(Half) bottle of wine. Too inebriated, or tired, to post for really. Let me sum up my day:
I. Freaking. Rocked. My. Section!
They should pretty much hire me right now. C’mon, linguists! I’m ready to go!
Then I came home, celebrated with Lewis, and talked politics all night. Why am I still awake?!
Pretty successful day, for sure, but busy as heck. Feeling a little too disparate to blog successfully. It’s rather late.
Went to class, collected our first round of homeworks from the undergrads. Most everyone turned them in! Much success. Class went well and everyone seemed to be into the morphology thing. Chatted with some kids after class, and busted over to office hours. Spent most of office hours talking to my co-TA and other TAs in the office about Warcraft and other slightly-more-relevant topics. Good times! I do really like the grad students in our department. We’re good folks. Anyway, had my last two sections this week and they both went really well! I think I learned from my Wednesday mistakes and moved forward. Guess we’ll see how the content shapes up this week, when I’ve really got to do the “teaching” part of the ol’ job. Linguistics Graduate Group party after that, which was fun! Went over with another one of the 1st years, who I really like, and chatted with many of the rest of the 1st years. Again.. what a great group! Students and faculty alike. Yay. Came home and graded homeworks and watched crap TV while Lewis was out celebrating his friend’s birthday. These homeworks are gold, but truthfully I’m really glad to see how well all the kids are getting the material. And those that aren’t… pure gold. And lots of material for next week’s discussion sections!
Weekend. Tomorrow. That’s all I really have the steam left to say. Yay!
Waaaaaaay too tired to blog tonight, so here’s my day in (very) brief:
I don’t even want to talk about TAing today, though it’s the major portion of my mental space today. I’ve got some stuff to improve for Friday, for sure.
But first on my list is a whole lotta sleep.
Yurt is about the only sound my brain makes right now. Thanks, brain. Keep on truckin.
Mondays are sort of weird days for me, since I don’t have class, but I’ve got lots of TA stuff to do. Went to campus as early as I could get away with, though still later than I had planned. I wanted to get to the gym in the morning and check it out, if not actually work out, but this morning as my alarm was going off at 6 am and I didn’t need to get to campus until 1… so I missed my first sort of engagement, but no matter. Got to campus with a few hours to spare and did a little library reading. Sadly, I couldn’t get my favorite desk at the biblioteca but I finally found a suitable one upstairs. The library is much bigger than I realized, and I really haven’t had an opportunity to check it out fully yet. I imagine they must have more computer-parts-endowed desks hanging around, but I never saw any today. Success anyway!
Went to LIN 1 and class went fairly well. Kids seemed fairly aware and the topic was fairly interesting for them, I think. Read for a while in between LIN 1 and my next appointment and nearly got all the reading I had intended done. Had a meeting with my co-TA and Professor Ojeda to talk about the stuff we want to do in sections this week. We’re actually only showing a video, so we’re not doing much and the meeting was pretty short. I tagged along with Dionne to her first section so I could see what the materials we had to work with were, and how to operate the VCR and stuff like that. Stayed through her opening schpeel and snuck out at the beginning of the movie. I’m feeling pretty confident about the sections at this point, after getting to see the students in other contexts a few times now. Nothing to worry about!
Came home and finished up my reading, had a lovely dinner with Lewis, and decided to pretty much take the remainder of the night off. I can feel myself getting pretty sapped this afternoon and since I’ve gotten myself fairly well covered for tomorrow I think I better take the chance while I can! Silly as it is, not working is as important as working at this point.
Guess I’m going to start writing these in the mornings, or perhaps more intermittantly overall. This grad school stuff keeps me busy!
Yesterday was my first day in LIN 1, the class I TA for. The way my classes are arranged now, I have all my “real” classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and all my TA classes on MWF. The class went really well! It was just about what I expected – bleary eyed freshman all hping they don’t have to buy the reader and don’t have to come to my discussion sections, which are primarily on Fridays. The good news is, the discussion sections aren’t required, so they won’t show up anyway. Talked with my Co-TA Dionne after class and got some good pointers from her. She’s thinking about maybe getting our in-session exercises done this week so we can hand them to the disabilities center to get translated to Braille for our blind student. Not only is this probably a reasonable idea, it’s also makes my anxiety level really decrease about planning my lessons. If we do them together, especially with such an experienced TA (she’s taught this course, and TAed for it 6 times already!) I really don’t think I can get in too much trouble.
Spent a little while reading on campus after that, and I must say that so far the main library is very satisfactory! Read quite a bit of Saussure in there while waiting for Lewis to get out of his Latin class. I was on so much of a roll with my reading we actually put off meeting until a while later, and I got quite a lot done. I finished up that Saussure last night, and I feel really triumphant about it! It was a thick, heavy, reading and I feel like maybe for the first time I really understood and was totally behind what the author was saying. I think the wiki note taking really does help. Saussure also is a pretty hilarious graph maker, and I think later I’ll put up some of my favorite Saussurian hilari-graphs.
Also had the Linguistics Grad Student Association (do we have an official title like that? I’d like to think so) mixer. Had pizza at Steves, which was bueno! They were sort of finishing up when we finally got there, since my reading took so long, and we wanted to drop by the bookstore and copy shop before hand to get the materials for our new class. Sadly the readers were 45 bucks each, and the books 40 a piece, so we knocked back a few hundred bucks in books yesterday I was hoping we were done with already. Oh well. Anyway, the pizza party was friendly, and it was nice to get to gossip a little bit about what’s going on with our classes and the department and all that. And to verify with our compadres that we’re all a little lost and overwhelmed at the moment. Good times!
Came home, watched the debate, and finished that reading… a very productive night. Debate wasn’t great, but it was interesting. Guess that’s maybe what one should hope for on those things. Today — to Berkeley! Going to see Nina, Armand, and get my hair cut. Should be great!
Having one of those not-knowing-where-to-start blog days. I’ll start at the beginning, and then not really finish anything because I’m tired and it’s time to go to sleep.
Had “New TA Orientation” at the Department this morning which wasn’t much about TAing and was a lot about the professors we’re TAing for sharing their teaching experiences with the new professors. Not much to protest about, it was interesting to listen to and sort of helped put my mind in the framework of what Linguistics 1 is really going to be about. Lots of actual useful information about the types of students, material that is always hard to teach, who to expect to preform well, etc, etc. General goodwill for all.
Followed by “Department Orientation” which wasn’t much new news at all, and rather similar to the graduate student introduction-type day we had in March after we’d all been accepted but before we all committed to coming to UCD. A little more frivolous this time, very amusing, and very jovial. Plus lunch was provided. Anyway, general got to catch up with some other folks, and a good time was had.
Met with the instructor I’m TAing for and my co-TA for this quarter. Co-TA is very nice, professor is very nice, and everyone is twice as organized and twice as well prepared as I was fearing. Not many frets over how TAing is going to go now, as several important things were discovered. First, turns out the sessions aren’t mandatory. Everyone who is there either wants to come, or needs help, both of which are great. Second, the professor’s syllabus lists out exactly what it is the students will expect we’re discussing in sections. Third, the class is rather hard, and the sections realistically will be all problem sets and very little “discussion” or “lecture”. And lastly, the department and the internet are full of wonderful resources for problem sets, and I (lucky me!) even get the answer keys. All I have to be is not boring-as-hell or needlessly confusing, and todo es bueno.
Came home, crashed out a bit, got lots loaded into my calendar (TA stuff mostly) and even put a little light reading under my belt. I got the books for LIN 1 from the professor (another bonus: TAs get those class books for free and can even keep them…) so I thought I’d start putting a dent in the first weeks assigned readings. It’s actually serving to excite me about some of the fundamentals and hows-and-whys of linguistics that got me into the major in the first place. It’s turning out to be a really nice refresher course!
Had a nice hang out with Ben and Maya, possibly my favorite Davisites. Taught Maya cribbage, had lots of tea, and finally got to try out our hookah! Very enjoyable, and rather relaxing. Tomorrow is our last big day off — class doesn’t start till Thursday, and it’s certainly felt like I’ve had a whole weeks worth of stimulation already. Big plans in the works though — pumpkin bread perhaps, and laundry! And perhaps a bit more LIN 1 reading. Phew. I’m really raring to start class though. I’ve gotten all hopped up on orientations and I’m ready to go give my best and all that, tut tut, cheerio, etc.
