Monkeying around
It is always lovely to begin your morning with a fight with someone you love. The worst is over, I think, but I have been dealing with emotional aftershocks all day. I'd rather be repeatedly punched in the face than go through that again.
So tonight (to change the subject rather abruptly as to avoid said aftershocks) I have to come up with a lesson plan without any new material to base it on. Essentially, I have to generate 50 minutes worth of complete and total bullshit. I suppose the point of tomorrow's class will be to help my little chickadees prepare the assignment that they will need to have finished by Wednesday (assigned last week). So while I will not have to lecture for too long tomorrow, I have to plan out some group activities to help them develop a thesis and their supporting arguments. The obvious way to ensure that they participate and follow my directions is to make it clear that these activities--while having a strong probability of being extremely hokey--will make it so that they have to do less work come Tuesday evening at 2am when they remember that they have a first draft due in 7 and 1/2 hours.
All in all, I enjoy teaching. I do not, however, enjoy the course that I am teaching and would much rather be teaching something with a little more substance. My currently curriculum, if you can even call it that, is pop culture, and because I spent so much time over the past couple of years reviling capitalism, its difficult to be enthusiastic about the material in the text book. Of course, my purpose isn't to make them pop culture scholars; the material exists only so that they are able to read and "connect with" articles about subjects they are already familiar with. Then, I can show them how to properly read and write on pop culture, teaching skills that can be applied to other areas of study.
I, however, have been at most a casual, very occasional television viewer for the past 4 years. As such, I can only point out techniques in the articles we're reading and cannot identity with many of the shows discussed. To their credit, the editors of the textbook picked very current subjects of study within popular culture.
So while I could probably quote and explain lyrics from a Nirvana or Radiohead song, its going to be harder for me to explain the points that authors are making about Britney Spears or The Backstreet Boys because I quickly entered into a cave after first hearing them, and I have been enjoying my cave, free of them, for some time now.
Managed to find a store that sold liquor on Friday and brought a bottle with me to a party that evening. I forgot how bourbon feels in your system the next day, and I doubt that I'll be drinking again for the rest of the week (also due in part that my roommate and bar hopping companion starts his new job this week). Getting shit-faced is not as much fun without the usual suspects that normally went along for the ride with me. I also have a subtle, underlying fear, that I may have embarrassed myself in front of future colleagues. Such is life.
Also realized how much it affects my memory, both of events and of things I tried to remember beforehand. I would argue that alcohol is more dangerous that marijuana for reasons besides the impairments to coordination and judgment.
Break time is over, otherwise I would say more and perhaps elaborate with stories surrounding the incidents I have described in brief above. Have to write my lesson plan, review and make notes on a book about textual criticism, and then try to finish reading/making notes on the Poetics before my brain stops working for the evening.
So tonight (to change the subject rather abruptly as to avoid said aftershocks) I have to come up with a lesson plan without any new material to base it on. Essentially, I have to generate 50 minutes worth of complete and total bullshit. I suppose the point of tomorrow's class will be to help my little chickadees prepare the assignment that they will need to have finished by Wednesday (assigned last week). So while I will not have to lecture for too long tomorrow, I have to plan out some group activities to help them develop a thesis and their supporting arguments. The obvious way to ensure that they participate and follow my directions is to make it clear that these activities--while having a strong probability of being extremely hokey--will make it so that they have to do less work come Tuesday evening at 2am when they remember that they have a first draft due in 7 and 1/2 hours.
All in all, I enjoy teaching. I do not, however, enjoy the course that I am teaching and would much rather be teaching something with a little more substance. My currently curriculum, if you can even call it that, is pop culture, and because I spent so much time over the past couple of years reviling capitalism, its difficult to be enthusiastic about the material in the text book. Of course, my purpose isn't to make them pop culture scholars; the material exists only so that they are able to read and "connect with" articles about subjects they are already familiar with. Then, I can show them how to properly read and write on pop culture, teaching skills that can be applied to other areas of study.
I, however, have been at most a casual, very occasional television viewer for the past 4 years. As such, I can only point out techniques in the articles we're reading and cannot identity with many of the shows discussed. To their credit, the editors of the textbook picked very current subjects of study within popular culture.
So while I could probably quote and explain lyrics from a Nirvana or Radiohead song, its going to be harder for me to explain the points that authors are making about Britney Spears or The Backstreet Boys because I quickly entered into a cave after first hearing them, and I have been enjoying my cave, free of them, for some time now.
Managed to find a store that sold liquor on Friday and brought a bottle with me to a party that evening. I forgot how bourbon feels in your system the next day, and I doubt that I'll be drinking again for the rest of the week (also due in part that my roommate and bar hopping companion starts his new job this week). Getting shit-faced is not as much fun without the usual suspects that normally went along for the ride with me. I also have a subtle, underlying fear, that I may have embarrassed myself in front of future colleagues. Such is life.
Also realized how much it affects my memory, both of events and of things I tried to remember beforehand. I would argue that alcohol is more dangerous that marijuana for reasons besides the impairments to coordination and judgment.
Break time is over, otherwise I would say more and perhaps elaborate with stories surrounding the incidents I have described in brief above. Have to write my lesson plan, review and make notes on a book about textual criticism, and then try to finish reading/making notes on the Poetics before my brain stops working for the evening.