Fragments

I’m half way through the semes, er. . .  quarter.

I have been going to the reading group and to the Student Engagement group, but I missed last week because I was behind, tired, and needed a day to regroup, workout, and relax (and it was my birthday).

I finally have my tenure committee in place, so I think things will move quickly now. I will also start to write everything down, as I am told I should keep meticilous record of what I’m doing. But all I am doing is teaching.

Kind of: I reached out to the Puente cordinator to asks about the process of bring Puente here. Everything is a waiting game.

The teaching is going good: my introduction to literature class is amazing. We’ve been discussing Feminism and feminist writers this last week. We had a group presentation on Charolette Perkins Gilman and we compared her story to Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour.” The stories helped the students to visualize the Feminist lens (I hope).

I am having trouble with one of my composition classes. First, half the people in the class didn’t realize they were part of a Hybrid course, so I had to explain to them that they would be doing a lot of work on their own. Well, that hasn’t gone over super-well.

It becomes obvious students didn’t do homeowork when I am discussing something (a reading they were supposed to do), and all I get are blank faces.

Most recently, I had conferences for their second project, and despite instructions in the Conference sign up about conference being in my office, despite the way we ran conference the last time for project one, most of the class showed up to the classroom and then came to get me, wondering why I hadn’t come to class.

I pulled up the Canvas site and explained to them to read the instructions that say “Conferences will be held in my office in lieu of class.” I think I’m starting to lose them. That class has some issues I’m not necessarily equipped to deal with. Half of the class has turned in accomodation notes.

I do my best; my teaching has become more laid back. I try to give all my students more time and the benefit of the doubt. I set high expectations, but I don’t fault students if they don’t quite meet them. It’s such a hard balance to strike. I’m going to have to think of something to do with the class to get them back.

For my literature class today, we are going to go over some funny stories, some slam poetry, and I’m going to ask them for a mid-quarter reflection on what they have learned so far. We’ll see how that goes.

I moved.

My First year at BC, my first quarter, and I am trying to learn my way around. I have ideas for things I would like to do but no idea how to make them happen. For now, I just want to survive and get better at teaching.

To that end, I am part of a reading group that will be looking at how to talk about race. I read the introduction to So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo. The introduction was sadly, predictable. She covers the many microaggressions people of color, especially women, face. She discusses how even well meaning, progressive white people can be blind to the struggles that people of color face. I look forward to reading more soon.

I am also part of Student Engagement Workshop Series. I’m not sure what that is yet. The first thing we are reading is “How We Learn Part One”– so that should be insightful.

Besides these on campus activities, I’m still trying to decide if I should go to a couple of conferences; the problem is that now those conferences cost more money because the flights are more expensive from this corner of the world.

I have been told to keep track of everything I do, so here it is. What I’m doing. I hope to come back to these fragments to piece together tenure materials.