textbook-blog

[textbook-blog]

blog-13

This week my supervisor and I held our meeting via Skype. It was an incredibly busy week for me, so I'm very appreciative that he was willing to work with my schedule. We discussed some more of the chapters I've edited so far, as what I'm now editing is completely unreviewed. He had gone back and edited about half the book before this internship began, but now I have passed what he finished. With that in mind, I'm trying to be extra attentive and doing my best to ensure the textbook is legible and as close to perfect as possible. I received some commentary for my edit on his grant proposal. It was a Google doc shared with a few other teachers from his department, so I was worried about making unimportant or useless comments, but he told me I gave some very useful feedback. I will definitely be writing grant proposals in the future, so I think it was really good that I got the chance to see a little bit about how it's done. One of the reasons I was so busy this week is because I was in Tallahassee visiting their Classics department. I got the chance to sit down and ask a number of their professors some questions, like what they thought a student entering the program I'm applying for should acquire as a skillset. Other than language proficiency, they all said it's very important to have an overall basis of how the classical world worked and its history. When I told them about this textbook I'm editing as an internship, they all thought that sounded like an ideal way to form a strong base of knowledge about antiquity. That reassured me that this internship is very beneficial not just to my application, but also to my career as a whole.

[textbook-blog]

blog-12

This week I was a little slow on my internship duties, but I have been assigned more, so that’s what I’ll talk about here.

As I’ve mentioned before, my supervisor (professor Lake) has a trip coming up this Spring to Athens for a week. It’s something I’d very much like to be a part of, but they do not award the scholarships which make it affordable to non-degree seeking students. I graduate in Spring, so I can’t just say I’m seeking a degree of some sort for the sake of the trip, but Dr. Lake is having me edit his grant proposal (around 20k words) which makes the trip affordable for other students. 

This works well, since I have been working very slowly on the current chapter of the textbook (9), so I can make up some of my lost hours here. It has been very busy, with college applications and finals due. I’m glad he has been so accommodating, as I want to make sure I can get into a graduate-level program. This internship is hopefully indicative of how graduate-level professors will treat me.

I’m excited I get to learn about grant proposals and what goes into writing them. It’s something I’m sure I will have to do in the future for when I become a professor. Also, if it is successful, it will look great on my application that I edited a successful grant proposal, and hopefully help get me into some good summer programs while I attend graduate school.

This is one of our last weeks of meeting in person for the internship, as Thanksgiving and travels are coming up. I go to Tallahassee to visit their classics department, which is my ideal school for graduate studies. I’m not likely to get in based on qualifications, so I hope I leave a decent impression on them.

[textbook-blog]

blog-11

This week at my internship my supervisor and I reviewed more of my editing so far. He has been having trouble viewing my edits recently, and was only able to see the overviews, which are what I usually provide here. I explained to him why my comments might not be appearing on his screen, so hopefully the issue is resolved. He sent me an email before we met this week explaining the issue, so I was able to make a couple images which show exactly how to view the comments I make, which I will provide here (if I can figure tumblr out).

Overall, he is very happy with the things I have been pointing out for him. We went over some of the major issues briefly, then got in to talking about graduate school again. He has been very helpful in that area. He very kindly offered to review my personal statement, which I will be rewriting, as my first draft was a very rough first attempt at writing a letter of intent. A big part of this internship’s purpose is to look good on my application, and I didn’t even mention it, so I will definitely have to do some revising. 

here is my review of section 9.2 (I’ll have more next week):

This was a nice, easy read. Perhaps over generalizing, but not in a bad way. Despite this time period’s activity concerning the expansion and elimination of borders, there is not a lot that can be written to describe it without becoming repetitive. So I think it is very well done. Just consider the idea of adding in more detail if you would like. The concepts were all very easy to understand and follow. The main issue I highlighted this section has to do with the past-perfect tense you were telling me about the other day- I kept a sharper eye out for it- you don’t need to take the correction at face value every time, but I pointed it out to you to make the choice if you would rather it just be in the past tense.

[textbook-blog]

blog-10

Here are my reviews for the end of chapter eight and beginning of nine

8.4: This section was a really fun read. It definitely displays Old Comedy in a really positive light. However, the section’s organization and final conclusions could use some work. Other than its repetitiveness, you should double check that this chapter’s content reinforced all the points you hoped you’d made. For the most part you did: you showcased the Athenian mistakes, but did you show this?[elites could] not impact public policy for the good, or did not care enough to get involved, or were themselves fooled into going along for the rideThere are a couple more examples of this, but just ensure you said everything you wanted to say in this chapter, as it covers a highly complex topic.About student interaction: this chapter had no key terms, figures, chronology, or anything like that. I know it’s because this section was mainly a primary source, but you should consider adding some anyway, as this is the first section which lacks that type of interaction.

9.1: This section needs a little more work. I thought there were some notable omissions of things I find to be historically significant, but the larger issue lies in the formatting and organization. Other than a few graphical issues, there are major issues with the student feedback, like missing terms, unused key dates, and a quiz with an unanswerable question. Other than that, the section is an easy read, which gives a decent overview of Alexanders career, though made very, very brief. I understand the difficulty, though, as he is a very difficult character to paint to the intro student. I would recommend utilizing some online resources here, too. 

I’m still working on improving my efficiency, but my main concern is quality. I want to be providing as much useful feedback as possible, while not filling it up with irrelevant, minute mistakes. 

Instead of Wednesday we met Friday (today) this week. It was nice because I got to work from home a bit, but we still reviewed our work for the week, in addition to talking a bit more about graduate school. I plan on writing my letter of intent this week and giving it to him as a first draft to look over. This internship has been greatly beneficial at forming a professional bond with me and my professor.

[textbook-blog]

blog-9

here is my summary for sections 8.1-8.3

8.1:  Easy-read. Very good section with only small errors here and there about fluency, consistency, and word choice. Biggest issue was the usage of pictures; this section had a lot of images which interrupted the text and often failed to convey any new information.

8.2:  Good section with only small errors here and there, mainly spelling. Be careful not to make any overreaching statements, but this is a very good overview of the 2nd Peloponnesian war. Perhaps could use more student engagement, as this chapter is lacking in that department a bit, but what it does have is very good

8.3:  Good section with good usage of primary sources. Formatting had some major errors, which were pointed out when I noticed. Other than that, not a terribly difficult read, but a little lengthy. Could do with a little more commentary on what is being read, or critical thinking question to make readers think about what it is they’re finding.

Hopefully I will have these more consistently as the semester goes on. These are the sections I worked on this week for my internship. I will continue to update this as the weeks go on, ideally with a more linear path.

[textbook-blog]

blog-8

This week at my internship I resumed dressing up and coming in early in the morning. As I mentioned in my post last week, this week was really hectic; I had a presentation and midterm due in one class I only had five and seven days to come up with, respectively. So I worked on the midterm a bit while I was there, along with the book.

This upcoming week I plan on catching up on lost time on the book, and getting a couple chapters done ahead of time so I won’t have to worry about that again. We will go over my notes again in some time so he can understand my thoughts and perspective on the book so far. 

We also went over the meeting I had with Dr. Hanson about making higher quality videos for his classes. He seemed enthusiastic about the information I gathered. It is still a project very early in its development, but something I am very interested in making and making look good. It would be a form of public history which would look great for my resume as well as be an incredibly valuable piece of content for anyone interested in learning about the classics.

[textbook-blog]

blog-7

This week has been a little hectic. I haven't been able to put my best work into the textbook, and I'm afraid it will show. After midterms finish, I hope to make up for lost time and making the next two chapters look great. Additionally, I didn't realize the midterm for the internship was due this week, so I missed an opportunity to bring him that sheet on wednesday, the day we meet on. He said he would send it by the end of the night but I haven't gotten yet. He actually just sent it about twenty minutes ago, but I haven’t received it yet for some reason. I really hope I get it before the end of the night, as I don’t want 25 points taken off, especially when, if I had paid more attention, it wouldn’t be a rush to get the form in. During our meeting we discussed the meeting I set up with Dr. Hanson for Tuesday, and I gathered whatever questions he had. I hope we can turn that into a successful project for next semester. I’m really interested in making a good, enjoyable video series for either Latin or Classical history. Additionally, we went over some of the major points from the textbook I've been noticing, which we've been meaning to do for awhile. My main points were: - Consistent typos/misspellings - Better formatting and more consistency · especially with the organization for the use of primary sources - errors or misleading questions in the quizzes and critical thinking questions I think he is happy with my feedback overall so far, but I still want to improve and contribute to this textbook as much as possible. After this next week, I plan on catching up on my lost sections and ensuring the work looks good. I’ve been asked to give more thought as to what I want to do in graduate school, and it’s a hard question to answer. Really, I’d like everyone to understand the value in learning about history, of course I would like to display that with the ancients, but it’s hard to say one specific thing I would like to achieve by the end of my educational career.

[textbook-blog]

blog-6

I have to admit I have sort of been lagging behind the past couple weeks. I hope to catch up on my editing soon, but I have still been going to campus every Wednesday to fulfill my hour requirements. I just quit my day job in order to free up more time for this internship, as I would like to ensure the quality of my editing is at its highest.

Without further delay, here is the singular section I have ready to be shown here today. I will try to make up for it next week, but my last shift isn’t until two weeks from now. 7.2: This section took some time to read and finish the exercises. I like the conclusions portion at the end. In previous chapters, I could feel that they lacked that type of summarization. The key areas of focus for this chapter should be on formatting. There were some general small mistakes and typos, but the text needs to be reformatted in order to fit the organization of the information. The organization, however, is very well put together for this section. It was easy to follow, and got its main points across very well.

This past Wednesday, however, was very productive. Again, I mainly worked on the editing (this section was rather long), and did Latin and Greek with Dr. Lake afterwards. We made some conversation and he mentioned he doesn’t think its totally out of the question that there may have been some more advanced societies here before us. It sounded rather outlandish, but I think its good he keeps an open mind to all types of evidence, and the way he described it, it didn’t sound horribly implausible. The big point I drew from it is that we should never be totally solid in our beliefs, even if they totally dismiss centuries of research, because we could always be wrong.

Further, I brought up the youtube channel Historia Civilis again to him, trying to convince him to watch some videos. I suggested he might find some inspiration he could apply to his screencasts he uses for Latin and other classes. He was very enthusiastic about this idea. I also told him about Dr. Hanson at UCF and how he does his videos, which he also liked. I plan on reaching out to Dr. Hanson to see if he has any advice about upping the quality of future screencasts.

[textbook-blog]

blog-5

Here is my take on 7.1; 7.2 is not done yet:

This was one of the easiest sections to read and edit. It’s all generally sensible and is organized very well. The only issues I pointed out were very minor and usually to do with typos or general sentence fluency. The critical thinking questions were also notable very good and thought provoking, it’s nice when they try to make you relate the reading to modern day. The quiz was also perfect. This could be seen as a model section, but its length is a little lacking, and the geography terms are mainly not in this section.

This chapter has been really easy to read so far, and I’m really enjoying it. The major issues I have been pointing out are actually very minor; mainly small typos and some sentence fluency suggestions. I am trying to recommend the youtube channel Historia Civilis to him since it is very useful for introductory students, who this book is aimed towards. 

On my day I actually went in, I caught up on the sections I didn’t edit last week and did a lot of Latin and Greek. That’s all I did, as I didn’t really have time to go to his Greek and Roman class, but hopefully I will next week. Afterwards, we did our Greek and Latin lessons. I just now learned the subjunctive mood, and I’m getting indirect statement down, as well. Once I start editing the Latin textbook, I hope I get a lot better at the languages and it will help me become as close to a native-speaker as possible.

[textbook-blog]

blog-4

Here is my review of chapter 6.1 and 6.2, I’m still working on section 3. 

- This section seems like it should be added to another section- like the intro- or into another one of the subsequent sections. It is rather short and gives very general information. For instance, when introducing Romulus, I think it would be important to make some mention of their mythical upbringing. The student response portion is a little off, because you give no descriptions about 5/7 of the kings. Do you want students to come back to this and finish it later? There’s no instructions so it’s unclear. This section serves a better purpose to give a general context surrounding some of Rome’s offices. I’m excited to read the next sections to see how they tie together.

- This section should be combined with the previous one. They go well together, and the previous one lacks sources, while this one lacks commentary. This section absolutely needs some highlighting from you to draw attention to the more important parts of the source. Otherwise, this section utilizes primary sources very well. The Critical Thinking responses should be a bit larger in number, and the existing ones should ask their questions more clearly. One good question to ask would be asking the students to characterize the kings, one by one, in their own words- you did this, I think, in the last section, but there were no instructions and over half the kings weren’t mentioned in that section. They were in this one.

This week I continued going to Valencia’s East campus, as well. Again, I mainly edited the textbook there and did work for Latin and Greek. He will be assigning an additional textbook later in the semester on Latin. I also offered my services to their language lab, and was supposed to meet with some students to tutor today on campus, but they cancelled last minute. I hope I can work my way into getting a job there, eventually. 

I attended one of his classes, an intro to humanities; it was an interesting class, and afterward we went over some of the textbook. Unfortunately, he had a meeting later that day, so we couldn’t go over Latin or Greek afterwards, so I edited the textbook some more, went to the language lab again (to schedule the details of the students I would be tutoring), then left. Once I finish 6.3, by Sunday, I will send him the email containing the full chapter’s edits. Next week, I look forward to attending one of his Latin and Greek courses. I still need to find out when his trips to museums are.

[textbook-blog]

blog-3

My sections for this have been rather lengthy, so I only have one complete so far- here is my take on it:

This was one of the lengthiest sections, but probably the best utilization of primary source. I wonder if in that first section when you describe sources briefly, if it would be worth giving a brief overview of the main sources of the ancient world, or at least the best ones of this book. Reading Plutarch usually comes with a bit of forewarning, since some believe he is less than reliable, though I always enjoy his works.

The main issue with this section is the formatting, but it’s a pretty minor issue. Just place the quizzes and photos in their best positions, make sure they’re relevant. Well, the other biggest issue, that is recurring throughout each chapter, is the formatting of your primary sources. It must be clear each time you use one that you are using one. Students will get confused and think the source’s text is over when it isn’t, or think they’re reading one when it’s actually your writing.

The end of this section needs a bit more commentary to make sense of the primary source. Just a small paragraph describing Plutarch’s work, possibly mentioning who Lykourgos’ comparative Life was. This was definitely one of my favorite sections so far. I think a little more could be done on the critical thinking questions, but the quizzes were all generally great this section. Or possibly give a little more context as to what an extremity Sparta was in comparison with the rest of the ancient Greece.--

This week was also the first week I actually went on campus to do proper intern type things. I went and bought nice clothes so I would look official and proper. It worked out because I ended up meeting the dean to go over some of my responsibilities and what exactly I will be helping my professor with. I also spoke with a member of their language lab and hopefully I’ll be helping tutor some students in Latin, which will definitely help me refine that skill.

For the most part I spent my day doing what I normally do: edit for the good part of the day, take a look at a few of my other projects, and then go over my Latin/Greek translations for the week. I also took the opportunity to check out and familiarize myself a bit with the campus. Next week I look forward to actually attending some of his classes and hopefully taking a look at some more of his projects he has in the works. Since this was my first week of attendance, he didn’t have much of a plan for me, but next week will be much more active I’m sure.

[textbook-blog]

blog-2

Here are my overviews for most of the sections I edited this week:

4.1:  Only a few minor errors here and there with spelling or fluency. The section is a little unpolished, and I think it would serve better as an extension to the intro for this chapter, which was rather short. It also answers a couple of the critical thinking questions from last chapter. I think a little more could be done in the explanatory paragraphs for the listed reasons to introduce why or how some of these changes were so important and how else they impact modern life.

4.2:  This section needs a bit of work reformatting and adding a bit more commentary to make sense of the primary sources provided. There should be more student feedback required, as well. There is a lot of valuable content here, it just needs to be organized a little better. Perhaps this section could merge with one of its neighboring sections, as the previous two were rather short and in need of some supportive primary source material, which this section does not lack. This section definitely took longer to read and edit.

4.3: This chapter needs some formatting changes to link the ideas being presented a little better, but the student engagement was very good. There are sometimes some big breaks between text with the amount of pictures being shown, but the pictures are vital to the ideas being taught in this chapter. Consider reorganizing the order a bit, and ensuring the formatting all looks good if you do. This section and its quizzes took me just about an hour to finish.

4.4: Another short section which for me is really nice. This one only needs some minor formatting/grammar changes, but overall was very easy to read, only took me about 20-30 minutes. It seems like you want to link some of these sections together but maybe didn’t have time for it, so I would suggest taking the time to do that, and look for (or ask me to look) repeated information and inconsistencies to ensure the merging is more smooth.

4.5: This section has some valuable primary source material, but it may be hard for the intro students to make sense of all of it. This is also the second section in a row with no quiz, so I hope the next one has one. The student engagement in the past two sections has been a little less than usual. There still needs to be a clear distinction between when you are writing and when you are using primary source material.

4.6:  This section was very readable and got its ideas across very well. I pointed out some of the formatting and fluency issues, which can be applied to every section I’ve read so far. I also pointed out a few problems or questions some intro students might have while reading this section. I think the individual tyrants you mention could be expanded on a bit, as students might not get the idea that initially, tyrants could be a very good thing. A primary source showing this idea would do this section a lot of good. A quiz probably should be added, as the last three haven’t had one.

I haven’t gotten to section 7 yet, but this week’s chapter had an unusually high amount of sections. Some of them should definitely be merged together, which I noted while I was reading. I’m glad to be getting toward the more interesting parts of Greek history, and soon Roman, too.

[textbook-blog]

Blog Week 1

The previous section (3.1) gave a good overview of Greece’s Dark Age and the small amount of knowledge we have from it. I found and highlighted some typographical errors, along with some formatting issues. One of the biggest inconsistencies that has frustrated me so far is the implementation of primary sources. Other than the header indicating that a primary source is about to be referenced, the text itself is given no indication that it is not commentary, but an actually document. I noted in the comments this issue, and I continue to note it, as it is very important for introductory students to have this difference pointed out, for comprehension purposes and so they will know how to do it in the future. This section overall was very short, but that’s understandable considering the topic it’s covering. 

This section (3.2) was rather long-winded. There’s a lot of information you’re trying to convey. You might do better to provide an infographic or family tree somewhere in one of the white spaces, but the biggest issue I found is the formatting this section. The primary source was a very good reading for students, but it was broken up a little awkwardly with the exercises and quizzes. I also think there should have been more commentary to help the students make sense of what they were reading, so consider adding that in, but this section is already packed full of content, especially compared to the last section. Consider shuffling some content from this one into the previous or next chapter.

The quizzes for this chapter also definitely need some work, as noted by my comments. I got multiple 0%s after they didn’t count my answers as correct, they didn’t have a correct an answer, or the question was a written response with only one specific answer. Multiple choice questions should be implemented, as they have in past chapters, which I also indicated in my comments.

So far I’ve learned a lot about Greek heroes and their origins. Understanding the stories behind them, especially through primary sources, helps me immensely in my progress toward becoming a historian, especially one who focuses on ancient history. This is all completely aside from how much editing is helping me in my progress. The critical thinking portions are incredibly helpful in making me engage in the text and think about what information is being presented to me. However, their placements should be thought over a little further, as they sometimes interrupt the text at inappropriate times.

I’m enjoying reading through the book, and I love its goal of making this type of history more accessible and understandable to the layman. I can already feel myself getting better at finding issues and inconsistencies, and I like providing alternative phrases when I find the word choice or fluency is off.