tappity tappity tap tap
Finally, it's less than ten days before the semester starts. I hang with a geeky enough crowd that we're all pretty stoked for the semester to begin. My comps study group is heading into its fourth session next week, other people are already talking about getting the jump on their reading (well, they're reading
Ulysses...I'd get a jump on it too!), and those of us who are teaching composition for the first time, well, my buddy Rob's statement pretty much sums it up: "I'm so amped to teach, I electrocute myself in the shower." Yeah. Like I said, we're pretty geeky.
I made copies of my syllabus and also put it
online, tested that my office falls under the wi-fi blanketing the building (I share an office with two others, but we have three desks and a couch and it's not terribly cramped. However, the office location is odd—it shares an entrance with the women's restroom, basically. I'll have to take a photo to help explain properly.) since I'll have my laptop with me during office hours.
I have three bags, only one of which I'll carry at any given time, but they all serve different purposes: computer bag, teaching bag, and bag for my own classes. They're all neatly lined up in a row for easy grab-and-go. I have my transportation schedule all worked out (when to take the bus versus when to drive and park), know where and when to get coffee in the morning, I've been practicing everyone's names (I believe it's the first step to putting names to faces), I have the first five or so class sessions mapped out in general (allowing for flexibility of course), and basically I have no unusual stress about this whole thing.
People keep asking me, "so, are you nervous?" Um, no, not really. Showing nervousness is a sign of fear, and showing fear will get you trampled on. At least that's how I'm operating—as if this pack of freshmen is a pack of wild dogs. I'm only slightly kidding. Another person asked if I was anxious about going to the department meetings. Um, no. Sitting in the back of a room at a meeting in which I am not expected to contribute at all? That's
sheer joy for me. "But all those professors, and we're just teaching associates!" the person said. I laughed. "Believe me, they're thrilled about our existence—we represent eleven sections of composition
they don't have teach."
So there's just one more week of tappity tappity tap tap just waiting for everything to
start...and I think it'll be a long week.
Labels: gradschool, teaching
