Balancing the Madness

I think Chapter 10 of Curzan and Damour, as usual, provides some valuable practical advice for surviving the first year of teaching. I plan to use this summer extensively for the "frontloading" that they suggest. I'm going to read and re-read White Noise, immerse myself in The World is a Text, and polish my syllabus and class notes to an uncanny shine. I think I may even try to get a good deal of my handouts copied and filed before the semester ever begins. I feel that if I go into the semester with organized materials and a really clear idea of what I'm trying to do, then I will succeed (in not making a fool of myself, and wasting my students' time).

I also appreciated the fact that Curzan and Damour took the stigma off "sharing the burden." Personally, I plan to use a lot of activities that will shift the focus away from me as awkward spectacle and towards the group as interactive community. And if I can find anyone foolhardy enough to volunteer as a guest speaker, then I guarantee I will take him/her up on it. Diversity is conducive to learning, and, besides, I can guarantee there will be weeks that I just don't want to lecture for an hour straight. Actually, I hope to very rarely (if ever) rely on the traditional, marathon-lecture format for my classes. Such a structure seems both overly taxing and likely to induce rampant snoring.