Teaching and Tech

This Chronicle article has me thinking more about effective teaching, especially as I continue to struggle with my current class.  Its primary claim is that technology works best in the classroom when it fosters stronger connections between teacher and student.  This has been the idea that I've been circling around in the past week, that key to a productive classroom is one in which there is a strong connection between teacher and students.  In my current classroom, because the students came in with such strong connections already among themselves, it's been difficult to get their attention focused elsewhere. 

I've spent the past week meeting with students about their first papers--part of my intention in doing so has been to try to forge stronger connections individually with students, in an effort to improve the classroom.  I want them to engage with the class material during class time, rather than be chatting and passing notes about their social lives.  Friday, they workshopped their rough drafts in class, and I had them pair up with a random partner, in order to cut down on extraneous "underlife." 

I noticed an interesting change Monday.  In general, the students were a bit more focused and participated in class discussion more (partly after realizing that they wouldn't get 10s for participation just for showing up).  However, my overachiever student had the student newspaper out and read for part of class instead of participating.  I wonder if he's protesting my not letting him write the treatise on the effect of commercialism on marriages he wanted to write, instead of the assigned rhetorical analysis of a print ad?  Or perhaps I'm reading too much into it.

Either way, I realize that for the first time I'm missing that sense of "wonder" in the material.  This is definitely a sign I need to shake something up.  I really wish that the department would go ahead and announce fall teaching assignments; knowing what I'm working toward in the fall might be helpful in facing the rest of the semester, too.  I think I'm more generally missing a sense of "wonder" right now--even though my reading for class/comps is right down my alley right now, I don't want to read.  The part of my brain that translates words into meaning is tired.  It's not too terribly bad--when I feel this terribly, I get up and work out, or do something crafty (I haven't been too musical lately--that might help).  Still, when I come back to the book,  it's still feeling like work.

As I write this, I realize that (with a few exceptions), I have been enjoying the writing side of things more lately.  I'm quite happy with the pedagogy conference paper I'm giving this week (ironically, I suppose--though it's about group projects, which I really enjoyed last semester), and once I get through this new round of revisions for the <expletive omitted> Transatlantic paper I received two days ago, I'm looking forward to the writing projects I have going which I actually am excited about.  Hmmm.  Perhaps I should keep my focus on writing--I've got a really good writing partner right now, and our commitment to meet once a week has kept me working diligently on writing. 

And here's why writing is important--it allows me realizations such as this.

The boredom continues

I just finished reading through this first set of rough drafts from my second year composition class.  They were okay.  It's the first paper, and it's a rhetorical analysis of a print advertisement.  As usual, there was quite a bit of writing about the advertisement industry instead of focused analysis on the ad itself, and the typical organization and clarity issues.  But nothing too unusual.

Still, I feel bored.  The next time I teach this class, I'm going to need to come up with a different analytical paper to start with.  I'm feeling completely unmotivated to go look at the assignments for the week and try to come up with some lesson plans.  Blah.

In other news, last night I was pleased to receive an email that I should be receiving proofs of my article fixing to be published--and then today, they emailed back and said that I need to put it into Chicago, not MLA style, stat.  So, tonight I'll be watching Downton Abbey and fixing footnotes.  It's not a big thing, but it is tedious.  And adding to my peevish mood.

I've got a novel to finish this week, too--Black Thunder: Gabriel's Revolt, Virginia 1800--along with a couple of chapters of Cotton's Queer Relations, and I've got to fit in a viewing of Mandigo, as well.  Next week, we read Absalom, Absalom--one of my all time favorite novels.  I need to go talk to the professor of this class again, though I just stopped by office hours this past week.  I had a mentoring lunch with a WGS professor this week (which is such a wonderful idea, and I'm so grateful that we're doing this this semester), and in response to my question about whether it's a problem that my committee is currently made up of three men, the professor strongly urged me to consider asking my Queer South professor to be on my committee.  True, this professor is a major reason why I came here, but she's been gone for the past year and a half, and I haven't had a chance to work with her at all. 

At the WGS retreat yesterday, my WGS mentor said that she'd thought about it more and thinks its even more important that I get her on my committee, as her work really lines up with my own.  Sigh.  I need to find a way to approach this that doesn't feel like asking people to the prom, which is what it feels like right now.  I know that every single person I've asked for advice about how to get through a phd program without regrets or bitterness has emphasized the importance of having the right committee, which may be adding to the stress I feel about this.

I think I get Tuesday off this week, which I haven't had in a couple of weeks.  I'm supposed to go to dance class Monday night, but I'm feeling quite reluctant about that, too.  I missed this past week (I went to sleep instead), and I believe we're at the point where we're expected to dance with partners.  I don't want to dance with a partner.  It's not like West Coast Swing, which I feel more comfortable with--I think this Chicago Swing is much more of an intimate dance experience.

Oh, peevishness.  I shall relocate myself upstairs now, and settle in for the two-hour Downton Abbey.  I expect that it will lighten my mood somewhat.

A better day

After my less-than-stellar experience presenting Wednesday, Thursday I started the day by having my teaching evaluated.  (I might add that this was not automatic; I requested the evaluation.  Since I've been at LSU, no one besides my students has seen me teach.)  The new director of Women and Gender Studies sat in on my 10:40 section of Intro to WGS.  Though I enjoy both of my sections,  there are many more engaged, participatory students in my 10:40 class than there are in my noon one. 

Class went so well.  Tuesday I had handed out the final paper assignment, in which students will do a researched analysis of some sort of pop culture product; Thursday's reading was about gender construction in pop culture.  In introducing the concept of the "male gaze," I showed a short clip of Ripley in her underwear in Alien, and contrasted that with the scene in Firefly where Captain Mal is completely naked.  As I think the concept of the "male gaze" can be overused and a bit abstract, I was quite happy with how distinctly different the camera work is in these two different shots.  Ripley's body is panned over slowly, or framed in a voyeuristic way, or the camera focuses on her crotch or her midriff.  Mal is seen either from the waist up, or when we see his entire naked body, the camera is still, just including him as part of the shot.  That he interacts with other people while naked takes away any vestiges of voyeurism the viewer might feel in checking out his clearly visible tattoo.

And, by yesterday afternoon, Dr. Bratton had sent me a glowing evaluation for my perusal and revision.  The only revision I suggested was that, while I enjoyed reading her reference to "Dr. Miller," I'm not there yet. 

I'm glad to have ended the week on a positive note.  And I finished a book on both my independent study and gender exam lists today, and posted a write-up of it on bellatricksy, which is a nice feeling of accomplishment.  I realized today, though, that I haven't plowed through my independent study list as much as I'd like to have, so that's definitely moved up on my priority list.  Next up: Susan Bordo's Unbearable Weight--and the two presentations I'm making Tuesday.  Happy weekend!