Twice a year we graduate students get giddy. It happens sometime in October and April each year when our teaching assignments are released. The most recent reveal has just occurred and I admit I am a bit distracted from other, more pressing matters by the prospects of my upcoming course. I know we're hardly halfway through this semester—and I'm not at all bored with it—but it's terribly exciting to think about setting up and designing another course. It glimmers like a brand new pair of sneakers when your current kicks are a bit beat up.
In the Spring Semester I'll be teaching "Literacy and American Cultural Diversity" (EngL 3741). It's a radical kind of course that integrates public, community work—usually literacy related—with academic study and discussion. It gives a rare chance for students to deeply consider the origins of their own literacy and the deployment of literacy in myriad contexts.
So while I ought to be preparing for class tomorrow or working on my incompletes, I am browsing articles and books that have been accumulating on my desk for years to find stimulating texts for a class two and a half months away. Teaching semester-long classes is a great vocation for the perpetually restless.
Posted by ogde0004 at October 26, 2005 3:00 PMSooooo jealous! I will be lucky to know my spring TA assignment by early January. The chair tells us it's because enrollments fluctuate - and we say, well, how can they do it in other departments? - why not here?
Posted by: Sno Cones at November 10, 2005 4:19 PM