Martini Time

So I’m sitting at my desk at home, enjoying a fine martini and I had a great idea.

According to a book I bought called Grammar Alive: A Guide for Teachers, Students will more effectively learn the grammar of Standard Written English if they can be shown the need for what the book calls “code switching.”

What the book suggests is that you have them look at various types of writing and come up with a descriptive grammar for each. For example you could take an advertisement for a car and a technical service bulletin for the same car and have them come up with a grammar for each. I have a lesson plan for this. But I just came up with a related idea that I really like.

I’m going to have them take the lyrics to Mamma Said Knock You Out, by LL Cool J (the greatest song ever written) and have them re-write it using conventional grammar (complete sentences and no slang). So far, pretty vanilla right?

then I’m going to bring in my Boss DR-202 and some speakers and read the re-written lyrics over a rap beat. It will sound really funny and be kind of entertaining while, at the same time, it will reinforce the fact that different grammars are necessary for different discourse communities.

P.S.

I just checked my iCal, which I set up a month ago, and it says 8:00 -9:05. Looks like I just screwed up on the syllabus. I suppose to make it official, I’ll have to tell my students to change it on the syllabus.

Finally Starting Again

Teaching as an adjunct at the school where I got my B.A. is a strange experience. On the one hand, I can’t help feeling like I have returned from the outside world with great knowledge to impart. You know, kind of like a hero’s journey thing. This has a boosting effect on my confidence. 

On the other hand, I think that a part of me keeps waiting for someone to notice I’m here and shout “hey stop him, he’s not a teacher, he’s just an undergrad with a button shirt!” 

The first class went about as well as I expected. I managed to get a class register just in time to hightail it to the classroom, quite out of breath. Half of my students were directed by their schedules to look for my class in some other room. I forgot my dry erase markers at home. None of these are big problems though. We worked it out.

I would have sworn that my class was supposed to be from 8:00 am to 8:50. But, after I let them go at ten to nine, I noticed on my roster that it’s scheduled from 8:00 – 9:05. I wonder if this was changed at the last minute or did I screw it up. Well, it’ll be nice to have the extra time.

So far so good.

Semester Eve

tomorrow I start my first semester as a non-TA. I am somewhat nervous, but not unreasonably so. I’m sure I have forgotten something important that I won’t remember until it’s too late. But whatever it is, I know I can teach my 8:00 class and then go work it out. I’m not an expert teacher, but I have a little experience and I have never been intimitated by facing a roomfull of students.

I really thought I would be intimitated. Before my first semester as a Teaching Assistant, I just avoided thinking about it until I got to my first class, then I realized right away that I was going to enjoy teaching them.

The only thing that really makes me unhappy is the fact that I have to teach at two schools. This is because I have learned that I always feel closely tied to a location. When I have to go to more than one location, I feel fragmented. Oh well.

So it goes.

Random Syllabus Thought

Last week I attended a workshop for adjuncts. It was fairly useful. One thing that I found to be intersting was the template syllabus that we all were given. There is a nice rubirc-looking section that breaks down the course outcomes in terms of “outcome,” “Connection to General Education Goals,” and “assignments.”

The point of this, I believe, is for students to be aware of the connection between the daily work they are doing and the overall goals of the Gen Ed. program.

I’m thinking of putting this in the final version of my own syllabus. However, I am hesitant. The reason is this: I have taken a class with the teacher from whom they got the sample, and that teachers classes are not very effective. I personally felt that it failed to meet the Gen. Ed. outcomes.

I may be overly cynical, but I felt that this teacher was one of those types of teachers who masks his/her lazyness by having the students constantly, and ineffectively,  “present” on the weekly readings.

The whole “course outcomes rubric” makes me wonder about the difference between talking about connecting one’s course with the school’s outcomes, and simply doing it. I suppose one could both talk about doing it and actually do it. But there seems to some kind of disconnect between people who talk about it and people who just do it. It is as if those who are incapable of teaching a class properly feel more inclined to talk about how they are going to teach the class.

I’m probably just being cynical, but at 36 years of age, I should probably come to terms with the fact that I am cynical about most things and try to use my cynicism to some advantage.

Semester Start Up

Well. I had to decide whether or not to continue posting on the fycomp blog. It occurred to me that it could be difficult to keep a truthful blog that reflects on my teaching while working professionally as opposed to being a TA.

There is always the risk that l may make mistakes or do things that might incriminate me (not in a legal sense, but in a “getting rehired” sense) not because I am a poor teacher, but because I am still inexperienced and there is always the possibility that an employer will read the blog. In fact I put it in my resume, so it’s more than just a chance.

I thought about it. Then I decided that the value of keeping up a reflective blog about my teaching is higher than the risk of getting fired.

I feel that this first semester as a “pro” is going to be extremely formative, so having a method of self-reflection is going to maximize the degree to which I improve. Also, for reasons that I am not quite sure of yet, the blog just works extremely well for this purpose.

I think the reason is probably this: the audience for a blog is nameless and faceless enough for me to be fairly open with my thoughts. Yet, there is still the FACT of an audience (however theoretical it may be)

There is the potential that somebody will read what I am writing here. This forces me to organize my thoughts in a slightly different way than if I were writing in a journal, for my own eyes only. Also, the fact of an audience creates an impetus to write at times when I might become bored of writing in a journal.

So anyone who reads this thing, can look forward to more posts in the near future as the semester starts in about a week and a half.

MF

Fouts Waffles on Book Choice

I was determined to use Edward P.J. Corbett’s Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student for whatever classes I got hired to teach this coming fall. However, I changed my mind and decided to go with my favorite standby, Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing, by Sylvan Barnet and Hugo Bedau.

I haven’t changed my mind on the value of the former title. I truly believe that Corbett’s book, in the hands of the right teacher, can be a rhetoric book that will not only inspire students but also help them achieve a level of achievement of which they didn’t know they were capable.

The thing is, I don’t yet think that I am that teacher. It’s nothing really specific, but I feel that I haven’t quite achieved the level of experience I need to use that book effectively. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, the book is extremely hardcore and old school. I fear that I could easily have a class crash and burn if I came on all hardcore like that without the facility as a teacher to back it up.

So it seems as if the best course of action is to play a fairly safe game with a book I like and have already used. Then, I can work in a few lessons in based on other stuff. That way, I will be able to develop my skills without ruining my career in the process.

End of Semester Blues

In my last post, I alluded to the fact that my syllabus did not go as well as I had hoped this semester. I have thought about this further. Next time I will use a book and syllabus that provide more structure.

Anybody who knows me will tell you that I am not a highly structured person. It seems to me that, in many ways, this has been one of my strengths as a teacher. Because I am not obsessed with structure and rules, students find me very approachable and establish a rapport with me. In my (limited) experience, this is something that many teachers just can’t do. 

However, in the past, I have always had a structured plan for the class in the form of a book specifically designed for the type of class I was teaching and a very structured syllabus. Last year, my syllabus was provided and last fall, I had created my own syllabus that was very structured. 

Although I didn’t think about it at the time, it seems that a structured book and syllabus provided the perfect counterweight to my easy going attitude. This semester, my syllabus was fairly easy going and it just didn’t work out as well as I had hoped.

It’s like an “odd couple” kind of scenario. A slob and a neat freak will do fairly well together, but a slob and a slob…not so much. 

Near the end of the semester

I have to admit to myself, if I’m honest, that this semester didn’t go nearly as well as I had hoped. My book and syllabus were just not very effective for a 104 class (At my university, the fycomp cycle is two semesters long. there is a 103 class which is kind of a “get your feet wet” sort of affair and there is 104 which is centered on the creation of an 8-10 page persuasive research paper.)

The essays in the book I chose, Fifty Great Essays, are very good belletristic essays, but don’t model persuasive writing very well. I should have chosen a book that is already geared toward college students writing persuasive essays. The research papers that have been turned in so far are actually quite good. But I just don’t think the assigned readings had much to do with it.

Next time around I am going to use either Writing With a Thesis or Ancient Rhetorics for Modern Students. If any readers of this blog have had experience with either of those books. I would love to hear what you think.

back to work

Well, the comprehensive exam is over (again). I should have plenty of time to keep up the fycomp blog for the rest of the semester.

I feel that my students have suffered a little bit from my preparing for the comps, despite the fact that graduate assistants are given a lighter load for the semester in which they have to take the test.

On the other had…well on the other hand, maybe they didn’t. A number of the assignments and class periods that I felt were very effective came directly out of my studying Aristotle’s Rhetoric for the comps. So maybe it wasn’t so bad after all.

I almost called in sick today (monday). Yesterday, I just completely crashed from taking the comps on saturday. I have never been in such pain in my life. every muscle in my body hurt. I don’t really know why. I guess my body chemistry was on “high alert” in the week leading up to the test. After the trauma was over, I guess my body shut off the taps on all the good chemicals that were keeping me going. I didn’t actually feel nervous, but I must have been subconsciously. That or I came down with the flu and it was just a coincidence. Whatever.