[With this
week’s final papers and exams comes the end of another semester at Fitchburg
State University, and with it this week’s series of semester recap posts
focused on inspiring student work and ideas, leading up to this predictive
weekend post. Please share your own fall reflections or spring predictions in
comments!]
Five reasons I’m
excited for the Spring 2016 semester:
1)
Old Favorites: The five courses I’m teaching are
all old friends: American
Literature I, Major American
Authors of the 20th Century, Ethnic American
Literature, the English Studies
Senior Capstone, and the graduate Intro
to Literary Theory. But since I’m committed to never being the kind of
teacher who brings out the yellowed lecture notes, old favorites mean new
opportunities to examine the syllabus, readings, and assignments, as well as to
remain open to student responses and ideas as the semester develops. I’ll keep
you posted!
2)
With a Twist: One thing that helps keep classes
new is when I get the chance to work with a returning student in our Writing
Associates program, where a student who has taken a course before works
with the professor as an additional resource for the other students and the
class as a whole. This spring I’ll have one of our best students, a member of
our English Secondary Education track, working with me in Major American
Authors, and I can’t wait to see what she brings to our discussions, the
student writing, and many other aspects as well. I’ll keep you posted!
3)
A New ALFA Course: I try to alternate more literature-focused
Adult Learning courses with ones more linked to American histories and
narratives, and so this Spring I’ll be offering a new course of the latter
type. In it, I’ll be sharing figures, histories, and texts that help us
consider other sides to moments with which we feel already familiar: Quock
Walker and the American Revolution, Chinese
American soldiers in the Civil War, anti-suffrage
violence in the Progressive Era, and more. I look forward to finalizing my
own choices but also and especially to hearing the student responses to them. I’ll
keep you posted!
4)
The NeMLA Conference: I’ve been working toward
the March
2016 Northeast MLA conference for nearly 3 years, and couldn’t be more
excited that it’ll finally arrive this spring. But there’s a lot to finalize
before then, including the visits to Hartford Public Schools for which I’d love
to include you and/or your ideas (email
me with any interest and ideas, please!). You know I’ll keep you posted!
5)
We’ll See: Every semester, some of the most
exciting opportunities and experiences take me entirely by surprise. And a significant
number of them over the last few years have come from online connections and
conversations. So … keep me posted!
Next series
starts Monday,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Other reflections or predictions you’d share?
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