I know, that's the wrong way to look at the semester. But I am so looking forward to what happens AFTER the semester that I can't really get too psyched about what's going to happen during it. Today I'll teach my first class, which will amount to going over the syllabus and having a little chat about what the heck literature is anyway, and then I'll be free! Free! Because I have the BEST SCHEDULE EVER! Well, as long as we ignore the fact that I'm teaching that stupid online class that I loathe, which while it does make for a better real life schedule nevertheless makes me very irritable.
So I'm trying to get in the groove of writing as close to daily as possible here, just to get back in the groove of writing in general. I've got lots of research things that I need to accomplish this spring, and while writing isn't technically one of them, being conditioned to write will only help. If I'm honest I think that one of the reasons why my writing here has fallen off over the last 6 months (I wrote only 271 posts in 2009, as opposed to 414 in 2010) has to do with the fact that I'm not entirely sure what Dr. Crazy has to say that she hasn't already said. I'm sure this has a lot with the transition to tenure. Also, I think that Facebook has taken a lot of my day-to-day whining to another forum, so I don't just write here out of irritation or boredom as much as I maybe used to do. But so anyway, I'm trying to write more regularly here in the hope of reimagining this space for myself, and maybe of refining the voice that I've got here to fit who I've become since earning tenure. We shall see.
You know, I wonder, though: maybe part of the issue is that I now have tenure. A lot of the stuff I've been most involved in doing over the past six months I really couldn't talk in any explicit way about. Maybe, though, as my focus shifts more to research, some of this will change. Except I don't actually like to talk explicitly about research here either. Sigh. I guess over the past months there have just been a lot of things that have entered into the "not for blogging" category. How irritating.
Ok, I must get in the shower, eat some breakfast, pack my lunch, and make my plan for the day.
12 years ago
6 comments:
What is it about the online class you can't stand? The fact that it's online or the topic or what? Just curious.
Briefly, re: the online class:
1. I hate that I've never had the time or support to really make it as good as it could be, and since I haven't had that, I've completely disengaged from caring about the course.
2. I don't really believe that this course succeeds in doing what the program for which I'm teaching it expects it to do. In spite of my attempts to explain the ways in which the course does not work, nobody listens.
3. One of the things I love about teaching is getting to know my students and interacting a lot with them. The medium really takes away from that positive part of teaching, and thus I feel much less engaged with my students and much less committed to them.
4. At least half of my students need me to explain the technology of the course to them and how to "do" an online course. And often they don't have decent enough computers to do the most basic things.
So, if I had the time/support/resources to make the class great, I would think that the online medium is probably fine, but without that, and plus how I feel about the program I teach the course in as well as the effectiveness of this course in general... not so much.
For the future, snce there are mnay references to it, you can save typing and just use SOCTIL
//stupid online class that I loathe//
or SOC for short?!! :-)
The limitations you mention are unfortunate, I agree.
I didn't go on campus today until after noon (the one class that I teach on Tuesdays begins at one o'clock). It felt wonderful to get some writing done on a day beside my Writing Wednesdays, so I can understand what you mean by enjoying a better schedule.
As for the blogging less? Well, I have a whole series of my own complicated reasons that contribute to my own blog silence. I need to confront those at some point or another. . . .
I wrote only 271 posts in 2009, as opposed to 414 in 2010
But on the plus side, you invented a fucking time machine!
Er, you know what I meant :) Although, if I had invented a time machine, I feel like people would be much more into me :)
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