Tuesday, October 21, 2008
update (with a digression on teaching)
My life is work, then more work, then more work. Then a little sleep.
Repeat.
At some point perhaps I'll talk about all of this work, and maybe the teaching. But right now I have a really large book to finish reading and a class to prep.
In other news, let me tell you how awesome this whole "team teaching" thing is. Well, it's not really team teaching in that we are not always in the classroom together and our classes aren't merged except for certain days when we have the one class in the big room together because they're at the same time (or when we have activities like movies in the dorm)...BUT. Although sometimes a little rough around the edges, the days when one of us teaches all the sections usually works out pretty well for the other as far as personal workloads are concerned. Yesterday, I had a plan and (for better or worse) executed the plan such that my teaching partner just had to play the part of scribe. Since she had a lot of other work on her plate, this worked out well. Tomorrow she'll be in charge (for it is Sartre day, and she hearts Sartre), which is good because I have a ton of stuff to do in my seminar on Weds that is of the utmost importance to me. Friday we'll return to our normal positions. On any other day, our coordination happens via email or IM or on the ride up to campus. Thank god we trust each other with this stuff, otherwise it would be a serious clusterfuck. I actually think it's going well. Teaching the freshmen here is very different than the teaching of freshmen that I've done before. There is a significant amount of "herding cats" that happens. It's tiring. Glad I have a buddy to help!
Repeat.
At some point perhaps I'll talk about all of this work, and maybe the teaching. But right now I have a really large book to finish reading and a class to prep.
In other news, let me tell you how awesome this whole "team teaching" thing is. Well, it's not really team teaching in that we are not always in the classroom together and our classes aren't merged except for certain days when we have the one class in the big room together because they're at the same time (or when we have activities like movies in the dorm)...BUT. Although sometimes a little rough around the edges, the days when one of us teaches all the sections usually works out pretty well for the other as far as personal workloads are concerned. Yesterday, I had a plan and (for better or worse) executed the plan such that my teaching partner just had to play the part of scribe. Since she had a lot of other work on her plate, this worked out well. Tomorrow she'll be in charge (for it is Sartre day, and she hearts Sartre), which is good because I have a ton of stuff to do in my seminar on Weds that is of the utmost importance to me. Friday we'll return to our normal positions. On any other day, our coordination happens via email or IM or on the ride up to campus. Thank god we trust each other with this stuff, otherwise it would be a serious clusterfuck. I actually think it's going well. Teaching the freshmen here is very different than the teaching of freshmen that I've done before. There is a significant amount of "herding cats" that happens. It's tiring. Glad I have a buddy to help!
Labels: misc life, teacher-like