After a week of instruction, I am pleased to report that I suffered 0 on-the-job anxiety attacks and have a renewed feeling of confidence for this semester as an over-encumbered grad student (and Assistant Teacher). I am also more pleased to have a classroom of 24 students who are at least functional and engaged enough at 8 in the morning to keep me on my toes. I treated myself to a fancy double-insulated coffee mug to
Monday played out like the usual first-day scenario. Introductions, distribution of syllabi and what I consider a sweet bribe in the form of two dozen donuts. The students seem friendly enough, and only a handful of bulky athlete types who insisted on firm, masculine handshakes. Two or three students seem to have begun nuzzling their way to my favor...and much to my delighted surprise have discussed pronouns with me. I attempted to make abundantly clear that identification/identity politics/social justice is seriously important to me and this course, and will do whatever I can to ensure a sustainably safe, yet coalition-style classroom. After briefly covering what was on the syllabus and receiving frightened-freshman questions concerning textbooks, I let them out 25 minutes shy of the class’s scheduled end.
On Wednesday, things got good. I showed a School of Life video from Youtube on the topic of personal identity, after which requested an informal in-class writing on students’ thoughts of the video and subject matter. After writing, a productive group discussion followed (after some gentle nudging for participation) went smoothly. Personal, relevant stories of family and difficulties navigating the world, paired with existential pontifications on identity after death were stimulating for me to hear, even as a minimally-involved facilitator. I could tell that the same students willing (and ready) to speak up on Monday would likely become the ones I’d soon depend on to encourage their peers to participate in large class discussions. I was surprised that we were nearing the 50 minute mark on the clock, and prompted a conclusion, and that the students were free to go, only after turning in their in-class writings.
By Friday, I could tell a feeling of mutual exhaustion pervaded the classroom, but was committed to continue the conversation of identity--this time, complicating things with the ideas of intersectionality and privilege. After watching 2 short Buzzfeed videos, I asked the class to write in response to three questions:
Why is Privilege relevant in our discussion of identity?
Why is Privilege important to think about or discuss at all?
After writing for ten minutes or so, I divided students into groups and asked them to review their peers’ writing and to begin the process of peer revision. Well, it was a good idea, but what actually happened were about 6 conversations about privilege within the small groups. I didn’t see much text-tweaking, but felt their discussions were on topic and resisted intervening. I guess we’ll get to the nitty gritty on writing soon enough...
