1. Yes. I figure, if the students already knew the subject, and were brilliant at it, they wouldn't be taking the class. They're there to learn; that means that they'll presumably be at least somewhat ignorant. And that's OK. (On the other hand, if a student does poorly because they've been skipping class, ignoring homework assignments, and just generally not trying, then I have no mercy.)
2. You remain pleasant and recall that you're representing your profession even when off the clock.
That part of it terrifies me, actually. Right now I'm TAing for two giant lecture classes in Greek Myth, and I've already had at least three students recognize me off campus. (Who knows how many recognize me but don't say anything? I certainly wouldn't be able to recognize them--I've got 750 of them this semester.) It's daunting to think that I have to act like a professional *all the time* on the off chance that a student might be watching.
3. I learned very quickly the art of dithering when a student asks a question I don't know the answer to. ("That's an excellent question. It's not really my area of expertise, but I'll look into it and get back to you...") It's a skill that I'm told will really came in handy when I present more at academic conferences and get cross-examined by established scholars. ("That's an excellent question. It goes a bit beyond the scope of my current research, but I'll keep it in mind for future work.")
4. This is a tough issue. On the one hand, shit happens. And it's cruel to students when shit happens to them and the teacher won't give them any slack. On the other hand, I've TAed for profs who pretty much let students turn in late work at *any* time, so we (the TAs) got buried in late papers at the end of the semester just when we're trying to get our own essays written. And it sucked. So my general take is that I'll be accommodating when it's reasonable to do so, but I'll not bend over backwards or rearrange my schedule to give a student a make-up exam because they "forgot" to come to class the day of the midterm. (This has happened.)
5. I'll keep copies of the in-class writing exercises partially to check handwriting on those journals. ;)
But...some of us don't write by hand! Really. I'd keep a journal, but I'd type it. I write *very* non-linearly. As in, I will start a sentence, wander off and write a relative clause in the middle of the sentence, go back to the beginning of the sentence and finish *that* clause, and then write my final clause. I suppose that if required, I would write by hand, but between the non-linear writing, a bit of dyslexia, and the unfortunate habit of accidentally leaving out words (or phrases) I could guarantee that it wouldn't be pretty.
6. Yes. I pretty much assume that the first quiz is a practice quiz so that the students know what they're getting into. And I try to give it early on so that a student can still drop the course if they feel they need to. (This came up in Latin more than Mythology...)
Creative Writing always seemed like it would be an amazingly difficult sort of class to teach. I suppose one could grade primarily on objective definitions of good writing (grammar and style and such) but then it's really just an English Comp class. But the "creative" part of it seems like such a matter of personal taste. I know what *I* think is good writing. But so much of my tastes are a matter of culture and upbringing and education and era--not to mention my plain ol' sense of personal aesthetics--that I wouldn't know where to begin to go about assessing one thing as "good" creative writing and another as "bad" (given that all the basics of English composition are satisfied). It seems like for every creative writing "rule" there's some Great Author who flagrantly breaks it.
(One of my bestest friends is a Creative Writing MA student and TA with ambitions to become a prof someday. I always marvel a bit over what she does.)
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2006-11-30 12:57 am (UTC)2. You remain pleasant and recall that you're representing your profession even when off the clock.
That part of it terrifies me, actually. Right now I'm TAing for two giant lecture classes in Greek Myth, and I've already had at least three students recognize me off campus. (Who knows how many recognize me but don't say anything? I certainly wouldn't be able to recognize them--I've got 750 of them this semester.) It's daunting to think that I have to act like a professional *all the time* on the off chance that a student might be watching.
3. I learned very quickly the art of dithering when a student asks a question I don't know the answer to. ("That's an excellent question. It's not really my area of expertise, but I'll look into it and get back to you...") It's a skill that I'm told will really came in handy when I present more at academic conferences and get cross-examined by established scholars. ("That's an excellent question. It goes a bit beyond the scope of my current research, but I'll keep it in mind for future work.")
4. This is a tough issue. On the one hand, shit happens. And it's cruel to students when shit happens to them and the teacher won't give them any slack. On the other hand, I've TAed for profs who pretty much let students turn in late work at *any* time, so we (the TAs) got buried in late papers at the end of the semester just when we're trying to get our own essays written. And it sucked. So my general take is that I'll be accommodating when it's reasonable to do so, but I'll not bend over backwards or rearrange my schedule to give a student a make-up exam because they "forgot" to come to class the day of the midterm. (This has happened.)
5. I'll keep copies of the in-class writing exercises partially to check handwriting on those journals. ;)
But...some of us don't write by hand! Really. I'd keep a journal, but I'd type it. I write *very* non-linearly. As in, I will start a sentence, wander off and write a relative clause in the middle of the sentence, go back to the beginning of the sentence and finish *that* clause, and then write my final clause. I suppose that if required, I would write by hand, but between the non-linear writing, a bit of dyslexia, and the unfortunate habit of accidentally leaving out words (or phrases) I could guarantee that it wouldn't be pretty.
6. Yes. I pretty much assume that the first quiz is a practice quiz so that the students know what they're getting into. And I try to give it early on so that a student can still drop the course if they feel they need to. (This came up in Latin more than Mythology...)
Creative Writing always seemed like it would be an amazingly difficult sort of class to teach. I suppose one could grade primarily on objective definitions of good writing (grammar and style and such) but then it's really just an English Comp class. But the "creative" part of it seems like such a matter of personal taste. I know what *I* think is good writing. But so much of my tastes are a matter of culture and upbringing and education and era--not to mention my plain ol' sense of personal aesthetics--that I wouldn't know where to begin to go about assessing one thing as "good" creative writing and another as "bad" (given that all the basics of English composition are satisfied). It seems like for every creative writing "rule" there's some Great Author who flagrantly breaks it.
(One of my bestest friends is a Creative Writing MA student and TA with ambitions to become a prof someday. I always marvel a bit over what she does.)