Dear Marlen,
This class sure was classy. Reflecting back on this process as a whole brings a smile to my face and a spark to my brain. As it goes with many experiences in life, there were aspects of this class that turned out exactly how I predicted, and some that surprised me. I could tell from the first day that this class would be something different, and it was (in a good way). I sensed that your teaching style was very different in the fact that although you place an incredible amount of expectation and work on the students, the whole learning process is very self-lead which is why it turned some people into heroes and some people into their own worst enemy.
Although it seemed very daunting in the beginning due to all of your email caveats and first day scare tactics, this class was not as hard as I thought it was going to be. This occurred when I realized that your point system was a sham, we were all getting A’s and this whole thing was just an endurance test. The entire introduction and set up of the class is to motivate students to do their personal best, and you’ve successfully discovered that a great way to do this is to use fear. It is what pushed many students, including me, to start with good momentum in the course. I think this helped many realize we should not be fearing you and your grading, but rather our personal limitations, whether they be laziness, procrastination, or ignorance.
There were times when I became very frustrated with the class though. During the period before we actually started writing our papers, I sometimes felt that the work I was doing didn’t really “count” because of the large amount of writing you assigned, I often questioned if you read our blogs in their entirety, if ever. Because of this the class seemed like a paradox in many ways. The self motivation/no point system can bring out the best in a student, but because it is so self lead it was very hard at times to motivate myself to write things I knew that probably only I would ultimately closely read. This is of course the result of 15 years in an education system where much of the motivation derives from a desired point value or need to impress a teacher, whereas you wanted to challenge us to impress ourselves.
Overall I absolutely loved the blogs, especially in the beginning. I felt like it was my baby and I had my own little place in cyberspace. Most of the entries helped me learn about research and the research writing process because of using established sources and then having to find my own. Sometimes though, I felt like you were trying to make the class so challenging, that you squeezed in too much work that was not always beneficial to the students. So many times, I just wanted to come to class and do something PRODUCTIVE instead of just TALK blah blah blah. Mainly, I think the whole required reading books and the book tests were a waste. We didn’t spend any time discussing the relevance in class, peoples books were all over the board, and making us read a book for one measly book test online didn’t seem worth it. Also, we didn’t even have time to follow through with a second book/test. Maybe it would have been more helpful if you would have given us a careful selection of only 3-4books, that way a class discussion and peer support would be relevant, and we could have spent time talking in class discussing research aspects about the book to make our time and effort reading seem more relevant instead of doing individual test and gaining nothing intellectual from it. With that being said, I actually loved the book I read (Snowflower and the secret fan) but it didn’t contribute anything to my learning relative to the actual class.
To be blunt, I would have loved to see what this class would have done for students at a more academically established school with a student body that is actually intelligent as a whole (basically the opposite of IUP). I know you’re proud of the work we did and personal struggles we overcame etc, but through reading other papers on peoples blogs, the writing ability of people at this school seems reallllly low. Like really low. I wondered sometimes if you were upset to be working with some of these students whose writing skills were so incredibly poor. I thought most of the papers in and of themselves, sucked. For example, did you ever wonder what it would have been like to do this at Pitt or Penn State? Your results probably would have been out of this world. I really don’t mean to sound rude I’m just being honest. I can tell though that you did succeed to inspire many people to ACTUALLY do their best, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading those papers that accomplished this through cathartic and personal means.
I truly truly did enjoy this class, and I still feel impressed and lucky that your overqualified self stumbled upon shitty little IUP to teach it here. The learning environment you created for all of us is absolutely astounding, from the level of comfort to the personally revealing relationships that somehow worked out both academically and personally for all of us. I think this was pretty evident on the last day, which was basically just one huge Love Fest. I’m proud of myself and I’m proud of my classmates, so what more could you ask for? Honestly Marlen, you an amazing person. You make yourself available to your students on every level, and you’ve accomplished so much in life, it is impossible for any conscious person not to admire you in every way. I can unwaveringly tell you that I have truly gained great things from this class. GOOOODD LUUUCCCKKKK with your next step in life and THANK YOU THANK YOU so much for this experience!!!
-Stephanie Pelch
