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The View from the Deanery
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Week 8 of the Michaelmas Term. By now you should have settled into LSE, more or less understand how things work, what is expected of you, the demands on your time and how to manage them. I’ve had a number of queries about classes, assignment deadlines and class grades. So here are some important pieces of information relating to these:
Timetabled classes:
It is important that you attend the class groups that you are assigned to on your LSE for You schedule. I know that in a number of cases you were attending whatever classes suited you and your schedule while your timetable was being approved. But you should now be attending the one you have been assigned to. Otherwise, your attendance record will be non-existent, the marks for your class work won’t be properly recorded and you will end up with a poor class grade.
Class assignments
You need to hand class assignments – essays or problem sets – in on time. Check on the Moodle web-pages for deadlines and/or with your class teachers. You must agree changes to deadlines with your class teacher. If you hand in assignments late and without permission to do so, this will adversely affect the grade you receive (and if very late could lead to a mark of ‘0’).
Class grades
As I explained at the Orientation session, your end of year class grade will be based on your attendance record, your level and quality of participation, any presentations you give and the marks for your essays and/or problems sets. There is no fixed algorithm for these different elements of the class grade. Efforts to construct one foundered on the differences between quantitative and qualitative courses (and even within them!). In some cases, course coordinators have set out the weighting they will use. Again, check on the Moodle web-pages for your courses to see if any have been set out. If not, do not worry. Your class teacher will make a balanced assessment. At the end of each year, very few GC students have any grumbles about their class grades.
Finally, I look forward to seeing a number of you at the GC Thanksgiving Dinner on Thursday.
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Mark Hoffman
Associate Dean
The General Course
gc.dean@lse.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)20 7107 5197
Room OLD 1.09
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Office Hours: Monday 1.30pm - 3.30pm Tuesday 10.30am - 12pm, Wednesday 10.30am - 12pm Thursday 12pm - 3pm.
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Dirty Wars, winner of the Sundance Film Festival Cinematography award, follows the reporting on a US night raid gone wrong in an Afghan village with journalist Jeremy Scahill discovering a cover-up by an elite military unit. What follows is an international investigation into America's expanding covert wars. The Dirty Wars film screening will take place on Wednesday 27 November at 6pm in the New Theatre, and be followed by a Q&A with the investigative reporter, screenwriter and producer of the film, Jeremy Scahill. An interview with the Director can be found here.
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Mark Goldring is chief executive of Oxfam GB and has decades of experience within international development, including as chief executive of VSO and chief executive of Mencap, the UK’s leading disability charity.
His presentation will take place on Thursday 28th November 2013 from 6.30pm in the Old Theatre.
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For all those Harry Potter fans out there (most of you I would imagine), a snow sprinkled Hogwarts is now on display as part of the Warner Bros. Studio Tour. This is a great opportunity to see the original model used in the actual film! The Studio Tour also features sets (the Great Hall), props (the Knight Bus and Hagrid's Bike) and costumes (Invisibility Cloak and Luna Lovegood's Christmas Party Dress), from the entire film series.
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The Royal Botanic Gardens (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) is a great place to plan a Christmas visit. Now with evening hours until 10pm, you are able to follow an illuminated trail through a beautiful winter landscape, and Christmas village with rides and markets. A sneak preview video can be seen on YouTube.
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The biggest winter sports and music event in the UK takes place from the 27th November for 5 days of snow related fun (literally, as they ship in 500 tonnes of it in for the event!). If you're into snowboarding and ski action the Freeze Festival is the perfect event for you. Tickets can be purchased via their website and the festival teaser can be seen here.
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There is less than a month left until the Winter Solstice, and the reversal of the gradual lengthening of nights and shortening of days. In 45 BC, the Julian calendar established 25 December as the Winter Solstice of Europe, but the difference between the calendar year and the tropical year moved the day associated with the actual astronomical solstice forward approximately three days every four centuries. In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII changed the calendar, bringing the northern Winter Solstice to around 21 December.
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Our forebears spent most of their time outdoors, so the seasons were important. Many had a great reverence for the sun (as people in the UK still do). The Norsemen saw the sun as a wheel that changed the seasons. The Romans celebrated the year’s rebirth with candles, processions and presents. The Winter Solstice is likely to have been important because starvation was common during the season and the festival was the last feast before deep winter. Cattle were slaughtered so they wouldn’t have to be fed during the winter, making it almost the only time of year when fresh meat was available. More importantly, the wine and beer made during the year was finally fermented and ready for drinking. Celebrations may also be examples of cultural therapies that evolved over time against the depressive effects of winter. So, in keeping with tradition, eat, drink and be merry this season.
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Teaching and Learning Centre
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A friendly reminder about the Teaching and Learning Centre and the courses they offer. This week, the two available workshops are:
Essay Writing at LSE: an Introduction
Wednesday 27th November 2013
4:00pm – 5:00pm
Room: NAB LG.08
Communicating Assertively
Friday 29th November 2013
12:30pm – 2:00pm
Room: CLM 3.02
Students are welcome to turn up on the day.
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The Eagle that protects the LSE Towers. Donated by GC Alum Louis Odette.
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Bookings close Wednesday midday!
Thursday 28th November
6.00pm
£10
4th Floor Restaurant Function Room
Book here
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Hampton Court Palace with Ice Skating
Saturday 30th November
9.10am
£34
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Lent Term Programme Coming Soon!
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Honest self-scrutiny too easily mutinies Mutates into false memories Which find language a receptive host Boosted by boastful embellishments
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