Our first meeting to talk about what we’re doing this semester – mostly about instruction – felt like a lot of information and hardly any information at the same time.
On the one hand, we saw a lot of different parts of the Wiki, saw a list of all the classes that need to be scheduled and the ones that are already scheduled, saw how to use the classroom reservation system, and heard tidbits about some of the individual professors. I couldn’t write it all down, and wondered: how much of this are we supposed to remember? Which parts are most important? Will I be able to find it all again?
On the other hand, we didn’t really discuss anything about the content of the courses, except that it varies, that we break them up to work in groups, and what some of the most common databases to cover are. I wouldn’t say I felt any closer to being ready to teach at the end of the session than at the beginning, but Toby said we usually observe two or three classes and then assist with one to three of them, so we’ll find out more about the content of the sessions during that process.
I’m nervous because I’d like to get trained as soon as possible so I know I’ll get some teaching experience regardless of when my maternity leave ends up being. Based on how the schedule looks now, I’m not sure if that’s going to be possible. There are several sessions that haven’t been scheduled yet, though, so anything is possible.
Impressions after 1st observation:
Observing Toby teach one of these for the first time answered a lot of my questions. I think I was most curious (and honestly, probably worried) about the students. I haven’t been a college freshman for a long time. Toby warned us that sometimes there would be students who just sit and check their e-mail and refuse to participate, and that it’s a good idea to tell them at the beginning to put away their phones. I was worried that they’d be rude, resistant, sluggish, or just completely unable to follow the instructions and report anything useful back to the class. I was pleasantly surprised on all counts – I’d say their impromptu group presentations were better than ones I’d seen by grad students in my own program, either because they found the content easy, or they were comfortable with their classmates, or just because my LIS peers are a particularly public-speaking phobic group. Everyone in the class explored the databases. I didn’t see anyone texting or checking e-mail. That’s not to say they were super excited to be there and jumping at the chance to answer questions, but they were respectful and reasonably cooperative.
It didn’t even occur to me to wonder how involved the class’s regular teacher would be, and I imagine it varies, but this instructor was very engaged. He was obviously familiar with the resources Toby had the groups working in, and would chime in occasionally to either comment to the whole class or to ask a particular student a question that would help them learn something about their group’s resource. It definitely helped set the tone, and indicated that he thought that what Toby was covering and what the library had to offer was important and useful.
I admit I was a little relieved that so much of the time was spent on group work and so little was Toby lecturing – that made it feel more do-able. It still seemed daunting to answer questions as they arise and check on all the groups to make sure their presentations are going to go well, but hopefully that will come with practice. The portion at the beginning of class where Toby talked about the library and its website seemed kind of all over the place. I took notes but will definitely have to hear it a few more times before I have enough sense of the rhyme and reason to be able to give a similar introduction myself.
The scariest thing was that even as a third year grad student and frequent database user, I learned a lot from the students’ presentations. I’ll definitely have to spend some time in some of the databases I haven’t used much, and some time using the RefWorks bibliographic software, if I’m going to be any use at all in answering questions.
Impressions about English 1B scheduling
Most of the classes we’ll be teaching are for English 1B, Composition 2; the rest are for freshman-only, smallish seminars called MUSE classes. One of the interns from an earlier semester had already sent an initial e-mail to all the professors and scheduled many of the classes, but there were still a lot of blank spots on the “where and when” spreadsheet. I volunteered to take over the job just as it became tricky. Instead of the 3 interns (plus me, out on maternity leave during the busiest part of the semester) we were going to have for teaching 40-60 classes, mostly in October, it turned out that there would only be one (plus me, still just as useful).
This meant that scheduling had to be a lot more careful to avoid overlaps so that we weren’t overbooked. To be on the safe side, Toby wanted things scheduled so that no two classes were at the same time, and no class was at a time she was unavailable to teach it. To keep things interesting, thanks to budget issues there are campus wide and library-specific closure days to watch out for and issues with particular meeting rooms. All the English 1B sections were listed on a spreadsheet I had access to, but there didn’t seem to be a list of MUSE classes anywhere, and Toby didn’t have a coordinated calendar. She told me to get the information about MUSE classes by checking the classroom reservation system, and that she’d e-mail me a list of her scheduling issues.
I’m a planner and a detail-oriented, logistics-loving person, so this both drove me nuts and had me cracking my knuckles in excitement. I couldn’t believe that the existing system hadn’t led to some major scheduling disaster already and really wanted whatever I set up to be something that Toby and future interns could maintain – and that we could all use. I set up a couple shared calendars on Google calendar with all the information from all the different sources. It took much longer than I thought it would, and even on my third re-check I found something I’d missed. So I’m nervous, but I think between the spreadsheets and classroom scheduler as additional data sources and with all of us inputting and monitoring things, we’ll be fine. And I recently heard from Toby that we’re going to have a couple more people pitching in to teach classes, so the already-existing overlap issues aren’t as much of a disaster as I feared.
On the communicating with professors end of things, it was much tougher than I thought it would be to tell someone they couldn’t have the date and time they wanted. I didn’t know what else would be affected on their syllabus. I’d never spoken to any of them before, so I had no idea how they would take bad news or what they’d think about it coming from some grad student they’d never heard of. I didn’t think they needed to know, or would care, about our logistical constraints or intern shortage. Fortunately I didn’t have to disappoint too many people, but one of the professors we had to reschedule practically bit Toby’s head off. Note to future interns doing initial scheduling: manage expectations. Note to self: be glad I’m not teaching his classes.
Even after 2 or 3 rounds of e-mail, 2 or 3 weeks into the semester, one professor still hadn’t responded. I think I’d rather have my head bitten off – at least then I know where I stand.
