I must be the worst blogger in the world. Last post was back in February this year and look where we are now - 6th December. My only excuse is that I've been ... busy. Busy with work and uni and life as a fifty-something single woman.
So, uni this year has had its ups and downs. Last year was all good, all the way. This year started off very well. I was registered for two papers: a compulsory English paper for all English Lit majors and a Film paper. Both were good - interesting, intense, stimulating although I did come to realize that my first preference will always be English! The film paper was cool but not as thrilling as the paper last year. So, completed both and scored another two A grades!
Midway through the first semester, I did something which has had a major impact on my uni studies: I bought a house. This is something I'd been looking at for about a year or more--paying rent always feels like throwing money away. So when I found and fell in love with a beautiful place overlooking Lyall Bay and the Cook Strait, and when the bank finally approved my mortgage, I went ahead and did it. No regrets at all, except for the fact that the mortgage payment is a LOT more than my rent used to be, so my part time income started taking strain. The house is also a lot further away from my work place so I was spending a lot of time on the road and a lot of money on petrol just to get to work--which also affected the budget adversely. I started thinking seriously about working more ....
At the start of semester two, I dropped one of the papers I'd registered for and stuck with just one: a kind of filler paper called Writing for Print Media. It looked very interesting but its big plus was the fact that the class only met once a week for three hours which made it easier to build work around than a class with three or four lectures spread out across a week, plus tutorial. Unfortunately, I can now say that this class is the one I've enjoyed the least so far. It wasn't well taught, the other students were very slack--not showing up, not completing the assignments, the lecturer, while a sweetie, was very not dynamic and she gave everyone huge amounts of leeway in terms of handing things in. The workshops ended up being really boring, with us 'working' on our own while she talked one-on-one with various students. So I was glad when it was over and done with. My portfolio got me another A, so that was good at any rate.
It's now summer semester (although to hear the wind and rain gusting about outside, you wouldn't think it so). I'm doing a Summer paper: a 200 level Religious Studies paper called "Jesus, the Gospels and the Coming of God." It is very intense as it is compressed into four weeks and three days, but it is very very illuminating and interesting and I'm totally enjoying it. First essay done and handed in, second one just getting underway (due in ten days time) and then a final, two-hour exam and we'll be done.
Sadly, though, work as been getting in the way of studies. In August, I picked up a part time position which was closer to home and now do 20-25 hours a week for them, while still doing my 16 hours a week at the hospital which is a long drive away from home. So that equates to almost full time work .. and both jobs have been full on busy lately so I am kind of running on empty at the moment. But the income is very satisfactory, and the second part time job does give me a lot of autonomy which means I can work in uni stuff around it! :-)
Next year is looming. There is an outside chance that things might change very dramatically for me, in terms of study and life, but I'll write more about that once I get a yes or no reply about something. :-)
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Second Year
Just finished registering for my second year at Uni and it's looking good. I've signed up for another six papers which, if I'm able to do them all, will give me a full second year course load - 120 credits.
First semester will be Film History and an English Lit paper called Sea Passages, which explores a series of novels sharing the common focus on journeys by sea. These include Wide Sargasso Sea, Wulf, The Waste Land, Star Waka, Jane Eyre and a few others. Second semester I've chosen Modern Poetry, Film in Aotearoa and Writing for Print Media. Third trimester I'll do Writing for Business.
Whether I'll actually be able to do all six, I'm not sure. These are all 200-level courses and require a bit more effort than last year and I'm still working 0.7 of full time. I'm also thinking I might drop the Film as a major and just keep it as a minor. I realize while I love learning and writing about film, I'm not going to be working in this area later and the 300-level courses on offer are very limited, especially now that they're not offering Screenwriting and Documentary any more. :-( However, if these two courses become available again next year, it might be a different story, as they both look great.
Now, it's back to finishing my student critiques for the second-to-last writing workshop coming up on Tuesday. I'm also due to get critiqued on my second submission which was all-new writing for me. It was hard work and I struggled quite a bit with it. My first submission was an older story, reworked for this class and I was very happy with it (and the tutor said it had the potential to become a breakthrough story, so yay!!) This one I'm not so sure - but we'll see what Tuesday brings. The course has gone so fast, I'm astounded, but it's been brilliant. Our tutor is a bottomless well of writing wit and wisdom and we've all benefitted enormously from her input!
First semester will be Film History and an English Lit paper called Sea Passages, which explores a series of novels sharing the common focus on journeys by sea. These include Wide Sargasso Sea, Wulf, The Waste Land, Star Waka, Jane Eyre and a few others. Second semester I've chosen Modern Poetry, Film in Aotearoa and Writing for Print Media. Third trimester I'll do Writing for Business.
Whether I'll actually be able to do all six, I'm not sure. These are all 200-level courses and require a bit more effort than last year and I'm still working 0.7 of full time. I'm also thinking I might drop the Film as a major and just keep it as a minor. I realize while I love learning and writing about film, I'm not going to be working in this area later and the 300-level courses on offer are very limited, especially now that they're not offering Screenwriting and Documentary any more. :-( However, if these two courses become available again next year, it might be a different story, as they both look great.
Now, it's back to finishing my student critiques for the second-to-last writing workshop coming up on Tuesday. I'm also due to get critiqued on my second submission which was all-new writing for me. It was hard work and I struggled quite a bit with it. My first submission was an older story, reworked for this class and I was very happy with it (and the tutor said it had the potential to become a breakthrough story, so yay!!) This one I'm not so sure - but we'll see what Tuesday brings. The course has gone so fast, I'm astounded, but it's been brilliant. Our tutor is a bottomless well of writing wit and wisdom and we've all benefitted enormously from her input!
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
2012 - Summer Trimester
Yesterday was the first day of my summer trimester course. I had a big whoopee moment in early December when I got a call informing me I'd been accepted into the Iowa Prose Workshop - a limited entry course which runs over six weeks from early Jan to end Feb.
We met yesterday for three hours and it looks like it's going to be fun. The faciliatator is a graduate of the real Iowa Writer's Workshop and she's a red-headed, entertaining, knowledgeable and inspiriational woman of 65. Met ten new classmates - the eleventh is apparently stuck in Colombo and will be arriving sooner or later. We're a group of six men and six women, and I suspect I'm the oldest although not by all that much! We're reading a lot of contemporary short stories and novels and each session we'll be workshipping two student submissions. I have to hand in on Tues 31st Jan for workshopping on Thurs 2nd Feb. At this moment, I have no idea what I'm going to be writing but I think I will be guided by this:
We met yesterday for three hours and it looks like it's going to be fun. The faciliatator is a graduate of the real Iowa Writer's Workshop and she's a red-headed, entertaining, knowledgeable and inspiriational woman of 65. Met ten new classmates - the eleventh is apparently stuck in Colombo and will be arriving sooner or later. We're a group of six men and six women, and I suspect I'm the oldest although not by all that much! We're reading a lot of contemporary short stories and novels and each session we'll be workshipping two student submissions. I have to hand in on Tues 31st Jan for workshopping on Thurs 2nd Feb. At this moment, I have no idea what I'm going to be writing but I think I will be guided by this:
"Look closely at what causes you pleasure. Look even more closely at what causes you pain." Collette.Off to clean house, hang laundry, make dinner - and maybe write!
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Second Semester - done!
Did it!
Here we are, eight months down the line and I've completed five full papers at 20 credits a piece. A full first year would normally total about 120 credits, so I'm planning to do a paper over the summer vacation - either another writing paper if I get accepted, or a 200 level paper called Print, Culture and Communication. That will put me at full time studying level, which is not too bad considering I was working 0.7 of full time (about 30 hours per week on average. :-)
Second semester was fantastic. Three papers was a full load but the longer I do this, the more I think education should be saved for when you're older. Motivation is higher, life experience is broader and it is just so much more satisfying!
LING 101: Introduction to Language was interesting, with tons of fascinating tidbits here and there. I'm glad I did it, but mainly because it showed me that Linguistics as a major is not really for me! Linguists are pedantic to the nth degree. I can understand the fascination but you have to be really, really interested in grammatical structure and absolutely anal about explaining why and how verbs and nouns and adverbs do the things they do. I seriously don't care enough about that side of it. I loved learning about origins and changes over time and sexism and text speak and cultural context and all the sociolinguistic stuff, but am happy to stop there.
FILM 101: I cannot begin to say how much I loved this course. LOVED IT! Every thing about it was just joy! We watched a wide range of movies from blockbusters to the weirdest of surrealistic arthouse films. First assignment was a group one to create and present a storyboard using a range of techniques. It was cool working with two young Kiwi guys and an American exchange student the same age as my daughter - we did a great presentation and I got an A. Next assigmement was to analyze a short clip from one of the movies we watched and that was enormously satisfying. I watch movies in a whole new way now and the ability to break the scenes down in my head (light, angles, sound, themes etc) has only added to the pleasure. So, I got an A+ for that one. Have handed in my final paper, worth 45%, which was a 3000 word essay on "The viewer is a passive dupe easily manipulated by the films they watch. Discuss." Tough. Wish I'd been able to actually read and absorb all the books I skimmed trying to get my citations together. So, all in all an awesome course - and having a totally gorgous French professor lecturing did not hurt at all, LOL!
And last but not least, the Writing for Children workshop. This was just a WOW course, all the way through. Our facilitator was a multi-published author called Eirlys Hunter. The group of 12 comprised a range of ages. We had a granny in her 60s, some women in their 30-40s (including a yoga teacher, a lawyer and a film producer), a guy and a girl who both work in publishing, four Vic students including one German and one American exchange student--and me. Most of them are really good writers. We had a lot of fun once the group warmed up, wrote a lot of exercises, had an outing or two, worked very hard and finally, we all handed in a completed portfolio of about 9000 to 10,000 words which included either a play or text for a picture book, plus the synopsis and opening chapters for a children's novel. It was awesome!! The course is a Pass/Fail course so no grades will be given, but we'll get written reports on all our work and someone will win the Maurice Gee prize for Best Portfolio!
It's been an amazing and wonderful semester! More to follow!
Here we are, eight months down the line and I've completed five full papers at 20 credits a piece. A full first year would normally total about 120 credits, so I'm planning to do a paper over the summer vacation - either another writing paper if I get accepted, or a 200 level paper called Print, Culture and Communication. That will put me at full time studying level, which is not too bad considering I was working 0.7 of full time (about 30 hours per week on average. :-)
Second semester was fantastic. Three papers was a full load but the longer I do this, the more I think education should be saved for when you're older. Motivation is higher, life experience is broader and it is just so much more satisfying!
LING 101: Introduction to Language was interesting, with tons of fascinating tidbits here and there. I'm glad I did it, but mainly because it showed me that Linguistics as a major is not really for me! Linguists are pedantic to the nth degree. I can understand the fascination but you have to be really, really interested in grammatical structure and absolutely anal about explaining why and how verbs and nouns and adverbs do the things they do. I seriously don't care enough about that side of it. I loved learning about origins and changes over time and sexism and text speak and cultural context and all the sociolinguistic stuff, but am happy to stop there.
FILM 101: I cannot begin to say how much I loved this course. LOVED IT! Every thing about it was just joy! We watched a wide range of movies from blockbusters to the weirdest of surrealistic arthouse films. First assignment was a group one to create and present a storyboard using a range of techniques. It was cool working with two young Kiwi guys and an American exchange student the same age as my daughter - we did a great presentation and I got an A. Next assigmement was to analyze a short clip from one of the movies we watched and that was enormously satisfying. I watch movies in a whole new way now and the ability to break the scenes down in my head (light, angles, sound, themes etc) has only added to the pleasure. So, I got an A+ for that one. Have handed in my final paper, worth 45%, which was a 3000 word essay on "The viewer is a passive dupe easily manipulated by the films they watch. Discuss." Tough. Wish I'd been able to actually read and absorb all the books I skimmed trying to get my citations together. So, all in all an awesome course - and having a totally gorgous French professor lecturing did not hurt at all, LOL!
And last but not least, the Writing for Children workshop. This was just a WOW course, all the way through. Our facilitator was a multi-published author called Eirlys Hunter. The group of 12 comprised a range of ages. We had a granny in her 60s, some women in their 30-40s (including a yoga teacher, a lawyer and a film producer), a guy and a girl who both work in publishing, four Vic students including one German and one American exchange student--and me. Most of them are really good writers. We had a lot of fun once the group warmed up, wrote a lot of exercises, had an outing or two, worked very hard and finally, we all handed in a completed portfolio of about 9000 to 10,000 words which included either a play or text for a picture book, plus the synopsis and opening chapters for a children's novel. It was awesome!! The course is a Pass/Fail course so no grades will be given, but we'll get written reports on all our work and someone will win the Maurice Gee prize for Best Portfolio!
It's been an amazing and wonderful semester! More to follow!
Monday, July 18, 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Uni holidays and next semester
So, final English exam went well. Three critical analyses to write - two compulsory and one free choice. It was tough producing work under time pressure and although I had a lot to say (it was an open book exam), I think I drifted off topic now and then in the sense of writing about plot rather than about style or content or word usage. I guess / hope that as I get more used to exams, I'll do better. Still waiting for final result on that.
I handed in my final Religious Studies research paper on time - 2,700 words on Baptism in the Holy Spirit, for which I got 80% - 40/50. In his comment, he had nothing but good things to say about it - excellence in research, structure, writing, critical engagement ... which leaves me wondering how on earth one could improve on 40/50? What would I need to do to get a higher mark, if he didn't fault anything? Where was the lack? I'm not sure, and rather doubt I'll ever find out now that the course is over.
The coursework for the second semester is starting to appear on the uni intranet and it looks so cool! I know LING 101 is simply a beginner language course, but I really like the look of it. Nothing posted yet for FILM 101. And for my third paper - the writing workshop - well, it is already all systems go! Received a bunch of emails from the facilitator which included a first writing exercise to be completed during this vacation break and prepared for presentation at the first course meeting on Monday 11th July. Woo hoo! Time to get writing, methinks!
But for now, I'm on holiday, thousands of kms away from Welly and my kids, spending time in South Africa with my aging parents and some of my oldest and dearest friends.
I handed in my final Religious Studies research paper on time - 2,700 words on Baptism in the Holy Spirit, for which I got 80% - 40/50. In his comment, he had nothing but good things to say about it - excellence in research, structure, writing, critical engagement ... which leaves me wondering how on earth one could improve on 40/50? What would I need to do to get a higher mark, if he didn't fault anything? Where was the lack? I'm not sure, and rather doubt I'll ever find out now that the course is over.
The coursework for the second semester is starting to appear on the uni intranet and it looks so cool! I know LING 101 is simply a beginner language course, but I really like the look of it. Nothing posted yet for FILM 101. And for my third paper - the writing workshop - well, it is already all systems go! Received a bunch of emails from the facilitator which included a first writing exercise to be completed during this vacation break and prepared for presentation at the first course meeting on Monday 11th July. Woo hoo! Time to get writing, methinks!
But for now, I'm on holiday, thousands of kms away from Welly and my kids, spending time in South Africa with my aging parents and some of my oldest and dearest friends.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Writing Workshop
Just picked up the email that said I'm accepted into this workshop!! I was really very doubtful about getting in, as there are always far more applications than there are places and according to the admin lady, the standard amongst applicants was very high this year, but I made it! I am REALLY excited about this one!
(Just hoping that I'm not biting off more than I can chew, taking three courses... but they're ALL brilliant and ALL in fields I absolutely love and feel so at home and comfortable in, so hell, why not give it a go?
This workshop introduces you to key craft skills as well as to the magic of the imagination. It is led by well-known children’s writer Eirlys Hunter, and among other things offers an insider visit to one of New Zealand’s best-kept secrets, the National Library’s astonishing Children’s Book Collection..... we do not teach a specific set of predetermined skills. Our aim is to develop the imaginative capacity and individual literary skills of emerging writers in a stimulating workshop environment.
(Just hoping that I'm not biting off more than I can chew, taking three courses... but they're ALL brilliant and ALL in fields I absolutely love and feel so at home and comfortable in, so hell, why not give it a go?
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Tutors and other people
A word about tutors:
I had two very different tutors this semester. Both were guys and both were post-grads, but that's where the similarity ends. Let's call the English tutor John and the Reli tutor Joe . We met with John weekly and with Joe every second week.
John is probably in his mid-20s. He has floppy dark hair, brown eyes and dresses in that shorts, jandals and a big shirt style so typical of your average Kiwi bloke. John is doing his Masters on Milton. He really likes Milton, he's interested in him and takes every chance to mention him in relation to whatever we are talking about in English. Now, John was very new to tutoring. The first session was a disaster: he handed out some poems, made us go round the room reading them - no one knew where they were supposed to start or stop, or even how to pronounce the weird Old English words. At the end of each poem, he's say: so what do you guys think? and after a few moments, someone might say something and he'd just nod, and the silence would continue. We'd then go on to reading the next poem and the same thing would happen. If someone asked what something meant, he'd hunt about on the page to find the reference and then say he had no idea, maybe it meant such-and-such. He also kept checking the time on his cell phone, as anxious as any of us for the torture to be over. We all left ten minutes early.
Now, one of my new mature student friends was in the tut with me and she immediately arranged to be moved to another group. I asked as well, but due to numbers they couldn't swop me out. So I talked to the senior tutor and gave her feedback on why I wanted to be moved. She supervises the tutors and she must have done a really good job because from then on, John just got better and better. He relaxed, he brought biscuits, he came up with really interesting exercises, he wrote down everything we contributed on the white board, he was active, he divided us into groups and got us to debate issues - in other words, he engaged with us and more importantly, he engaged our attention during the tutorial too. By the end, we were a cohesive group and we'd learnt a lot and we were all sorry to say goodbye. He was a bit slow with marking our assignments but kept us informed and apologized for the delays, one of which was due to personal bereavement.
Now, Religious studies and Joe. Joe is doing a PhD in - I don't know what. He's been in the PhD program since 2007. Joe always wear a cap, a big fisherman's jersey, jandals, has fuzzy facial hair and a perpetual half-grin on his face. If I'd seen him on the street, my first thought would not have been 'academic' - I'd have been looking for the collecting tin on the ground. Joe, however, is very academic indeed. He runs his tutorials from his chair at the head of the room and his method is to simply rehash on of the set readings and ask a number of questions. Most of the students just sit and stare, a few contribute a thought now and then. When they ask questions, it is usually about which reading they should pick to write about for the next essay. After this discussion, Joe then gives us one or two of the preceeding week's student essays to read and comment on. Generally they are essays which have scored 9 or 9.5 out of 10. It's quite hard commenting on the work of your peers, even if it is anonymous. When it comes to returning essays, Joe is also very, very slow and his comments generally come off a pre-typed list (I know this because sometimes they'll show up as ... 4. In future essays, you should .. etc - but there is no 1 or 2 or 3 preceding it. One girl I know got a comment that started 11. Try to ... etc. He knows everything about citations and how to put together an academic argument, but on the whole he seems to be going through the motions with us, rather than exhibiting any genuine enthusiasm for his subject.
John may have been young and relatively inexperienced but in the end - for me - I think he was the better tutor.
I had two very different tutors this semester. Both were guys and both were post-grads, but that's where the similarity ends. Let's call the English tutor John and the Reli tutor Joe . We met with John weekly and with Joe every second week.
John is probably in his mid-20s. He has floppy dark hair, brown eyes and dresses in that shorts, jandals and a big shirt style so typical of your average Kiwi bloke. John is doing his Masters on Milton. He really likes Milton, he's interested in him and takes every chance to mention him in relation to whatever we are talking about in English. Now, John was very new to tutoring. The first session was a disaster: he handed out some poems, made us go round the room reading them - no one knew where they were supposed to start or stop, or even how to pronounce the weird Old English words. At the end of each poem, he's say: so what do you guys think? and after a few moments, someone might say something and he'd just nod, and the silence would continue. We'd then go on to reading the next poem and the same thing would happen. If someone asked what something meant, he'd hunt about on the page to find the reference and then say he had no idea, maybe it meant such-and-such. He also kept checking the time on his cell phone, as anxious as any of us for the torture to be over. We all left ten minutes early.
Now, one of my new mature student friends was in the tut with me and she immediately arranged to be moved to another group. I asked as well, but due to numbers they couldn't swop me out. So I talked to the senior tutor and gave her feedback on why I wanted to be moved. She supervises the tutors and she must have done a really good job because from then on, John just got better and better. He relaxed, he brought biscuits, he came up with really interesting exercises, he wrote down everything we contributed on the white board, he was active, he divided us into groups and got us to debate issues - in other words, he engaged with us and more importantly, he engaged our attention during the tutorial too. By the end, we were a cohesive group and we'd learnt a lot and we were all sorry to say goodbye. He was a bit slow with marking our assignments but kept us informed and apologized for the delays, one of which was due to personal bereavement.
Now, Religious studies and Joe. Joe is doing a PhD in - I don't know what. He's been in the PhD program since 2007. Joe always wear a cap, a big fisherman's jersey, jandals, has fuzzy facial hair and a perpetual half-grin on his face. If I'd seen him on the street, my first thought would not have been 'academic' - I'd have been looking for the collecting tin on the ground. Joe, however, is very academic indeed. He runs his tutorials from his chair at the head of the room and his method is to simply rehash on of the set readings and ask a number of questions. Most of the students just sit and stare, a few contribute a thought now and then. When they ask questions, it is usually about which reading they should pick to write about for the next essay. After this discussion, Joe then gives us one or two of the preceeding week's student essays to read and comment on. Generally they are essays which have scored 9 or 9.5 out of 10. It's quite hard commenting on the work of your peers, even if it is anonymous. When it comes to returning essays, Joe is also very, very slow and his comments generally come off a pre-typed list (I know this because sometimes they'll show up as ... 4. In future essays, you should .. etc - but there is no 1 or 2 or 3 preceding it. One girl I know got a comment that started 11. Try to ... etc. He knows everything about citations and how to put together an academic argument, but on the whole he seems to be going through the motions with us, rather than exhibiting any genuine enthusiasm for his subject.
John may have been young and relatively inexperienced but in the end - for me - I think he was the better tutor.
Mid-year exams already!
And here we are in early June already. It is almost unbelievable how quickly time has gone. In ten days time, I'll be writing a three-hour exam in English and handing in a 2,500 word essay in Religious Studies, and that will be the end of Semester One. Luckily for me, I'm on vacation from my paying job so have ample time to study and prepare!
It's been a wonderful, wonderful three months, on the whole. Practically speaking, the work remains more than manageable and I've been able to keep my grades up at an average of A for English and A+ for Religious Studies. The final exam and the final paper count for 50% of the marks in both courses, so I'm going to have to do really well in both to maintain those averages.
Things I have learned:
I really dislike the whole academic essay thing (as in the Reli course essays). The subject matter is fascinating, stirring up all sorts of thoughts and ideas (the kinds of things I had naively hoped would be discussed and debated in tutorials!). But the academic approach is to take this fascinating subject, examine it through the lens of some academic theory and then say how the THEORY works to either explain or fail to explain the fascinating subject. For the final essay, we have to describe a spiritual practice, explain it using a theory of religion and then say how the theory works or where it falls short. They make a point of saying 'we are NOT INTERESTED in your conclusions - we just want to see evidence of your creative and critical thinking'. Talk about sucking all the life out of the subject ... So, despite having a deep, deep interest in all things religious and despite there being some really fascinating courses available at levels two and three, I'm not going to be doing any more Reli papers.
On the other hand, I really enjoy doing the critical analysis papers in English. As I got to grips with this over the term, my grades improved and my enjoyment increased. I like the challenge of taking a passage and going into it both 'wider' (seeing how it relates to the work as a whole) and 'deeper' (what do the particular words mean and what else could we infer from these word choices?) I love learning about where particular words originated, how they evolved and how they can be used to create layers of meaning. I'm at the moment preparing for the exam by reviewing the set texts and annotating wherever possible - it is an open book exam and all three questions will be to write a critical analysis of a poem/extract. The two compulsory questions will be from Chaucer's The Miller's Tale and Keats' poems. The last one will be a choice from four other extracts, so there's a bit of leeway there.
I've also rediscovered something else about me: I'm a procrastinator of the first order. I mostly kept up with the pre-class readings in Religious Studies but fell behind in English (probably due to unfamiliarity with Old English and not knowing the stories therefore getting confused by reading on my own). I also fell behind in revising post-lecture - no excuse except laziness and lack of focus! Which means all my prep now is what I should have been doing in that pre-and post-reading! Ah, well. Better late than never. (Yeah, I said it!)
The second trimester starts on 11th July. Between now and then (once exams are done) I will be flying back to South Africa for three weeks to visit my parents and friends - having worked for the last 18 months, I've accumulated a lot of leave time and am taking six weeks in total. When I get back, I'll have a week to get back into the uni schedule before I start back at the hospital. I'm registered for two courses next trimester, with a possible third ... seeing as it's been so manageable this term, I figured I might try three while they're still 100 level courses - once we get to the 200 and 300 levels, I don't think it'll be as easy. So, I'll be doing Ling 101 (Introduction to Language) and Film 101 (Introduction to Film). Both fall within the choices for English Studies major, so will work as far as total credits are concerned. The third paper I've applied for is actually a 200 level limited entry creative writing workshop - they only take 12 students and apparently up to 40 usually apply. Entry is strictly on merit - I spent all of last weekend polishing the two samples and cover letter - so we'll see. They don't encourage first years to apply, but neither do they preclude them specifically. Fingers crossed for that, as I would absolutely LOVE it!
So, for now, back to the books and specifially, Keat's Lamia. If you're interested, read it HERE.
It's been a wonderful, wonderful three months, on the whole. Practically speaking, the work remains more than manageable and I've been able to keep my grades up at an average of A for English and A+ for Religious Studies. The final exam and the final paper count for 50% of the marks in both courses, so I'm going to have to do really well in both to maintain those averages.
Things I have learned:
I really dislike the whole academic essay thing (as in the Reli course essays). The subject matter is fascinating, stirring up all sorts of thoughts and ideas (the kinds of things I had naively hoped would be discussed and debated in tutorials!). But the academic approach is to take this fascinating subject, examine it through the lens of some academic theory and then say how the THEORY works to either explain or fail to explain the fascinating subject. For the final essay, we have to describe a spiritual practice, explain it using a theory of religion and then say how the theory works or where it falls short. They make a point of saying 'we are NOT INTERESTED in your conclusions - we just want to see evidence of your creative and critical thinking'. Talk about sucking all the life out of the subject ... So, despite having a deep, deep interest in all things religious and despite there being some really fascinating courses available at levels two and three, I'm not going to be doing any more Reli papers.
On the other hand, I really enjoy doing the critical analysis papers in English. As I got to grips with this over the term, my grades improved and my enjoyment increased. I like the challenge of taking a passage and going into it both 'wider' (seeing how it relates to the work as a whole) and 'deeper' (what do the particular words mean and what else could we infer from these word choices?) I love learning about where particular words originated, how they evolved and how they can be used to create layers of meaning. I'm at the moment preparing for the exam by reviewing the set texts and annotating wherever possible - it is an open book exam and all three questions will be to write a critical analysis of a poem/extract. The two compulsory questions will be from Chaucer's The Miller's Tale and Keats' poems. The last one will be a choice from four other extracts, so there's a bit of leeway there.
I've also rediscovered something else about me: I'm a procrastinator of the first order. I mostly kept up with the pre-class readings in Religious Studies but fell behind in English (probably due to unfamiliarity with Old English and not knowing the stories therefore getting confused by reading on my own). I also fell behind in revising post-lecture - no excuse except laziness and lack of focus! Which means all my prep now is what I should have been doing in that pre-and post-reading! Ah, well. Better late than never. (Yeah, I said it!)
The second trimester starts on 11th July. Between now and then (once exams are done) I will be flying back to South Africa for three weeks to visit my parents and friends - having worked for the last 18 months, I've accumulated a lot of leave time and am taking six weeks in total. When I get back, I'll have a week to get back into the uni schedule before I start back at the hospital. I'm registered for two courses next trimester, with a possible third ... seeing as it's been so manageable this term, I figured I might try three while they're still 100 level courses - once we get to the 200 and 300 levels, I don't think it'll be as easy. So, I'll be doing Ling 101 (Introduction to Language) and Film 101 (Introduction to Film). Both fall within the choices for English Studies major, so will work as far as total credits are concerned. The third paper I've applied for is actually a 200 level limited entry creative writing workshop - they only take 12 students and apparently up to 40 usually apply. Entry is strictly on merit - I spent all of last weekend polishing the two samples and cover letter - so we'll see. They don't encourage first years to apply, but neither do they preclude them specifically. Fingers crossed for that, as I would absolutely LOVE it!
So, for now, back to the books and specifially, Keat's Lamia. If you're interested, read it HERE.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Courses and Classes
Before embarking on this adventure into education, I spent about four to six months trying to figure out what I meant when I said I wanted a career change. I did countless online tests to get an overview of my personality (INFP), my transferrable skills, aptitudes, values, interests, dreams, visions and goals. At the end, it became clear to me that the things I have always loved best have remained the same over the years: words, writing, reading, thinking, investigating, learning, teaching, counselling, organizing. So I figured that doing a basic BA degree, majoring in English studies and possibly something else, would be a very good starting place. Not only would I get a qualification, but I'd get to spend three or four years doing the things I loved most.
So for my first semester, I registered for two papers (as courses are known here). The first is an English paper called Past Masters, which is an introduction to some literary masterpieces from the past, from Chaucer (14th century) and the age of Shakespeare to the satirists of the eighteenth century. Hour-long lectures three times a week with a tutorial hour once a week. The lecture hall holds about 300 students, at a guess, but the tutorials are smaller - about 12 to 16 or so. We plunged straight into Malory's Morte D'Arthur, followed by Chaucer's The Miller's Tale. Both were read in the English of the period, which is vastly different to today's English, and it was incredibly interesting to see how some words had changed or evolved over time. We then went on to some poetry and Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, which I absolutely loved. The convolutions of the English language are endlessly fascinating! First assignment came due and I got a 'high B' which is probably about 75% or so. The other students are, on the whole, in their late teens but I have met two other mature students and I'm slowly getting to know them.
My second paper is both more and less demanding! Religious Studies 106: Prayer, Meditation, Trance and Ecstasy is an exploration into the ways in which spiritual practices alter consciousness. We study contemporary world cultures and see the influence of rituals, bodily postures, drugs and music and the focus is on the spiritual understandings that come not through doctrines, but rather through ways of living. The structure is less demanding than English in that there's only one lecture a week, for two hours, and one tutorial every second week. But the preparatory readings require a lot of concentration and understanding, and we have to produce five short essays of about 900 to 1200 words every two to three weeks, followed by a final research essay of 2500 words at the end of term. The readings are mostly interesting but I found it hard sometimes to understand at first what exactly they were on about, or how they fitted into Religious Studies. Gradually I've come to realize that each offers a way of looking at religion (ie a theory of religion) as well as providing an overview of some kind of spiritual practice. Now that I'm getting the hang of it, I'm loving it more and more. Two essays done so far, graded at 8 and 9/10 respectively, so I think I must be doing something right.
The thing I'm finding trickiest to negotiate right now are the tutorials, especially the Reli one. I had fondly imagined that there would be lot of chatter and sharing of thoughts and ideas, but instead, most of the students sit there with their mouths shut and say nothing. Out of the other nineteen students, there's a girl who contributes a fair bit, and a guy who says the occasional very interesting thing, but mostly, when the tutor asks a question, it's me who ends up answering him. I cannot sit there and say nothing, especially if I know the answer or have a thought on the matter! It's making me feel very uncomfortable - and I feel bad for the tutuor too, when his remarks or questions are met with a deadly silence. But it also leaves me feeling like I'm showing everyone else up or sucking up or something. Very unpleasant and frustrating! Maybe he's a poor tutor in that he's not getting the class to engage much? I have no way of telling, as the only other tutor I've worked with is my English tutor, who is very young and very new to tutoring. He's warming up and improving no end, but the reli tuts are agonizing... which is a huge pity as the subject matter is fascinating.
Overall, though, I am absolutely loving being a student again, and especially being a student of subjects that I can embrace with gusto and enthusiasm!
So for my first semester, I registered for two papers (as courses are known here). The first is an English paper called Past Masters, which is an introduction to some literary masterpieces from the past, from Chaucer (14th century) and the age of Shakespeare to the satirists of the eighteenth century. Hour-long lectures three times a week with a tutorial hour once a week. The lecture hall holds about 300 students, at a guess, but the tutorials are smaller - about 12 to 16 or so. We plunged straight into Malory's Morte D'Arthur, followed by Chaucer's The Miller's Tale. Both were read in the English of the period, which is vastly different to today's English, and it was incredibly interesting to see how some words had changed or evolved over time. We then went on to some poetry and Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, which I absolutely loved. The convolutions of the English language are endlessly fascinating! First assignment came due and I got a 'high B' which is probably about 75% or so. The other students are, on the whole, in their late teens but I have met two other mature students and I'm slowly getting to know them.
My second paper is both more and less demanding! Religious Studies 106: Prayer, Meditation, Trance and Ecstasy is an exploration into the ways in which spiritual practices alter consciousness. We study contemporary world cultures and see the influence of rituals, bodily postures, drugs and music and the focus is on the spiritual understandings that come not through doctrines, but rather through ways of living. The structure is less demanding than English in that there's only one lecture a week, for two hours, and one tutorial every second week. But the preparatory readings require a lot of concentration and understanding, and we have to produce five short essays of about 900 to 1200 words every two to three weeks, followed by a final research essay of 2500 words at the end of term. The readings are mostly interesting but I found it hard sometimes to understand at first what exactly they were on about, or how they fitted into Religious Studies. Gradually I've come to realize that each offers a way of looking at religion (ie a theory of religion) as well as providing an overview of some kind of spiritual practice. Now that I'm getting the hang of it, I'm loving it more and more. Two essays done so far, graded at 8 and 9/10 respectively, so I think I must be doing something right.
The thing I'm finding trickiest to negotiate right now are the tutorials, especially the Reli one. I had fondly imagined that there would be lot of chatter and sharing of thoughts and ideas, but instead, most of the students sit there with their mouths shut and say nothing. Out of the other nineteen students, there's a girl who contributes a fair bit, and a guy who says the occasional very interesting thing, but mostly, when the tutor asks a question, it's me who ends up answering him. I cannot sit there and say nothing, especially if I know the answer or have a thought on the matter! It's making me feel very uncomfortable - and I feel bad for the tutuor too, when his remarks or questions are met with a deadly silence. But it also leaves me feeling like I'm showing everyone else up or sucking up or something. Very unpleasant and frustrating! Maybe he's a poor tutor in that he's not getting the class to engage much? I have no way of telling, as the only other tutor I've worked with is my English tutor, who is very young and very new to tutoring. He's warming up and improving no end, but the reli tuts are agonizing... which is a huge pity as the subject matter is fascinating.
Overall, though, I am absolutely loving being a student again, and especially being a student of subjects that I can embrace with gusto and enthusiasm!
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Practicalities of returning to study
We live in Wellington, recently dubbed The Coolest Little Capital in the World by Lonely Planet. One of the great joys of Welly is that almost everything is within walking distance, depending, of course, on where you live and where you want to be. As we have been renting since we arrived here two years ago, it was relatively easy to decide to move to a suburb closer to the university. So towards the end of 2010, with our current lease coming to an end in early March, I started househunting for the fourth time....
And as luck would have it, I found the perfect place almost immediately, which was both good and bad news. The good news was that it was affordable, perfectly positioned for a brisk ten-minute walk to university, had three huge bedrooms, a bathroom with an actual bath (something of a rarity in rentals, it seems) and the owner was not only happy to accept cats, he was also happy to offer it to us. Win all round! The bad news was that it was available immediately, and with three months still to run on my old lease, that meant if I couldn't find a suitable replacement tenant, I'd either have to give up the new opportunity or pay three months of double rent. But I guess the rental gods were smiling that day. I threw an email out; a friend forwarded it to a friend who works for Weta and my little ad got posted on the Weta internal ad board. Within a day, I had interest and within three days, I had a new tenant, willing to move in soon. The old rental agent, however, was highly uncooperative and put all kinds of delays and obstacles in the way, so I paid double rent for a month - but in the end, it was totally worth it.
So now we live in a beautiful old villa with high ceilings, creaky floorboards and beautiful views down a long, green valley. Outside my back door birds sing, trees rustle and hedgehogs nose through the rubbish bags if you leave them outside over night. But it's also close to civilization, being only three minutes walk to the local shops and bus stop, and ten minutes walk to campus. Practically speaking, this is a huge benefit as it means less money spent on bus rides, less time wasted getting to and from class, less hassle if there is a long break between classes and you want to pop home for lunch or a nap or to finish some work.
And that all means saving money and now that I've cut my hours down, saving money is a major priority. I talked to my boss at work and arranged to drop from fulltime (10 shifts per fortnight) to 0.7 (seven shifts in a fortnight). These shifts are mainly over weekends and evenings, so that leaves my days free for classes. Both kids have part time jobs and are thus able to take care of most of their own needs, while I pay rent and food and other basics. The plan is that, like any other students sharing an apartment, we'll share cooking, cleaning and laundry tasks and so far, the plan is working well!
Next post: classes and courses. :-)
And as luck would have it, I found the perfect place almost immediately, which was both good and bad news. The good news was that it was affordable, perfectly positioned for a brisk ten-minute walk to university, had three huge bedrooms, a bathroom with an actual bath (something of a rarity in rentals, it seems) and the owner was not only happy to accept cats, he was also happy to offer it to us. Win all round! The bad news was that it was available immediately, and with three months still to run on my old lease, that meant if I couldn't find a suitable replacement tenant, I'd either have to give up the new opportunity or pay three months of double rent. But I guess the rental gods were smiling that day. I threw an email out; a friend forwarded it to a friend who works for Weta and my little ad got posted on the Weta internal ad board. Within a day, I had interest and within three days, I had a new tenant, willing to move in soon. The old rental agent, however, was highly uncooperative and put all kinds of delays and obstacles in the way, so I paid double rent for a month - but in the end, it was totally worth it.
So now we live in a beautiful old villa with high ceilings, creaky floorboards and beautiful views down a long, green valley. Outside my back door birds sing, trees rustle and hedgehogs nose through the rubbish bags if you leave them outside over night. But it's also close to civilization, being only three minutes walk to the local shops and bus stop, and ten minutes walk to campus. Practically speaking, this is a huge benefit as it means less money spent on bus rides, less time wasted getting to and from class, less hassle if there is a long break between classes and you want to pop home for lunch or a nap or to finish some work.
And that all means saving money and now that I've cut my hours down, saving money is a major priority. I talked to my boss at work and arranged to drop from fulltime (10 shifts per fortnight) to 0.7 (seven shifts in a fortnight). These shifts are mainly over weekends and evenings, so that leaves my days free for classes. Both kids have part time jobs and are thus able to take care of most of their own needs, while I pay rent and food and other basics. The plan is that, like any other students sharing an apartment, we'll share cooking, cleaning and laundry tasks and so far, the plan is working well!
Next post: classes and courses. :-)
Monday, March 28, 2011
New Beginnings
I'm a big fan of new beginnings. I've made quite a few of them over the years, some personal and some professional and I've learned that on the whole, change is a GOOD thing. Along the way, however, there have also been some resounding failures, which like most people, I've preferred to sweep under the carpet and ignore. One of these, back in 1983, was an ill-fated attempt at university.
At the end of '82, with a nursing qualification, a post-grad in midwifery and two years ICU experience under my belt, I felt it was time for the next step up the ladder, so a friend and I decided to apply for admission to the medical school. I'd dropped maths in early high school so I spent five months doing a crash course in and passed - but my grades weren't good enough and I didn't get a medical school place. But the idea of going back to study still appealed so I enrolled instead for a BA and picked interesting but random courses for my first year: psychology, Greek and Roman myth and legend, intro to French and English 1. At age 23, I was already far, far older than most of the other students. Living off campus and working part time, I struggled to fit in. Back in 1983, there was no internet, no support for mature students so by mid-year, depressed, confused and with no specific goal in sight, I dropped out.
Life continued. Nursing, marriage, babies, depression, divorce, illness, recovery, redundancy, raising kids, spiritual highs and lows, adventures in writing and travel, and finally, in 2009, a major geographical shift when, still a single mom, I emigrated from South Africa to New Zealand. And so now, with my kids almost fully grown (19 and 22), it's time to change it all up again. I've spent countless years in nursing and I know that I really don't want to be rushing round a ward with a bedpan when I'm 62. So now it's time to give some serious attention to those things that have proven themselves enduring loves over the years, things I've dabbled in by reading and thinking abou them on my own in the most informal and unstructured of ways.
The good thing is that now I'm older, I've gotten to know some important things about myself. One, I get bored easily. Two, I'm intelligent and I write well. Three, there are a wide variety of things that interest me: literature, writing, anthropology, film, linguistics, philosophy, cosmology and religion are the first ones that come to mind. So, with a view to effecting a career change within the next five years, I've enrolled at our local university for a part time BA degree. My plan is to major in English Studies (includes the option of focussing on any two of literature, linguistics, media, film and theatre) and to pick up a smattering of interest papers along the way to have a taste of the other things that continue to fascinate me so.
So, this is a real New Beginning for me. I'm combining being a part time mature student with being a part time RN, working 0.7 FTE in a busy medical assessment unit, and with being a mom, as both my beloved kids still live at home. Interesting side note: both of them started at uni this year as well so it's a bit like flatting - only not! It's interesting to compare our experiences but also challenging as I try to keep my roles as mom and fellow student in balance.
Next post I'll talk more about the challenges of getting it all sorted out and actually starting back in class again, after twenty plus years away.
At the end of '82, with a nursing qualification, a post-grad in midwifery and two years ICU experience under my belt, I felt it was time for the next step up the ladder, so a friend and I decided to apply for admission to the medical school. I'd dropped maths in early high school so I spent five months doing a crash course in and passed - but my grades weren't good enough and I didn't get a medical school place. But the idea of going back to study still appealed so I enrolled instead for a BA and picked interesting but random courses for my first year: psychology, Greek and Roman myth and legend, intro to French and English 1. At age 23, I was already far, far older than most of the other students. Living off campus and working part time, I struggled to fit in. Back in 1983, there was no internet, no support for mature students so by mid-year, depressed, confused and with no specific goal in sight, I dropped out.
Life continued. Nursing, marriage, babies, depression, divorce, illness, recovery, redundancy, raising kids, spiritual highs and lows, adventures in writing and travel, and finally, in 2009, a major geographical shift when, still a single mom, I emigrated from South Africa to New Zealand. And so now, with my kids almost fully grown (19 and 22), it's time to change it all up again. I've spent countless years in nursing and I know that I really don't want to be rushing round a ward with a bedpan when I'm 62. So now it's time to give some serious attention to those things that have proven themselves enduring loves over the years, things I've dabbled in by reading and thinking abou them on my own in the most informal and unstructured of ways.
The good thing is that now I'm older, I've gotten to know some important things about myself. One, I get bored easily. Two, I'm intelligent and I write well. Three, there are a wide variety of things that interest me: literature, writing, anthropology, film, linguistics, philosophy, cosmology and religion are the first ones that come to mind. So, with a view to effecting a career change within the next five years, I've enrolled at our local university for a part time BA degree. My plan is to major in English Studies (includes the option of focussing on any two of literature, linguistics, media, film and theatre) and to pick up a smattering of interest papers along the way to have a taste of the other things that continue to fascinate me so.
So, this is a real New Beginning for me. I'm combining being a part time mature student with being a part time RN, working 0.7 FTE in a busy medical assessment unit, and with being a mom, as both my beloved kids still live at home. Interesting side note: both of them started at uni this year as well so it's a bit like flatting - only not! It's interesting to compare our experiences but also challenging as I try to keep my roles as mom and fellow student in balance.
Next post I'll talk more about the challenges of getting it all sorted out and actually starting back in class again, after twenty plus years away.
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