Busy Student

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As I feared, being an intern and taking three concentrated classes simultaneously is taking its toll on my time, hence the silence on the blog.I have been far from idle, to be honest. But, cramming in three lit courses means a lot of reading and writing. Thankfully, one wraps on the 22nd and the other two on the 30th. The two online courses use Blackboard, the educational teacher/student interface very differently and the pace and tenor of the courses are different as well.I’m adoring the Adolescent lit class, since it’s getting me to read stuff that my kids grew up on or are currently in vogue with the high school students I’m interacting with. I found myself enjoying The Hunger Games more than I expected (I’m currently about halfway into the second volume) and am enjoying the breadth of material. It also gave me an excuse to read a dose of Terry Pratchett, an author I knew was immensely popular but somehow never sampled. I read two of his Discworld titles and the best-selling Good Omens, which was another book growing cobwebs on my To Be Read shelf.The Women’s Lit course has me writing academic analysis papers for the first time in nearly 40 years and I really labored on the first one, covering My Ántonia. No grade as yet and I am well into my second paper, covering Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth.My American Lit II class has yet to ask for papers but has heavily encouraged our discussing the works on the message boards and we’ve had a spirited discussion over Sylvia Plath’s poem “Daddy”. We’ve just started discussing Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” after writing 500 word responses to the professor. Since I have absolutely no feel or interest in poetry, I’m not getting too much out of the class as yet but at least she is being open-minded and appreciates my stand and reasoning. I have turned to my classmates to see if they can help me fathom Whitman.At least these three classes have a point and purpose as I prepare to become an English teacher, unlike some of the spring courses I had taken.

One thought on “Busy Student

  1. I think it’s great that your adolescent lit class is keeping current (and I adore the Hunger Games trilogy, btw). When I was in library school in 2000-2002, we read Harry Potter and The Golden Compass in my YA lit class, and I loved them both, but esp. the Golden Compass and the rest of that trilogy.I love lit classes. Recently I’ve taken grad classes in “Life and Lit of New Mexico” (we read some Cather — “Death Comes for the Archbishop”) and a short story course that was terrific.

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