Two class periods into the spring semester, I don't find myself having much to say in the way of issues related to composition and/or rhetoric. (That is what this is all about, right? My brain seems to be missing on at least a couple cylinders lately.)
I can say that I've become suddenly and acutely sensitive to how bored my students appear to be while...well, pretty much during the entire class period. Granted, it's basically understood that many, if not most, undergraduate students are generally going to be uninterested in and/or resistant to their required (i.e., general education) courses, but my students' lack of immediate and abundant interest in 110 feels somehow personal. It (probably?) isn't personal, of course, but now that the seeds of this particular insecurity have been planted in my over-active head, I find myself increasingly concerned with trying to contrive ever more fanciful means of engaging my students. This is ridiculous, I know, and made more so by the fact that while I'm teaching sometimes I'm actually thinking about how I am not actually this dull (I hope)--that if I were attempting to convey this exact same information outside of class it would be with more vigor and zest. Instead, I've begun to feel like a vaudeville comic whose talent, charisma and good-looks aren't translating so well to the big screen. And that's all I've got to say about that.
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Buck up, buddy. There, there. You'll find your kniche this semester. Sometimes it takes a little time to connect; sometimes it takes a certain topic to liven discussion. The point is: Once you hook them, all you have to deal is focus on reeling them in. I could go further with this fishing analogy, but I fear that if I do, I might make myself sick. So I'm going to leave you with this: Lost wasn't that bad was it? I wonder how much more a role the invisible guy in the cabin is going to play in this season...
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