Challenging the teacher...

Ok.
So.

These weekly blog assignments aren't accomplishing what they're supposed to be accomplishing.
Everyone does them just to get a grade...  And not really for any other reason...
Which is exactly what Beth told us not to do...

Other people's blog entries resemble the mandatory forum posts in the online classes I have taken (the classes that require a post and a comment on someone else's post every week)...  They're all meaningless because A) we do them only for the grade, and B) we know they're not being read by anyone but the instructor, who is mostly only looking to see if we bothered to do it so she can give us 10 points.

As whoever follows my blog knows, I only really update it when I have something meaningful to say.  I assumed that this class would be different; less dogmatic about it.  But as I found out as I looked at my gradebook, apparently in this class, you have to post a blog post before noon on wednesday or you get a zero.  It doesn't matter what it is; just post something.

Why not think more sideways about this?
Why not have everyone read their posts at the beginning of class the week after?
We could even have a mandatory two comments (or one comment or whatever) in person after the recap blog post reading.  (And don't say we wouldn't have time.  We almost always get out an hour early.)

This makes us actually think about class; it makes us hear from others and draw inspiration from others' posts, and it eliminates the "doing it only for the sake of that little 10/10" dogma that Beth is trying oh-so-hard to get rid of.

This is a disappointment for me; I abhor busywork, and I abhor doing meaningless work just for grades.  I've always done it in other classes, but I decided not to in this one, because I thought what I had to say was more important than how many times I said it.  I thought that putting a heck of a lot more thought into fewer posts would show that I enjoy the class and am willing to think "outside the box."

I guess not.

It turns out school always will be school.

~Thomas