Saturday, February 21, 2009

Schedule for the next week or so

Monday: 
9-10: Interview with Institute of Reading Development
10:10-11: Office Hours
11:15-12:05-TA
12:15-3:30-Reading/free time
4-6: ClubZ tutoring
7-9: FFP/VDay 09 Meeting

Tuesday: Reading and maybe tea

Wednesday:
11:15-12:05: TA
12:15-1: Office Hours
1-5: Reading/free time
6-830: Class

Thursday: Spend time with Will & Read

Friday:
10:10-11: Discussion Group A
11:15-12:05: Discussion Group B
12:15-bedtime: Spend time with Will, Read, & Write

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Week Two: Comps

This week we are reading Weber, Gellner, and Kohn. Guess how far behind I am? Too far. I'm reading Weber on the fricking internet because the schools copies are checked out and it was too late to order through amazon or ILL by the time I got around to it. I went ahead and ILL'd for Chatterjee, Colley, and.. whoever else is next.

Weber's thesis is fairly reminiscent of what we discussed in Dr. Mac's class. I wonder if I can find some a review or two that might help with him.

I'm going to call Michael about Gellner. I can't find that book for the life of me.

Pan-Slavism is much shorter and will be easier to scan on the computer than Weber but I'm not as familiar with the subject matter.

Oh how I miss Habermas, whose notes I'll be typing up sometime this week or so.

HY 592

About half the class is composed of teachers, I think I've mentioned that. I had hoped their input would be helpful, and to some extent it is. It reconfirms my dedication to never teach in public secondary education. Apparently, it is impossible to reconcile higher order critical thinking skills with middle and highs school students. Now, I remember doing it at Carroll, but I guess our richy-rich Blue ribbon school is an anomaly and I shouldn't base my expectations of high school students on my experiences at that school. I wouldn't mind teaching at a Quaker charter school. They seem to value service and learning.

Otherwise, the class is good. Dr. Devore is pretty cool and the readings are moderately interesting, but I wish the class was geared more towards college-level teaching. I want to create syllabi and learn how to refine my knowledge into lesson plans geared toward 100 & 200 level classes so that I can adequately adjunct in the coming year.

More on that later, I have to catch up the rest of this (and other) blogs.