genevieve is…

So we started out today by talking about the “micro” teaching assignment each of us has to do tomorrow. Basically I just have to do a 15 minute lesson plan to five peers and an experienced instructor. This seems quite doable…my job is to introduce my course theme by using some sort of primary source. I’m going to focus particularly on research questions and how asking a certain set of research questions might lead me to my primary source because I feel like it’s rather impossible to just come up with a primary source when you haven’t thought of what you might like to research. So…I was thinking about using some examples of facebook groups to ask questions about whether it’s possible to have community on facebook and under what circumstances communities might exist given the rigid form each facebook group must conform to. I’m sure people have written about this sort of thing, but that doesn’t matter much; I just need to get people thinking about what kinds of limitations space might put on community development and what kinds of communities would seek certain spaces.

The second half of the morning and most of the afternoon (after a group picture and lunch provided by our publisher which was no other than Jimmy John’s because those mediocre sandwiches are following me) was spent in the computer lab giving us the opportunity to familiarize ourselves more with the library resources and Carmen aka D2L. It turns out that those awesome librarians have actually come up with some really nice resources for us, down to the powerpoints we can present and the activities we can have our students do in class and for homework. I love librarians! Especially when they make my job easier )

I admit that I have my entire D2L site set up, down to the grades all entered (we’re required to teach a pretty rigid curriculum so much of it was like data entry).

Oooh, I think it’s going to rain. It just got kind of dark in here. I’m picking Lisa up at the airport tonight at 10:30…I am currently counting down the minutes!!

Note first: if you don’t like those rollover snap things, you can disable them. Let one pop up and click on options. I don’t like them either )

So, day 2. Today I got to campus a few minutes later than I planned and therefore got a seat right in the front of the room next to all the other studious people (the woman I sat in front of told me that old people sat in the front. I think she was describing herself but may have been describing me as well). I was sad originally because I wasn’t sitting next to anyone from yesterday, and then realized that this is exactly what I wanted–to meet more new people! So I met )

In workshop this morning Kay Halasek came in to talk to us and told us about the undergraduate curriculum–she sort of contextualized what our course does and when. There are basic writing courses and ESL courses, and there’s also a vertical curriculum. Our class is actual one of three–there’s one at the 300 level that students take as sophomores or juniors and then one in their majors (WID). I found all this pretty fascinating because I really believe in WAC (writing across the curriculum) and WID (writing in the disciplines). The more writing the better!

I then had a fabulous lunch with Michael Harker. I tried to catch him up on what was happening at OU and he gave me some good advice. He was very adamant that I not pick a committee until forced to; the more I get to know the faculty before I ask people the better. Sounds like good advice from my experience as a master’s student (one of my committee members ended up being gone the year I was graduating so I had to find someone else). Also good from lunch, I found out the writing center hires in the spring and was encouraged to apply (WC work would be beyond by 50% appointment in the English department).

This afternoon we had a presentation by the libraries staff and then headed to the computer labs where we’ll be teaching to do some research on our courses. Here was yesterday’s draft of my course description:

Finding (My/Your/Our/A) Space: Understanding Our Communities and Places

In this course we will be looking at the significance of space: the role communities play in forming and transforming spaces, the role space plays in facilitating or limiting community interaction. We will look at how space can be determined and influenced by gender, culture, class and other identity markers, as well as look at how groups of people have formed/used electronic spaces. You will have the opportunity to construct an argument about a facet of the relationship between space and community for your class project.

This will probably change some, though I haven’t committed my new thoughts to paper in light of the assignment sequence.

Well, off to do homework (really, off to watch tv and wait til the last minute to read the bell hooks article for tomorrow)…