Monday saw the first class in the research/writing seminar. The instructor, Dr. H., had given us a reading assignment, a journal article by historian Stephanie McCurry. I had read a book by McCurry for my MA exams, so I was pretty excited about this opportunity to read more of her work. Dr. H. warned us that we would be doing a "close reading," but I felt pretty confidant that my usual reading and note-taking would be just fine.
Here's where the first hard-way lesson was learned. A close reading means a CLOSE reading. Each word choice, each thought, each comma--it all made a difference. And we went over the whole article with a fine-toothed comb. The exercise was painful but so wonderfully instructive. I left class feeling exhausted and exilerated, both at the same time.
Thursday came, and I have back-to-back classes running from 12:40 to 6:25. The theory class discussed the nuts and bolts of historical reading and footnoting, but with a twist. The texts we read actually looked at those technical practices historically. The History of the Footnote was just that--a history about historians documenting their sources. Dr. P., the instructor for this class, seamlessly included this historical information along with a discussion about present-day methods. Painlessly, we learned the lessons of the class, but I'm sorry to report that I didn't remember a lesson from the well-loved Dr. Rose at Sac State. I didn't look up information on the writers we read, nor did I look at any book reviews. And Dr. P. called the class out on this. Yes, Dr. Rose would be ashamed!
My gender history class is a hoot! We were assigned a ton of reading, much of which I was scrambling to read on Wednesday night and Thursday morning in the wonderful Hodges Library, fifth floor, tables by the windows.
We read one absolutely incomprehensible author--the way the woman wrote made me want to smack her with a baseball bat (and readers of this blog know just how much I dislike baseball). Happily, Dr. S., the gender history instructor, did not make us do a close reading of that tedious work! In fact, she guided the class discussion in such a way that we got the information in a way that was both understandable and easy to remember.
Thursday night, I paid the price for putting off preparing for my Friday discussion sections. I should have done it on Wednesday afternoon, but I went grocery shopping and lazed around my tiny flat instead. So, after that arduous afternoon of class work, I had to come home and develop questions for my discussion sections. I also needed to build a little Excel spreadsheet to keep roll and grade info for my students. I finished my prep and then fell into bed. Hard way to learn a lesson.
Friday morning arrived. My discussion questions worked better than I could have hoped, and my 9:00 section went pretty well. I was much more nervous about the 10:00 section as Dr. H. was coming by to observe. So, the questions worked again but the discussion wasn't as lively. Dr. H. then walked with me to my next section, and he couldn't have been nicer about critiquing my methods. First he told me the things I did well, then he gently combined some criticism with good suggestions on how to improve. I used those suggestions in my next section, and my students responded just the way he said they would. I left that 11:00 section walking on air!!
Office hours were spent talking with fellow GTAs in the office next door--which is much nice than the office I share as they have decorated and brought in their own coffeemaker. I must spruce up the space I share! And I read a draft chapter of pal Shannon's wonderful MA thesis on the women's movement at Sac State.
Home now, stretched out on Lovie the fainting couch, watching Little House on the Prairie. Much more reading to do this weekend, but I'm hoping the weather continues to be nice so I can do that studying poolside. And I won't wait until the last minute to get my work done!
OK, I probably will, but I'm going to try not to.
Ah, the life of the grad student....
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