[Now that the
fall semester has concluded, I’m looking ahead to Spring 2017! Here, briefly,
are four reasons why—please add your own previews and hopes in comments!]
1)
A New MAVA Class: A couple years back, I taught
for the first time in the Massachusetts Association of Vocational Administrators
(MAVA) program; as I wrote in that post, I was not only working with a new
group of students, but teaching Intro to Speech for the first time as well. The
students were as great as I knew they’d be, and while I’m sure I made a lot of
mistakes in approaching the content, I was able to build on both the history of
speech-making in America, pedagogical theories of communication, and my own experiences
with lectures, book talks, and conference presentations to help them think
about speeches and public speaking in ways that felt productive and practical.
This spring I’ll be teaching another section of that course to a new group of students,
and look forward to meeting another cohort of fellow educators and talking with
them about the skills and goals of public speaking!
2)
A New ALFA Course: I’ve taught in our Adult
Learning in the Fitchburg Area (ALFA) program almost every semester for the
last five years, and will be doing so again this spring, with a new course
entitled “Inspiring Contemporary Voices.” I haven’t nailed down which five
voices we’ll focus on, read and hear, and respond to in the five class meetings—possibilities
include Ta-Nehisi Coates, Jose Antonio Vargas, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, John
Scalzi, and more—and I’d love to hear your nominees or suggestions as well! Not
sure I can imagine a time when it’ll be tougher but more important to find
inspiration than in the months after Trump’s inauguration, and as always I plan
to find plenty of inspiration from ALFA’s amazing students as well.
3)
A New First-year Writing Course: I don’t get to
teach Writing II (the second half of our first-year writing sequence) as often as
I’d like; the last time, for Spring 2014, I created
a new syllabus entitled “Writing Our World.” I’ll be using the same title and
the basic structure of assignments highlighted in that post this time around,
but it’s fair to say that no course focused on the contemporary world could be
the same in January 2017 as it was three years ago. Our reader, Signs
of Life in the USA, has a new edition, but that’s just one small
example of my overarching commitment to making this new section a new course in
lots of meaningful ways. I’m still early in that process, and once again would
love any and all suggestions you might have for such a contemporary-focused
Writing II course!
4)
Who Knows?!: I’ve got lots of other plans: new
sections of two familiar lit courses (American Literature I and The American
Novel to 1950); graduate Master’s theses to supervise; goals for book talks and
public scholarly projects; work on next book projects; departmental and
institutional and organizational efforts. But much of the best of my last few years—and
really my career overall—have comprised new or unexpected directions, and I’m determined
to remain open to such possibilities in every new semester as well. I’ll be
sure to share any and all of them here, and hope to hear about yours as well!
Next series
starts Monday,
Ben
PS. Spring plans
you’d highlight?
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