Not sure how many still follow me here. I'm chronically incapable of posting regularly, so I don't blame deserters :) However, it is the start of a new school year, so I will make a concerted effort to update more frequently.
I spent my second whole day in my new office today. I am now in Lane Hall. It is a much older building than Shanks, one of the original buildings when Tech was first built as a military academy. It used to be a barn apparently...which says nothing about the value of those banished to the office space now inside it. My two office-mates and I actually volunteered to be banished here so that we could have a larger office, our own printer, a window to the actual outdoors, and out own temperature control. Granted, temperature control is limited to opening the window or turning on the window AC unit...but we like the feeling of control regardless.
Classes start officially on the 24th of the month, but orientation events start happening the week prior. I find myself with a full plate even before the semester kicks off, though. I managed to get myself elected both English Graduate Student Organization President and the President of the German Language Club. As a result, I'm organizing much of the English Department's orientation activities, including a social get-together of some kind to welcome all the new students (all 35 of them!).
I'm also continuing to work on my syllabus and schedule of assignments for the two sections of Freshman Composition that I'll be teaching this semester. And my new favorite...my thesis! This is the year of the thesis.
It is also the year of season football tickets! The season kicks off with a Chik-fil-a sponsored game in Atlanta where Tech plays Alabama the first weekend in September. So I shall be traveling to Atlanta to attend the game with friends. After that we gear up to face Marshall the following weekend at home. As soon as I get my first paycheck, I'm going to have to run out and buy a ton of Tech gear to represent :)
So all in all, it's looking like life is about to get pretty crazy. On the horizon though sit a number of possibilities about what I'm doing with my future. At the moment, I'm considering three options. First, I'm applying for a Fulbright Scholarship to teach English at a German high school for next year (Sept.-June). I will also be submitting a small handful of PhD applications. I don't have the schools entirely narrowed down yet, but I'm thinking UNC-Greensboro and UC San Diego are on the list.
Okay well that's it from me for now. Lots of love from Blacksburg!
Monday, August 10, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
newness
My apologies for being MIA these past few months. I've been horrible about keeping up to date with my blog. This semester has been really crazy for me. The workload is intense. The first semester lulled me into a false sense of security haha. Teaching has been a great learning experience, but it's been a ton of work too. I never believed the person who told me that I would potentially spend 4 hours planning for every 1 hour of class time. ...but sometimes I spend more than that. I had initially registered for 3 electives. I decided against an education course I originally pre-registered for and instead signed up for a literature of the absurd class. But I ended up having to drop that class because 3 electives, teaching 1 class, and meeting regularly for my teaching advising group takes up a heck of a lot of my time.
Right now I'm working hard to keep up with everything because I've been sick for going on 5 weeks now. I've been to 3 different doctors and on 2 different antibiotics but nothing seems to help for very long. I thought I had kicked it over the weekend, but for whatever reason Monday night I started getting worse again even though I hadn't finished my latest antibiotic. So who knows what's up. I'm calling yet a different doctor who was recommended to me by a woman in my program who's lived here with her family for a good number of years. Of the past 3 docs I've seen 2 were at the student health center here at Tech that's free for me, and 1 was a nurse practitioner whom I saw in a doctor's office that had late hours Wed night for walk-ins. So hopefully if I sit down with a real doc at a real doc's office and tell my whole sad story, someone will do something different. I'll certianly keep everyone updated.
Okay well I'm off to bed. Friday is finally here! I just have to teach which is a light day. Much love to everyone!
Right now I'm working hard to keep up with everything because I've been sick for going on 5 weeks now. I've been to 3 different doctors and on 2 different antibiotics but nothing seems to help for very long. I thought I had kicked it over the weekend, but for whatever reason Monday night I started getting worse again even though I hadn't finished my latest antibiotic. So who knows what's up. I'm calling yet a different doctor who was recommended to me by a woman in my program who's lived here with her family for a good number of years. Of the past 3 docs I've seen 2 were at the student health center here at Tech that's free for me, and 1 was a nurse practitioner whom I saw in a doctor's office that had late hours Wed night for walk-ins. So hopefully if I sit down with a real doc at a real doc's office and tell my whole sad story, someone will do something different. I'll certianly keep everyone updated.
Okay well I'm off to bed. Friday is finally here! I just have to teach which is a light day. Much love to everyone!
Friday, January 23, 2009
A New Semester!
So I haven't updated since last year! (haha) Anyway...
It's a whole new semester, so here's what I'm taking:
Composition Pedagogy (learning theory and history of the teaching of writing)
Language and Gender (really interesting theory class)
Digital Humanities (first few classes have been painful...I may not survive, but I will be learning XML)
Literature of the Absurd and Grotesque (really cool class, so far we've read "The Overcoat" and "The Nose" by Gogol, next will be Notes from the Underground by Dostoyevsky)
I am also teaching for the very first time this semester. My class is Freshman Composition, the second course in a sequence of two, and this section is labeled Writing From Research. It is MWF 1:25-2:15. I've had my first two classes already, a first day of just introductions and reading through the syllabus, and a second day with an actual lesson plan! I'm really excited so far. I was tragically nervous my first day and talked too fast and didn't say everything I wanted to because I forgot a couple of things in my nervousness. However, it appears none of my students were the wiser. My second class earlier today went soooooo well. I have such a little motherly instinct towards my students; I want them all to do so well!! I'm working hard to be strict in terms of discipline but relaxed enough to foster open discussion, and so far it actually seems to be working! I've spent my Friday evening reading through the first short writing assignment I gave them which was just to tell me what their expectations for the course are and how I can best respond to their writing. I keep reading all these horror stories about indifferent professors or high school teachers that they've had previously, and all I keep thinking is, Oh you poor babies! I want them all to have a much better experience this semester in my English class. The majority of them are engineering majors or in the sciences, and they're all convinced they can't write well or that they won't be receiving A's in my class. I'm hoping to pick morale up a bit on Monday and go from there.
I'm currently undecided on the Education plans I had previously. I'm thrilled with the teaching experience I'll be receiving through my TAship, but I'm starting to think piling Education classes on top of English classes will have me rundown, exahusted, and useless in no time. It's only the end of the first week of class and already I have enough reading to fill my entire weekend, plus lesson planning. So I dropped the one Ed class I was enrolled in for this semester, and I may need to talk to the Ed people and give up the place they gave me in their program.
I can't seem to make up my mind from day to day. At the moment I'm thinking I'd really like to pursue my PhD after I graduate. Grad school is a pretty good place to be, and given the economy at the moment, a much more secure place to be than a public school teacher. Also, with budget cuts, TA's will probably be taking on more teaching responsibility since we're cheaper labor than adjunct faculty for courses like freshman comp or intro to writing. Although who knows, that could just be this month's decision...
You all have also probably heard about the horrible stabbing that took place this past Wednesday night. It's really quite sad, and a lot of people around here have been reminded of the violence of 4/16, but for the most part campus is pretty calm. I know I've made phone calls and emails to various family, but I'm just fine. I wasn't even on campus when it happened. Thoughts and prayers do go out to the familes of those involved and those who witnessed the tragedy. The incident occured between two individuals who knew each other, and it appears the intent was not just random violence. Authorities haven't released or don't yet know why it occured, but they do have the young man in custody who commited the crime. A lot of people are starting to question the safety of the Virginia Tech community, but I have to say that I still find this community much safer and much more close knit than any I've lived in recently (certainly more so than Orlando!!).
On a more positive note...I am going to start an application this weekend to work as an intern in the International Office of the University of Aachen in Germany. It's actually a paid internship which is awesome, and it's quite near Bonn! I would get to work with international students in the office there, organizing social and university events, assisting in acclimation to the university and the area, etc. I'm pretty excited about it. We'll see what happens. I don't have hard plans yet for the summer, all I know is I have to work somewhere to pay the bills haha. I'd love to go do something exotic like travel to Africa to visit Josh's (Sarah's finace) family in Tanzania and work in a village doin who knows what for a month. However, that kind of thing requires spending money, and I need to accomplish the opposite. So we'll see.
Alrighty, it's my bedtime. It's been a long first week of school. As I think I always say...I'll try harder to update more regularly! Much love to all of you!
It's a whole new semester, so here's what I'm taking:
Composition Pedagogy (learning theory and history of the teaching of writing)
Language and Gender (really interesting theory class)
Digital Humanities (first few classes have been painful...I may not survive, but I will be learning XML)
Literature of the Absurd and Grotesque (really cool class, so far we've read "The Overcoat" and "The Nose" by Gogol, next will be Notes from the Underground by Dostoyevsky)
I am also teaching for the very first time this semester. My class is Freshman Composition, the second course in a sequence of two, and this section is labeled Writing From Research. It is MWF 1:25-2:15. I've had my first two classes already, a first day of just introductions and reading through the syllabus, and a second day with an actual lesson plan! I'm really excited so far. I was tragically nervous my first day and talked too fast and didn't say everything I wanted to because I forgot a couple of things in my nervousness. However, it appears none of my students were the wiser. My second class earlier today went soooooo well. I have such a little motherly instinct towards my students; I want them all to do so well!! I'm working hard to be strict in terms of discipline but relaxed enough to foster open discussion, and so far it actually seems to be working! I've spent my Friday evening reading through the first short writing assignment I gave them which was just to tell me what their expectations for the course are and how I can best respond to their writing. I keep reading all these horror stories about indifferent professors or high school teachers that they've had previously, and all I keep thinking is, Oh you poor babies! I want them all to have a much better experience this semester in my English class. The majority of them are engineering majors or in the sciences, and they're all convinced they can't write well or that they won't be receiving A's in my class. I'm hoping to pick morale up a bit on Monday and go from there.
I'm currently undecided on the Education plans I had previously. I'm thrilled with the teaching experience I'll be receiving through my TAship, but I'm starting to think piling Education classes on top of English classes will have me rundown, exahusted, and useless in no time. It's only the end of the first week of class and already I have enough reading to fill my entire weekend, plus lesson planning. So I dropped the one Ed class I was enrolled in for this semester, and I may need to talk to the Ed people and give up the place they gave me in their program.
I can't seem to make up my mind from day to day. At the moment I'm thinking I'd really like to pursue my PhD after I graduate. Grad school is a pretty good place to be, and given the economy at the moment, a much more secure place to be than a public school teacher. Also, with budget cuts, TA's will probably be taking on more teaching responsibility since we're cheaper labor than adjunct faculty for courses like freshman comp or intro to writing. Although who knows, that could just be this month's decision...
You all have also probably heard about the horrible stabbing that took place this past Wednesday night. It's really quite sad, and a lot of people around here have been reminded of the violence of 4/16, but for the most part campus is pretty calm. I know I've made phone calls and emails to various family, but I'm just fine. I wasn't even on campus when it happened. Thoughts and prayers do go out to the familes of those involved and those who witnessed the tragedy. The incident occured between two individuals who knew each other, and it appears the intent was not just random violence. Authorities haven't released or don't yet know why it occured, but they do have the young man in custody who commited the crime. A lot of people are starting to question the safety of the Virginia Tech community, but I have to say that I still find this community much safer and much more close knit than any I've lived in recently (certainly more so than Orlando!!).
On a more positive note...I am going to start an application this weekend to work as an intern in the International Office of the University of Aachen in Germany. It's actually a paid internship which is awesome, and it's quite near Bonn! I would get to work with international students in the office there, organizing social and university events, assisting in acclimation to the university and the area, etc. I'm pretty excited about it. We'll see what happens. I don't have hard plans yet for the summer, all I know is I have to work somewhere to pay the bills haha. I'd love to go do something exotic like travel to Africa to visit Josh's (Sarah's finace) family in Tanzania and work in a village doin who knows what for a month. However, that kind of thing requires spending money, and I need to accomplish the opposite. So we'll see.
Alrighty, it's my bedtime. It's been a long first week of school. As I think I always say...I'll try harder to update more regularly! Much love to all of you!
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