I’m on day 4 now of teaching my 8 week (4 days a week) summer class. Yesterday was the first day I spent lecturing– keynote (apple’s better version of powerpoint) and asking questions and such– and since the answered them, and seemed to understand what I was teaching, I felt some margin of success. Today, the students have done most of the work for the class themselves, so I didn’t even have to spend last night prepping slides and stuff.
This first week teaching has been a blurr of student add/drops, photocopying, textbook issues, and remembering what it is like to even been in the sociology building every day (I used to like to be sort of reclusive). And before that the two weeks of course prep was just insane. I’m glad I decided to get a dissertation chapter done before I began planning the course, because course planning took over my life. I spent a week getting readings together, and then a week on the syllabus. At least I feel prepared enough now to get through the whole summer without worrying about what to do every day.
Lecturing this summer is a great experience for me– and not just for my CV. I’m *trying* to apply the same moderation rules to writing to teaching. This past semester I managed to show myself that I could sit down and write every day, working in moderation instead of binge writing and panicking about unreaslistic deadlines. I actually finished a major article revision and wrote a 60 page chapter that way (and drafted another chapter), so I know it works, and I know it keeps me sane.
Applying that to teaching means that in theory I should be spending 2 hours prepping for every 1 hour in the classroom. Since I know lecturers who spend 4-6 hours prepping for every 1 hour in the classroom, 2 seems pretty radical. But I’m going to learn to do it now, instead of being completely overwhelmed as a new assistant professor (which will be next year, right? right?). Part of the idea of teaching in moderation also means going into the class with a short rough outline of your lecture, instead of writing it down word for word and trying to pack tons of stuff into class. That practice is great for me– I usually would go in with a very detailed teaching plan, and then get overwhelmed trying to cram everything in frantically. So instead I went in with a general outline and just talked, which seemed to actually work. But in general this week was a wash in terms of trying to moderate anything– I was too nervous my first week, and too bogged down with all the administrative stuff and student needs.
But next week I am going to go ahead with my plan– teaching AND writing in moderation every day. I have to. I’m starting to become grumpy from my lack of dissertation work pretty freakin’ soon. The plan is to go into the library in the morning and work for 2-3 hours in the lovely quiet of the historical library. And then I’ll head up the hill to teach, prepping for the next day after class in the afternoon. And then heading home to go running and spend the evening on job market stuff/grading/hanging out etc. Jeez, I’ve turned into quite a schedule person!
So that’s about the extent of the excitement in my life. That and I’m still running– 2-3 miles at a time (with liberal walk breaks). I’m toying with the idea of signing up for a 5K at the end of August, just to give myself something to strive for in terms of improving my running. I didn’t think I’d actually ever want to run in a race, but why not? 5K seems doable, but I’m not sure I’ll ever want to do anything as insane as a full marathon (26.2 miles)!
