Today, I taught a complicated passage from Judith Butler.
We spent 45 minutes on 4 pages.
But I think that they understood something by the end.
Yes, this was my first excursion into theory-teaching. How I got a Ph.D. in comp lit without ever teaching theory is a mystery. Well, no it isn't. One word--strategy. And medievalist. So, two words. Actually, wait--here's six more--little support for graduate student teaching. Eight altogether. Never mind.
What's kind of sad is that I felt really chuffed that I could make sense of this difficult text and that they, at least initially, couldn't. It meant that I'd actually learned some skillz in grad school. Pathetic that I'm comparing myself to undergrads to remind myself of that, isn't it? (Even if they are seniors?) Evidently the Academic Impostor Syndrome that I thought I'd managed to get over is still hanging on around the edges.
Ah well! It was a good day.
4 comments:
Isn't it an amazing feeling? I managed to get a history/political science degree w/o ever stepping foot into an econ class. I'm always thrilled when I can make those dead white guys make sense to 21st century undergrads.
Well done! Butler's difficult to teach, so good job helping them understand!
I enjoyed your post today. At the moment I'm trying to teach Aristotle to freshmen, and I'm hoping to having a day like yours soon.
You know, you *should* feel chuffed. I've found that I've never really understood anything until I attempt to teach it. Then it all slides into place. I wonder if we should adopt this as a pedagogical strategy -- make our advanced students actually teach each other? I've had no success at all with student-led discussions (they always ask the wrong questions), but maybe if we made them do a mini-lecture?
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