2 days worth of thankful
Wednesday Nov. 6th - Thankful for the little things that Casey does to make me happy. Like yesterday, he got off of work early, so instead of coming straight home, he stopped at the store for supplies to make homemade pizza together for dinner. It was fun/delicious.Or when he brought home these crazy purple flowers for me the other day, just 'cause. Or his Tuesday night goal of giving me 20 kisses throughout the night at random when I was having a hard time putting my lecture together. I won't get too mushy, but I don't want to overlook his constant little acts of kindness.
Thursday Nov. 7th - Thankful for unique extra teaching opportunities I've had this last year. I enjoyed guest lecturing to the undergrads in Spain, and this year my advisor has given me the opportunity to come lead class in two of his graduate courses. I gave a talk on professional speaking in his post-coursework graduate professionalization course a few weeks ago, and tonight while he's out of town I'm leading his MA students' Medieval Spain class. The topic for the day is really similar to a lot of my research, so he's set me up to have a really successful class with the younger grad students. :-)
Edit: That class was a BLAST. I had so much fun talking with the MA students about the historiography of Spanish religious history and the details of the primary sources for the week. I've never felt more like a specialist in my field than after having the chance to teach graduate students, unsupervised, about things I've been studying for years. I KNOW this stuff very well! Their projects all sound super cool too. It was the first time in my entire career that I've ever thought it might actually be fun to teach grad students as well as undergrads. I always assumed I would hate that, but, it was really a lot of fun to delve more specifically into these topics I care so much about. It also got me very excited about my research again. It was the first time that my teaching and my research have EVER intersected, and I think some of my love of teaching bled over and showed me how much I enjoy what I study in a way I'd never noticed before. A lot of things came together for me with this experience that I am just thrilled about discovering.
Thursday Nov. 7th - Thankful for unique extra teaching opportunities I've had this last year. I enjoyed guest lecturing to the undergrads in Spain, and this year my advisor has given me the opportunity to come lead class in two of his graduate courses. I gave a talk on professional speaking in his post-coursework graduate professionalization course a few weeks ago, and tonight while he's out of town I'm leading his MA students' Medieval Spain class. The topic for the day is really similar to a lot of my research, so he's set me up to have a really successful class with the younger grad students. :-)
Edit: That class was a BLAST. I had so much fun talking with the MA students about the historiography of Spanish religious history and the details of the primary sources for the week. I've never felt more like a specialist in my field than after having the chance to teach graduate students, unsupervised, about things I've been studying for years. I KNOW this stuff very well! Their projects all sound super cool too. It was the first time in my entire career that I've ever thought it might actually be fun to teach grad students as well as undergrads. I always assumed I would hate that, but, it was really a lot of fun to delve more specifically into these topics I care so much about. It also got me very excited about my research again. It was the first time that my teaching and my research have EVER intersected, and I think some of my love of teaching bled over and showed me how much I enjoy what I study in a way I'd never noticed before. A lot of things came together for me with this experience that I am just thrilled about discovering.