Hot damn. I have a new respect for my teachers, especially the ones whose primary course evaluation method involves grading essays. If my kids ask me one more time when they are getting their papers back, I'm going to explode. This week, young ones. I'll get them to you this week.
Yes, this is why I've been absent. Because I'm a teacher, but I'm also still a student, and I have not yet found the balance among being Tim, Mr. Sisk, and Bookspaz the Blogger. So the ol' blog has taken a backseat to the drama theory I've been reading, the rhetorical analysis I've been teaching. Now, I'm snatching a minute while my clothes tumble and my coffee gets cold to get a bit of blogging done. Here goes.
I've applied, been accepted, and had a phone interview for the Southern Teachers Agency. This means when private and independent schools around the South start looking for English teachers, my very friendly placement counselor, Jay, will match me up with them for interviews with principals, and I might be employed next year. When I asked my thesis advisor to write me a letter of rec for this program, she rolled her eyes a bit. I shouldn't teach high school, she says. Then she proceeded to give me the name of the English Dept. Chair at the community college here in Knoxville. So, I'll apply there too, but I bet I won't have much luck. There's an academic glut in East Tennessee.
What I really want to do is work in a bakery for a year or so. I've always wanted to learn to decorate cakes, and baking is one of my Most Favorite Things To Do. It calms me. Focuses my attention on something so my mind won't scuttle around among the jostling thoughts of papers to grade, books to read, exams to prepare for, boys to stop myself from loving. There's one in Knoxville I adore. I might see if I can weasel my way into a position there this summer. We'll see.
I just don't want to be one of those aimless wanderers with a Master's degree in English. I want a job and and a dog and a two-bedroom apartment. That's why I'm making plans so soon.
In other news, the teaching is going well except for the fact that I'm never as good in my first class as I am in my second. Every MWF I leave the first group (or rather, they leave me since I teach back-to-back in the same classroom) feeling like those kids deserve a better teacher. But I'm what they've got, and I'll keep on trucking along. I'm still getting my land legs, y'all.
I've made up my mind to ride my bike to Panera Bread today and write a little. I haven't had time to write much of anything besides emails and paper comments this week, and I've got some poems I need to get out of my head. You all know the feeling.
I hope everyone is well. I hope you're all registered to vote. I hope you're all voting for Obama (one of my friend's students spelled his name, "O'Bama.") Love.
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4 comments:
OMG, you are such a grown-up Timothy!!
Decorating cakes sounds lovely! I don't want to, but I love a good cake person so maybe you could come to Texas and decorate then you could be my cake guy for all my parties at home and at work. Oh, Timothy, think of the fun we'd have!! We would be such a great team!!
Okay, sorry, I got all excited and went a little overboard, but still...
Glad you're back, I've missed your posts--and glad all is going well, if busy.
I think you should consider the bakery gig--maybe you could teach somewhere during the year and do the bakery thing part time--
great writing material-
Where you teach depends on the kind of students you want--I'm sure you know you'd have vastly different students at a private high school vs. a community college. You could make a difference in either place, just a different kind. Though at a private high school, you'd have to deal with PARENTS, even worse, PARENTS WITH MONEY!
Just a thought.
O'bama, the Irish Catholic African-American. I like it.
Steph's right about teaching at a private school. The whole educational conversation will be between you and the parents - worse yet, they're paying big bucks to tell you what to do on every ten-point assignment.
Thanks, but no thanks.
A public school in need presents a different set of problems, but those are all student-centered. Count on almost zero parent support there.
Adjuncting is wonderful, but it simply doesn't pay the bills. Period.
No matter what you do, I say bake some cakes to either keep your sanity or help keep the lights on.
As far as grading papers, here's what I tell them: Sure, I can grade your 100 papers on one day-long grading marathon session. I get kind of mean after the second hour, though...
That should do it.
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