I know that it has been a while, but I have been busy. That seems to be a common thread in the blogs of fellow grad students that I run across.
Let's look at Steve's hats currently:
Teaching Assistant: Pop Culture Dept., BGSU
Instructor: Composition II, Owens CC
E-structor: Smarthinking.com
Doctoral Student: American Culture Studies, BGSU
Representative-at-Large: Graduate Student Senate, BGSU
This does not include my duties and responsibilities as a friend, husband, pet-owner, gardener, or sane person.
This all keeps me on my toes, but it does have certain positives. I don't have much time to get bored. I greatly value my down time, even if it is just working out or sitting in the sauna at the Rec Center. I really have appreciated the little things that my wife does for me.
She has been nice enough to not bug me about my smoking on occaision. She also has been very calming by keeping things in perspective.
This is all to say that when I had a surprise visit from my supervisor to oversee my teaching this morning at Owens, I was bit less-than-thrilled.
Fortunately for me, I had done my prep for my lesson plan, and it was a very simple class to teach. I even had an awesome activity that involved group work and competing for candy. We are studying argumentation in the written form. So today's class on the different varieties of logical fallacies would have been perfect to be observed for.
I had chosen magazine ads that all had logical fallacies in them. After reviewing the general types, we were going to break into 4 or 5 teams that looked through the ads and tried to pick out the various logical faults and why.
Unfortunately for me, I only had 9, out of 19, students show up for class this morning. It is very hard to engage in a lively discussion with 9 kids, half of which have not done the reading.
Granted, this is sorta my job, to inspire and drive the class, but I was a bit tired this morning and missing three of my best and most engaging students. This meant that when I broke them up into three teams of three, it was likely that they would not have the sort of motivation that I had thought Tootsie Roll Pops would inspire.
It all worked out fairly well. I kept the class flowing. A couple kids came up with great examples of fallacies in their experience with arguments. I remembered to bring the class back and review the things we learned and went over the assignments, which impressed my boss.
So, whew! Now, I just need to completely finish fixing my syllabus, grade, and return their last assignment that they turned in. It is good that they are so likable. I don't know what I would do if they were a class full of jerks.
4 comments:
My empathy is with you.
Oh, and do I ever mean that.
*said at the end of ANOTHER 16 hour day.*
I suppose, Steve, you could take solace in the fact that your life as a junior faculty member will be even more hellish...
ah...nevermind.
;)
Yeah, but I can actually live, barely, on a faculty salary. I am sick of living on borrowed money.
I have found it works well to break a bone in your foot and have to miss the first class to get a cast put on. Then have the sub on your first day tell all the students that if they don't plan on buying and reading the book, showing up to class on time, and giving their speech on time they should drop the class now. I know this is only my third class, but I have never had a more well-behaved bunch.
Queenie, you are sooo smart!
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