The First Week

Spring semester: day four

As hinted at previously, I discovered at least two important things during the first week of classes that I wasn't expecting:


1.) I will have considerably more work in my classes this semester than I thought I would, and

2.) After being at school all day/afternoon/evening -- whether I'm teaching, writing, in class, or what-have-you -- I can come home and have no desire whatsoever to use the internet for anything, or even touch my computer (unless I absolutely have to).


The increased workload isn't exactly a problem, really -- it's all stuff I can easily do, but it will take more time to do it (obviously). For example, I'm doing a little more research and writing for my poetry workshop than I did before, and the editing class requires a lot of memorization and will involve a 15-page retrospective paper at the end of the semester. I am lucky I have the free time to take care of the work, of course, but I can see some of it getting fairly hectic near the end of the semester when I'm reading/grading a lot of student papers as well. Still, it's a lot better than the workload I had last semester, so that's a plus.

This weekend will be spent starting a lot of that work; I already have some grading to do, and I've gotten more students than I had before, so I need to update my rosters and the like. I also need to prepare the first unit's timeline and revise the dates to make up for the one-day-later start because of the MLK holiday. On the plus side, while I have responsibilities again, at least I'm doing something productive with my time.

To "center myself," as they say, I have taken to making a few tie-dyes here and there again. Most of them are being made for gifts to friends and family, but I'll wear a few of them. I'm using new techniques/patterns and a new type of (much less expensive) dye, so I'll see what happens. The new dye is a little more messy if I'm not careful, but it also doesn't tend to fade or bleed as easily as the old stuff, either. I see this as a good thing.

It has been insanely cold this week, as I mentioned before. It's not unusual for Kansas in January, of course, to be cold. But when we were having temperatures nearing 70 in December, and in the 50s/flirting with 60 last week? Yeah, this cold snap is no fun. The temperature virtually hasn't changed all day/night today; it's been around 25-27 since I woke up this morning, and it's supposed to be really cold tonight, down around 10-15 or so. I'm not looking forward to that...but at least it's better than all of the snow my friends and family back home are getting. Andrea described Morgantown as a war zone, or something akin to that, because of the snow. Yeah, apparently they got a snowstorm. I didn't know much about it, to be honest -- It's rare that I check the weather back home. My mother told me there was a bunch of snow at the house, but then again, the house is on top of a mountain, so that's nothing new for them.

There are a lot of extracurricular engagements going on in Wichita this weekend; tonight, our poetry professor released a new book (actually, it's been available since Tuesday, and I bought my copy on Wednesday) and did a reading at one of the city's most popular indie bookstores. I could have gone to the reading/release party, but knew if I had, I wouldn't have been able to find parking, it was cold, I already owned the book, etc etc. The event wasn't publicized very much around the department except for a flyer that was placed in our mailboxes announcing the book's release/reading date long before the end of last semester -- and our professor certainly wasn't going to talk about it. Self-promotion, especially when it involves readings or book releases, seems to be two of the few things he's very humble about, and things he never mentions.

There's also supposed to be some sort of release party for our department/school literary journal as well, which releases its new e-issue sometime this week. I don't know exactly when; I've heard conflicting dates, as well as conflicting dates for the "party." Some people have said tomorrow, others have said Monday night, etc etc. I checked my email, but I must have deleted the one about the party. Oh well. Even though I'm one of the editors, I do have a fair amount of work to do this weekend anyway.

Yesterday's classes were entertaining and easy, at least. I'm not getting into the real discussions and/or assignments until next week -- their first reading assignment will be given to them on Tuesday, and their first "paper" (I use the term loosely, as it's only worth 20 points) will be assigned on Thursday. At least that's what I'm planning, anyhow. I'd like to get the little stuff out of the way so we can get into class discussion and the readings ASAP, so they can begin writing and taking care of the work in the actual course. The students seem interested enough to be there, at least, though I can tell they're bored by the administrative "let's go over the syllabus," "don't plagiarize or you'll fail," and "these are my office hours/this is what and where the Writing Center is" bullshit that I'm sure they've all heard before from countless other professors.

Still, my students look promising. I've got a lot more international and/or ESL students this semester than I had before, spread between both classes, and they're usually some of my best writers -- if quietly so. The exact opposite would normally be true for a standard English 101/102 class, but since I teach the Science/Engineering writing version, well...there's a reason they're enrolled in my class instead of a normal composition class, generally speaking.

I've been asked to attend the normal 102 practicum, which everyone else who teaches 102 (any type of 102) will attend. My arm wasn't twisted or anything like that, but I was sort of coerced/volunteered to attend it by the director of the 102 program as well as by the office's administrators. I certainly don't mind it, really; I'm on campus on the scheduled day (Wednesday) and doing nothing during the time it's going on (2-3, I believe), so it's not a problem. It'll give me something interesting to do for an hour before I go to my mid-afternoon/evening class, so that's a plus. I'm always up for learning new techniques and the like. I've been told that we'll be watching a (really expensive) series of video lectures on teaching composition for at least part of the semester, which I'm sure none of us will be too thrilled with in the long run, but still, again, it's something new.

I've said before that I love teaching, and it's true -- it's the best part about being a graduate student, and an opportunity that I find extremely valuable and rewarding. Teaching and writing (or, conversely, teaching writing) may be my ultimate calling in life, and if it is, that's okay with me. It's more than okay, really. In conversation with one of my friends this week (one who reads the blog, actually), we discussed how teaching a multitude of different classes will better our chances after graduation of being able to get a gig at a community college, small independent college, or a private high school.

My love of teaching only goes so far, however -- unless I were down to my last fifty cents in my bank account and had been living out of my car for several weeks, I never want to have to teach public high school. Ever. Everever.

Anyway.

In other news, I haven't even thought about any sort of romantic interludes yet this spring -- it has been, until I realized Valentine's Day (or, as I'll call it, Black Tuesday) is in about three weeks -- the very last thing on my mind. I'm more concerned about paying my bills and taking care of my schoolwork. Will it suck being single on Valentine's Day for the first time since 2005? Sure. Does it really bother me, since it's basically a bullshit forced-love sort of holiday that I've always despised anyway? Nope.

Yes, it'll still suck, despite the fact that I hate it. Figure out the logic on that one, folks. I'll wait.

I'm also the guy who just ordered a single, solitary pizza from Papa John's at 11:10PM. This is my Friday night, folks. Yep.

The rest of my weekend will be spent running errands (shopping, gas in the car, etc) and finishing up the homework/housework I have left to do. I'd also like to finish the second season of Community if possible as well -- I'm about 1/3 of the way through it now. Other than that, it's business as usual, folks.

Only fifteen more weeks of "business as usual" to go....