I Can Teach!

I just finished my first week of teaching yesterday. It was long, a little stressful, but mainly fun and exciting. I like standing in front of a class, and presenting ideas, and seeing how my ideas work (or, sometimes, don't work). I'm pretty proud of myself that I haven't gotten too terribly crushed by anything that my students have said or done; I was really worried that I would be super self-conscious and that, despite everything I told myself, I would really want my students to like me. Turns out, I want the students who care to think I am a good TA, but really, I guess I don't care if my students like me as a person--too much--haha. I was trying to differentiate between an informative and emotional message in one section, and so I asked, "What is an adjective you'd use to describe a lecture? For example, how would you describe what we're doing right now?" And while two or three students said, "informative," one student said, "boring!" I just ignored him and kept teaching, but I was actually kind of proud of myself for not letting it affect me. If one of my Greek lab students had said that to my face a few years ago, I would have been crushed!

Other things started this week, too. I am taking an upper-level undergraduate French class, which I think is a little funny considering that nine months ago, I couldn't even ask where the bathroom was in French. ("Ou est la salle de bains?" in case you were wondering. Or "Ou sont les toillettes?") So, now I'm taking a literature course and reading Guy de Maupassant, and feeling rather pleased with myself for not totally drowning in the first week. Of course, our first writing assignment is due Monday, so I should wait before I get too proud of myself . . .

I think I'm going to enjoy Victorian Poetry, too. I am already excited about taking a class that focuses on aesthetes and decadents for at least part of the class, since they're the main reason I'm still partially a Victorianist and not a full-out Modernist. We're also doing the pre-Raphealites, which I think can be cool, even though I've never had much to say about them. Hopefully that will change! Anyway, I figure that in a class that spends a whole week on Oscar Wilde(!!!), I should be able to figure out a halfway decent paper!

And, finally, this was my first week proctoring for Continuing Education. I was a little nervous, not because the job is difficult, but because there are just enough details which are just important enough that I really couldn't mess up on the first day. I didn't--yay! Turns out, sitting and watching people take tests is almost as easy as it sounds.

I'm pretty tired out after this week. I went to bed at 10:30 last night and didn't get up until 9:30. Hopefully, after so much sleep and taking it easy today, I can get some energy before next week. Next weekend I'm going to Minnesota!! I'm so excited to see my family again!