you gotta get a gimmick if you want to get ahead
So I apparently survived this first big Official Grad School SRS BZNS meeting today. I'm kind of freaked out by the whole process, as the other new kids in the program had like, already registered for classes? Or something? When we're not scheduled to MEET about registering until a WEEK from today??? Seriously, wtf, mates. I felt like an ASS CLOWN in there today, absurdly unprepared for ANY of it. I mean, I knew I was unprepared going in, but I assumed that everyone else would be, too. Turns out, not so much. I hadn't even HEARD of half the plays the others were name dropping and I got the feeling that it wasn't so much pretentiousness as my continued absurd backwardness.
:-/
The prof (whom I shall dub Professor Jazz Hands, bc even though she's not at ALL a jazz hands type, her specialty is musical theatre and, well, musical theatre = JAZZ HANDS as we all know) was VERY reassuring about it, though, even implying that these kids weren't really the norm. I think. She's pretty cool- I think that her class would be one I would have enjoyed taking. Except that like, Y'ALL. This class will have THREE HUNDRED SOMETHING STUDENTS in it. I don't think my brain can process that, even if the students will be split into two sections. I get nostalgic for Haverford pretty regularly, but between CLASSES THE SIZE OF MY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL and getting lost every single time I go on campus, I can't TELL you how much I pine for the 'Ford tonight. *LE SIGH*
Ugh. I honestly do just keep stressing about it and there's nobody around to pat my head and tell me I'm being a lame-o. Particularly the part where I have to freaking LECTURE. I don't think co-moderating our discussion on the Big Mac Macbeth back in Katherine's class cuts it as previous experience, flyakate, nor does teaching nine year olds about the metric system. D: The plan is to have someone else in the department do the general intro to Shakespeare in one class, and then in the next meeting, I take over. Prof Jazz Hands has the idea that class 1 will be on the sort of nuts and bolts history and setting up the period, whereas class 2 will be me doing something more with performance history and the idea of the Cult of Shakespeare. Which sounds AWESOME! Except when it's me coming up with AN HOUR AND FIFTEEN MINUTES OF LECTURE on this.
*headdesk*
Part of my responsibility in the next 24 hours is to decide if we should read Hamlet or Othello as the one Shakespeare text in the course. Um, I have NO IDEA, y'all. I mean, Hamlet is taught more in high schools, so they'd have more familiarity in theory, but is that good or bad? Othello has some interesting supplementary stuff in the textbook we're using, but Hamlet probably fits easier into the idea of how Shakespeare is kind of crazily embedded in our idea of cultural literacy- guys with skulls in hand pop up ALL THE DAMN TIME and it's a reference we're all just expected to get.
But I don't know!
Poll Danes vs. Moors
*tears hair out*
I did discover that one of the other TAs, a second year for the PhD, not only went to your university and majored in English in 2005, ember_ashes, but also lives in my apartment complex. Because I am made of fail, I did not do anything with this information once we figured it out, whether to make plans for a dance party or just to see if she knew you, Jen.
WHY DO I FAIL AT LIFE?
Or at least grad school?
Oh well. At least I got inspired to strut around the flat today, belting out random snippets from Gypsy after we decided to put that on the syllabus as the musical theatre entry. Mostly, I revel in the simple knowledge that 'If you're gonna bump it, bump it with a trumpet.'
True story, kids. TRUE STORY.
:-/
The prof (whom I shall dub Professor Jazz Hands, bc even though she's not at ALL a jazz hands type, her specialty is musical theatre and, well, musical theatre = JAZZ HANDS as we all know) was VERY reassuring about it, though, even implying that these kids weren't really the norm. I think. She's pretty cool- I think that her class would be one I would have enjoyed taking. Except that like, Y'ALL. This class will have THREE HUNDRED SOMETHING STUDENTS in it. I don't think my brain can process that, even if the students will be split into two sections. I get nostalgic for Haverford pretty regularly, but between CLASSES THE SIZE OF MY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL and getting lost every single time I go on campus, I can't TELL you how much I pine for the 'Ford tonight. *LE SIGH*
Ugh. I honestly do just keep stressing about it and there's nobody around to pat my head and tell me I'm being a lame-o. Particularly the part where I have to freaking LECTURE. I don't think co-moderating our discussion on the Big Mac Macbeth back in Katherine's class cuts it as previous experience, flyakate, nor does teaching nine year olds about the metric system. D: The plan is to have someone else in the department do the general intro to Shakespeare in one class, and then in the next meeting, I take over. Prof Jazz Hands has the idea that class 1 will be on the sort of nuts and bolts history and setting up the period, whereas class 2 will be me doing something more with performance history and the idea of the Cult of Shakespeare. Which sounds AWESOME! Except when it's me coming up with AN HOUR AND FIFTEEN MINUTES OF LECTURE on this.
*headdesk*
Part of my responsibility in the next 24 hours is to decide if we should read Hamlet or Othello as the one Shakespeare text in the course. Um, I have NO IDEA, y'all. I mean, Hamlet is taught more in high schools, so they'd have more familiarity in theory, but is that good or bad? Othello has some interesting supplementary stuff in the textbook we're using, but Hamlet probably fits easier into the idea of how Shakespeare is kind of crazily embedded in our idea of cultural literacy- guys with skulls in hand pop up ALL THE DAMN TIME and it's a reference we're all just expected to get.
But I don't know!
Poll Danes vs. Moors
*tears hair out*
I did discover that one of the other TAs, a second year for the PhD, not only went to your university and majored in English in 2005, ember_ashes, but also lives in my apartment complex. Because I am made of fail, I did not do anything with this information once we figured it out, whether to make plans for a dance party or just to see if she knew you, Jen.
WHY DO I FAIL AT LIFE?
Or at least grad school?
Oh well. At least I got inspired to strut around the flat today, belting out random snippets from Gypsy after we decided to put that on the syllabus as the musical theatre entry. Mostly, I revel in the simple knowledge that 'If you're gonna bump it, bump it with a trumpet.'
True story, kids. TRUE STORY.