Year 2, Week 1 at Grad School

Image taken from www.centsai.com.

Last week saw the start
of my second year of grad school. It was also the start of my third semester as
a graduate teaching assistant (a very different GTA). I’m taking two
classes and an independent study (well, one of the classes was turned into an independent
study). These are Writing for Multimedia, Survey of Children’s Literature, and
an independent study on director Ishiro Honda (hey,
it lets me get school credit for the research I’m doing for my new podcast). This makes my
schedule a bit odd, but I’m getting used to it.

This was the best first
week of teaching I’ve had. Admittedly, I’ve only been doing this a year, but it
was still the best. I’m more confident as a GTA and trying some new methods
that should encourage my students to be more engaged with the material. That’s
hard to do when it’s a gen ed freshman composition class. My students are the
liveliest I’ve had yet, which is exciting, but it does present its own set of
challenges. Now instead of trying to make them talk, I have to keep them quiet.
It’s almost like me a substitute teacher again.

Also, my new students
have some incredible names. I have a Latino boy named Axel (his parents are
Guns ‘n’ Roses fans); a guy whose last name is Harkenrider (he belongs in a Star Wars movie or a fantasy novel, so I’m
stealing that name); and a black girl named
Peyton Mann (but ironically her parents aren’t Colts
fans).

I might be having too
much fun. But you can never have too much fun, right?

Right?!

Have you gone to grad school or
worked as a teacher? What are some fun experiences you had?

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