Pajamas and Tuna Fish
So, there's been much sitting around in my pajamas and eating tuna fish sandwiches these past two weeks, which is why I haven't been writing here much. I mean, I know how interesting and glamorous pajamas and tuna fish are, which is why I deprived you of their salacious details. I'm cruel that way.
Today, itself, has been rather slow--we've had a slow drizzling rain going on since morning--and yet today has also been special. For today, besides being permeated by, yes, pajamas-wearing and tuna fish-eating, is my last day of vacation. Tomorrow I start my workshop for my TA position. I'm having heart palpitations just thinking about it.
I'm not sure I'm entirely prepared for my first day of workshop tomorrow. My plan is to a) show up on time, b) remember to bring a pen and some paper, and c) not look too stupid. I think I've got a and b under wraps; it's c I worry about. Like I told my friend, Dale, professor at Loyola and general college teacher-extraordinaire, I worry that I'll say the wrong thing and be chased through the hallowed halls of UNO by angry English professors bearing torches, and then they'll stone me to death, perhaps on the football field or maybe just outside the student union. I worry that they'll figure out I still (still!) sometimes confuse adjectives and adverbs, and I'm not always a hundred percent sure I use commas correctly a hundred percent of the time (though I've got to be at 99%, at least; I swear! Don't stone me.) I know I won't be teaching the mechanics of grammar, but nonetheless, I worry, I worry, I worry.
But I'm also excited. Really, really excited. Like I told Dominic, professional EWO for the United States Air Force and husband-extraordinaire, I feel like I'm finally headed in a professional direction, like I'm no longer a bum. Hooray! Hooray for living up to my potential! Finally! After two long post-college years of fiddling my fingers, dabbling in graduate classes, and catching dinners on fire! Also, I think I'll like teaching. Really, I think I will. So, I guess all the swinging back and forth between excitement and abject terror is what's giving me these heart palpitations.
I hope I don't mess this up. If you don't hear from me in a while you might want to contact Dominic. The torch-wielding English professors may have gotten me...with their stones.
Today, itself, has been rather slow--we've had a slow drizzling rain going on since morning--and yet today has also been special. For today, besides being permeated by, yes, pajamas-wearing and tuna fish-eating, is my last day of vacation. Tomorrow I start my workshop for my TA position. I'm having heart palpitations just thinking about it.
I'm not sure I'm entirely prepared for my first day of workshop tomorrow. My plan is to a) show up on time, b) remember to bring a pen and some paper, and c) not look too stupid. I think I've got a and b under wraps; it's c I worry about. Like I told my friend, Dale, professor at Loyola and general college teacher-extraordinaire, I worry that I'll say the wrong thing and be chased through the hallowed halls of UNO by angry English professors bearing torches, and then they'll stone me to death, perhaps on the football field or maybe just outside the student union. I worry that they'll figure out I still (still!) sometimes confuse adjectives and adverbs, and I'm not always a hundred percent sure I use commas correctly a hundred percent of the time (though I've got to be at 99%, at least; I swear! Don't stone me.) I know I won't be teaching the mechanics of grammar, but nonetheless, I worry, I worry, I worry.
But I'm also excited. Really, really excited. Like I told Dominic, professional EWO for the United States Air Force and husband-extraordinaire, I feel like I'm finally headed in a professional direction, like I'm no longer a bum. Hooray! Hooray for living up to my potential! Finally! After two long post-college years of fiddling my fingers, dabbling in graduate classes, and catching dinners on fire! Also, I think I'll like teaching. Really, I think I will. So, I guess all the swinging back and forth between excitement and abject terror is what's giving me these heart palpitations.
I hope I don't mess this up. If you don't hear from me in a while you might want to contact Dominic. The torch-wielding English professors may have gotten me...with their stones.
posted by Kate at 3:40 PM
3 Comments:
GOOD LUCK Kate!!! You will be fantastic. Quit worrying! I'm finally moved into my apartment. Hooray for apartments and hooray for grown up jobs!
It's you and me sister. I'd love to hear about the workshop, so call or send me an email when you're into it. We can talk shop 'cause we're totally teachers now! We should flood our blogs with stories from the classroom as to bore people as much as possible. Oh, and we should definately be pretentious...
Yes, I want to read lots of pretentious and boring stories of classroom antics from both of you. And I swear, neither one of you will be chased through the halls and burned and/or stoned. It's never happened. Not once. Google it. As for grammar, my first teaching gig was the mechanics of grammar. These kids didn't know a noun from a verb, let alone adjectives vs. adverbs, and then I had to convince them that "be" actually got conjugated - repeat after me, "I am, you are, we are," not "I be, you be, we all be." I hadn't studied grammar since grade school and had to re-learn it from scratch in very short order. It wasn't even a student teaching gig, but the real thing. And yet, no stoning. I'm telling ya - it's nothing to get stressed about (though it is entertaining reading stories about how stressed you are).
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