tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4904021173466473381.post6685268224600003431..comments2023-10-11T04:09:53.564-07:00Comments on materfamilias writes: Class-ified . . .materfamiliashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16062766947897513369noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4904021173466473381.post-22233482615548527802012-02-03T08:07:07.497-08:002012-02-03T08:07:07.497-08:00There is a big difference between my 1st-year stud...There is a big difference between my 1st-year students and my 4th-years, and the brightest 4th-years can ask tough (and wonderful) questions indeed! And I love having things questioned and not taken as read . . . as long as there's a genuine interest in a dialectic exchange and not a need to grandstand (some students are just always obstructive, rather than productive)<br />And yes, it's the whole debriefing at night that makes the evening class weird -- I spend the night going over it in dreams . . . if I manage to sleep!<br />The "cottage in Bordeaux" is actually right in the city of Bordeaux and is a small house -- one of those you walk in right from a sidewalk two feet from the cars on the street -- not terribly picturesque, but very convenient for urban life.materfamiliashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16062766947897513369noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4904021173466473381.post-32274808501884086272012-02-03T08:02:52.549-08:002012-02-03T08:02:52.549-08:00I find the turnaround from my night class to my ne...I find the turnaround from my night class to my next-morning one very tough. I get home about 9:45, then have to be on the 7:55 ferry the next day to be ready for my 10:00 class. . . .<br />Yes, I'm also quite willing to admit what I don't know. Frustrating in this case was that I do know this material very well -- it was just being able to articulate it at student level. . . .and yes, it's good to have the trip ahead. . .materfamiliashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16062766947897513369noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4904021173466473381.post-59790423298909015222012-02-03T08:00:46.128-08:002012-02-03T08:00:46.128-08:00Yes, it's a performance every time -- Elaine S...Yes, it's a performance every time -- Elaine Showalter begins her book on Teaching Literature with a chapter surveying profs' anxiety symptoms. We have dreams of being onstage naked or forgetting all our lines. Some vomit before first classes every new term, even after teaching for decades. . . Some just wear their shoulders permanently attached to their ears (that would be me!)materfamiliashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16062766947897513369noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4904021173466473381.post-69501403673143946962012-02-03T07:58:19.935-08:002012-02-03T07:58:19.935-08:00Yes! So weird! And that's a really long stretc...Yes! So weird! And that's a really long stretch, your 4-hour one. How sensible to make an online complement.<br />Sounds as if you've been there as well with the on-the-spot questions. Part of what I love about teaching upper level, keeps me on my toes!materfamiliashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16062766947897513369noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4904021173466473381.post-21202022380995608882012-02-03T07:57:00.491-08:002012-02-03T07:57:00.491-08:00I think I'm always hard on myself re teaching,...I think I'm always hard on myself re teaching, but I also think that's part of what helps me be better. . . <br />Oh, that view of Montreal, thank you!materfamiliashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16062766947897513369noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4904021173466473381.post-55074815512832307742012-02-03T07:55:50.051-08:002012-02-03T07:55:50.051-08:00Thanks. His question was also fairly predictable a...Thanks. His question was also fairly predictable and next time I'll be ready . . . ;-)materfamiliashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16062766947897513369noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4904021173466473381.post-25578007670379173252012-02-03T07:55:01.102-08:002012-02-03T07:55:01.102-08:00This course is in contemporary Canadian fiction an...This course is in contemporary Canadian fiction and I put together a reading list to let us focus on representations of the urban. Timothy Taylor's Story House, Lawrence Hill's Some Great Thing, Diana Brydon's What We All Long For, Kathleen Winter's Annabel, plus several short stories and theoretical readings.<br />And yes, we're supposed to get some good weather, and I'm looking forward to it. Right now, the foghorns are blowing somewhere out in the grey wool. . .materfamiliashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16062766947897513369noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4904021173466473381.post-25717493178739178152012-02-03T04:07:38.614-08:002012-02-03T04:07:38.614-08:00Teaching lower down the food chain as I do, places...Teaching lower down the food chain as I do, places little in the way of intellectual challenges such as that one. The ability to think so quickly probably comes with umpteen years of experience and then some that late at night. <br />I am only just discovering the challenges of academia at college and I am probably the one that throws the very questions that lecturers dread, not so much because I need an answer, more that I think some things should be questioned and not taken as read. <br />I agree with Duchesse you were very hard on yourself, but that I guess it’s because once you relaxed the answer came so easily. I often really struggle to sleep after a late lecture as my head is swimming with new concepts just like the ones you’re delivering, so rest assured the students too will have been restless, won’t they?.<br />A cottage in Bordeaux sounds wonderful.indigo16https://www.blogger.com/profile/16982477144454205765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4904021173466473381.post-81325048688436016922012-02-02T18:35:10.718-08:002012-02-02T18:35:10.718-08:00Your schedule sounds remarkably similar to mine al...Your schedule sounds remarkably similar to mine although my 3 hour class is on Wednesday evenings teaching the second half of American Literature. Over the years I have learned to be willing to admit that I don't know when I don't...and follow a practice similar to you, to look up the answer and explain the next week.<br /><br />How wonderful if I had a trip like this to look forward to.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4904021173466473381.post-58869387621883504962012-02-02T18:33:27.171-08:002012-02-02T18:33:27.171-08:00So interesting to hear this back story. I wouldn&#...So interesting to hear this back story. I wouldn't have guessed, I suppose, that teaching was such a live wire act. But of course it is.LPChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18209861350905135093noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4904021173466473381.post-38805278176994601042012-02-02T18:21:43.252-08:002012-02-02T18:21:43.252-08:00Teaching block night classes can be weird. Last sp...Teaching block night classes can be weird. Last spring I taught one that met from 6-9:50 on Tuesdays. I decided to make an online component to the course so that we only met from 6-9 in person each week. I probably also struggled with it because I'm a morning person, so I felt a bit off my game even at the beginning of class. <br /><br />It sounds to me like you handled the question well. When I'm caught off guard, I always think later of ways I could have better articulated an answer.Raquelitahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13138113830990586689noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4904021173466473381.post-24445690527469869872012-02-02T13:57:34.865-08:002012-02-02T13:57:34.865-08:00Oooh, a trip!
Agree with Susan Tiner, response ...Oooh, a trip! <br /><br />Agree with Susan Tiner, response was fine for that moment and you might devote an entire evening (or part of one?) to a collection and exploration of tyrannical sentences. (Would love to be there!) When I re-read this, I'd say you were hard on yourself, ma.<br /><br />Today, early morning put ice crystals on every tree up the mountain, then the sun came out. Wish I'd had my camera- absolute magic.Duchessehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09986153653120526776noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4904021173466473381.post-36551171686886464712012-02-02T09:59:02.064-08:002012-02-02T09:59:02.064-08:00It sounds like you handled yourself perfectly well...It sounds like you handled yourself perfectly well. The question your student asked is an intriguing one.Susan Tinerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11900811284963063686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4904021173466473381.post-89732090859329638482012-02-02T08:18:41.327-08:002012-02-02T08:18:41.327-08:00I'd be curious to know what materials you are ...I'd be curious to know what materials you are covering in your Canadian Literature course. My other focus during my French degree was Literature (with a little medieval history thrown in). <br /><br />I took a third-year course (Introduction to Canadian Literature) that covered the topic from the early days of Canadian writers, which was interesting, but I felt it lacked in the later years. No Atwood prose (a little poetry), no Munro, no Davies, no Ondaatje, etc. Curious, I thought.<br /><br />Those pieces of paper don't say that you know everything about your subject: they say that you are a lifelong learner and know how to find answers. <br /><br />It's shaping up to be a great weekend, weather-wise. I hope you get out to enjoy it in spite of the required marking.Lorriehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03653026442945027184noreply@blogger.com