So I should be going and having dinner as a reward for actually writing part of a chapter (2700 words!!), but instead I’m rewarding myself by writing a blog post. Yes, I’m rewarding writing with…writing. My ability to reward myself with the same thing that was my task never ceases to astonish me (seriously, I do this a lot).

That said, I thought I’d write a few notes on teaching. I received a couple e-mails from last semester’s students over the weekend (mostly panics about “will I violate exam rules if I do XYZ?” to which I tend to reply “better safe than sorry, so try not to do XYZ”), and I was surprised at how much this made me miss my students.

I really like teaching.

And I’ve started to have a few worries about whether I’m actually good at teaching. I haven’t looked at last semester’s student comments yet (I’m waiting until I rework my syllabus over the summer—I’d like some distance on the semester before I destroy my soul), but student comment sheets can only go so far. Mostly because people don’t know what makes a good teacher until either a) they’re teaching themselves, or b) they’ve been taught explicitly to do or learn something new. Unfortunately, most of the teaching I do is ephemeral critical thinking skills (that don’t involve a workbook like mine did in elementary school), which is a bit harder to measure. I remember the teachers that TOLD me that I needed to start using my brain (yes, this happened…twice), but I don’t remember how they TAUGHT me to. It just happened as we went along.

Which was why this weekend was really nice, because I got to teach something where both student and teacher could see results. A bunch of my country dance friends organized a knitting afternoon, and one friend asked me to teach her how to knit at said afternoon. By the end of the afternoon she was casting on exceptionally well (I wish my tension had been that good when I’d started!) and have several rows of knit-stitch finished. I kept having flashbacks when I taught a friend from home how to knit, and that she’d been successful in learning, too (I should ask her if she’s still knitting). And tonight, I’m going over to a third friend’s to watch Glee (DON’T JUDGE ME), and as she’s just recently gotten into knitting, I’ve been asked to show her how to increase and decrease stitches. And I’m really looking forward to it.

Goodness, knitting, teaching and friends—since when did I have a social life? You’re not supposed to have one of those when you’re writing chapters!

Ah well. Off to have that reward-dinner now. Lysse out!

Tags: academic,art vs. academia,knit,life
Categories: Academia, Arts, knit
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