As mid-terms are now over for both me AND the undergrads, I now have time to catch up on what I've been neglecting for...dear God, a month. Last entry: September 30th. That's just embarrassing. Let's do this thing...
The next blog prompt on the docket seems like it's sort of a general self assessment; an examination of issues we're wrestling with as future teachers/current document instructors/academic theorists. What am I wrestling with? Nothing, so far, has struck me a huge curve ball. Lubbock itself is an adjustment; I really feel like my performance as a graduate student would be enhanced if I could get beer at a 7-11 and lived two to three hundred miles closer to my friends, but other than that, things are mostly fine.
Actually, the students themselves surprise me a little, and I am having to wrestle with what they DON'T know relative to my own reality as a college freshman. I'm not trying to sound like an asshole here, but my parents are both academics, and I knew how to write a complete sentence when I got to college. I'm having to condition myself not to judge these people just because they can't write beautifully. On the one hand, I often expect better than what they're handing in, on the other, I know the bulk of them are probably better at math/hard science than I am, and will doubtless make more money than I ever will.
Approaching the students with a less judgmental eye has softened me as a grader. What were Cs at the start of the semester are probably low Bs most of the time now. That only bothers me in that I worry I'll be a malleable instructor next year. Maybe I'm trying to be too nice for this gig.
Anyway, point being- I like grad school. I'm not struggling too hard yet, with anything. We'll see if that sticks.
-Golsan Out
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