I'm teaching the first day of a new course tomorrow--it's a first year course on online identities. And while I am not a praying man by nature, I am entreating any interested deities to make it a snow day. I am, in other words, nervous about it. And I'm not sure why. Granted, I've been more prepared for courses in the past, but that lack of preparation has largely been endless fiddling with the object texts in the syllabus. This course is essentially my subject area; I know this material, and I know it well. Nor is it the first time I've taught in this area; I taught a second year course on the same subject about two years ago, and if anything, that should have been the nerve-wracking one, given that the students were prepared to face much more difficult material. Perhaps it's some vestigial guilt over how that course went; the final projects were excellent, but even at the time, I wish I had pushed myself a little more to do some hands-on digital creation in the classroom. I don't think that hands-on stuff is appropriate in a first year course, not in the same way--it's an English course, and you need to establish basic writing and analysis skills before jumping into the more fun digital creation stuff. But we'll be doing a Twine workshop late in March, which should scratch that itch.
I suppose it's just nerves. I should calm down, relax, and put on some soothing music. ...Maybe one more pass over the material for week 4....
Later Days.
No comments:
Post a Comment