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

[krissielee.livejournal.com]

So I got out my notes--and then checked that link to make sure it wasn't me being stupid and skipping things. As far as I can tell, I didn't.

647 was my original number. Reversed, that's 746. 746-647=99. 99 Reversed is still 99. 99+99=198.

I found the one number that doesn't work, didn't I? ^^;;;

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think you have! I haven't done an exhaustive search, but that may be the only number with the property that it and its reverse have a difference of 99. The trick relies on the fact that you should get another three-digit number when you subtract. If you get a two-digit number, it won't work. :-P

Hee! I should edit the notes to point that out!!

[krissielee.livejournal.com]

I figured that. But I still got it wrong, which was so silly. Kinda like Kat getting -11 on the first one. Not a clue what she did or how she did that, though...

But it looks like...well, with 837 it gives the same result...and 938...and 382...

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... It looks like whenever the first and last digits are only one apart, you run into this problem. That's interesting, because I didn't see any mention of that in the two books I took this from. I think this is a list of all the ones that won't work:

192, 182, 172, 162, 152, 142, 132
293, 283, 273, 263, 253, 243, 213
394, 384, 374, 364, 354, 324, 314
495, 485, 475, 465, 435, 425, 415
596, 586, 576, 546, 536, 526, 516
697, 687, 657, 647, 637, 627, 617
798, 768, 758, 748, 738, 728, 718

And then the reverse of each, for a total of 98 numbers that won't work. There are 729 different three-digit numbers with all digits different and nonzero, so the chance of someone picking one of those is about 14%.

Interesting!

[krissielee.livejournal.com]

I'm one in 14%! Whee! XD

But your list isn't complete. You forgot anything with a 9 on either end. 918, 928, 938, 948, 958, 968, 978. And, obviously, their reverses. Or, I know at least two of those work, and I'm just assuming the rest of those do.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Right, duh. *edits*

[krissielee.livejournal.com]

Silly Emma. *pets*

Did you ever read that S/D I linked you? Because because because I'm a shameless self-promoting whore like that. XD

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Hee, not yet. I have been consumed with the podcast for the last few days. :-P

[krissielee.livejournal.com]

Fine, fine, do your podcast. XP Well, no, you really gotta, because I told Mattie she has to listen since I mentioned her and I really wish she was feeling better.