I ought to post for y’all. I promise that my lack of digital presence hasn’t been because of laziness. I haven’t been typing much recently, but I have been reading and writing in my notebooks. I finished C. S. Lewis’s Problem of Pain, am almost done with Don Quixote, am still slowly enjoying Jeremiah, and I this week started The Souls of Black Folk and A Generation of Materialism. I will set down the last one when I return to New York, and probably pick up Jacob Klein’s book on Greek mathematics in its stead, but I’m sure I won’t finish it before I start next semester. Blah, blah. What was I going to post about? Oh yeah, some thoughts on the Internship.
I am working on a list of things to tell prospective Summer Interns, something generally applicable and relevant. At the same time, I can guess that the Internship will not look the same next year. In 2007, there was a sole MTC Intern. This summer there were eight of us. I don’t imagine that the number will continue to rise, but I do assume that there will continue to be more than one, especially if Amherst College continues its community service funding programs. This summer was a trial run for the larger crowd. On a personal level, I consider it a success, but its success or failure was never really a question. It seems that, as a trial run, it’s a matter of optimizing the experience: giving the most to the students who want to devote their summers, streamlining the schedule and costs, and making the most of the extra labor and minds at work on the greater MTC project. Ben Guest has obviously done a more than adequate job catering to us, having arranged for us a schedule of speakers and given us a raw look at the life and times of the first-year teachers. Concerning scheduling, I think that next year will have the benefit of less confusion, assuming Ben will continue to reap the benefits of Google’s social empire. But I expect that most changed next summer will be the utilization of those Intern’s skills. Though I have personally gained a precious mass of experience, I haven’t really worked very hard; I could have been worked harder for the benefit of the program. There were long periods of time when I would mentally or corporally wander around, as my winemaker friend in New York would sometimes say of me, “like a little lost waif.” Now I know that there are others among the Elite Eight who at this point would frown and say that they are busy enough, so I must make it clear that I speak only for myself here. There were some moments, especially at the summer school, when it felt like three Interns were too many in one place, let alone eight. I expect that the number of Interns wasn’t as much of a problem as the lack of experience managing such a large group of more or less free labor. What kind of projects do you give them—long or short? Do you send more than one to work on the same thing? What if they get it done quickly? What next?
On the note of projects, I think daily/weekly projects are a much better use of my clerical and adjutantial skills than anything larger. To have multifarious assignments each day, regardless of whether they’re different or the same each day, is much easier for me to manage than to have an indefinite amount of time to do a work of indefinite size. But this requires more work, or at least more time and watchfulness, on the part of the employer to “manage” me and continually supply me with tasks.
With this in mind, I’ll be writing up a list of likes and dislikes, and a list of unexpected (not necessarily unpleasant) occurrences and occasions about which prospective Interns would want to be forewarned. Maybe tomorrow?
I’m off to read some more Quixote, and maybe I’ll see The Dark Knight tonight? If I don’t see it tonight, I might not see it in theaters ever. Oh well. Toodles.
I am working on a list of things to tell prospective Summer Interns, something generally applicable and relevant. At the same time, I can guess that the Internship will not look the same next year. In 2007, there was a sole MTC Intern. This summer there were eight of us. I don’t imagine that the number will continue to rise, but I do assume that there will continue to be more than one, especially if Amherst College continues its community service funding programs. This summer was a trial run for the larger crowd. On a personal level, I consider it a success, but its success or failure was never really a question. It seems that, as a trial run, it’s a matter of optimizing the experience: giving the most to the students who want to devote their summers, streamlining the schedule and costs, and making the most of the extra labor and minds at work on the greater MTC project. Ben Guest has obviously done a more than adequate job catering to us, having arranged for us a schedule of speakers and given us a raw look at the life and times of the first-year teachers. Concerning scheduling, I think that next year will have the benefit of less confusion, assuming Ben will continue to reap the benefits of Google’s social empire. But I expect that most changed next summer will be the utilization of those Intern’s skills. Though I have personally gained a precious mass of experience, I haven’t really worked very hard; I could have been worked harder for the benefit of the program. There were long periods of time when I would mentally or corporally wander around, as my winemaker friend in New York would sometimes say of me, “like a little lost waif.” Now I know that there are others among the Elite Eight who at this point would frown and say that they are busy enough, so I must make it clear that I speak only for myself here. There were some moments, especially at the summer school, when it felt like three Interns were too many in one place, let alone eight. I expect that the number of Interns wasn’t as much of a problem as the lack of experience managing such a large group of more or less free labor. What kind of projects do you give them—long or short? Do you send more than one to work on the same thing? What if they get it done quickly? What next?
On the note of projects, I think daily/weekly projects are a much better use of my clerical and adjutantial skills than anything larger. To have multifarious assignments each day, regardless of whether they’re different or the same each day, is much easier for me to manage than to have an indefinite amount of time to do a work of indefinite size. But this requires more work, or at least more time and watchfulness, on the part of the employer to “manage” me and continually supply me with tasks.
With this in mind, I’ll be writing up a list of likes and dislikes, and a list of unexpected (not necessarily unpleasant) occurrences and occasions about which prospective Interns would want to be forewarned. Maybe tomorrow?
I’m off to read some more Quixote, and maybe I’ll see The Dark Knight tonight? If I don’t see it tonight, I might not see it in theaters ever. Oh well. Toodles.
1 comment:
Good stuff.
Post a Comment