Comments on: … was the best part of my day? http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2007/10/20/was-the-best-part-of-my-day/ A working notebook Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:06:51 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=1.5.1-alpha by: Nate http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2007/10/20/was-the-best-part-of-my-day/#comment-2044 Sun, 28 Oct 2007 13:01:10 +0000 http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2007/10/20/was-the-best-part-of-my-day/#comment-2044 hey E, I think conditions for big parts of our industry are pretty bad, and it's pretty scary for me and I think for a lot of us. I think more of us need to work seriously on unionizing, but it's easier to day that than to do that. It's an uphill battle as usual. take care, Nate hey E,
I think conditions for big parts of our industry are pretty bad, and it’s pretty scary for me and I think for a lot of us. I think more of us need to work seriously on unionizing, but it’s easier to day that than to do that. It’s an uphill battle as usual.
take care,
Nate

]]> by: e http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2007/10/20/was-the-best-part-of-my-day/#comment-2043 Sat, 27 Oct 2007 23:01:48 +0100 http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2007/10/20/was-the-best-part-of-my-day/#comment-2043 Nate, your post here really struck a cord with me. I find myself often depressed when I am unemployed outside of semesters. And I would agree with you that teaching is both energizing and tiring, at least that is my experience of such work. It is such a great feeling though when you realize students have 'got it' and the reason they 'get it' is because of your work with them. I also got some lovely emails from students at the end of this semester, thanking me for the experience and just, well, being me in the classroom. But I'm in the doldrums a bit now due to being out of work again...not that I really like work, but I enjoy the contact with people and the money to buy food... I'm not sure tutoring/instructing work is long term viable or sustainable though...? Does that seem the case where you work? Or is that just my crap experience of tutoring? Nate, your post here really struck a cord with me. I find myself often depressed when I am unemployed outside of semesters. And I would agree with you that teaching is both energizing and tiring, at least that is my experience of such work. It is such a great feeling though when you realize students have ‘got it’ and the reason they ‘get it’ is because of your work with them. I also got some lovely emails from students at the end of this semester, thanking me for the experience and just, well, being me in the classroom. But I’m in the doldrums a bit now due to being out of work again…not that I really like work, but I enjoy the contact with people and the money to buy food… I’m not sure tutoring/instructing work is long term viable or sustainable though…? Does that seem the case where you work? Or is that just my crap experience of tutoring?

]]> by: Nate http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2007/10/20/was-the-best-part-of-my-day/#comment-2016 Sat, 20 Oct 2007 14:43:46 +0100 http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2007/10/20/was-the-best-part-of-my-day/#comment-2016 Y'all are funny. Todd, it's true. I'd like to poison your mind with wrong ideas that appeal to you. Though I am not unkind. xox, Nate Y’all are funny. Todd, it’s true.

I’d like to poison your mind with wrong ideas that appeal to you. Though I am not unkind.

xox,
Nate

]]> by: todd http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2007/10/20/was-the-best-part-of-my-day/#comment-2015 Sat, 20 Oct 2007 14:33:39 +0100 http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2007/10/20/was-the-best-part-of-my-day/#comment-2015 yeah i miss this shit about teaching in the small bits i got to experience. I think i'd be good at it too. I know you'd be an awesome teacher, because you convince me of bad ideas all the time but so persuasively! ;) yeah i miss this shit about teaching in the small bits i got to experience. I think i’d be good at it too. I know you’d be an awesome teacher, because you convince me of bad ideas all the time but so persuasively! ;)

]]> by: Andrew http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2007/10/20/was-the-best-part-of-my-day/#comment-2014 Sat, 20 Oct 2007 12:16:27 +0100 http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2007/10/20/was-the-best-part-of-my-day/#comment-2014 Nate, you mean to stay you are not driven by an insatiable lust to "make a critical intervention in your field"? You don't above all aspire to "make an original contribution to scholarly knowledge"?! Heretic! You must rid your author-function of these egalo-pedagogocentric manias! Nate, you mean to stay you are not driven by an insatiable lust to “make a critical intervention in your field”? You don’t above all aspire to “make an original contribution to scholarly knowledge”?!

Heretic! You must rid your author-function of these egalo-pedagogocentric manias!

]]> by: Nate http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2007/10/20/was-the-best-part-of-my-day/#comment-2012 Sat, 20 Oct 2007 10:20:41 +0100 http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2007/10/20/was-the-best-part-of-my-day/#comment-2012 Thanks Andrew, NP. The post _is_ a bit of a "get by w/ a little help from my friends" kind of thing, a little bit of bragging as well, neither of which I'm 100% comfortable. The other thing is just that, I dunno, teaching is cool! I really like it! Luckily I'm teaching all material that I know really well, it's material that works well for a discussion heavy class and I'm good at (have much experience at) facilitating discussion and getting folk to talk and talk to each other (I'm way worse at lecture), so the prep time is relatively pretty low. Which is great, given that I'm tired. I do assign a whole lot of writing assignments and whatnot, a bit more work, but so far really generative - they come up with interesting problems and questions and they follow blind alleys and dead ends that it's useful to address etc. I think I said this already but there was one moment in late September I think that really struck me - we were reading the some passage from Capital and I said "okay, what's at issue here?" or some other standards kick off question, and three students all at the same time said "it's the relative and the equivalent forms" or something close to that involving the words "relative and equivalent." That was absolutely right, which it's always nice when they get things right, but the timing and the exact use of the phrase was really striking. I stammered a bit for a moment out of sheer enjoyment. NP, I'm not _really_ going to pack it in, but I'll definitely let you know if I ever need a yelling at. I don't know how to do anything else, and bailing short of employability in teaching would be remarkably foolish, having already jumped through so many stupid hoops thus far. :) Plus I really do like being here compared to any other option (one form of waged labor corrects the abuse of another, so to speak), particularly the interaction with students. On teaching vs writing, I just had a thought - one overblown way to describe a difference among people who work as academics is as a continuum between their interest in ontogeny and phyologeny in relation to intellectual work. I'm pretty far from the latter. I have no idea of producing a striking and important new reading of anything. That prospect doesn't particularly move me. I'm not really interested in inaugurating a novel gloss on Marx, say, so much as I'm interested in personally reading a whole lot of Marx closely and thinking the things that one generally thinks - becoming slightly different as a person/subject - as a result of that experience. What I am very excited about is the ontogenesis of certain types of thought with students - I really like the idea of helping students write one of their first halfway decent essays, helping them work through one of the first really really hard books they've ever read, etc. (No implied criticism here of anyone, just a description that just hit me about the type of work I'm pretty sure I want to do, teach a bunch and engage closely w/ students on things that are novel or at a level of quality that is novel for them, vs the work that some friends are pretty sure they want to do, write a bunch and engage closely with problems and produce work which is novel for anyone because it solves old problems and poses new ones. Of course, the training requires both areas of focus, which is a good thing. Rambling now, and really should get back to work. take care, Nate Thanks Andrew, NP. The post _is_ a bit of a “get by w/ a little help from my friends” kind of thing, a little bit of bragging as well, neither of which I’m 100% comfortable. The other thing is just that, I dunno, teaching is cool! I really like it! Luckily I’m teaching all material that I know really well, it’s material that works well for a discussion heavy class and I’m good at (have much experience at) facilitating discussion and getting folk to talk and talk to each other (I’m way worse at lecture), so the prep time is relatively pretty low. Which is great, given that I’m tired. I do assign a whole lot of writing assignments and whatnot, a bit more work, but so far really generative - they come up with interesting problems and questions and they follow blind alleys and dead ends that it’s useful to address etc. I think I said this already but there was one moment in late September I think that really struck me - we were reading the some passage from Capital and I said “okay, what’s at issue here?” or some other standards kick off question, and three students all at the same time said “it’s the relative and the equivalent forms” or something close to that involving the words “relative and equivalent.” That was absolutely right, which it’s always nice when they get things right, but the timing and the exact use of the phrase was really striking. I stammered a bit for a moment out of sheer enjoyment.

NP, I’m not _really_ going to pack it in, but I’ll definitely let you know if I ever need a yelling at. I don’t know how to do anything else, and bailing short of employability in teaching would be remarkably foolish, having already jumped through so many stupid hoops thus far. :) Plus I really do like being here compared to any other option (one form of waged labor corrects the abuse of another, so to speak), particularly the interaction with students.

On teaching vs writing, I just had a thought - one overblown way to describe a difference among people who work as academics is as a continuum between their interest in ontogeny and phyologeny in relation to intellectual work. I’m pretty far from the latter. I have no idea of producing a striking and important new reading of anything. That prospect doesn’t particularly move me. I’m not really interested in inaugurating a novel gloss on Marx, say, so much as I’m interested in personally reading a whole lot of Marx closely and thinking the things that one generally thinks - becoming slightly different as a person/subject - as a result of that experience. What I am very excited about is the ontogenesis of certain types of thought with students - I really like the idea of helping students write one of their first halfway decent essays, helping them work through one of the first really really hard books they’ve ever read, etc. (No implied criticism here of anyone, just a description that just hit me about the type of work I’m pretty sure I want to do, teach a bunch and engage closely w/ students on things that are novel or at a level of quality that is novel for them, vs the work that some friends are pretty sure they want to do, write a bunch and engage closely with problems and produce work which is novel for anyone because it solves old problems and poses new ones. Of course, the training requires both areas of focus, which is a good thing.

Rambling now, and really should get back to work.

take care,
Nate

]]> by: Andrew http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2007/10/20/was-the-best-part-of-my-day/#comment-2011 Sat, 20 Oct 2007 08:30:42 +0100 http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2007/10/20/was-the-best-part-of-my-day/#comment-2011 Nate, Based on the helpful, courteous, and affirmative mode you've always exemplified in our (limited) correspondence and your general comportment, I have little doubt that you are a really good instructor (I wish I were in your course on Capital!). I taught for a year after completing an MA, and thus had the advantage of putting all my focus there (no simultaneous research or grad work). It was revelation to me, because I was finally socializing and sharing my knowledge with dozens of young people. It was, at times, supremely frustrating teaching English 101 to disaffected commerce students, granted. But when things "hit," I'd leave classes feeling high. I've also gone through the transmission from a summer something like yours to the stress of being an overworked, "underpaid" academic (my last summer). Not fun. One of the things that keeps my head up is hearing the voices of old fuckers like Doug Dowd and Howard Zinn. Dowd's in his eighties and continues to hold delightfully acerbic classes (there's mp3s on his site: http://www.dougdowd.org/). I find hope and measure in Doug Dowd's phlegm. Whatever you do, we're rooting for you! Nate,

Based on the helpful, courteous, and affirmative mode you’ve always exemplified in our (limited) correspondence and your general comportment, I have little doubt that you are a really good instructor (I wish I were in your course on Capital!).

I taught for a year after completing an MA, and thus had the advantage of putting all my focus there (no simultaneous research or grad work). It was revelation to me, because I was finally socializing and sharing my knowledge with dozens of young people. It was, at times, supremely frustrating teaching English 101 to disaffected commerce students, granted. But when things “hit,” I’d leave classes feeling high.

I’ve also gone through the transmission from a summer something like yours to the stress of being an overworked, “underpaid” academic (my last summer). Not fun.

One of the things that keeps my head up is hearing the voices of old fuckers like Doug Dowd and Howard Zinn. Dowd’s in his eighties and continues to hold delightfully acerbic classes (there’s mp3s on his site: http://www.dougdowd.org/). I find hope and measure in Doug Dowd’s phlegm.

Whatever you do, we’re rooting for you!

]]> by: N. Pepperell http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2007/10/20/was-the-best-part-of-my-day/#comment-2009 Sat, 20 Oct 2007 04:28:27 +0100 http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2007/10/20/was-the-best-part-of-my-day/#comment-2009 I feel this way about teaching, as well - that it's simultaneously exhausting and energising. It's good watching students refract the sorts of things that happen in the classroom: I remember one point last term (when I had a horrific teaching load, and was really barely managing to cover it all), I happened to be standing beside the door as students were trickling into a stat course (which is far from being the thing I teach best, and which has had a reputation for being something students really dislike taking), and I could overhear all the students making stat jokes with one another - as in, not jokes <em>about</em> the class, but jokes that deployed some of the concepts we had been covering - it was a lovely unintentional demonstration of the way things were actually sinking in, and making some difference in how the students think... A friend who was teaching for the first time this past term was really struck by how difficult the work is - how much time it takes to prepare, how much energy goes into all of it - and was basically asking how they get anyone to keep doing this. But it has its own strange attractions... On the issue of your work in a broader sense: if it helps, I like your voice, and think you are placing important things into the general discussion - if you get tempted to walk away, let me know, and I'll yell at you a bit... ;-P I feel this way about teaching, as well - that it’s simultaneously exhausting and energising. It’s good watching students refract the sorts of things that happen in the classroom: I remember one point last term (when I had a horrific teaching load, and was really barely managing to cover it all), I happened to be standing beside the door as students were trickling into a stat course (which is far from being the thing I teach best, and which has had a reputation for being something students really dislike taking), and I could overhear all the students making stat jokes with one another - as in, not jokes about the class, but jokes that deployed some of the concepts we had been covering - it was a lovely unintentional demonstration of the way things were actually sinking in, and making some difference in how the students think…

A friend who was teaching for the first time this past term was really struck by how difficult the work is - how much time it takes to prepare, how much energy goes into all of it - and was basically asking how they get anyone to keep doing this. But it has its own strange attractions…

On the issue of your work in a broader sense: if it helps, I like your voice, and think you are placing important things into the general discussion - if you get tempted to walk away, let me know, and I’ll yell at you a bit… ;-P

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