Lumos, one more time: Magical Night Classes

[emmagrant01]

This is seriously the only complaint I have about Lumos. No, really. I loved Lumos, and I can overlook almost everything, because the people who organized it were volunteers, and I know for a fact that they worked their asses off. There was undoubtedly plenty of shit that went on behind the scenes that none of us heard about, and they still pulled it off. Good for them.

But still? I can't let this one go. And I really hate that, because I ought to be able to just shrug it off. But I can't.

I'm temporarily making this post from a couple of weeks ago public. This will make a lot more sense if you've read about my frustrations there before you proceed.

So yeah, it basically turned out just like I expected. The night classes were a farce, a "Hogwarts show", with me as a very unwilling cast member. The classes were held in the Marquis ballroom area, and everything was basically open air. I was in the central room, and my sound system didn't really work. The 120+ "students" in my class could not hear me, nor could I hear them. I did the best I could, but in the end what everything centered around was the potions class.

My apologies to mijan, who was a teacher of the class. I know it wasn't what she originally envisioned, and it turned into something she didn't plan. But that? Was the centerpeice of the "Hogwarts show". My class was interrupted over and over by that class, to the extent that I had to wait for the noise to die down to go on. I had my presentation timed, and I even had my prefect helping me keep track of time. Our classes were supposed to be 25 minutes long, but the people who rang the bells were timing it by the show being put on in the potions class, and so the actual class times ranged from 20 - 35 minutes. There was no way to tell when the "lesson" would be over. In one lesson, I stood there with nothing to do for TEN MINUTES, because the potions act hadn't finished. I pulled stuff out of my ass to do, but in the end, I felt like an idiot. I felt like an idiot the whole fucking night.

I'm a teacher. It's what I do for a living, and I'm a good at it. I thought I was signing up to design and teach an actual class back in March, not put on a show for half the attendees of Lumos. I absolutely, sincerely wish I had never submitted a proposal to the Night Classes, because in the end it was so different from what I had originally signed up for as to be unrecognizable. And at every step of the way, the Lumos staff made changes and then told the instructors after the fact. First it was 25 students per class, then it was 50. We protested, but it didn't matter They'd already made their decision. Putting on the "show" was the important thing. Then, two weeks before Lumos, they lifted the class size completely, so that we could have over 100 people in each class. I considered quitting at that point, and I honestly wish I'd just quit. We instructors complained at the time, but it didn't matter. Because in the end, what they wanted was a show, not an actual set of classes. The point was not, as the original call for proposals had been, to design classes in which people would actually learn something. The point was to be the entertainment.

And that's what they got. I wish to hell I'd never gotten involved. I'm sure someone else would have been more than happy to do just what they wanted, had they known what they wanted to begin with. It's unprofessional at best to change the parameters of an event so drastically, and to do it to volunteers. I can't imagine that sort of thing happening at a real academic conference.

If you'd like to see what I attempted to present, you can see the class notes at arithmancy101. Also check out the notes for ahistoryofmagic, because she put a ton of work into developing all of that material. I heard several people say they thought it was the best class they attended.

ETA: I just want to emphasize the point that this is entirely my issue, and probably doesn't represent the views of anyone else associated with the MNC. I don't have a personal issue with anyone in particular -- I'm just frustrated by the whole situation and the general dismissal of the instructors' concerns.

Comments

[sciencegeek.livejournal.com]

Oh, hun I'm sorry all that happened to you! I can't imagine what I'd do if it were me, besides being beside myself in anger and frustration. I kinda wonder what the organisers were thinking when they decided to make all these changes - did they honestly think they instructors wouldn't mind or something?

*snuggles*

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I think they were more concerned with doing what they thought the attendees wanted, and realized this could be a big chunk of Friday evening entertainment. And that's fine -- I would just rather not have been a part of it.

[dm-p.livejournal.com]

I would have preferred to have gone to what you had planned, it sounds like. I would much rather learn than be entertained (But I guess I'm just in the nerdy minority...silly me...)

You have every right to be angry, love. You were dumped with something that you didn't sign up for.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I guess that's what my frustration stemmed from -- that I signed up for something very different. :-P

[scarah2.livejournal.com]

Gnah. Why couldn't they just go, "Your class sounds interesting, maybe propose an academic presentation instead? Because we're more looking for someone to put on a freaky hat and cosplay what they think Vector acts like."

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Well, the thing was that way back in March, they wanted actual classes, which were supposed to be like workshops. (Kinda goes with that whole "education" thing, you know?) But over the months before Lumos, they kept changing the whole thing until it became something I really didn't want to be part of. If they'd known what they wanted in the first place, that would have been great because I wouldn't have proposed anything. I'm just frustrated at having the rug pulled out from under me.

[coffeejunkii.livejournal.com]

as someone with teaching experience, i can totally see how that would be beyond frustrating.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

So, so frustrating. :-P

[kokopoko.livejournal.com]

That sounds like it was a horrible experience.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't say horrible so much as frustrating. Really frustrating. :-P

[allysonsedai.livejournal.com]

Ohmygod. I just got queasy reading over both your entries. That is seriously my worst nightmare come true and I give you so much kudos for actually going through with it. *hugs*

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

It was a bit of a nightmare, yeah. Especially when people were gesturing that they couldn't hear me, and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. I just had to charge on and talk, knowing it was fairly pointless. :-P

[furiosity.livejournal.com]

*hugs* I'm sorry it went badly, Emma. We wanted to go and see you there on Friday but someone told us we had to sign up. :\

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I understand that part was confusing as well. :-P

[letmypidgeonsgo.livejournal.com]

wow, that's awful! major props for sticking with it though - i probably would've quit well beforehand!

i totally fear all things math-related, but i shall check out your notes!

(ooh, this may be the first time ever this icon is even relatively appropriate to the topic at hand - hooray!)

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

To an extent, I wish I had quit. I thought about it, but I didn't want to leave the MNC people in a bad spot. :-P

[stormwynd.livejournal.com]

I'm also a math teacher, and I completely empathize with the situation you were in. The fact that you honored the committment you'd made even though the terms of that committment were changed on you speaks volumes about your integrity.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

It didn't occur to me to quit in the middle, even though it was an incredibly frustrating experience. Ah, well. It could've been a really cool thing, and it just wasn't.

[krissielee.livejournal.com]

...and yet, I still managed to get that second one you showed us wrong. I have no fucking clue what I did wrong--and going back over it, I still get 198. *hugs*

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Which one?

[elevateyourmind.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to hear about this experience. It seems so strange that they would misrepresent what they wanted to the people who would be teaching--they're much less likely to get what they wanted that way, I imagine.

Even though it was a bad experience, it was good of you to stick with it, and I hope they appreciated it!

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I don't think it was a misrepresentation so much as they just changed their minds about what they wanted. Originally, it was going to be a series of workshops, which sounded like great fun to me. They just kept altering what the MNC were about, with no input from the instructors.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I just loved the original idea and thought people would really have gotten a lot out of it. I'm not sure what people got out of what we did, other than a couple of hours of entertainment.

[djin7.livejournal.com]

I didn't get to the classes. I'm kinda glad I didn't, now.

If it helps, you were not showing any signs of distress, every time I saw you, you were shiny happy. *g*

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I was shiny happy all weekend, and though this experience was frustrating, I really didn't want to let it ruin Lumos for me. I got mad about it, and then forgot about it and hung out with friends until 5:00 am. :-)

[waterbird.livejournal.com]

The classes as they were originally envisioned sound really interesting; the actual result you've described sounds like complete chaos! Really sorry to hear how disappointing and frustrating and uncomfortable it was for you.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Disappointing, frustrating, and uncomfortable are definitely good descriptions of how I felt about it. :-P

[awaywithpixie.livejournal.com]

I've actually avoided 98% of the Lumos posts (simply because I'm still bitter I had to cancel travel plans at my own expense to get there), but the overwhelming opinion is that it had many, many flaws. I know the organisers were volunteers, and they made it out to be an academic convention, but it quickly was overridden as a fan convention. Perhaps if they had stuck to their guns and continued to advertise it as an academic convention, the true educators and those wanting to be educated might have gained more out of it. Still, the lure of rabid fans with too much money is often hard to pass up. I'm actually kinda glad now that I didn't make it. The only thing I would have missed is meeting the other fans. Ah well...

[fluffenbax.livejournal.com]

i completely agree......i would have loved to learn all about arithmancy and i think that, despite being unable to teach as you wanted, you at least learned quite a bit no doubt which is the whole point i suppose....heh.....but i agree about the fan vs. academic convention....*tear*

[countryapple1x2.livejournal.com]

<3 I can see how that can be frustrating. I'm a theatre person, and like you said, it can really be oil and vinegar there, if you're not into it, you can't force it. Also I really would have LOVED (had I been at lumos probably expected,) to go to real classes and learn fun Harry Potter-esq things. Hell, I (don't kill me for this!) really don't like math. And that's mostly because I'm not all that good at it. ANYHOW I think I still would have had fun with arithmancy class, even if I couldn't DO it, because it would still be...awesome. I'm sorry it didn't go as planned, and maybe this is something that should be thought about a little bit more. Like others have said, it does show so much about what kind of person you are, that you would go through with that, despite it all. In my opinion it's a trait you need to keep a level head teaching anyhow, so I guess it means you're a good teacher too! hahaha Okay I just woke up, I'm sorry this is all rambling and such.

Oh I just read your notes, and although I'm not sitting here about to go through it and take a stab at it, and although my head kinda hurts ;-) it sounds really fun! And there's also the fact that I do better with "physical" examples of math rather than just numbers on a paper. (I took a class in high school where we got to go outside an bounce a ball to make a parabola (?) I think it was. The U/V kinda shaped things....)

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I guess it just hit a little too close to home for me to be put in a position of having to make a mockery of what I do for a living, you know? I think it would have been really cool as it was originally planned. Ah well.

[ziasudra-fic.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, I enjoyed your class :) Both yours and the Herbology one were packed with information and I actually felt like I learned something.

As I mentioned in my Lumos post, I think the one positive thing that the Night Classes provided was so that people who went to the conference alone could have something to do so they wouldn't have a night with no one to hang around with. I met a couple of friends while attending the classes and both of them were pretty much on their own the entire weekend, wandering about and attending formal programming and sticking to the schedule to the letter. They seemed glad to have something to do for the evening since neither wanted to go to the movie showing.

Of course, the execution was less than spectacular -- I wholeheartedly agree with all your observations -- and lifting the attendance cap may have been mercy for lonely attendees, but definitely not good for the teachers. I thought you handled yourself extremely well given the limited time and the huge class size.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

And if the original idea had been to put on a show for 600 people on Friday night, fine. I wouldn't have signed up for that, and someone who would have enjoyed it could have. But that wasn't the original idea, and that's what really frustrates me.

I'm glad you felt like you learned something. That actually makes me feel much better about the whole thing!

[brumeux77.livejournal.com]

I think, had I been you, I would have pulled out when the class size cap was removed. I know, had I been there, I would much rather have had the kind of class you were planning than the stage show it turned out to be. And to have all the classes in the same room is just poor planning. Bitching is well justified.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I really wish I had, because I think it would have been better all around. They could have found someone who was actually willing to do what they wanted, and I wouldn't have had to make a mockery of everything I believe about teaching. :-P

[ashe-frost.livejournal.com]

Have you thought about getting some people together and *really* doing some classes for Sectus? They're still taking proposals for events and panels. You could even try to rent out room in some sort of castle off somewhere, though I kind of doubt the practicality of that as I know nothing about how many castles are available to rent rooms to tourists or for parties and where they are in regards to London.. And, you know, since they already have space rented...

I'm crap at math and I think the Arithmancy would've been a lot of fun..

Also, there's room to do things in Charms.. A bit of an arts and crafts type thing.. Dream catchers, studies in superstitions.. Things like that.

The main thing is to make it vehemently clear what you want to do and make it clear that you don't want it to be a show, you want it to be a class.

The impression I get over there is that it's a bit more learning-based.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I'm done with this, honestly. The experience was so frustrating that I have no desire to do it again. On the upside, I have a nice little workshop that I can run for kids now on math magic. I think I'll keep teaching and fandom separate from now on.

I sympathize...

[littlesnitch.livejournal.com]

As a former con-chair, you cannot ever, ever, ever screw with your volunteers cuz they won't come back the next year. If you tell them this is what is happening, you must stick with it...you can tweak it (but going from 25 to unlimited class size and a class for education to a class for entertainment, no, that isn't a tweak). That is not how you run a good con.

If they felt that they really needed to make this level of change, they needed to announce that to all the teacher volunteers that they scope had changed and if they no longer wished to participate, please let them know...that would have been the mature way to handle it.

There is a con etiquette to be followed for the chairs, volunteers and patrons and for the most part, it sounds like this con did a pretty darn good job of it and morphed some common convention offerings (the con suite) into the common room which sounded really cool, btw.

Still, I think making your point known is good so that they can learn and when they put on the next con they won't (hopefully) make the same mistake twice.

--ls

Re: I sympathize...

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

If they felt that they really needed to make this level of change, they needed to announce that to all the teacher volunteers that they scope had changed and if they no longer wished to participate, please let them know.

Yes, good point. If they had said that this was going to be less like a set of actual workshops and more like a show, I would have said "No, thank you" and gone about my business. They probably could have found someone who could've done a much better job than me at what they really wanted.

And I'm not optimistic that anyone associated with the MNC is going to regard this as anything more than me bitching. :-P

[phoenixw.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I imagine you were frustrated. As an attendee, I mostly enjoyed the classes, and my criticisms largely centered around the physical structure of the event. Going forward, I hope that organizers learn from this and make sure to give better sound separation between the classes. Putting everyone in one large room, even with separators, simply didn't work. From your class, you were interrupted by Potions. From the Potions class, you were too loud. :-\ Not your fault! Not the fault of any of the teachers.

It's really too bad, because I thought the concept was really good. Your class size attests to how popular it was. :-)

One tiny bit of feedback on the content of your class - I was surprised that you didn't discuss magical squares (http://www.math.wichita.edu/history/topics/notheory.html#magic). Seemed to me that Arithmancy would be a perfect venue for this kind of thing. Of course you only had, what, 30 minutes? Can't cover much material in any kind of depth in that time.

I'm glad you persevered, and sorry it was such a frustrating experience.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Yes, apparently the sound system was sending my voice straight over the heads of the people in my area and all the way to the back of the ballroom -- where it did no one any good. A guy came in to try to fix it, but he just fiddled with some knobs and then disappeared, and nothing changed. It was really stunningly awful. I considered not using the mic and just shouting, but the whole ballroom was so noisy that it wouldn't have worked.

On the content: originally, back when this was a workshop, we were going to do arithmetic tricks, numerology, and some card tricks that really on mathematics. Students were going to work in small groups and practice on each other, with the idea that when they left, they'd actually be able to do these things and kind of understand how they work. But when the class size got shot to hell, I had no choice but to make it into a lecture. I still wanted it to be a little bit interactive, though, so I kept things that allowed for audience participation. Magic squares are great fun to play with, but me standing up there and talking about all the cool patterns in them would have been completely pointless. Those are fun when people have time to sit down and look at them and think for a few minutes. With 100+ people in a room, there was no way any sort of meaningful discussion was going to happen.

And yeah, we had 25 minutes, which is really not a lot of time to do anything meaningful anyway. :-P

[mijan.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, Emma. I can't even begin to explain how sorry I am.

I almost pulled out of the Night Classes myself. Yes, I know how to do stage performing, but I've also worked as a teacher. Half the people in my family are teachers, and I LOVE to teach. I'm a practicing herbalist and I DO brew "potions" and such in real life. It's my real area of expertise. And... if you go back, I had no idea that the organizers had INTENDED to have the classes be more entertainment than education. I had assumed education first, with maybe a twist of entertainment for fun. My purpose had been to teach a class, and dress in a costume because I happen to have a costume.

I had originally envisioned having five to eight groups of students each working on their own potion while I instructed from the front. It would resemble a Hogwarts-style potions class in feel, but the class content would be real. I'd planned handouts, but I couldn't afford to make enough for the potential crowd. I'd wanted a small, hands-on, truly instructive class. When I'd asked Draco to team-teach with me, he'd given me the impression that he was an experienced herbalist, and actually knew how to brew "potions", the same as I do. He gave me the impression that he possibly knew more than me. Not quite. Not at all, actually. So he became more of a prop than anything else, because he (actually, "Lucius" more than Draco) insisted that he still wanted to be included.

Even with the larger crowd, I did try to actually teach. I still had a lesson plan. I taught the brewing of a real potion in each class - potions that I've brewed at home for real purposes. And I embellished with the acting because... well... it was fun. And with the number of people I had, it was the ONLY thing I could do. I was no longer able to have everyone brew their own potion in a group. I couldn't quietly tutor people. I couldn't walk around to the students and show them what to do. So I ad-libbed 90% of the entire class, or "show", as it seemed to become. The class content was still there, but people were more interested in the antics. Which actually bothered me a lot.

My prefect didn't keep me notified of the time more than twice out of the five classes. I had no idea I was running over the time limit. By the end of the classes, I had a migraine coming on, and hardly knew which way was up.

*sigh*
I'm glad the "students" had fun with the class. I'm still FURIOUS that I never got to teach the class I'd originally intended. Herbalism is something I'm passionate about. I wanted to teach it, not make a mockery of it.

Again, I'm sorry. I had no idea how the classes would turn out. I was still scrapping things together at the last minute because of my situation at home, stress, exhaustion, and whatnot. And, of course, having to throw away my entire original plan with about two weeks to go before Lumos. I'm glad people liked the "class". I'm only sorry they didn't get a real "class", and even more sorry for what happened to everyone else. I wish I could make it up to you.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Like I said above, I don't blame you at all. I know what you were originally planning to do, and it really would have been amazing. I know how strongly you felt about making a real potions class where people would really learn to brew useful things, just like I wanted to teach something interesting mathematics. I also know that you weren't happy with what you ended up doing, and it spun away from what you would have done if it had only been you doing it. When the class sizes got out of control, we all had to do the best we could to manage, and you certainly managed much better than I did.

Like I said, this is my issue, and my issue alone. I probably should have backed out when they took the limit off the class sizes, but I hate quitting things. In this case, I think it would have been better for all involved.

*hugs*

[lord-vandemort.livejournal.com]

I stumbled on your journal tonight via my gf's f-list.

I just wanted to let you know that I attended the night classes, and like one of the people posted previously, I really got a lot from your particular class. I too had anticipated a more academic setting for night classes, and was definitely disappointed in the layout and the way things were organized.

I thought yours was the best class from all of them. You were organized, prepared and engaging without haivng to put on a big "show". And many thanks for posting your class notes so we can refer back to them or anything we might have missed in the surrounding chaos.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Thanks -- seriously, that means a lot! It was an incredibly frustrating experience for me, but it's nice to know someone got something out of it!

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I can only imagine that it felt chaotic for the students. I was genuinely amazed that people tried to pay attention at all.

And thanks -- I appreciate it!

[mad_maudlin]

I got the impression (as an attendee) that HPEF really didn't think through the MNC when they put it together; this just confirms it. I hope they try it again at another con, because the idea (in either form) is great--it just needed to be executed properly. (I felt that way about a lot of stuff at Lumos, actually. It seems like HPEF's reach was greater than their collective grasp on this.)

But I must say, your class was one of the better ones; I actually spent the rest of the evening doing algebra in my notebook to figure out how stuff worked. :-)