Taking Responsibility

Today in our ethics class we learned the importance of taking responsibility for how our actions are interpreted. This afternoon, I had the opportunity to do just that.

Those of you who are regular readers know about how I struggle keeping up with the engineers in the quantitative courses. In today's Integrated Thinking Practicum class, when I was faced with this:

a = a6 + a3b36 + a4b46 + a5b56 + a4b45b56

and words like 'multicolinearity'.

I panicked and began downloading old lecture notes and googling in order to keep up with our mathematician professor (who is not at all patient with those who see gibberish where he sees mathematical beauty). And then I made a fatal mistake - I messaged a friend. One that I knew would be honest about whether I was WAY off track in my misunderstanding. Well, she said something funny, I smirked and got caught with my pants down.

All of the sudden, "Megan, can you explain to me why you wouldn't want to use this regression for prediction x4 = a4 + b14x1 + b24x2 + E?"

In my head, "this is just like highschool algebra when Mr.Graham said I had no hope of ever mastering algebra - think brain! THINK!" But my brain went completely blank. Honestly, it was blank from the start. I had NO IDEA.

The worst thing was it was clear that he thought I was just fooling around.

At first I was furious - especially as more and more non-engineering students came up to me to say that they too had been quite confused.

Now, I accept that it was wrong to use messenger in class. Lesson learned.

A lot of students haven't been thrilled with the class, but as I put in my evaluation of the course, I can see a lot of value in this material and I have gotten out more than I was expecting, that being said - regardless of hours spent on homework and high grades on the assignments, clearly I am getting a low grade in class participation.

Sigh - another B+?

Besides compensation, what are other benefits that an employee will be looking for?

This was the question that was posed in Accounting class. In an attempt to raise the bar on class participation, I attempted to use an example from my advertising agency world. Well, I got interrupted and ended up looking like a total airhead.

Me: "In my previous job, the environment was a lot of fun..."
Prof: "OK" (starts to gesture to the next person
Me: "... because there were a lot of young people and parties...
Prof: "So you like parties" (smirk, and gesture to the next person)
FAIL

If I had my act together, I would have said,
Me: "The company culture makes a big difference. For example, when I worked in advertising, I was surrounded by young, like minded individuals, like myself. Overall it was a fun environment."
Prof: "Megan, that was really insightful" (ok, he never would have said that, but there wouldn't have been a smirk)

Class Participation

Class participation is a thorn in my side.

I try to be insightful. I try to add a different perspective on the topics we are discussing. I never need to be prodded into contributing to class. No one has ever accused me of being annoying or vapid in my responses (believe me, I've asked). Participation is the one area that I believe I should be getting an A (perhaps, dare I say, an A+).

Yet, I am resigned to being only marginally better than those who speak MAYBE once per term - if at all.

Class participation is the one area where I feel that we do not receive adequate feedback (or feedback of any kind). Being able to contribute to a conversation is a skill that I would like to hone.

It is clear to me that an above average effort is not enough to get that A+ result.

Why is there no tutorial on participation and/or constructing an argument on the fly?