Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts

How to Read a Classic?


So I have been trying to read some classics these months and my own struggle with those texts made me wonder why not teach people how to read those boring classics.

Well, based on some of the classics I currently read by Joyce, Faulkner, Hemingway, Twain etc etc, here are some general points:

1. Always read these classic or difficult texts in the day time or when you have a lot of energy. Do NOT read while going to bed, you won't get anything out of them. Other than sleep, of course. Which, according to me, sometimes, is the best use those garbled texts within dusty cover can provide.

2. Be prepared for a lot of suffering. Like, a lot of suffering and tragedy. Oh wait, no, Twain was hilarious.

3. Most Important: Always be persistent. Perseverance, is the key, my friend. Without that you can't finish half of those goddamn books. Keep reading even if you have no idea what's going on.

4. Based on above point, every great classic has a certain % level after which you really start understanding the things for the first time. For eg, James Joyce's "A Potrait of..." it took about 80% of the book to make me understand what was going on. Faulkner's both books I read (As I lay dying, The sound and the fury), took 50% before they could get me. So keep going, keep reading, you will, at some % of book finished, get the things.

5. And if all else fails, you can always read Wikipedia. That's okay.

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Current Book: "Lolita" By Vladimir Nabokov
Current Music: "E.T." by Kate Perry

On Writing - A Short Story

Note: This post maybe likable to those who liked the "On Writing" post about Stephen King previously published in this very blog.


So today, I'll teach you how to write a very short story. Although I am a loser in this specialization (with a countless number of rejection slips in my hand) but then heck, am a loser at everything. Still that doesn't stop me from writing or teaching, does it?

The text below in caps is all my own personal advice based on basics which are found in several writing resources.

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"He stood in the corner of the gym's upper hall, facing the mirror, and eying his bony frame. His fingertips felt the grooved surface of the ten pound dumbbell, which he presently struggled to lift.

[SO FIRST OFF, ALWAYS BEGIN YOUR STORY WITH A PITIABLE CHARACTER IN A SAD-SAD CONDITION. SO THAT PPL CAN RELATE TO IT.]

While midway through the dumbbell raise, his gaze drifted to a blond girl that recently came and stood next to him. In her skimpy clothes and long curly hair, she flashed her eyes in a quick glance followed by a friendly smile.

[ADD ROMANCE. OF COURSE.]

He continued to stare at her beyond the four second rule of staring at pretty girls (which he often broke). But the girl's eyes did not met his anymore. Her eyes were fixed 0n something else.

[MYSTERY? HOW CAN WE FORGET TO ADD SUSPENSE!]

She followed the line of her vision beyond him, towards the dumbbell rack.

[ADD MINOR TWIST.]

And picked the twenty pound dumbbell with ease. The ten pound dumbbell in his hand suddenly felt heavier with shame.

[ADD MAJOR TWIST. OCCURRENCE OF TRAGEDY.]

Her nimble yet stiff body began to train with the dumbbell as if it was merely an extension of her wrist while he stood there gaping and defeated.

[APPROPRIATE TRAGIC ENDING OF ROMANTIC FICTION. HOWEVER FOR WEAK HEARTED PPL, YOU CAN ALSO WRITE A BIT OPTIMISTIC ENDING BY ADDING THE FOLLOWING TWO LINES.]

But he hadn't come there to give up and beaten by a little girl. And so, he tightened the grip on the dumbbell, the grooved edges still hurting against his soft skin, and once again began to raise."

[ALTHOUGH A NICER ENDING BUT IT SADLY CHANGES THE GENRE FROM ROMANCE TO ADVENTURE ;P.]

Off to write shitty stories, folks!

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Current Book: "1984" By George Orwell
Current Music: "Undisclosed Desires" by Muse.

On Being a Teaching Assistant In US

Note: "I had a lot of people asking me about all this Tanya affair. The only and last thing I would say is, please stop caring so much. When you watch some silly and useless video on youtube, like charlie bit my finger and stuff, you don't really care who posted that thing. Do you? You just watch the video, judge it, laugh or think about it and then go back to facebook. That's exactly what you should do with this blog, read it if you think its worth it, and then go back to better things in your life." -Dk

"Ok, could you get out of here now, sonuva...?" - Tanya

Allright, since we are now done with all the Authorial issues, let's begin with the post.

#Dark matter
The first time I checked the lab reports of the students, I was amazed to see the level of truth and honesty embedded in them. Everything was reported as measured with no manipulation done at all. My beliefs had begun to shook as I began to flip by the pages of a particular report.

This report had the most amazing data in it. They had actually reported that the concrete they had tested in the lab last week had negative specific gravity. NEGATIVE specific gravity for chrissake. I was about to comment on the file whether they added cement or anti-matter in it.

But anyway, in the conclusions they supported their data by openly accepting that Sp. G is not supposed to be negative, and that they have possibly done some mistake while weighing their specimens. They hinted that it maybe an instrument error as well. But I commented that it was a human error as they had screwed up in the calculations section.

America isn't that hot about math. I am not too hot about math either. And that's why I love it.

#Extra Credit
I sort of started this cult when the first time I began giving personalized extra credit to certain homeworks and reports. These extra/bonus points would creep into the files which would amaze me, and in the end would put a smile on the faces of the students who really deserved it. Little I had known that this would have larger repercussions.

As the news passed among the undergraduates, the group who got 105/100 became famous and it evoked a sense of thrill among them. If you don't have a thrill while learning or doing anything in this world, you better not do it. My UG courses were without any thrill, so I thought I would make a difference here.

I began giving bonus points to the reports which had nice pictures added along the write ups to caress my eyes. The bad repercussion was that, the next time we had the lab, everybody had their Androids out, and the work area was blinded with flashes. The professor stood wondering why the hell they were clicking everything from sand to rock.

Of course, the good repercussion was that now I only received professionally formatted reports.

#Bigger Picture
I often ran after marks/grades/points in my life (and sometimes I still do that ;), but that's rarely cuz I staunchly believe in excellence, not success) Being on the other side of the table, the bigger picture is more clear to me now. It's not really about those grades. Nobody really gonna care about them after 5 years. Its about how much you can learn out of something. I try my best to make the students learn.

Probably that's why some teachers make assignments/exams so difficult because they desperately want their students to learn. But scaring somebody is never the right way to make them get it. Encouraging someone is the right way.

If you can't excite them, motivate them, thrill them, you can't really teach them. If you can't compare the mixing of mortar to cooking of chocolate cookie doughs, you better find a better way.

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Current Book: "The Grapes of Wrath" By John Steinback
Current Music: "Be Yourself" By Audioslave (Ironic? ;)


On Importance of a Teacher...

Life's been too busy around homeworks. Luckily got a little time to share some thoughts today.


In my entire life, I feel that I had this special connection with my teachers. There were some of them which I really didn't like but then there were a few which I really loved. And as for the teachers' side if anyone would go and ask them, their opinions too would be mostly at the extremities. For them either I had been the most careless and dumb student or I had been an exceptional student. Very few will rate me as a 'nice/normal/decent' student.

And in my bachelors degree, there was this thing that used to happen with me every semester. I used to get in the eyes of at least two teachers every semester. Of course one held love and the other held hate for me. And my record of living up to this phenomenon had been pretty consistent. When I came here in US and the semester began, I was again a bit worried and was wondering if this thing will continue.

Somehow, it did. And it didn't.

I "think" I came a quite close getting a bad reputation in front of a teacher but it seems like it never happened. It all just happened in my worried mind. Or it has but the teacher is not showing it. But yes, I "did" come close to another teacher that I think I really love and he in return appreciates my interests too.

He is a retired professor and quite old. He welcomed me in his office like perhaps no other teacher had ever done to me. And those precious minutes spent with him in the past few days strengthened my grip on my dreams. I know I am talking very vague here and not giving you people any specifics of "What, where and why?" But really, I can't. It's the nature of this blog to stay away from facts. Facts are too mundane and boring. I always try to stay away from names and facts and stuff.

It's all about fiction ;)

And yes, where was I? The meetings, the wise advice and some pivotal events in the past few days have really shaped my world the way I wanted it to. Talking with him, I felt overwhelmed at times on seeing his supportive and encouraging nature. I was "so" much reminded of the book "Tuesdays With Morrie" which I finished a week ago. The way I look at teaching, I sometimes feel that it is one of the most noble professions existing out there. But of course it doesn't suit everyone. You need to know a lot and then you need the right method of telling to novices whatever you know. I don't know about the present but yes maybe after 10 or 20 years, when I feel that I *know* enough stuff, I would love to be a teacher.

I would love to inspire, ignite and most importantly *help* students who would be nothing but my own younger selfs seeking direction.

A great teacher, someone to talk to, someone-someone who could understand everything that I have always meant to say, is what I was primary looking for after coming to US. And I guess I have found someone. It's really important to find that teacher in your life. It's not that I have a "guru" of my lifetime. But yes, for this current phase of my life, I have one. Yes, in past I had a series of teachers who played their roles in perfection. But there had been times when I had no one to guide me. Times of darkness, they were.

I see light now. Pure, infinite, illuminating, White Light.

For every Frodo needs a Gandalf
For every Harry needs a Dumbledore

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