Posted by Krystyna Hunt in
2
comments
I am starting to get over the culture shock. I still feel out of place here, but I am getting used to the feeling. I have had some good conversations with some good counsellors and it's nice to know that people understand. I tried to get an adult learning credit in the Writing for Newspapers 2 course because I know how to do it. I am well along in that knowledge.
However, besides it costing me $85 to get assessed for an experience-as-knowledge credit I would have to submit three published, paid-for articles for each of the genres of newspaper writing we are being taught in this course. I could do that for the profile writing, and the feature writing, and the editorial writing, but there is no way I could do that for the sports writing. There is no way I have ever done sports writing. I am willing to bet plenty of career journalists have never written a sports story in their lives. But unless I can produce three professionally-published ones my previously professionally published articles are not enough to make me count as professional enough to not have to take this course.
Prof Kate of the Writing for Newspapers 2 class sympathizes with me. She thinks my abilities are well beyond what she teaches in the course. She consistently gives me A's and tells me she hates to stop reading my stories. However, she's a part-timer and doesn't have much say in how credits are offered. I feel sad for Prof Kate. She worked for 25 years for a major newspaper and was laid off last year as newspapers everywhere are tossing employees overboard to survive dwindling readership. She seems depressed. She has mentioned that she had no idea she would end up doing this (teaching us) in a "how the hell did I end up here?" tone of voice.
There will be no faculty strike. The latest vote came in 51% for a strike which is not enough of a mandate for the union to take a chance on actually calling the strike. Apparently out of 20 colleges, 10 really wanted the strike, 10 didn't. So would that have meant civil war? Anyway, it hasn't come to that although I imagine the 10 who did want the strike are not very happy with the outcome.
My newspaper writing work on the college newspaper has ended and now we begin work on an ezine. The newspaper's editor prof has been trying to encourage me to sell ideas to the local newspapers because he tells me I come up with good ideas. But I still have too much PTSD from my last memories of trying to sell ideas to newspapers and have not taken him up on his encouragement.
The ezine has to be made by group of four again and this time I am happy to have got in with a good group. Joanne from last semester is in this group and she is a firecracker of a doer. Also a nice young woman named Sherry. Sherry is that rare kind of individual who is just over-all friendly. She has never seemed to notice my age and has always treated me like a pal and no different from her. If she has noticed my age she doesn't show it, whereas her good friend Nadia, who is also in the group, has. Around me Nadia acts like a child who would rather not have her parent standing around talking to her.
We have decided to focus on a food-as-nutrition magazine and came up with the name, Food for Thought, as the ezine's name. We each take some role of authority on this ezine and I am doing artistic design. I think it will go well.
Now with only five weeks left in the first year I have to start worrying about finding a job for the four months between the start of next year.
However, besides it costing me $85 to get assessed for an experience-as-knowledge credit I would have to submit three published, paid-for articles for each of the genres of newspaper writing we are being taught in this course. I could do that for the profile writing, and the feature writing, and the editorial writing, but there is no way I could do that for the sports writing. There is no way I have ever done sports writing. I am willing to bet plenty of career journalists have never written a sports story in their lives. But unless I can produce three professionally-published ones my previously professionally published articles are not enough to make me count as professional enough to not have to take this course.
Prof Kate of the Writing for Newspapers 2 class sympathizes with me. She thinks my abilities are well beyond what she teaches in the course. She consistently gives me A's and tells me she hates to stop reading my stories. However, she's a part-timer and doesn't have much say in how credits are offered. I feel sad for Prof Kate. She worked for 25 years for a major newspaper and was laid off last year as newspapers everywhere are tossing employees overboard to survive dwindling readership. She seems depressed. She has mentioned that she had no idea she would end up doing this (teaching us) in a "how the hell did I end up here?" tone of voice.
There will be no faculty strike. The latest vote came in 51% for a strike which is not enough of a mandate for the union to take a chance on actually calling the strike. Apparently out of 20 colleges, 10 really wanted the strike, 10 didn't. So would that have meant civil war? Anyway, it hasn't come to that although I imagine the 10 who did want the strike are not very happy with the outcome.
My newspaper writing work on the college newspaper has ended and now we begin work on an ezine. The newspaper's editor prof has been trying to encourage me to sell ideas to the local newspapers because he tells me I come up with good ideas. But I still have too much PTSD from my last memories of trying to sell ideas to newspapers and have not taken him up on his encouragement.
The ezine has to be made by group of four again and this time I am happy to have got in with a good group. Joanne from last semester is in this group and she is a firecracker of a doer. Also a nice young woman named Sherry. Sherry is that rare kind of individual who is just over-all friendly. She has never seemed to notice my age and has always treated me like a pal and no different from her. If she has noticed my age she doesn't show it, whereas her good friend Nadia, who is also in the group, has. Around me Nadia acts like a child who would rather not have her parent standing around talking to her.
We have decided to focus on a food-as-nutrition magazine and came up with the name, Food for Thought, as the ezine's name. We each take some role of authority on this ezine and I am doing artistic design. I think it will go well.
Now with only five weeks left in the first year I have to start worrying about finding a job for the four months between the start of next year.
