January is just like September only without August
Yikes. Another term about to begin. New students. A brand
new class. You probably haven’t though much about this particular aspect of
professorial life but right now while I am still tidying loose ends from fall
term (missed exams, late papers, dead grandmothers) and grading the work of my
grad students who can’t have their work due in December because they are
helping me grade the undergraduates’ assignments and exams. This is a different
feeling than in September when one had much of August to think deep thoughts
about teaching and carefully prepare. January is a screaming madhouse of a
month and really all of this is fine except that the new class I’m about to
start is brand new, recently approved and added to the calendar. (I don’t think
students much notice the difference between September and January to classes
because for them too it’s a different feeling.) We’re just days away from the
start of term and I’m getting a bit nervous. I designed this new class and now
I get to teach it. Rule of university life, maybe life in general: No good deed
goes unpunished. Seemed like a good idea at the time but now I’m wondering.
Yes, I’ve read the books—which reminds me of one of my favorite professor jokes….Professor
Jones says to Professor Smith, “Read Wilbur’s new book Political Theory and the
Idealized Citizen?” Professor Smith replies, “Read it? I haven’t even taught it
yet.” …change title depending on discipline—but I still have many lectures to
prepare. The course is Global Justice so the material is pretty engaging. I
also expect the students who are there, all 80 some odd of them, are ones who
want to be in the class. Today I played with the latest version of web-ct—an online
teaching tool which randomly put my students into groups for their group
projects (don’t blame me, the computer program did it). It looks like it will
be very useful for the discussion features. With that many students we’ll need
a way to keep the conversation going past class hours. I’m also impressed by
the easy access it provides to university on-line resources. Because access is
limited to students in the class, and hence registered at this university, I
can place all sorts of materials there to which the university has copyright.
But for now it’s time for a back to school hair cut and colour, once each term
whether I need it or not, and to prepare my first lecture of a brand new class.
That’s still thrilling which I suppose, for them and for me, is a Very Good
Thing.
