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Good grief! Is this how this semester is going to be?! This is the first week of the semester and I am beset with my busy schedule. Apart from Mondays, my other days are packed with either classes or preparation. Of course I’m not teaching the crazy amounts of back-to-back hours that a language teacher working at a typical English academy does, but then again, I don’t think they have the same amount of university level preparation to do.
I just realized today that if I did not happen to have taught some of the same modules last semester that I’m teaching again this semester, it would have been practically impossible for me to be prepared for my classes. Luckily I have kept my notes from last year, so for a number of my classes I just need to review the work – if possible an hour or two before.
On three of the five teaching days I teach four hours. Take Wednesday for instance, when I start the morning with a meeting, then 19th Century English Poetry (Romantics), followed by a consultation hour, after which I have a language skills class (Listening & Conversation). Thank goodness for a lunch break at noon! Luckily here is a class preparation slot, followed by two hours devoted to Literature & Visual Arts. Thursdays aren’t any less complicated. I start the morning with Basic Vocabulary, followed by a consultation hour. I’m forced to take lunch at 11:00. Next is British & American Essays, and a one hour break before two hours of 19th Century English Poetry. Finishing at four in the afternoon, that gives me just about an hour and a half to prepare for the next day – Thursday evenings I go to Taekwon-Do training so I cannot stay in to work too late. Friday morning I start with a faculty meeting followed by Research Methodology at 9 a.m.
Luckily on Mondays I do not teach in the afternoon so I will try to get more of my preparation done then. Hopefully it will lighten the stress during the rest of the week.
Be that as it may, I am teaching two of my favourite classes this semester, Romantic Poetry and British & American Poetry. I’ve also started with a new class, Literature & Visual Arts. The latter is basically an introduction to Film Theory, focussing on adaptations of Shakespeare plays to film. Luckily I had Film Theory and Critique as a subject in my honour’s year. I remember my academic advisor at the time frowning at my strange selection of subject choices – years later it seems that my idiosyncratic selection was not that peculiar (read: illogical and useless) after all.
I’ve started blogs for two of these classes. You are welcome to follow us online.
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