Skip to main content

The joys of teaching

Image
By

For those who don't know, I received a Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) position at Michigan this fall in the German department.  I teach three discussion sections, once a week, that are based off of the professor's lectures and the reading that students should (heavy emphasis on SHOULD) do before they come to class.  This week is the due date for the first paper of the semester for the students.  It's a five- to seven-page paper, double spaced, which really means it's like 1400 words.  It's really not long at all.  However, a whole bunch of my students have been extremely worried.  As a result, I held extra office hours today for students to come by and talk to me about their papers.  While not everyone came, I had a good number of students there.  While helping them develop their theses and their arguments for the paper, I had one of those: "I can't believe I'm here" moments.  A year ago I was in their exact shoes.  A lot of my students are seniors who wanted a (relatively) easy class to fulfill a humanities requirement.  I took a French history course that I knew would not be difficult because it was my last year of undergrad.  And now I am the one teaching them about literary theory and explaining my interpretation of fairy tales.

The best part about all of this has been that I love teaching.  I get nervous before every lecture, especially before the first discussion section every week, but after I get into the groove of teaching I end up having a great time.  My students often have excellent insights into the fairy tales and I learn from them just as they learn from me.  I have also had students express how much they enjoy discussion, which helps me know that I am on the right track in my idea of what discussion should be.  This has definitely made me consider going into teaching after I finish here at Michigan, and I'm grateful for the experience.

Comments

  1. LarisaNovember 2, 2015 at 1:59 PM

    This post fills me with all kinds of warm fuzzies, Cheese. Good job.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Like Dominos....

By
It all began with glare.  Simple, obnoxious, I-can't-stand-it-anymore glare. Our 60" rear projection TV in the family room was basically unviewable except after 10 o'clock at night.  The glare from the windows was making it impossible to see anything during my 10 minute lunch break each day, and something had to change. Too, the TV didn't fit in the entertainment center from Germany.  John, wanting bigger and better, hadn't considered that the space is only 40" wide.  For the past five years, I have been nagged by 6" of overhang on both sides of the TV stand. I went to Lowe's to price blinds.  $1,043 for five blinds, and that was at 20% off. I figured a new TV would be cheaper than that.  I was right, even with the state-of-the-art receiver and new HDMI cables that sly salesman told us we needed to have. But where to put the old TV?  It just needed a quiet, dark place to retire. Glo's bedroom.  Her TV was a relic from the paleoneoneand...
3 comments
Read more

The Quest for Birkenstocks

By
One of the main reasons I go to Germany every couple of years is to restock my supply of Birkenstocks.  I started buying them when I lived there, and I basically can't live without them now.  It just about kills me when a pair runs its course and needs to be thrown away.  I think in my lifetime, I've thrown away only three pairs.  One that never was quite right (the straps were plastic and would cut into my skin after a long day), one pair that I wore gardening one too many times (the brown dirt stains wouldn't come out of the white leather), and the pair that I was wearing when I broke my ankle (they were an unfortunate casualty of broken ankle PTSD because those purple and blue paisleys go down as one of my favorite pairs of all time).  I only threw out the garden ones a couple of days before I left for Germany, because I knew I would be getting a new pair. The only store where I have ever bought my Birkenstocks is Hoffmann's in Speicher.  (Well okay, t...
2 comments
Read more

Thinking Beyond Ourselves

By
In our church, most adults hold a “calling”.  What this really means is they have a job, or a specific way to serve within the local congregation.  We believe that this calling is inspired from God—it’s a specific way that he wants us to serve, so that we can either learn and grow ourselves, or so that we can help someone else. I have had more callings in the church than I can count, and with few exceptions, I have loved every one of them.  I have come to love people (adults, teens and kids) who I might never have met.  I have learned much--from how to organize a Christmas music program, to how to make a Sunday School lesson meaningful to apathetic teenagers.  I have served as president of the children’s organization, and I have been the leader of 30 young, single adults. With every calling comes a lot of work.  Of course, the amount of work one puts into a calling is up to an individual.  I choose to put everything into a calling.  I give up ho...
3 comments
Read more