a cue, Humanities class. My last class is an English 1101 class that meets once a week. They've got their own problems, like going insane, and because of that not being able to make it to class (I'm not even kidding, that's true: that came from a student who said that she was sad that she couldn't make it to class, but she was being treated for depression/paranoia/anxiety disorder/schizophrenia that day, inadvertently because she had a major attack of something mid-class, another class not mine). Despite that, they're doing pretty well, and are into our class and the reading and writing.
So I've got one class that blows, but I cannot help but focus on that one class. I was talking with the wife about this last night. She was complaining about work. Is it that the bad stories are just better? Is it that we need something to bitch about? What the Fuck? Maybe I should say WTF? Some of my classes are great so don't piss me off.
So I've got one class that blows, but I cannot help but focus on that one class. I was talking with the wife about this last night. She was complaining about work. Is it that the bad stories are just better? Is it that we need something to bitch about? What the Fuck? Maybe I should say WTF? Some of my classes are great so don't piss me off.
March 29, 2011
Another Freak Review
Awesome: thanks so much to Levi Stahl at his blog, Ivebeenreadinglately, for his kind words about Freaks!
March 26, 2011
More Shit about Students
I'm in a difficult position: forced to decision. I have a class that's failing massively, like, to say the majority of the class is failing is understatement. I have, perhaps, a single student out of 15 that does passable work.
I've already had a come to Jesus moment with this class, after it was clear that they weren't doing the reading. I broke down to them the system: colleges are tiered. There's Harvard and Yale, there's UGA and UCLA, there's Georgia State and Michigan State Universities, then there's community colleges associated with state public education systems, then there are for-profit colleges.
I always ask them what they're going to school for. Invariably, their answers are for a job or the money that comes from the job. Sometimes I get a student who says something like, "I want to be a nurse because I like helping people." On those rare occasions a beetle does a somersault in my upper intestine.
About a month and a half ago I told my class that, in many ways, they had it a lot harder than the students in the top-tiered schools. They have to work three or four times as hard as some of their peers if they want to be competitive on the job market.
All this is to say that I told my class that I could make their lives easier by being an easier professor, but that I didn't think that would be doing them any favors. They'd end up leaving this community college and going someplace like GA State and passing or failing, graduating or not, but they'd be under a false pretense: that their education was just as good as the students' of these higher-tiered schools.
Let me first say that I'm not naive enough to think that I could--or should--make the workload in my classes equal to what a Harvard undergraduate likely experiences. I told my class that they've already got it a lot easier than some other students. I told them all this not to discourage them, but to attempt to inspire them. Did they think that they deserved that? Did they think that they could rise above their expectations, that they could do college work, that they could be successful? Absolutely, I agreed as they nodded, "I think you're smart, that you're capable, that you can achieve your dreams if you work hard for them."
We left that class and I had the feeling that things would turn around, the reading would get done, the grades would come up, my students would succeed!
You can infer by referring to this post's first paragraph that that is not what happened. At midterm, a week ago, the class's highest grade was 86%, the lowest score a 22%. Most of the class failed. I curved the exam. Yes, a 14% curve. That spread out the pass/fail ratio far more evenly. Okay, so there's the exam.
They also had a midterm essay assignment. Here's where my dilemma lies. The essays are nearly incapable of grading, not to mention reading. To call them essays is an insult to every student who ever graduated from college ever in the history of college or humanity. It's too depressing to even describe what kind of swill was turned in for an assignment that the class has been aware of since the first day of class in January. We've devoted class sessions to working on essays, to discussing how one goes about research and developing a thesis, incorporating quotes, etc. Let me also point out that this is not a writing class. It's called Humanities through the Arts.
Among my problems is that I've got to decide: teach these people how to write an essay, or teach them about art? I cannot do both in a single semester. Unfortunately, the college's prerequisites for taking this class are passing remedial writing, so there's no help there.
What I'm realizing is that unless I have no qualms about failing an entire class for not meeting my standards--and threatening my job security which does not exist, since I'm an adjunct--is that I have no choice but to dumb down this class. In fact, if I want any students to pass this course, I have to make the class easier than a third or fourth grade social studies class. There's literally no way for me to get my students up to speed for college-level work. Not only can I not do it for a class of 15 in three months, but they have no desire to get there. I'm trapped by ennui. And so I must bend to inadequacy.
This is what scares me, what is my real dilemma: this is happening all over the United States, in community colleges, in State colleges and Universities--certainly in the for-profit colleges. The road to equality in education and income and social stratification is bordered by gas stations full of gas station attendants that themselves are better critical thinkers than those traveling the road. How's that for a mixed metaphor?
I'm afraid, very afraid: our nation is fucked.
I've already had a come to Jesus moment with this class, after it was clear that they weren't doing the reading. I broke down to them the system: colleges are tiered. There's Harvard and Yale, there's UGA and UCLA, there's Georgia State and Michigan State Universities, then there's community colleges associated with state public education systems, then there are for-profit colleges.
I always ask them what they're going to school for. Invariably, their answers are for a job or the money that comes from the job. Sometimes I get a student who says something like, "I want to be a nurse because I like helping people." On those rare occasions a beetle does a somersault in my upper intestine.
About a month and a half ago I told my class that, in many ways, they had it a lot harder than the students in the top-tiered schools. They have to work three or four times as hard as some of their peers if they want to be competitive on the job market.
All this is to say that I told my class that I could make their lives easier by being an easier professor, but that I didn't think that would be doing them any favors. They'd end up leaving this community college and going someplace like GA State and passing or failing, graduating or not, but they'd be under a false pretense: that their education was just as good as the students' of these higher-tiered schools.
Let me first say that I'm not naive enough to think that I could--or should--make the workload in my classes equal to what a Harvard undergraduate likely experiences. I told my class that they've already got it a lot easier than some other students. I told them all this not to discourage them, but to attempt to inspire them. Did they think that they deserved that? Did they think that they could rise above their expectations, that they could do college work, that they could be successful? Absolutely, I agreed as they nodded, "I think you're smart, that you're capable, that you can achieve your dreams if you work hard for them."
We left that class and I had the feeling that things would turn around, the reading would get done, the grades would come up, my students would succeed!
You can infer by referring to this post's first paragraph that that is not what happened. At midterm, a week ago, the class's highest grade was 86%, the lowest score a 22%. Most of the class failed. I curved the exam. Yes, a 14% curve. That spread out the pass/fail ratio far more evenly. Okay, so there's the exam.
They also had a midterm essay assignment. Here's where my dilemma lies. The essays are nearly incapable of grading, not to mention reading. To call them essays is an insult to every student who ever graduated from college ever in the history of college or humanity. It's too depressing to even describe what kind of swill was turned in for an assignment that the class has been aware of since the first day of class in January. We've devoted class sessions to working on essays, to discussing how one goes about research and developing a thesis, incorporating quotes, etc. Let me also point out that this is not a writing class. It's called Humanities through the Arts.
Among my problems is that I've got to decide: teach these people how to write an essay, or teach them about art? I cannot do both in a single semester. Unfortunately, the college's prerequisites for taking this class are passing remedial writing, so there's no help there.
What I'm realizing is that unless I have no qualms about failing an entire class for not meeting my standards--and threatening my job security which does not exist, since I'm an adjunct--is that I have no choice but to dumb down this class. In fact, if I want any students to pass this course, I have to make the class easier than a third or fourth grade social studies class. There's literally no way for me to get my students up to speed for college-level work. Not only can I not do it for a class of 15 in three months, but they have no desire to get there. I'm trapped by ennui. And so I must bend to inadequacy.
This is what scares me, what is my real dilemma: this is happening all over the United States, in community colleges, in State colleges and Universities--certainly in the for-profit colleges. The road to equality in education and income and social stratification is bordered by gas stations full of gas station attendants that themselves are better critical thinkers than those traveling the road. How's that for a mixed metaphor?
I'm afraid, very afraid: our nation is fucked.
March 16, 2011
Back at It
Gave a midterm exam today in an arts appreciation course. This young lady who, frankly, has had an attitude since day one (she was texting while I went over the syllabus about texting and I used her as an example of what not to do, but I was being funny about it, only she just glared at me)was on her phone throughout the exam. I'm giving her a 0 for the test. I mean, what would make anyone at all--ever--think it's okay to use their phone during a test? Anyway, it's not like I've had it out for her or anything, but I will say that it's annoying that on the day we review for the exam, a student sits in class for approximately two minutes, then picks up her stuff and leaves. Never mind the fact that the student attends a class in the same classroom immediately following the class I teach, and said student comes back for said second class, as I'm talking to students with legitimate questions. Said student then asks a question related to essay that's due in one day (major question, like, "We need to have citations?") demonstrating the fact that she has clearly not looked at all at the assignment although it's been assigned since the first day of class, two months ago. Said student seemed upset at the idea that the midterm was not going to be multiple choice, and was miffed when I said that multiple choice exams were idiotic and did not give students an opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge of the course material.
ANYWAY.
My first book, Prose. Poems. a Novel., is now available as a Google ebook. It's cheap, much cheaper than the physical book (although I'm partial to the latter), and I'm donating some of the sales $ to a relief fund for victims of the recent Japanese earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster.
ANYWAY.
My first book, Prose. Poems. a Novel., is now available as a Google ebook. It's cheap, much cheaper than the physical book (although I'm partial to the latter), and I'm donating some of the sales $ to a relief fund for victims of the recent Japanese earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster.
March 14, 2011
After a Book Tour a Formal Feeling Comes
Mike Young and I had a long, slow, beautiful, blurring, fruitful book tour down the west coast of North America, during which I was powerful hungry and we saw and met the most bestest of friends. Our raft was a silver Mazda minivan packed with jackets and books and plastic and empty coffee cups and water bottles. We braved great weather and a tsunami.
People and places I want to thank:
Matthew Simmons
Tom De Beauchamp
Pilot Books in Seattle
Kevin Sampsell
B. Frayn Masters
Michael Schaub
Ampersand Vintage in Portland
K. Silem Mohammad
Elliot Harmon
Todd Christopher Cincala
Jeremy Spencer
JP Dancing Bear
Todd James Pierce
California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo
The Inn at Avila Beach (Thanks for the free night after the evacuation!)
Ken Baumann
Vicki Baumann
Skylight Books in L.A.
Also, thanks to everyone who came out to see us in Seattle, Portland, Ashland, San Francisco, Davis, thanks if you listened to us on the radio in San Jose, San Luis Obispo, and Los Angeles. If you haven't already, find me on Facebook or something. I met some great new people, and got to see friends and family who I already knew were great.
Oh, and I have to add a huge thanks to Mike Young who was a great traveling partner, an amazing reader and a great writer. He's going to set the world afire.
People and places I want to thank:
Matthew Simmons
Tom De Beauchamp
Pilot Books in Seattle
Kevin Sampsell
B. Frayn Masters
Michael Schaub
Ampersand Vintage in Portland
K. Silem Mohammad
Elliot Harmon
Todd Christopher Cincala
Jeremy Spencer
JP Dancing Bear
Todd James Pierce
California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo
The Inn at Avila Beach (Thanks for the free night after the evacuation!)
Ken Baumann
Vicki Baumann
Skylight Books in L.A.
Also, thanks to everyone who came out to see us in Seattle, Portland, Ashland, San Francisco, Davis, thanks if you listened to us on the radio in San Jose, San Luis Obispo, and Los Angeles. If you haven't already, find me on Facebook or something. I met some great new people, and got to see friends and family who I already knew were great.
Oh, and I have to add a huge thanks to Mike Young who was a great traveling partner, an amazing reader and a great writer. He's going to set the world afire.
March 12, 2011
End
Tsunami. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo hooked us up with a hotel room at Avila Beach, this quaint tiny town, maybe three hundred beachcombers, nestled between ridges that looked like green shoulders. After hanging with Todd Pierce till 2 or 2:30 AM, I crashed hard, but Mike was checking out the Internet, and saw the earthquake that struck Japan, and that a tsunami was headed our way. He woke me at 4 AM to tell me about it, and that they expected the wave to hit N. America around 8 or 8:30, so we went back to bed until the hotel owner &c pounded the door and told us that the town was being evacuated: 7 AM. The hotel owner was really apologetic, though, and offered us a free room for that night, should we be allowed to come back into town. So with our minimal sleep we huddled into the car and I found a cliff overlooking the sea. Everyone said we should head inland, but I wanted to see a tsunami if there was going to be one. We sat on a log and watched the waves come in. The waves were the same as all the waves that ever hit that beach. We watched for about an hour. I tried to sleep in the car. Todd called, said we should eat breakfast, and that sounded good. Driving in to San Luis Obispo, saw that the CHP had closed off the incoming lanes, so we knew we weren't going to be able to get back in to Avila. Ate breakfast at Luisa's. Todd directed us to a used bookstore where in exchange for the facilities I purchased a volume by John D'Agata. I was dragging pretty hard, and thinking about the more than three-hour haul to LA unnerved me. Mike and I hatched a brilliant plan: we should take up the free hotel room offer and stay another night, chill, should there be minimal tsunami damage. Yes, we are that smart. So that's what we did. of course, despite the massive destruction in Japan, the tsunami had lost its power by the time it reached California, and the result was something like the tide coming in in under five minutes, instead of two hours. That in itself is certainly significant, but I don't think it would've been anything to watch.
Our hotel is to the left (duh) in the first shot here. It's a little blurry, but anyway.
So we kicked it that night, went to bed relatively early, after listening to music and eating antipasto. It was very romantic.
Today we headed into LA. The reading at Skylight was cool. The folks there, Noel and Liz, were really nice and supportive, and Mike and I sold some books. Jereme Dean and Gena Mowish came out to hang and we ate diner food. I had a bowl of chowder, and that is something that white people eat. Just look at "White People" in The Book of Freaks, it says so right in there.
Altogether, it's been fun and worksome, and long, but I'm a little sad to see it end, but I want to get home to my baby and my baby's mama. The baby's still in my baby's mama, so it's easy in that I get to see them both in close proximity.
Favorite meal: dinner at my Aunt Liz's house.
Favorite meal at a commercial establishment: Morning Glory, Ashland, OR
Favorite Song: jingles Mike and I wrote for each other: "You might think he's old, but he's . . .MIKE YOUNG!"; "He's not not you, and he's not me he's . . . JAMIE."
Favorite part of Drive: Coming down Siskiyou Pass into California, near Weed.
Favorite Children: My niece and nephew.
Favorite color: sky.
Our hotel is to the left (duh) in the first shot here. It's a little blurry, but anyway.
So we kicked it that night, went to bed relatively early, after listening to music and eating antipasto. It was very romantic.
Today we headed into LA. The reading at Skylight was cool. The folks there, Noel and Liz, were really nice and supportive, and Mike and I sold some books. Jereme Dean and Gena Mowish came out to hang and we ate diner food. I had a bowl of chowder, and that is something that white people eat. Just look at "White People" in The Book of Freaks, it says so right in there.
Altogether, it's been fun and worksome, and long, but I'm a little sad to see it end, but I want to get home to my baby and my baby's mama. The baby's still in my baby's mama, so it's easy in that I get to see them both in close proximity.
Favorite meal: dinner at my Aunt Liz's house.
Favorite meal at a commercial establishment: Morning Glory, Ashland, OR
Favorite Song: jingles Mike and I wrote for each other: "You might think he's old, but he's . . .MIKE YOUNG!"; "He's not not you, and he's not me he's . . . JAMIE."
Favorite part of Drive: Coming down Siskiyou Pass into California, near Weed.
Favorite Children: My niece and nephew.
Favorite color: sky.
March 11, 2011
Not Allowed
Beer Run Bobby is also known as Bobby Piñon
