Carpe Diem

Well, that was like pulling teeth!

The seminars I mean...

...started off by introducing myself - common courtesy I thought.

Only 6 of the 14 people turned up...perhaps because the room was advertised as being on the second floor when it is actually on the one and a half floor!!!!!  It's an annex on the second floor level that you can only access from the first floor, up the stairs through a glass corridor and voila!  Good grief.

So I get in and set up my live thingy on live.com, which acts like a databar/stick/memory thing.

I had 3 Spanish Erasmus students, without whom the lesson would have been a complete debacle.  I had two American students and one history student.

Only the 3 Erasmus students had even heard of Chaucer and had read him in modern English!  The history student did get into it all after a while but was quite shy.  One American student did participate but confessed to not being a good reader!  They all confessed to not being readers for pleasure at all.  How am I supposed to work with that?

So, a two hour discussion turned into a repetative monalogue with gaps filled entirely with silence and blank looks.  The other American student chewed gum, looked everywhere but at the board and did not pick up the pen once.  It was clear that anywhere else would have been better, including hell or pergatory!

Great...so, now I am spending tonight creating a cartoon power point presentation just to get their attention.  I'm going to have to be extremely basic and go back so far I'll be in the classic period dealing with Sumatran tablets full of inventory.  I did not expect such an uneducated set of people I must be honest.  Seriously, it was like talking to a wall.  I am much downhearted at this unedifying launch into academia as a teacher/lecturer.  I got absolutely nothing from them with which to work or progress the seminar as I had hoped.  I am floundering now and don't know where to turn.  My mentor is away for the rest of this week so I cannot even discuss it with her.

Damn, I think I'm depressed!

I'm definitely lonely right now!

Oh well, rough with the smooth I guess...right, back to Power Point, cartoon monks; clergy and kings!

Some things just really wind me up! Really? Yes! Enough to warrant not using the new editor...as I just wish to vent spleen and not worry about niceties.

What I want to know is...why do people invite you as a friend...don't bother reading your blog or commenting on it at ANY point and, when you respond to one of their posts, they ignore you completely?

As I don't feel particularly like a collectors item yet, due to being too young to be antique and too old to be modern I am going to rid myself of these people. That way, I don't have their blogs come up as friends blogs and I can enjoy my friends who do and who comment and show interest and...stuff/things!!

I don't use my blog as a popularity contest to amass hundreds of friends to whom I give no quality time - I'm simply not like that...explains a lot about why I have no social life then! But really, a friend is someone you listen to and have conversations with and just generally um...relate to I suppose. Or am I missing the point entirely - it wouldn't be the first time!

I spent ages trying to compose a reply to someone whilst trying to remain objective and haven't even had the courtesy of a thanks you're crap or thanks you're great - no answer came the stern reply - so why should I bother? Even more annoyingly these have been private posts.

Now, to quote Henry II (paraphrased of course) can anyone rid me of these troublesome people - i.e. can anyone tell me how to get them off my friends list?

Thank you - especially to those of you who have responded!

Tea, anyone?

So, the lectures have been on the following four things:

1.  What sort of power and authority did books have?

2.  How was literacy perceived?

3.  What anxieties were there about the new technology of writing?

4.  What different information can we gain from different kinds of sources?

Well, blimey!

Now, I have to expand these four items into 3 x 2 hour long seminars.  Oo 'eck!  Beginning on Tuesday.  Oh, cr*p!

Where to begin?  Oh, please don't say the beginning or No. 1 'cos I already knows that like!

To be glib...the power and authority of books really rather depended on the power of the author i.e. Monks and Clergy could comprehend where most people couldn't and were actively engaged in attempts to clarify many things they themselves didn't understand.   The writings of Thomas Aquinas particularly - a most interesting and forward thinking man of the cloth I found.

What I did here was define the words power and authority.  Interestingly enough, they are interchangeable.  Hmm!  Most of Europe was pretty much illiterate in any case...so, some lowlife could pretend they could read and say anything.  Especially under the definitions of power and authority!!  I suspect this happened periodically (really?  Yes, honest!)  Course, the lowlife would have had to be able to get hold of a book, which means that as a lowlife he probably stole it anyways!  'Ang 'im I says...oh, 'old on, 'e's hypothetical!  I do get so carried away.  I have tea parties in my own head you know!  I also believe 6 impossible things before breakfast!

Right, so, after examples I am throwing open the floor for discussion.  Problem is, I have a mixed group.  Some are doing medieval studies and some are doing English Lit.  I suspect the most reluctant to be there will be the English Lit students, as most of them will probably favour the terribly tedious Victorians or the melancholy of the Lakeland poets or the feminine writers who wrote tragic romances to fill their years of spinsterhood!  Spare me please, I know that Victorians are popular but bloody hell, they have a lot to answer for.  Unlike us medievalists who only have to apologise for the 1st crusade, which we won...oh and the second where we committed nastiness...er and the third where we were no better than the second...um and the fourth where we were pointless and ineffective, the local inhabitants by this time having got the measure of the crusaders and pretty much just pointed and laughed at us.  Goodo that's sorted then.  Oh and the battles with the er...French and Spain and oh, bugger it, pretty much everyone really.  Yes but, we didn't lose an Empire - okay, why am I having this discussion with myself - oh, yeah tea party!

The next question is the one that intrigued me the most - how was litaracy perceived?  Now, this is very interesting as I have been researching it.  There were degrees of literacy - I don't mean university degrees but degrees of competency.  Only some could read and write, others could only read and others could only write.  It is alleged that King John signed the Magna Carta with an X, as although he was a good reader he could not form letters!  I don't know if that's true but if it is, it's interesting.  Well, it is to me and if it isn't to you I shall have to ask you to put down your tea cup and leave the table, thank you and no, you can't take some cucumber sandwiches with no crusts, or the cake, dammit!

Anxieties about the new technology next.  Right, I have a problem with this as writing was going on well before the medieval period so it can hardly be called new can it?  Perhaps it should be better asked - what anxieties were there about the peasants being able to read?  As the Iron Duke of Wellington pointed out when trains were being invented - I don't think this is a good idea - the peasants will be able to move around!  Bless.  He'd be delighted with the state of our current transport system.  Far from moving people around, it's a game of statues!!

Different information from different sources?  Flippin' 'eck.  They were prolific writers - they wrote about laws, histories, biographies, moral interpretations, plays, instructions, romance and chronicles.  Once they started it seems you couldn't stop 'em.

Discuss!!!

So, lots to talk about then...now if only I could submit my blog as a lesson plan I would be most chuffed!

I know where I'm going with this...now all I have to do is put it authoritatively and powerfully into a semblence of order!

In the meantime...More tea vicar?

...to my very good friend and debating partner here on blog...timsuzi

Apologies for not having sent it sooner but it's been a little manic with micro-teaching, interesting debates with you and ABE and preparing for my lecture seminars next week...oh, it's all go here in the woolly, snowy, wild west of Wales.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TIM

XXX

Okay...here is what she said..

General comment on preperation:

Lesson plan is clear and shows logical progression.  You need to make sure your objectives are more precise.  (Bugger, need to work on my phrasing perhaps!)  Well prepared handouts and music also used (true, I put on some lute music to transport them back to the 'Court')  Main activity is a debate.

9 - satisfactories (could do better then!)

General comment on presentation:

Clear introduction - good use of music in the background to give students a feel for the subject (yes, that's what I thought!).  You introduced the subject very well and your enthusiasm for your topic is evident in your teaching.  Students divided into groups to study aspects of Church/Eleanor and then debate the issue.  You circulated well among the group and checked understanding.  Debate is well received by the students and everyone participating.  Recap on work and conclusion somewhat brief. (Yes, the time got away from me on that one...cos they were asking me questions, which I thought was the object but obviously not in 20 minutes).  A very interesting session.  Well done.

2 - satisfactories.  10 - goods and 3 very goods.

Woot me!

The verbal comments were really nice.  She said it would be fantastic to have continued the debate and to see how it progressed.  She said she was entirely caught up in the subject as well and almost didn't watch the clock.  Innit nice?  She said a debate had been a bit of a risk as it could go either way but to be honest they all got into it really well.  Hence the time running away with me. The comments from the group were also very nice and one person said that she loved the way I taught as my voice was interesting and had a really nice lilt.  She said I put feeling into my readings and inspired interest.  She said I had renewed her interest in History.  Aha, my work here is done!

As for the rest, I will have you know that we currently have blizzards here and I have decided that my life is worth more than a day's pay, so I have phoned in.  Even the dual carriageway just up the road is slow and there is no traffic at all passing my front door - so being the inveterate coward that I am and the fact that I work in the woolly wilds of Wales and whilst I do have a 4 x 4, I don't want to get halfway to somewhere and either have to abandon the car or turn back again.  Best to stay in the warmth and drink coffee whilst watching the snow and making tch! noises periodically.

The pack seem to love it although the cats are unimpressed.  The bunnies are extra warm due to the blanket of snow, which has even managed to build up to about 3 inches on the open wire of their run - go figure!  I won't bother mentioning the Iguana who is happily boiling under her hot lamp!

So, on that note and micro-teaching now over, I shall concentrate on my University seminars on medieval literature which starts next week.  Three seminars a week of 20 young people whose minds I can manipulate *cackle*  Oh the power...