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May 01, 2007

Class(es) over

Today was the last day of my WRT 195 classes, which are also the last face-to-face classes I will teach for Syracuse University. And that means that I am now free of the classroom for a good 16 month stretch. It's a pretty exhilarating feeling, when I think about it. There is so much attached to that presence in the classroom, as either a student or a teacher, that it feels like a giant relief not to have to face it for awhile. I have so many things I want to be doing, to be writing about, to be researching to write about, and maybe now that I am really on self-structure I'm excited about being able to do all of that. I kept my teaching journal up this semester, something I usually overlook. I think that was because I felt like it wasn't a good semester. I'm not sure whether it was because my classes ended up being so small, or if it was because the students were so disinterested, or if it was because I was so caught up in my exams, but nothing felt natural, or even comfortable. I always felt like I was trying too hard and getting little back. That's unusual for me in a classroom.

In other news, for those who are interested in such things, I received word that I passed the written portion of my exams. Whoo-hoo!

So now, it's on to the conversations, and the oral hearing, and the diss committee formation, and the prospectus, and the writing, and the beginning of the job search, and the teaching portfolio, which will need a major revision at this point, and getting the letters and so on and so on.

And I find myself thinking about where that next job will be. And hoping that it will be somewhere that I can be and do all the things I've been telling myself I can be and do when I am somewhere else, and still let the life I've built here grow. Not such an easy bridge to cross, now that the time is here to start across it.

Posted by cageyer at May 1, 2007 05:51 PM

Comments

Posted by: krawson at May 1, 2007 06:38 PM