Back to School

This week has been pretty eventful; I started back to school on Monday and taught my first 107 class. Teaching 107 is fairly similar to teaching 111, and for that I'm thankful. I use a very similar syllabus, so I can re-use the successful activities from last semester and weed out the ones that just didn't work. I'm also a lot more confident this time around. I know how to teach freshmen, and I feel like I'm a better teacher that I was a semester ago. Even though beginning a new teaching job in the fall will be stressful, my 111 and 107 classes have equipped me with confidence and valuable experience.

While teaching is going well, I have one huge obstacle to tackle this semester: COMPS! I finally narrowed down my topic and have the makings of my booklist, which I'm very excited about. I met with my committee chair this morning, and I showed her my current bibliography of nine texts, thinking she'd congratulate me on having such an extensive list. She said, "Everything looks good, but it needs to be about twice as long." Yikes! That's a lot to read. Comps will be an interesting journey, but I know it will be rewarding in the end (or at least that's what I tell myself).

A sampling of my Comps texts
Can you guess my topic? :)

Brendan and I are headed to San Antonio on Friday for a three-day weekend. He usually isn't able to come home with me on the weekends since he works Saturdays, but he's off this weekend. I'm so excited we can spend the weekend together. It'll be good to see my family and spend some of those Christmas gift cards that have been burning up in my wallet!