Monday, August 25, 2008

In the deep end

My schedule is coming together for fall quarter, and only a few more things need to fall into place before the first day of school: 1 class, 1 lab meeting, 1 journal meeting and -- duh duh duh -- my TA assignment.

Yes, I am being dramatic, but only because I now know a) which class* I'm TAing, and b) that I'll be teaching my own section. Of a class I've never taken. And only have cursory knowledge of the subject matter.

Thankfully, I don't think the subject matter is difficult at all, but still, I'm a little nervous. I was hoping my first TA position would mean office hours and grading papers. Guess not.

Anyway, I probably would feel comfortable teaching a class only if I'm super well-versed in the subject matter, like...

1. grantwriting
2. capital campaign strategy, circa 1998
3. kleenex technique in psychotherapy
4. singing in the car
5. underwater bubble-blowing

That's all I can think of right now. If I know nothing else about getting a doctorate, it's that I better get used to being thrown into the deep end.

* Voice and Articulation Improvement -- "Voice production and the sound system of standard American speech. Speech standards, regional and social dialects, voice quality and basic language-oriented characteristics. Practice for improving speech style."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

And teach our president how to pronounce "nuclear" while you're at it.