Friday, July 13, 2007
busy, busy
I've been out of town for a while, and am now back working through all the tasks that were neglected while I was away. I start lecturing (for the first time) in a week or so and I am starting to wonder whether I'm up to it. Nothing like a new job to cause an existential crisis. Do I actually know anything, I ask myself?
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3 comments:
I didn't realise you were lecturing this semester Jo - what's the course? Are you teaching it on your own?
I have never been in your position but the feeling of massive self-doubt about what i'm meant to have learned is certainly a familiar one! sometimes, though, i think that one of the most important things a teacher (whether a lecturer or a tutor) can convey to a student is the importance and value of humilty - that its ok to not know things, that it can be good to have more questions than answers, that there can be a very real intellectual satisfaction in being 'confused at a deeper level' at the end of a course than at its beginning.
that's not to say that conveying specific content and developing concrete skills is not really important - but surely discovering things together (teacher and student) rather than the lofty teacher bestowing pearls of wisdom on the students below is a better way to go.
No doubt you'll respond to your existential anxieties by working really hard on those lectures and the students will have a blast. You'll work it out - and let us know how it goes!
Judging by your teaching at Kingsley I'm sure you'll do fine.
Thank you both for the encouragement! Meredith, I'm co-teaching two courses. The first is a modern Britain subject - looking at 1851-2001 with a particular focus on changing British identities. The second is an honours seminar subject - on religion and society in modern England.
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