Week 6B: Midterm Course Evaluation

I'm really enjoying this class where it has gone and where it is going. It has been engaging and challenging, and most of all it is raising questions about gender and sexuality that don't necessarily have answers. It is refreshing to delve into a course subject without the assumption that there is a definite answer if only we looked to scholarly journals for the answer. Instead it has been more of a journey that as a class we are taking together and exploring it's space. Moreover, I'm all kinds of excited for the disability unit we're doing. It brings a whole new world of questions and exploring that I didn't anticipate.

I like this class. I like our discussions. I really liked Waist High in the World, and though it may not have up-front connections to gen/sex, they're definitely there. I'm really really really looking forward to Kate Bornstein. The more I find out, the more excited I am. It took me a few minutes too long in class Tuesday to realizes that I needed to stop looking at My Gender Workbook and start paying attention to the lecture again.

I also like that we're getting to know each other a little better than we might in another class. Doing the name thing and having the (sort of) personal aspects to our papers makes me feel more like I know who I'm talking to (if that makes sense) which is kind of important because this is the kind of class that deals with personal, touchy subjects.

This class has been really interesting so far and personally successful because I've learned a lot about myself. I think that my favorite part about this class is that the readings and discussions we have inspire me to research the subjects of gender and sexuality in all aspects of life. I think I have definitely benefited from learning about gender and considering various realities of gender meaning. My favorite part about the in class time is our discussions and the online follow-up. I agree with what some other people have expressed, I also think that we don't always get to talk about every subject thoroughly.  I'm not sure if this is just because the class time isn't very long or maybe it's simply the nature of the class. I would like to hear more personal perspectives and stories about our readings and other subject matter.  I really have no idea how other people are redefining themselves and/or their perspectives on gender and sexuality, I mostly hear analysis of the readings that are assigned. I'm not afraid of debate, defensiveness, offensiveness, disagreement... etc. It seems to me like everyone agrees about most main ideas but I want to know what people disagree on about gender and sexuality because that’s how we challenge each other.
I also really like all the images, videos, and other multi-media sharing that everyone is participating in online.
I think the rest of the syllaship looks great and I'm very excited for the rest of the semester. I already love the "waist-high in the world" and "gender workbook".

All I have to say is everyone KEEP TALKING and keep thinking 'active experience.'

Often in discussions with my friends I mention some reading, a class, or various other topics that pose the question, "what class is that for?" to which I respond gensex, which almost undoubtedly is followed by "oh, do you like that class?"  I find that I give different answers a lot of the time.  It is never yes or no and the answer probably takes longer than an average person would like to know.  By now you all probably know about my constant battle between my ideals (on life, but more specifically here, education) and reality. Usually my answer is "Yes, but..." which as I recall Anne gave my csem class last a year a hard time about that phrase.  I think that my reponse always has a but in it because it is the class that is closest to my ideas of education, but the fact that it still doesn't quite reach them makes it even more disappointing than the classes that I have accepted as never reaching my ideals.  We always seem like we are just there in every discussion and action.  We get onto a topic that is intriguing and controversial, and I get excited.  But we never quite make it to the level that I think we will.  And I leave feeling unsatisfied and wondering what umpf will cause me to be satisfied (or if such satisfaction is possible).

I am excited about what we have planned for the rest of the course, but also have that same feeling of we are wandering about on the surface of something spectacular.  I ordered all the books and they look interesting.  I go into every book and every class with the state of mind that today we will reach excellence.  But somewhere into the book and somewhere into the class, I realize it won't be this book that achieves excellence and it won't be this class that achieves it either.  And my mood (and facial expressions probably) visably change.  We so close though.  So, again, I challenge us to be reckless, offensive, and offended.  Let's achieve my crazy-Courtney-world-of-ideal-excellence.

Hmm... I can see why others might be saying that they don't think midterm feedback is necessary, especially right after doing so much meta-thinking about the second half of the course, but I do think it is an important thing to do in classes, and I wish more professors did it! I think it's probably a sign that things are going well if we do not feel like we need to give feedback because we already have so many opportunities to do so!

What I see as working for the class in general: most of the class seems to get engaged in most of the discussions, which I see as a result of having created a good classroom community; my own personal lack of participation in class discussions is more a function of my own tendency to have a harder time thinking "out loud" than processing internally or through writing than it is about feeling uncomfortable or unable to express my ideas in this particular class. I know that if I want to say something, I will have the space, and that is not always the case in my classes--so I think that is working well, and I appreciate it. This is one of the classes where I'm least likely to notice we've reached the end of the class period when we do because I always feel engaged in what's going on, and we switch things up so much with group work, etc. (which I seem to do better with than the larger discussions for some reason).

I also thought that our process for designing the second half of the class went well. It felt like a very democratic process, and compared to the other two times I've done this in Anne's classes, I think we did a good job of bringing different needs and interests to the table and making sure that we had the chance to discuss, revise, and truly construct our syllaship while consistently getting feedback from our professors and each other. While we do have a lot of different topics on this list, I don't see that as a bad thing; I think it will be good for us to get tastes of many different areas, and with more topics, there is a greater chance that we'll all encounter at least one thing that we haven't studied in great depth before.

I am looking forward to Kate Bornstein's performance (I may or may not be able to attend the morning talk since I technically have class), as well as to the other visitors who will be coming to class. I am glad that at least a couple of the guests will be invited as members of the class discussion rather than as presenters.

I am a little torn about how I feel the course forum is working. I really like having the online space (especially since I tend to feel more comfortable expressing my thoughts through writing), but I suppose I'm still trying to figure out a posting rhythm that works for how I think about and process things and still have my posts fit into the thread of discussion. I'm not sure why, but I feel a little less engaged in the online aspect of this class than I did in the other classes I took with Anne.

For the final project, I like the idea of leaving it pretty open-ended. I feel like we all have different ideas of what we want and can get out of this class, the formats that we want to explore, areas that interest us the most, etc. At the same time, though, I think that we should consider making it a goal to try and grapple with something we have identified as challenging for us individually but that we would like to work at (such as becoming involved in activism, looking at something from a particular perspective, writing in a more experimental way, etc.).

Overall, I think that this class has been great so far. I've learned a lot and had the chance to become familiar with perspectives in which I am not as well-versed (ie. science and social science) as well as to push my thinking in the humanities-based context that I am coming from. I think we have a good classroom community going, and that the feedback that we do not need to be giving feedback at this point is a sign that we are doing well with communicating our needs and thoughts. As others have said, I have a lot of faith in this class and those who are a part of it as we start sailing our new syllaship!

so i don't want to sound like a broken record,

but i have to agree,

that a mid-term evaluation

seems like a waste to me.

now normally i would say that

a mid-term evaluation would be great

but i think we reflect our opinions

in many different ways.

i for one, think the class is cake.

seven layers of what we call

gender and sex.

but the icing on top is what i have to say

is the question that i like the most.

"why?"

and i truly believe

that we still don't know,

but we find joy as a class exploring our

faulty hypotheses.

what can i say about this class?

i think it is a perfect example of what we are going through

to find what we want:

- ---a crazy but concrete idea----

 this image was taken from: pinkcakebox.deviantart.com/

This pic reminded me of autumn...and gen/sex! so i thought id include it: linkkkkkk

I agree with skindeep. It seems odd to have a mid-term evaluation because every class I feel like we do some sort of check-in on how everything is going...whether it's discussing talking on the forum, or ways to interact in class, what we thought of the material, etc. 

But, if we are going to do this mid-term evaluation, I guess I would say the following things:

1. i really enjoy the class not only because of the topics we discuss but the WAY we discuss them. i like that we tend to get "off-task" and end up talking about really abstract and theoretical ideas. like the time when we got into that whole discussion about the dream world and reality...craziness! i loved it.

2. i feel like everyone is beginning to talk more in class (myself included...i think! :/ ) because we are all more comfortable speaking our minds and are not as worried about sounding dumb and whatnot. that said, i am enjoying our small break out groups in that i get to hear more of people's opinions and sometimes people i don't usually hear from as much. 

3. the final project: i think it only makes sense to have a final project that is not structured and very much caters to your own interests. im liking the non-textual project ideas and the ones based on experiences in the "real" world (i always feel strange saying that for some reason...) with issues of gender and sexuality. 

Ok thats about it. I too hope everyone is having a wonderful fall break, even though it is already almost the end! 

I am really feeling Em Bock's enthusiasm. I think the best/simplest way to describe it would be to say that above ALL i have FAITH in this class. I believe that we as a group (with some superb direction, of course) have continuously been able to pull it together and pull off things that would have never worked in other classes. We're created order out of a chaos of generative but seemingly uncooperative ideas.

I feel optimistic about the material on our new syllabus. 

I feel that my classmates ideas are (uniquely) useful and compel me to think and actually produce some sort of sparks in that head of mine. Trust me, when I say that is NOT an easy thing to have in any given classroom.

The only concern I have is the final FINAL project which is still in its sketchbook stages. But then again, I do have faith.

that.

is!

all?