End of the term, Elbasan visit (finally!), and wanderlust

 

End of the term class celebration!

Greetings:

My first full term teaching in Albania ended a couple of weeks ago. Quite the education. I started the term with thirty-eight grad students in Psycho-linguistics. There must not be a “drop” option here because that’s the same number I had on the rolls at the end of the term. Of that number, twenty-one passed the course – and I’m working with two or three more on “incompletes.” No such thing as an incomplete here, but since I’ve had plenty experience in my own extended university career, it makes sense to introduce it – you’ll see what I mean.

Now, “passing the course” is a bit different than in the states. Course grading here is on a 10-point scale – a five (5) is passing. For stateside students, a 60% is passing, barely – for stateside grads, most departments require no less than an 80%. So a bit low; but wait for it – all course grades are rounded up, way up. So a 4.1 is rounded to a 5. In addition, if students fail a course they get another shot in September to sit for another final exam – you pass with a five and you pass the course regardless of your work during the term. I know. I have a good chunk of students, some of whom I don’t even recall seeing, who will sit for my final exam in September. Quite an interesting dynamic – failing semester long and then getting a second chance with an exam; the format (oral or written), length and difficulty up to the professor.

I doubt it will do very many of them any good though. My September final will consist of all the quizzes during the term. Most of my former students are aware that I give daily quizzes. These quizzes are not too tough when the material is from the previous class, and it makes for a great review before the day’s new lecture. So let’s see, about thirty class meetings, four to five quiz questions each, maybe a hundred questions over the term – in one two-hour exam. Not a chance; even though all the quizzes (and answers) are included on the posted lecture PowerPoints.

Let me give you an example:

Give the type and token frequency of this sentence and explain your answer:

“To be or not to be, that is the question.”

Yep, not a chance. However, I had a couple of students who did qualify for a US “incomplete.” And rather than a no-win final, we’ll work together over the next couple of months on their final paper assignment. Good kids and I’m sure they will do well.

The great side of the term was the number of students who dealt with a difficult subject, an American teacher, different teaching methods, and did pretty good. I think I mentioned before, I had quite a few students who would have prospered in American universities. Three-fourths of the twenty-one passed did it with scores of 80% or higher. Pretty good when you think about it.

The wall between students and professors here is almost unassailable. Even with my short time in Elbasan I have yet to see a professor visiting with a student except for a few moments at the door of the faculty room. Never any discussion, interplay of ideas, addressing difficulties with the material, nothing. Hence, my office at the coffee house.

One thing I had to deal with was the “copy and paste” academic culture. Yeah, students everywhere will do this if they think they can get away with it. I get it. But almost ingrained in the student population here is the idea that their own thoughts or observations are far removed from the learning process. The safe way is simply to attend classes, be guarded on what you offer (the vast majority of students don’t speak in class), listen when you feel like it, and parrot the professor’s lecture. When faced with a writing assignment, the students will find something authoritative on-line and use that (it’s on the web, it must be true) – a very safe, but in the end a killing academic climate. So, a course reflection paper, which I found very beneficial in the states, works even better here. Yep, they had to come up with their own stuff.

I always have my students write a course reflection essay. I thought you might enjoy some of their comments and get a sense of the Albanian student culture and how they dealt with the…well, the differences. Kids and friends back home have gotten some idea how I’ve handled the new culture; but they’ve also wondered how my students here were going to handle a different type of teacher and teaching methods. Perhaps other teachers, interested in the opportunities to come to this country, might wonder if they could do some good in Albania – for themselves and for these students. Pretty sure you could. And believe me, though it will be difficult, you will be appreciated by the university and the students.

Oh yeah, these reflections were due after their final exams and the final grades:

Introductions:

On the first day of the semester we did not know that the professor would be an American. We were very curious about him, how he would be and how we will be feeling during the course. It was something new for us...

      When we saw him, we wondered how a 63-year old [!!] was so energetic. Days were passing and we felt comfortable in the class, although he gave the lessons in the completely different way. We did not have books as we were accustomed before, and Professor Martin used PowerPoints for all of our lessons... Before starting the new lesson we had a quiz and participation about the last lesson. And the most strange thing was the final exam. It was a paper and oral interview about it. For me was very difficult, but I did my best. In my country, the methods that Professor Martin used are unknown.

Journal:

There were also interesting things like writing the journal every Friday, it was something that I liked very much and it helped me think and be more creative in using the English language. 

Also there were things that were interesting such as the journal that we had to write every week, it helped me to write better but also to express my ideas freely without being afraid of judgment. 

Every last day of the week, we had to do a journal that dealt with everything that we learnt that week. I didn’t expect this because we have course work only at the end of the semester.  That seemed to me really valuable because this kind of work does not allow you to neglect. The daily quizzes were valuable too. This kind of process I liked very much and made me appreciate the meaning of real university and real work.

Quizzes:

Another thing that I liked most were the quizzes, I was not afraid of answering them because they were just like games...

The best thing done during the course is the quiz at the beginning of every class. It was a very smart choice because in a way it had the whole class participating. (I could hear students who had never participated before in any other class).

Reading:

The amount of materials I've read during that lone course could be the same I read in my whole year of all my other courses.

What was really difficult for me were the reading parts and I am speaking here for the Skinner book Verbal Behavior. The first thing is that there were a lot of pages to be read and the second is that the language used in this book was very difficult to be understood. But what I learned for myself during this course is that everything can be done if you really try and work hard, of course there were moments that I was very exhausted and I was feeling terribly because I didn't want to disappoint in the end my professor but even myself.

Participation:

Another thing that I liked very much was the idea of collegiality, so working and helping each other like a team.

I think this is something that has to do with how we are constructed and this [how we are constructed I assume] will be quite challenging for Professor Martin as well. One of the lesson hours that I really enjoyed was when our professor talked to us about Critical Thinking. It was one of the most interesting lesson hours that made me understand the way we are programmed to think and behave.

 
He always said this is not the world peace; this was just a subject that we had to follow. This was really just a course like all the others but I have to admit that I learned a lot of things and I am not speaking here only for the psycholinguistics as a subject but also I saw how a foreign professor tried to make us think, to be more responsible, more honest and why not to work in groups to share ideas and be more active in class.

My first concern was: Will I be able to speak fluently and without making any mistakes? But from the first lesson hour that we had with Professor Martin I realized that he was another kind of professor, he would never make us feel uncomfortable.

I knew that it would be challenging because Professor Martin comes from another culture; he has another background but despite all our differences he was always willing to see the good sides even in the strangest answers that some of us gave. 

Now I may say that he aimed not only to make us learn things about Psycholinguistics but he wanted to make us think, to make us see the world with different eyes, to make us more responsible and to make us speak freely and not to be afraid of speaking up our ideas. This was very difficult because we are Albanians and we are not used to express our opinions but I may say that Professor Martin managed to change us, and how he always said he required us at least to think.

I was afraid to speak. But professor said we will go to Las Vegas. That means that everything that happens in class stays in class. This is something that I will always remember.

Mentos, each participation received one Mentos, and I have gotten many of them. It was like some kind of positive reinforcement to every one of us. It was like B.F. Skinner! 

Paper:

The most stressful course work for me was the final paper. Even though the professor explained it us very well, still I was afraid... I did only one research paper before but not like the one that professor wanted and I had no idea how...During work, professor was telling me what to delete, what to change and what to do better on my paper but when I was told to delete a paragraph, I was ready not to continue anymore...That killed me.  Now that I did it once, I can do another research paper and I know how to do it.

Then for a final exam we had to do the "Paper". All of us had difficulties in doing that paper. For that reason Prof Martin and I had meetings in his offices. At first I did not know what to do because it is unusual for us to meet with the professors.

Another thing…is my final term paper. At first to be honest this was new and very difficult for me I was a bit scared, but when I tried it to do it wasn’t difficult. Constantly I have been consulting with my professor, but also with my friends, that helped me a lot.

One thing I remember forever. Professor Martin talks about copying our paper. He told us a hundred times. And then he said "You will fail on the assignment and then I will eat your unborn children!" We laughed but we understood not to cheat.

Final thoughts:

All this course was a challenge for us, but we passed it successfully. Psycholinguistics will be the most interesting course from all my studies in University of Vlora, and will always remain in my memory.

Things that I would have done differently are that I should have put my mind in work more, to think more critically in the journals, reading assignments and in the final paper to. All I learned from this course I think it would be very beneficial and useful in my new courses and especially in the diploma thesis.

I enjoyed the way that Professor Martin taught us everything into small details. I have no doubts that this is one of the things that I will always remember from this class. Also, I cannot leave without mentioning his jokes and the way he looked us in our eyes, in order to find out if we had understood everything explained or not.

            This subject was like a challenge for me and my knowledge. I thought that I would have difficulty but sometimes we understand that nothing is as it seems. My academic achievements reached a new level. I learned some new things about my study habits and about my skills.

What I found a bit challenging was the way that we had to earn our points for passing the course, which were the journals, the reading assignments and the term paper at the end of the term. I had never done these things before but as soon as I got used to it, I made it to manage this way of learning which was very effective and I learned a lot of things I did not knew before.

What I also learned about myself was that from the starting of this course I had to learn things differently and more practically. I’m a bit of lazy student and this course helped me to change my studying habits and to get to work harder which is what I will do in my future course experiences. As I mentioned before the goals and ways of studying in Albania are very different from other countries and I think this course was very helpful on changing the traditional way of teaching and learning.

I expected at the beginning of this course was that I would learn new things about psycholinguistics but in process of this course…I totally changed my way learning into a better way…I should say that this is the first time when I actually learned something… Learning can be fun.

What I expected compared to what I experienced is very different. I thought it would be a boring class as some other classes, but it turned out to be that I was completely wrong…This course was not only a subject and that’s all, it was more like…we also tested ourselves and our skills and it turned out to be worthy…in this way students can achieve better results.

In all, explaining the lectures in a way that we understand them, and this new way makes us love being in this class and not just saying OMG another class of psycholinguistics!

To learn new things is never boring and to learn to think differently doesn't mean that you have changed, simply you are able to accept that the world can be discovered and learn from it. 

Besides learning new things about psycholinguistics I think I have acquired some of the methods…so as a future teacher I would like to teach in the same way...I am now able to read more without getting bored, and I know I can write a paper in a correct way. I can give my own opinions without cheating or plagiarising, and I didn’t know I was able to. 

Besides that the whole course was very interesting and unique. You are my favorite student that is something that was very good to hear. 

Now the classes are finished. Professor taught us more than everything else that teaching is a profession. Now I know that if one day I will become a teacher, first of all I should do it with passion. 

 Hmm... a lot of anxiety there; but all of us came out of the semester relatively unscathed. A hell of a trip. The kids really opened up - of course I didn't take any prisoners, right? And the reflection essay; even the idea of giving their opinion on professors or classes - which is so common at the end of the term in the states - was a shock. One student closed her reflection with this comment: “Of all good things I have learned I have the opportunity to give my own opinions in this essay, which is the first time we are asked what we think of the course.” Well, that really would be a revolution. Akin to Mario Savio, Sproul Hall and Berkeley's FSM.

I don’t know what courses I teach next year – I certainly hope psycholinguistics in the spring since those lessons just need to be edited a bit. And I’ve hit the new department director for a fall decision in the next few weeks. A good solid two months of preparation would be like heaven. Hasa-hasa-hasa.

***

This last weekend I was able to get away for a quick visit

With Kristi - one of the munchkins

back to Elbasan. A short visit with my Albanian attorney (another addendum soon) and some good time spent with friends. As soon as I got off the bus Saturday morning it felt like I was back home. And as I walked the few blocks to the Coffee House and looked up the street where the Peace Corps hub meetings were held, and a few blocks more to the university, I really had a moment thinking about all the opportunities lost with all the crap last year. But, thankfully, I found another spot. My daughter Alexis and I were talking about this and she emailed me later, something like “change happens one student at a time.” Yep. I guess so.

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Kickin' the week after finals

Mitesh and I are headed on another adventure – this time to Corfu, Athens, Thermopylae, Marathon, Thebes, Corinth and one of the close Cyclades. I’ve been to Oklahoma but never to Greece. It will be something to walk up to the Parthenon and through the Agora, and look down on Salamis.

The museums look to be fun; so maybe after wading through another thousand photos Mitesh will take, I should have a full report to you in a month’s time. 

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While it’s good to be in Albania, I keep up on things in the states. I’m at a loss to even speak to how crazy things seem. But as always, my very best to all of you.

XOXO