Today, my semester begins, atrociously early if you ask me. Still, I start teaching the course I designed, English 102: Inquiry into Friendship, at 10:10--a little over an hour away. I'm not nearly as nervous about the first day of classes this semester like I was back in August. I've got my land legs now, and I have an airtight syllabus that covers my ass against all the brouhaha I faced last semester. I hope. Plus, I've missed being in the classroom. Bitching and moaning aside, I love teaching. I love my students. I love wearing teacher clothes and being called Mr. Sisk. It's going to be a good semester.
It's going to be my last semester, at least for a while. I graduate in May, and I've already started applying for teaching jobs. One in Little Rock, one in Baltimore, one in Cincinnati. I'll be applying all over the place, so wish me luck. This economy is just awful. I wish I could stay in my beloved East Tennessee for work, but I doubt that will happen, what with the massive lecturer layoff at UT and the academic glut in Knoxville. I don't want to think about packing up all my stuff, U-hauling it to God-knows-where, unpacking it in the late July heat. Even more I don't want to think about leaving my friends behind in Knoxville. I have the greatest friends, y'all.
So I won't think about it. Right now, I'll think about what jokes I can crack on the first day of teaching and how I'm looking forward to happy hour tonight with Leah, Noel, and Eric. I'll think about how grateful I am to my professor Art Smith for giving me a copy of James Wright's collected poems, and I think I'll even try my hand at writing something Wright-inspired before I dash off to campus. God knows I need to write; I've been slacking.
Happy tidings to everyone. Keep the dream alive.
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3 comments:
Good to see you back, Tim. Sometime you'll have to tell me about what happened last semester :)
You should apply for PhD program. I have no doubt you could get an assistantship. I know you want to teach high school, but you should still see what someone might offer you.
Of course, if you get a job in LR, UALR is supposed to be finally starting their PhD in digital rhetoric. You could work on that AND STILL teach HS.
(I know, always pushing. My kids say the same thing).
:)
Laura
good luck on your new semester Tim, and with the moving. It's not so bad coming to a new place, just different faces in the same worldly routine as everyone else.
Wow. You do start early. Good practice for teaching public school, though, where there's actually a ten-month year instead of the nine-month gig everyone assumes.
Good luck in the new semester. Grade and write like a demon!
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