Long time no see!

 I can't believe I haven't written here in almost a year! I'm supposed to be a writer (for the next little while anyway) so I decided it's time to bring this blog back to the land of the living.  

Fourth year has finally arrived and the end of my journalistic pursuit is finally in sight. What comes next I'm not entirely sure, but I can't wait to find out! Unfortunately due to some health problems that couldn't possibly have come at a more inopportune time I've decided to take a few more months and graduate in October rather than June.  But either way, the year's half over already and the Spring and Summer 2008 issues of the Ryerson Review of Journalism are starting to take shape.  Can you believe it?  It seems like just yesterday that we were little first years struggling through our first streeters and hearing rumors of the 2500 words and 40 interviews that were just three short years away. But they tell us we're professionals now and despite being PAINFULLY behind it's been a really great experience for me so far. I've gotten to meet some new people and get a chance to really get to know the rest of my classmates. I guess that's what being stuck in a computer lab with a group of people for days on end will do=).  I'm also learning the ways of Scrabulous  and other procrastinaton devices that exist to keep us sane. Though I still don't understand the appeal of Guitar Hero. 

 I was given the Director of Marketing position on the Spring masthead, which is basically Publicity Director with a little extra. Along with a great publicity team I had a hand in putting together our first RRJ fundraiser "Lies For the Liars: Old Boys to Blair and Glass," which took place at the Social November 6th and was a great success! After Christmas I'll be helping out with circulation for the magazine, the 25th anniversary special projects committee  (Oh yeah, did I mention we're the 25th year? So cool!) and finally in April, the 2008 launch party.  That'll be a good day!

I'm also still working at RyeACCESS as the Student Advocacy Coordinator.--My fourth year there too. Oh how time flies! I'm working with a great new team and we just had our second annual Disability Awareness Week, which featured events like: Deaf Culture Day, Know Your Rights: Disability in the Workplace and a Mental Health Film Festival. We're just about to put together our midterm report about how successful it was, so great! Next semester proves to be just as good, if not better. I can't wait!

 Now that you're all up-to-date I promise to visit here more often so stay tuned! I'm off to get through this week's addition to the mountain of readings assigned by Tim Falconer. 

    

  

I wrote a paper too...make me a teacher!!

So tell me, why is it that to teach Kindergarten to Grade 12 you have to go through years of teachers college and be specially approved before you're allowed to start teaching, but to teach in a University where everyone is paying $400+ to take your class you don't need any teaching experience at all? What is that about? Honestly, as far as I'm concerned, just because you've earned the title of doctor doesn't mean you can teach a class! I say this because of the number of highly underqualified professors that I've encountered this semester. One who clearly can't distinguish a University student from a Kindergarten kid, another who doesn't seem to understand that regurgitating the textbook IS NOT TEACHING and another who never has notes and can't keep her train of thought for more than five minutes!! Honestly, if you actually feel the need to let your class out more than an hour early and utter the sentence (more than once I might add) "maybe two classes on Anne of Green Gables was too ambitious", get the hell out of the classroom honey!!

It was just announced that compared to several other Canadian Universities, the number of applicants to Ryerson is greatly increasing. But the sad thing is that all those kids don't have a clue what they're getting into. A classmate of mine told me that I should make a point of checking ratemyprofessor.com before I apply to classes. Perhaps she's right, but maybe Ryerson's Master Plan should also incude revamping its teaching staff in addition to its signage!