Poetics and prosody

[icepixie]

It feels weird only having one class that I have to go to campus for. (Thesis hours technically count as a class, but my thesis is starting to become a process of "take a month to write a chapter, discuss it with my director for an hour, take another month to write another chapter, etc." so...yeah.) I think I'm going to very much enjoy this class, though; it's kind of a poetic forms throughout the ages class, with a particular focus on lyric--or at any rate that's what we're starting with--and obviously this will be helpful to my thesis. The prof is a wonderful, hugely entertaining guy. This should be excellent.

Tomorrow I make my students WRITE! Mwahahaha! BTW, did I mention that before our first class meeting yesterday, one of my kids went on Blackboard, found the syllabus, and brought in his homework for Friday? It was just signing a piece of paper saying he agreed to abide by the syllabus requirements (my goal was to have them figure out how to print things from Blackboard, since they'll need it for class readings), but still. That's kind of amazing.

Comments

[wildtiger7.livejournal.com]

According to a friend of mine who teaches college biology, those pieces of paper with the student's signature come in very handy when, later in the semester, they show up complaining about how "they didn't know" or "weren't aware of" a particular requirement. She'd wave it in their face and ask if that was their signature, and they most certainly did know.

[icepixie]

That is exactly why I wrote up my syllabus contract and made them sign it. No one's going to get by with "I didn't know about this requirement!" in my class.

[alto2.livejournal.com]

Remind me again how long your program is? Is this your last year, or do you have another after it? I'm trying to put your thesis time in context, among other things :)

(Hmm, am I allowed to use this icon anymore?)

[icepixie]

This is my last year of a two-year program, yes. My thesis/oral exam on the MA reading list are due/take place in April, but I'm aiming to finish a full draft of the thesis by the end of January. (I'm making some revisions along the way, and some will probably be stuck at the end, especially after my other two readers get ahold of it.)

(Hmm, am I allowed to use this icon anymore?)

Sure, why not? ;) (BTW, is LMBU an abbreviation for something else? I have to admit, I'm not sure I've ever entirely gotten that icon, aside from thinking of it as basically "teacher icon." Maybe that's all you mean by it...)

[alto2.livejournal.com]

Thanks for clarifying! Good luck with all the writing, to be sure.

As for the icon, no, you wouldn't get it without some explanation, so no worries! It hails back to the heady days of 2004 on the Bartlet4America West Wing forum, wherein a twit by the name of jivadent went on at great length about how teaching was the easiest job on earth because you needed no brain whatsoever, which was good since all teachers were, by definition, quite lazy and relied on the magic books with all the answers given to them by their schools. Needless to say, this went over, as my mom would say, like a pregnant high-jumper with the many teachers on the board. While we were giving him substantial pieces of our minds in response, the board owner made up icons for those of us who were on LJ. So it's definitely an in-joke, but fortunately one that I don't think is impossible for other folks to get! :)

[nickless.livejournal.com]

*beats twit with a stick* Funny how the people who say that are the ones who, if put in front of a classroom themselves, would either run crying from the room after a few short hours or would blather on endlessly, totally oblivious to the fact that they weren't "teaching" anyone anything.

And in other news, I LOVE the Evil Teacher Club icon. :)

*waves* Hi Becca! I'll give you back your post now!

[alto2.livejournal.com]

He was definitely a twit deserving of many a beating. Which we were happy to provide on many occasions. I think we even used that argument on him more than once, though of course he insisted he would have been fine in front of a class because hey! He would have the magic book. Moron.

Not sure how much longer I'm qualified to use either teacher icon, since I'm not one anymore, but glad you approve! :)

[icepixie]

Good luck with all the writing, to be sure.

Thanks!

*headdesks at the twit* Hell, even when I was in GRADE SCHOOL I didn't think teachers had it easy. (Of course, my dad was a teacher up until about seven years ago. BUT STILL.)

[nickless.livejournal.com]

Not sure how much longer I'm qualified to use either teacher icon, since I'm not one anymore

I think once you've been in the trenches, you get(?) to carry the label forever. Kinda like being in the Marines...