Category Archives: teaching
Out with the Old
Ding, dong, the term is dead. Well, except for one last grad course assignment to wrangle. I have to get the chair to sign off on the big survey class’s marks tomorrow morning, as well, but, really, it’s done. I … Continue reading
Filed under academe, teaching, writing/editing
A Window Opens
A brief grading window, that is – I just finished marking the last of the tutorials (and recording marks from the oral presentations) in my super-huge class of 80. My TA, bless her heart, is tackling a bunch of the … Continue reading
Filed under teaching
Super Size My Seminar
I’m wrapping up the 2011-12 term this month. One aspect that’s felt luxurious has been my seminar. It’s both been a good class and a small class with under twenty in either term. (Pro tip to faculty wanting to shrink … Continue reading
Term’s Over, Marking’s Not
Hooray! The last undergraduate class met this morning. No more 8:30 classes until September. I’ll still be up as early every day, mind you, but I won’t be staring out at a sea of sleepy students at that hour. Classes … Continue reading
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Just a Marking Machine
The chapter draft is done. I’m pretty impressed with myself. It took less than a week to come up with a chapter of just over five thousand words, most of it dealing with historical parallels far afield of my early … Continue reading
Tutorial Tuning
My tutorials need a tune-up! In my eighty-student Ancient Near East survey this term, I’m having a problem with the tutorials. The task is document analysis and I know they’re good documents – a variety of literary, political and legal … Continue reading
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Snow Day: A Professor’s Perspective
Woke up before dawn this morning and raced out of the bedroom to rouse my computer from sleep mode as I peered out the living room window to a discouraging scene. Winds roared from the south, racing up our street. … Continue reading
Return of the Term
It’s ba-ack! The term, that is. Run and hide in fear! Actually, this term isn’t half so bad as last term. Half the classes, pretty much, and nearly down by half the enrollments. One class is brand-spanking new: a seminar … Continue reading
Filed under academe, teaching, writing/editing
Ask the Right Question
Last term I instituted a new scheme in my intermediate level courses: require short presentations on pre-assigned discussion questions from every student and recycle those questions as essay fodder for the tests and exams. It’s done a fair bit of … Continue reading
Once More Into the Breach
Classes start on Wednesday. I start teaching again on Thursday morning and I’m sort of, almost!, ready. My Desire2Learn shell is up and running for the second-year survey on the Ancient Near East and the course outline was in our … Continue reading
Filed under teaching
