Professor Lawrence Connell's Hypotheticals

ICYMI, be sure to read my earlier entry, "Charlotte Allen: 'The Mess at Widener Law School."



I've been thinking about the case and will have more later. Mostly, I'm trying to figure out Deans Ammons' animosity toward Professor Connell. Charlotte Allen notes:

Connell’s most egregious offense ... and probably the offense that brought down the full-bore wrath of Ammons upon him, was a series of classroom hypotheticals. The scenarios involved Ammons herself and Connell’s efforts to kill her (hypothetically) after she threatened to fire him (hypothetically) for parking his car in her parking space. In one of the hypotheticals Connell rushed into Ammons’ office with his .357 magnum and shot her in the head—except that the “head” turned out to a pumpkin artfully painted to look just like the dean. The idea was to ask the class whether under prevailing legal rules he should be tried for attempted murder—or not, since no harm actually befell her. Imaginative and macabrely humorous hypotheticals, often pitting professors against deans and other campus authority figures, are a standard feature of Old Law School pedagogy. The idea is that the students will absorb and remember the underlying legal principles better in a context of humorous narrative. Hypotheticals show up not just in law school classrooms but in exam questions and moot-court competitions. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan was repeatedly murdered in classroom hypotheticals when she was dean of Harvard Law School.

Indeed, as Professor Jonathan Turley indicates, "Widener Law Professor Suspended For Using Dean In Hypotheticals":

I must confess that I routinely incorporate the Dean at our school in the same type of hypotheticals as well as any contract professors. Indeed, my final every year involves some struggle between myself and the Dean and contracts professors. Absent something more, I fail to see the basis for such disciplinary action. Other professors have raises objections to the case on sites like Volokh.



In his letter, [Widener Vice Dean J. Patrick] Kelly accuses Connell of an “outgoing pattern” of misconduct, and cites his use of such hypotheticals, including “cursing and coarse behavior, “racist and sexist statements” and “violent, personal scenarios that demean and threaten your colleagues.” Without more, the allegations raise serious concerns over academic freedom and privilege.



I am most disturbed by the statement of Gregory F. Scholtz, associate secretary and director of the American Association of University Professors. AAUP is organization that is expected to defend academic freedom. Yet, Scholtz is quoted as saying “Education is all about pushing the boundaries, and it’s all about controversial ideas, but the question always is when does it cross the line. Given our modern culture and the violence that exists, you’re really asking for trouble when you talk about killing people.” Really? That is news to those of us who teach torts and criminal law. It is common for faculty to incorporate colleagues into hypotheticals as good-humored jokes. At my school, contracts professors respond by incorporating me into their own hypotheticals. I have never found it even remotely bothersome or insulting. It keeps the attention of students and adds a needed element of levity in lectures.

It's routine. And Turley has more on how chilling the Lawrence case is for academic freedom.



Also, at Volokh, "Interview With Lawrence Connell, the Criminal Law Professor Suspended for His Hypotheticals":

Q: Can you give me an example of a hypothetical you might have used in class, to which the students who complained might have been referring? Can you describe the context in which you would have used it?



A: Yes, here is one: The Dean has threatened to fire me if she comes to school one more time and finds that I have parked in her designated parking space. Upset about the possibility of losing both my job and the parking space, I bring my .357 to school, get out of my car, put the .357 into my waistband, walk to the top floor where her office is located, open the door to her office, see her seated at her desk, draw my weapon, aim my weapon, and fire my weapon directly into what I believe to be her head. To my surprise, it’s not the Dean at all, but an ingeniously painted pumpkin — a pumpkin that has been intricately painted to look like the Dean. Dick Tracy rushes in and immediately wrestles me to the ground. I am charged with the attempted murder of the Dean.



The hypothetical raises various issues about attempted crimes that might entail discussion that spans more than one class. Some of the classroom discussion in the first, for example, will address the two basic philosophical problems of why we punish attempts, which are failed efforts at crime, and why we punish attempts less than successfully completed crimes.



A retributive argument, on the one hand, is that the attemptor has demonstrated his moral culpability by his bad conduct, and the degree of his punishment should not depend on a fortuitous turn of luck. On the other hand, a retributivist might argue that punishment in the absence of harm is unjust. For retributive purposes, has Connell demonstrated his moral culpability by shooting what he believes to be the Dean? Or does the fact that he merely destroyed a pumpkin suggest that his punishment would be unjust?

It's obviously a powerful heuristic.



More on this tonight. I'm checking around for more on Deans Ammons' motivations to persecute Professor Connell.

Charlotte Allen: 'The Mess at Widener Law School'

At Minding the Campus (via Glenn Reynolds):

Old Law School culture revolves around a traditional curriculum—those torts and contracts courses—and the Socratic method of instruction, with its pointed and rigorous give-and-take between professors and students. Old Law School assumes that the process of training lawyers is training them to a centuries-old Anglo-American tradition of lawyerly thought, which rests on the careful crafting of legal arguments and the relentless challenging of those arguments, often by the professor in the classroom. Old precedent-setting cases may be supplanted by newer cases, and legal principles may shift, but the underlying methodology of close analysis of written court opinions and the arguments on which they rest, along with certain assumptions underlying the American legal systems—that human beings are generally capable of exercising reason and free will and thus should be held responsible for their actions—are Old Law School constants.



New Law School culture, growing out of the Critical Legal Studies movement that first surfaced in law schools during the 1980s, is quite different. In New Law School thinking, the law does not embody a rational system of justice—or even strivings toward such a system—but is essentially a political construct that has historically operated to keep the rich and powerful in their places of wealth and power and other groups—women, racial minorities, the disabled, and the poor—in their socially subordinate places. If this characterization sounds Marxist, that is because Critical Legal Studies—and its intellectual progeny, Critical Race Theory and Feminist Legal Theory—grew out of the New Left radicalism of the 1960s, which viewed American governmental and social structures as systems of oppression. It has also been influenced by postmodernist literary theory, with its assumptions that there is no objective truth or reality. In New Law School thinking, reason, free will, and personal responsibility are illusions, for all legal battles are actually struggles of race, class, and gender, in which power, not justice, is the ultimate goal. In New Law School scholarly writing, rigorous analysis of court opinions and the drawing of fine distinctions underlying legal arguments have been supplanted by “story telling": personal narratives typically involving the law professors’ own experiences as members of an oppressed group with the race-gender-class matrix that is the source of their oppression. Since a shift in the power structure, not justice, is the goal, any tactic that coerces the recalcitrant into conforming to the new power regime is permissible in New Law School thinking.

Continue reading. Especially good is Allen's discussion of Linda Ammons. I wrote briefly along the same lines here, "Widener's Dean Linda Ammons Goes After Law School Professor Lawrence Connell."



And from Allen's conclusion, she notes that Professor Lawrence Connell was exonerated of the allegations against him, yet Ammons still prevailed on her preposterous charge that Connell "retaliated":

What is appalling is that, despite both exonerations, Ammons appears to have gotten her way in the end after all, exacting sanctions against a tenured professor that are not only costly but humiliating (he is supposed to apologize to the complaining students. The charge of retaliation, based on a vague prohibition in the faculty handbook, seem especially flimsy. Connell’s e-mail to his students in December neither named his accusers nor referred to them in any way. As for the lawsuit, Connell never waived his right to seek redress in court against individuals whose false accusations have already cost him quite a bit of money and promise to cost much more. But that is the way of New Law School. It is perhaps only Old Law School, with its emphasis on fairness, reasonableness, and color-and gender-blind justice, that would find something totalitarian in Widener’s treatment of Connell and accordingly demand Linda Ammons’ resignation. In New Law School thinking, where power is everything, and the claims of grievance-bearing identity groups will always prevail over fairness, it is perfectly fine to strip your perceived opponent of his livelihood and to consign him to the ministrations of your own Nurse Ratched—and there is no such thing as abuse of power.

'All Summer Long'

My summer's been long but is almost gone. School starts back at my college next Monday.

And we were trying different things

We were smoking funny things

Making love out by the lake to our favorite song

Sipping whiskey out the bottle, not thinking 'bout tomorrow

Singing Sweet home Alabama all summer long

Singing Sweet home Alabama all summer long...

Updates

College re-opened, I am back to hostel. Finally, in FINAL year, a super senior, feels good. Tho, I enjoy being at home, being back in hostel, feels different. Here I have a another identity then just a daughter and sister. It's just a year left, I've no idea what I want to do next. But, I am pretty sure gonna miss this place, the silent echoing corridors, long walks from the gate, everything. Even though this year barely started, they say you never realise how final year passes away and everything comes to an end. And nothing remains the same ever. Hmmm...
Last month, I did realised that its true when they say, you make real friends in college, and those are the one's who will last through out your life. Yes, I would like to believe, I finally know who my friends are, and I am pretty sure, they will be there for me through out the life. Touchwood.
There is a busy month ahead, lot of things to be figured out, lot of decisions to be taken.
Will keep you updated :)
Till then wish me luck!
And yeah I know I haven't been writing regularly, now that I am back to normal life, I will try my best to do so.
Lots of love :)

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Lessons in Handling Plagiarism From Professor Panagiotis Ipeirotis

I had a nightmare class at UCSB in 1999, the second lecture class I taught as in independent instructor. It was a Black Politics class. I had a running battle with radical students throughout the quarter. I even had one dude pull me aside to say, "Hey, man, this is how you teach the class." I wasn't down hard enough on the Man, apparently. This dude, and some of his allies, wanted a course in victimology and racial recrimination. And I was doing straight civil rights developments and the political science of voting rights and redistricting. It started to be a nightmare. Students complained to the department that I graded their midterms "too hard." It was a big learning experience. And the final exam was the kicker. I caught a couple of black women cheating. They were passing their exam sheets back and forth with notes they'd written while writing their essays. They had arrows and diagrams tracing arguments. It was involved. When one of them turned in the exam I asked for the question sheet and she wasn't about to give it to me. I was like hello? This is what you do. So she reluctantly gave to me and later I turned the students over to the vice chair of the department. Within a couple of days I was called into the chair's office, Professor Lorraine McDonnell, who no one liked, and who had a reputation, basically, of piggy-backing off her husband, Professor M. Stephen Weatherford, a nice guy and sought-after research "quant" (a numbers and methods guy who sharpened research knives, which is hip in political science, a field that remains envious of the economics discipline for its much more formal and recognized academic rigor). Professor McDonnell threw me under the bus. (I ended up assigning grades to all students and being done with that class, and I moved on after that semester to teach at Fresno State.)

Anyway, check this piece at Inside Higher Ed, "Who Is Punished for Plagiarism?" (via Glenn Reynolds):

Panagiotis G. Ipeirotis has taken down the controversial blog post, but the debate is raging on without the original material.

Ipeirotis, a computer scientist who teaches at New York University's Stern School of Business, wrote a post on his blog last week called "Why I will never pursue cheating again." In it, he told the story of how he found that about 20 percent of a 100-person class had plagiarized -- and described the fallout from his accusations. While Turnitin led to his initial suspicions, and gave clear evidence for some of the students, it only cast doubts on other students. Many of them confessed only when Ipeirotis told the class that if he didn't hear from those who had cheated, he would report the incident immediately -- whereas in the end he included in his report the information that students had admitted what they had done.

So why does Ipeirotis consider the experience a failure? His students became antagonistic, he wrote on the blog post, and gave him lower teaching evaluations than he had ever received before. And those poor teaching evaluations were cited in a review that resulted in the smallest raise he had ever received.

Keep reading.

Ipeirotis' post is taken down temporarily. But Ruan YiFeng's Blog has excerpts. I like this:

“The process of discussing all the detected cases was not only painful, it was extremely time consuming as well.

Students would come to my office and deny everything. Then I would present them the evidence. They would soften but continue to deny it. Only when I was saying “enough, I will just give the case to the honorary council who will decide” most students were admitting wrongdoing. But every case was at least 2 hours of wasted time.

With 22 cases, that was a lot of time devoted to cheating: More than 45 hours in completely unproductive discussions, when the total lecture time for the course was just 32 hours. This is simply too much time.”

Students, in general, are inveterate liars when it comes to grades and classroom performance. I'd need more information, but this sounds like Ipeirotis' crucible from the trenches. You can't be an excellent teacher without failing a few times. And in this case there was something wrong, very wrong, with the course design. Exams and paper assignments have to be designed to prevent cheating. If he's doing research papers, there's got to be a way to create a project that students can't easily off load from the web. I still catch about one student plagiarizing a paper every year in World Politics, and usually a couple in American Government. And technically, you can't just fail them without due process. And to provide due process requires a formal administrative review and possibly hearing, and most professors don't even grasp the legal significance of the process. Since I've been a "traditional" professor on the issues, I had some experience dealing with problems at my college and soon I ended up leading a couple of workshops on academic discipline. It's the same stories over and over again. A lot of things you hear are just like what Professor Ipeirotis recounts. And that's why each professor has to develop an assignment regime that makes cheating hard, but they've also got to be ready to uphold standards. For the most part, my college today backs professors. Maybe students at community college aren't as powerful --- or their parents have less resources --- as students at competitive universities, but it pays to lay the administrative groundwork for upholding policies inside the classroom. Without that backing, teaching, inevitably, will be no fun.

Community College Worries and Challenges

At the annual meeting of the National Association of College and University Business Officers. See Chronicle of Higher Education, "Community-College Officials Swap Notes on Common Worries and Challenges."

And at New York Times, "At Two-Year Colleges, Less Scrutiny Equals Less Athletic Equality."

Los Angeles Southwest College has a new athletic field house and football stadium, but almost no female athletes.

Women make up more than two-thirds of students at this community college in the city’s South Central neighborhood, but less than a quarter of its athletes. The college’s decision to suspend the track team this year left women who wanted to play a sport with a single option: basketball.

Henry Washington, the college’s athletic director and head football coach, acknowledges that his program is most likely violating federal law by failing to offer enough roster spots to women. But he said many of the female students are also juggling jobs and child care, and do not have time to play sports. Then there is the question of money. “I just keep my fingers crossed that we can keep what we have,” he said...

The situation at Los Angeles Southwest, without question, more closely represents the norm among community colleges around the country. Even as they play an increasingly vital role in American higher education — enrolling more than eight million students nationwide last fall, a 20 percent jump since the fall of 2007, just before the start of the recession — community colleges are routinely failing to provide enough athletic opportunities to women, as required under Title IX, the federal law banning sex discrimination in education. Many community colleges offer an array of options for men but just a single team for women. And dozens of colleges over the years had no women on their athletic rosters, according to federal education statistics.

No one disputes that community colleges face distinct challenges, with a lack of money paramount. But Pensacola, one of the rare exceptions among community colleges, offers evidence that the demands of the law can be met.

Continue reading. And note the comparison to Pensacola State College in Florida. This is all about state money. Those states, like California, deeply in the hole aren't going to be able to provide the opportunities required by law. The question becomes one of enforcement. Seems like California colleges would welcome the scrutiny if it forced state officials to better fund the institutions.

Montevideo, Uruguay

In the end of my freshman year/early sophomore year of college I made the easy decision to study abroad. There was never a doubt in my mind that I would not pursue this for a semester during my college years. Isn't that what hundreds of thousands of college students do each year? I have not done any research on this topic of college students studying abroad, by all means, but I'd imagine that it is quite popular throughout college campuses - in the United States. I had already had the opportunity to study abroad for a year as an exchange student in Cochabamba, Bolivia upon my graduation from high school. I loved it. I was hooked. I couldn't wait to do it again. My undergraduate university, SUNY Binghamton, has an Office for of International Programs and I knew that I could find a program for me. But I couldn't find the exact program that I was looking for - a semester in a Latin American country where I could study in Spanish. Now I can't remember exactly how I went about finding a university to help me get to my destination: somewhere in Latin America, but I did. I do know that I actually studied abroad through the Latin American Studies Southern Cone Program at SUNY Plattsburgh. Since both of these universities are in the same SUNY (State University of New York) system, it was easy for me to go through their program. I knew I wanted to study abroad, I knew I wanted to go to Latin America, and I knew that I wanted to go through SUNY (it was easier to transfer credits, deal with financial aid, etc.). So that's exactly what I did.  


I almost went to Chile. In fact that is where I had planned to go once I decided on the above stated program in the Southern Cone. So how did I end up in Montevideo? It turned out to be an easy choice. I knew something about Chile; Uruguay was unknown territory to me, much like Bolivia had been. My other option in this particular study abroad program would have been Argentina, but that is probably the most well known country in the Southern Cone of South America and being the adventurer that I am, that could not be an option for me. I wanted to go to a country that I knew nothing about. Again, that's exactly what I did. In the spring semester of my sophomore year, I went to study Anthropology and Spanish in the Spanish language in Montevideo for 6 months. I wasn't looking to learn Spanish because I already knew it; I was looking to improve and challenge myself.


One of the images that I distinctly remember that attracted me to Uruguay was the Casa Puebla in Punta Ballena (Punta del Este). Rest assured that I visited here. It truly is a breathtaking sight, especially at sunset. I'd say that this landmark attracted me to Uruguay much like the Teatro Amazonas later attracted me to Manaus.

I attended La Universidad Catolica del Uruguay in Montevideo where I studied a Portuguese language class (yeah! :), the History of Uruguay, Uruguayan Literature (very interesting and absolutely beautiful poetry, short stories, and novels), and an Anthropology class. Spanish and Anthropology were my majors in college. I did not want to miss out on my credits for my majors, as well as my minor in International Studies, so I made sure to keep myself on track in this aspect. Each of these classes was given in Spanish with the exception of the Portuguese class, taught by two Brazilian instructors, of which one still remains in contact with me today. My Spanish, which was already quite good, improved immensely and I even acquired the distinct Uruguayan accent. I had friendly, openhearted, and fun housemates. I made friends at school and with other international students, I dated a Uruguayan, and really got to travel like I never had before. It was an unforgettable, exciting time in my life.


I took a ceramics art class that I found through the university, I volunteered at a local English language institute (even participating in a workshop), I traveled to Buenos Aires a couple of times and around Uruguay with friends and housemates, and went shopping often. The exchange rate at the time was definitely in my favor, and as I had earned a scholarship prior to my departure, I think that my plane ticket only cost me $100. During my stay in Uruguay I visited Brazil twice - Porto Alegre and Rio de Janeiro - and this is where my love for that country grew. I learned how to make mate like a Uruguayan and my appetite for meat and Italian food also increased. 


I will always hold a special place for Uruguay and its citizens in my heart. I believe that I became even more independent during my semester study abroad in the Southern Cone and on a personal note I know for a fact that I grew as an individual. 


Uruguay, siempre te voy a querer mucho.

Weird, unforgetable day.

Its been a weird day today. There was nothing that could be called normal.

Now that I have been doing things too much on impulse, I should actually stop dreaming about simpler, less complicated life. Not to forget that I pretty much slept the whole day due to the fact that I was awake the whole night yesterday and having not eaten anything today. Little sleep deprived and hungry.

On other hand my friends are graduating right now, I am in bed having the most weird feeling ever. I cannot to be happy for them, nor there is any point being upset about it.

Life is pretty much gonna change. And I am scared. Scared that I will be left alone. Also I have too many things to figure out. Uff, not a good day at all.

Just waiting for my exams to get over so that I can go home, away from everything and everyone. On the happier note there is only six days left for that.

A wierd, unforgetable day. *sigh*

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Wish and Hope

Last night, I was passing my dairy around for people to write, yes, the one's you keep to read years later..to remember the people you studied with, lived with, ate with, to treasure memories..

My actual batch people are graduating in a week, starting a new life. And I will be starting my exams in two days and have a year more to go.

I still wish sometimes things were different, wish I had graduated with them!

But..they say everything happens for the best and I really hope so.

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Last weekend of grading papers

'Tis the final weekend before the end of the school year. Hallelujah! This has been a rough year for me. A busy year. A I-gotta-take-my-comprehensive-exams-and-graduate-from-graduate-school kind of year. A prepare-to-move-out-of-the-country year. And I'm relieved to know that there are only 3 more school days, and they're all final exam days so no teaching has to be done. I just need to clean my classroom, meet with my assistant principal to turn in all of my paperwork (lesson plans and such) and have her sign off on that. The biggest pain in the butt is all of the final grading that I need to do. I was quite productive today and graded my students' final quiz and extra credit assignment but I still need to grade their "Romeo and Juliet" test. That's saved for tomorrow, as well as making sure all of my lesson plans are ready to be turned in on Monday. And frankly, I'm tired of the tragedy of R & J and don't want to read any more timelines mapping out the untimely death of the star-crossed lovers. That is, until next school year :). Don't get me wrong, I love Shakespeare and the play and even enjoyed watching the movies I showed my students to help them understand, but I need a break from reading the play 6 times a day and talking about it. 


So even though I may be busy today, this weekend, and this coming week, I can relax knowing that next weekend I'll be home free. I'll still have to prepare for our move to Brazil and that includes yet another trip to the consulate in Miami, but I won't have to worry about returning home and getting enough sleep to survive my 6 a.m. alarm clock. Let's face it, I don't have to wake up early again unless it's to get us to the airport to fly to New York, but that'll be fun. I will still be busy throughout the month before our departure, but I'll have the luxury of sleeping in and that, my friends, is priceless.Oh the thought of it...


In the meantime, I will be staying in working during my last weekend grading papers, finishing a book (yeah! and necessary because I want to read and leave behind paperbacks and then just read my Kindle once I'm abroad), continuing to sell sell sell my belongings on-line, packing just a bit, and maybe sneaking in sips of my husband's Johnny and Red Bull drink while watching NBA games and UFC fights. (I need to try and live as much as an American as I can before I become an expat). Now if only my on-line grade book was up and running this could be an almost perfect final weekend before the summer is out and I'm done with public school teaching in America...perhaps forever...

Pictures bring back memories

At this point I have basically gone through all of my personal belongings and have decided what will go with me to Brazil, and what will be left behind (more than likely in the trash can). Phew. Although it was a task, I was "forced" to look through every folder, envelope, and stack of papers to make sure I didn't leave anything out. The labor was worth it though because boy did I find all of my pictures, from 1999 to about 2004. In other words, all of the pictures that I've saved from before we had digital cameras. Oh yeah, I found a number of pictures from when I was baby and throughout my childhood

What is exciting is that most of these pictures are from my travels. In fact, I was able to organize my pictures into 7 piles - Mexico, the U.S. (and this includes the pictures from my childhood all the way up to my undergraduate college graduation), Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay. I love it.

Now the memories are flooding in as I carefully look at each photo. Unfortunately I cannot scan these pictures to put them on display (i.e. on my blog) because I've sold my printer/copier/scanner, but I did find one in a friend's Facebook album and saved it to my computer.

The picture I saved is from my first trip to Peru (it was taken in the Plaza de las Armas in Cusco). I was 18 years old and having the time of my life travelling around Bolivia and Peru with other North Americans and a European friend that had been studying with me in Cochabamba. I'm in the center of the photo with a huge smile on my face and my knees tucked up :). This was definitely an unforgettable moment, for all of us.

And it's not just the pictures of friends who live far away, or who I haven't seen since that particular time in our lives, but it's also the pictures of my high school friends and family that are really touching. I mean, I found pictures from my high school graduation and pictures of my now 13 year old sister when she was just a newborn.

I will be safely packing all of these pictures away to take with me to Brazil. When I get there I'll buy a number of photo albums and display them for the world to see...but more importantly, for me to appreciate. The photos of my grandparents, my mother, my sisters, my stepdad, and my dear dear friends who have always been around to encourage, support, and love me, will never be out of reach.

Best moments of life are unplanned!

Today is one of my dear friend's birthday.. I have know her from the first day of college, we used to sit in the same bench for two years.
Well, I have to shamelessly admit we had nothing planned, no cake, no candles nothing. We didn't know if she was gonna be in hostel or not.
We went there to her room at 12 a.m. to wish. It was only four of us. One of my friend was like, wish there was something to put on her face, since we usually put cream, then I had a idea that we can dress her like a tribal girl, we tied dupatta around her waist like a sarong, hawain style,applied white powder on her face and hands and little bit of tooth paste also. And guess what we all dressed up to!!!! 
From crazy photo session, ramp walks, jumping on the bed,dancing like maniac's, shouting and screaming we did everything possible!!! Whole hostel would've cursed us but who the heck cares anyway!! This was like the best fun we had in a long time, crazy shit we hadn't planned for at all. And we all know we are gonna
remember this forever!!! The night we went crazy, actually night we went craziest!!!

My dysfunctional relationship with math!!!!!

I’m an engineering student who sucks at math. No I’m not one of those students who get 95 out of 100 and say I’m so bad at math; I lose all my marks in that subject. When I say I suck, I really do. It took a lot of effort and attempts to clear my four math papers 1,2,3,4. For me graph theory, discrete mathematics, finite automata and formal language is also math, you may say it is not. I have no idea how my papa thought I will be a good engineer, really.

Now, when I was happy that I have cleared all my math paper, comes “aptitude” classes!

Being good at aptitude is very important for placements, GATE, CAT, IAS, and everything else.

Those two hours shatter every little confidence I have in life.

How, you ask?

For someone who cannot even add, subtract, multiply, divide properly without a calculator, well it’s literally being in hell.

They teach you methods which are supposed to be short cuts to solve the problem, through which I’m paying a lot of attention, and still not able to understand, they give you problem like this,

837478*625=?

5793405*9999=?

My heart skips a beat, I am petrified looking at those numbers, it takes me a minute to recover myself , and when I finally take my eyes of those numbers and look around, everyone is scribing and scratching on the book and I have no clue about what to do also, that is where my 25% of confidence is lost.

Another 25% of it is goes when I am not sure what is 6*7. Yes. I didn’t know what 6*7=42 is, stop laughing at me!

I ask my friend, after that when I actually start solving, people start shouting answers, and I’m not even half way through the problems that is where 25% of confidence goes. 75% is gone.

Needless to say zero confidence is left by the end of 2 hours. And all I’m left with a sulking face, and ready to cry.

God please help me! :(

Happy valentines day!!!
I had actual proper post for valentines day,due to internet  problems in college unable to put it up, hopefully I will be able to post it soon! And this is the reason I am unable to read and comment on other blogs too!
It's been a week since college started, and its been awesome awesome fun! more of it later!
see you guys soon!

PS: I got my valentines day gift, and I totally love it!

Pessimism

Too many days of holidays, total idleness has finally taken a toll on me.

I feel  gloomy,miserable, awful,terrible, foolish,dim,dull, angry, annoyed,pissed, irritated, name it, I feel it.

I no longer feel, happy, content, cheery, positive self anymore.

Before pessimistic feelings totally take toll on me,I need start doing something, I need to talk to more people, and I need to get back my life,

Its good thing that college is starting in 2days, and I will be back to hostel , back to my room, back to class, back to the routine, that will keep me engaged most of the times and yeah being busy does feel good at times like these.

On the down side,

I will miss mom real bad, the food, everything about home.

But, I can’t take this anymore, I need to do something.

Mostly, I need to be myself, again.

Freelance Translator? Yes, please.

I've been interested in translation/interpretation since I was in high school. In fact, during my freshman year I took a sign language (night!) class with a bunch of old ladies to improve what I'd already started to learn from hearing impaired friends. At that time, I was certain that I wanted to study Speech Language Pathology while in college, and then later become an interpreter for the deaf - as my profession. However, my first study abroad experience to South America put me in a new, different direction - but only towards translation versus interpretation.

I still am fascinated with sign language, interpretation for the deaf, closed captions - you name it. I just don't know if at this time I'll pursue that career.

Instead.............I'm more interested in (freelance) translation.

I took my first translation course in my third year of college and I have enjoyed it ever since. I continued to study translation during my undergraduate years as well as participate in a translation/localization workshop the summer after I graduated (right before I moved to Manaus to teach). Most of my experience has been with non-literary work; I translate Brazilian Portuguese ->English and Latin American Spanish ->English. I also have extensive experience with proofreading and editing, of which most of those documents are written by non Native English speakers from Latin America.

So, why get back to translation/interpretation after the long hiatus, you ask? Well, I've always loved this profession (anything language/linguistics related) and now that I'm returning to Brazil, I think I'll have more opportunities to do what I love, and hopefully be well paid and respected for it. I mean, I started interpreting back in 2000 when I was living in Bolivia. I continued with it by taking undergraduate and graduate courses, and then got paid to translate while in Brazil in 2005. I've done extensive interpretation (and to some extent translation) since E arrived so that's given me a great deal of practice and has reminded me where my heart has always been. I think now it's time to get paid, and maybe add a second career. Also, just the other day I was reading a blog by a fellow translator, an American travelling back and forth between Brazil, who wrote an informative post on being a freelance translator and so I've decided to take the plunge.

Since I read that blog just days ago, I've update my resume and have applied for many jobs - both paid and unpaid. Now I guess I just have to wait and see what happens. But I'm hopeful and believe I could eventually have a career change, if not another job that I love.

DAY TEN

10 things I will miss the most about home!



I just realised all of a sudden today that, there are only ten days of holidays left, and I have to go back to hostel.As much as I love being in hostel, i'm gonna miss home real bad.

1. my MOMMY dearest, she is always there you know being with her, just keeps all the worries and tension away, PA too, especially  the pampering part.
2. my soft soft BED, and PILLOWS and BLANKET.
3. unlimited INTERNET service.
4. my own BATHROOM.
5. all the yummy FOOD.
6. my SCOOTY pep plus.
7. wake up late in the morning and still get BREAKFAST.
8. I dont have to WASH my clothes.
9. IRISH COFFEE, have been drinking a lot of that these days!
10. having NOTHING to do, the whole day.

day 2

A picture of you and your friends



I am someone who gets along with people very easily, like I mentioned earlier I can talk to anyone and everyone. I told my friends the other day, that if I have a christian wedding( which I don't think will happen even in my dreams!but we all talk crap sometimes..don't we??) I will have atleast five brides maid, each from each stage of my life. That's how I would divide my friends into my school friends, my 11th n 12th friends, and college friends right now.

this is my school gang :) these people have known me for the longest amount of time.

though now we all are in different places, doing different things, we meet once in 6 months or

once in a year and still have the same fun we used when we were in school.

miss you guys.

my 11-12th friends :) or you can say what is left of it! There were quite a lot of friends

back then, but with time only these people have stayed in my life. And they are the most

sweetest, caring people I will ever find.

thank you and love you guys!

my awesome college friends :)

these people are the reason for making my life so much fun in college,

and everything else.

how can I not mention my awesome girlfriends!!!

girls you just simply rock!!!

and here a special mention to these ladies, they have been like sister's to me, tolerated me when I was cribbing, comforted me while crying, helped me make a decision, said its gonna be alright, shared with me, laughed with me,made me feel like a princess on my birthday, talked non-sense with me, told me study, taken care of me when drunk, ill. love you so much, muah!

There is no grad school in Brazil

Don't believe everything you read. For example, the title of this post. There are graduate schools and programs in Brazil. A lot. But none for me! I am beyond excited that I will be graduating this semester and that I will never have to do this again - grad school + a stressful job. It's hard. Really hard. (But it was worth it).

It's taking me 2.5 years to finish my Master's since I work full time. I've taken 2 classes a semester and even a class over the summer (for 2 summers) in order to complete my program in the shortest time possible. I was aiming for 2 years, but what's one more semester?

I am feeling a little bit of relief as I begin my final semester at UCF, but at the same time, I have to take my comprehensive exams in April so that means a lot of studying and added pressure because I HAVE to pass them. Which I will. I'm taking a semester long class to prepare me to succeed and I have a number of resources to help me study. And of course, wonderful classmates.

But you see, it's not just graduate school that stresses me out. It's my job. In fact, E called me today after work and when I answered the phone he asked me what was wrong. What was my response? "A mesma merda" (the same sh*t). Different day. It's not necessarily the school or my job, but working in general. You all know. You have a job. Maybe even a stressful job. But in my case I can talk to my husband and we can remind each other that we only have 5 months left. We can put up with our jobs for 5 more months. Can't we? (we ask ourselves)

Don't get me wrong. I love being a teacher. LOVE it. But it's stressful. Public school teaching, especially in Title 1 schools, is not for the faint of heart. I'm strict, and I can be fun (and funny), and my students generally like me, so it does work itself out in the end. But I'm ready for a change, and on that note, I am looking forward to working at a small, private school where education is valued in the homes of the students. I don't want to have to deal with the state dictating every move I make or every decision either.

I am also really looking forward to having some freedom as to what (novels) I can teach and to have smaller classes so I can do more with my students. I'm especially interested in the bilingual aspect of the school, even if I will only be teaching in English. As an Anthropologist (even if just in my mind and on my undergraduate diploma), working at an international school should be fun and I am excited about that.  

Only 5 more months of work and 6 more months in the United States and I'll be there.

Year 2010

2 days left and its the end of another here. Though I had a VERY bumpy start, after having cried on new year itself, I wasn't expecting anything better, but the year is coming to end in the BEST way possible. New class, new friends, exams gone well.Everything is just perfect right now.Loving every bit of my life.When I think and look back, I will never forget,having my first sip of beer( naturally, everything else followed..:P)my first time bowling,I beat my boyfriend!:) it was the only time, as usual I sucked at it every other time,beginner's luck does exit,organizing first "SUPRISE" birthday party,the cutest birthday cake..:):):) and the mask to make me feel like a birthday princess :) love you guys so much!,5 continuous exams(phew!!!) and clearing all of them(*full happy*),chennai,getting drunk and singing loudly,sleepovers-sitting on terrace, middle of the night playing uno,cooking and eating at 2 p.m. and all the rolling with laughter at stupid jokes till stomach hurts!laughing my ass out in library whole day, on the previous day of exam,start of this BLOG! Overall a memorable year.

hoping for a even more fun year ahead,
wishing you all a very HAPPY NEW YEAR.
CHEERS!!