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GRAVY! pre-Ramen 2005-11-18 — 12:43 p.m. |
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Dr. FloWo was observing my teaching yesterday. Thank GOODNESS she saw the second one. My sucky class went out of their way to make yesterday extra sucky. The one jerk who spends most of class saying annoying things didn't show up, and I must admit, even though 80% of what he says borders on rudeness, I appreciate that he speaks up in class. His presence was somehow sorely missed. The rest of the class consists of 2 nice girls who sit in front, one nice-ish guy to the right, a sort of nice girl who sits in the back, a very smart but mostly quiet boy who sits in the middle, and a dozen or so people who look and act as if they chased their Chick-Fil-A sammiches with a handful of quaaludes. Class was absolutely wretched yesterday. And we were reading MAC-FREAKING-BETH!!! Come on! The blood, the gore, the stabbing, the treason, the threats of brain-dashing!! Is there anything more ironic than the fact that these kids can not stay awake for a 50-minute class in which we discuss the man who hath murdered sleep? UGGGGGGGGGG. I literally wanted to throw stuff at them yesterday. But then I went to the other class. I could've sworn I heard angels singing when I opened the door. They're the BEST. They all look at me attentively, take dutiful notes, laugh at all my stupid jokes ... they ALL participate. Everyone's got something to ask or discuss ... it's simply fabulous. They're awesome. When class begins, I close the door of the room because I am a super loud person. The door to this room locks when you shut it, so anyone who comes in late has to knock. I have always gotten a kick out of making students provide a password if they find themselves in a situation like this. The passwords these kids come up with are fantastic. Yesterday I got "Double, Double, Toil, and Trouble," "Cesaropapism," and "Spyrochite." The latter two of course had nothing to do with Macbeth, but they're pretty cool words. Anyhoo, class went super well. I've got this one student (we'll call him RCGJ for his humorously extravagant initials) who is greatly disturbed by the lengths critics go to in order to read homoeroticism into every Shakespeare play. He asked me before lecture on Monday how Dr. FloWo was going to make Macbeth be about cross-dressing transgendered bisexuals, and I said "wait and see!" Anyhoo, yeah, there are some bearded women and Lady Mac says she wants to be unsexed, but there's really quite little in the way of homoeroticism. So we made it the entire recitation without bringing any of it up, but then we started talking about the perversion of nature and, in a flash of inspiration, I said: "RCJG! This is for you!" and I write on the board in huge letters: SODOMY. Everyone busts out laughing, and I realize just how embarassing this could be for poor, unwitting RCGJ, but he was taking it all in stride. I hastily explained about RCJG's frustration with the overemphasis of homoerotic interpretations and quickly shifted into a mini-lecture about how the original meaning of the word "sodomy" was simply "perversion," and it could mean treason, murder, etc, but the damage had been done. Oh well, everyone thought it was funny, including Dr. FloWo, and RCJG was a good sport about it. So Dr. FloWo told me she really enjoyed my teaching style and that it was one of the most entertaining classes she'd ever seen. She did suggest that I incorporate more close reading into the lessons, which is a good idea, and I usually do, but yesterday happened to be a little light on the close reading. It's all good. We then commiserated about how much it sucks to teach comp. I told her that I was afraid I'd never get a job teaching anything but comp, and she said that's unfortunately a very real possibility. The job market for English PhDs is horrendous. Just ... horrendous. There are exactly 16 jobs in my field available right now. 16. In the whole country. And considering that my husband already has a job offer at one of the top law firms in the entire world and we kind of have to go there when we're done with school, my options are even fewer. So yeah, I'm either going to end up teaching comp or teaching in a private school. (yes, it must be private school. I'll gouge out my eyes before I take any classes to get certified to teach public school.) Well, there's no sense being disheartened about job prospects right now. I still have to pass these freaking horrible exams in Feb and then write a dissertation before I can even consider looking for a job. Ugg! Life! Work! What a racket! Ok, I'm going to eat some Ramen and try to not fall asleep as I read crap. Later, taters. |
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