Third term: one step closer to the bling

I’m beginning my third term at OSU today, and although I still prefer the semester schedule I had as an undergrad at Northern Michigan University, I’m happy to be moving on to new classes right now. My courses last term were challenging in very different ways — I learned a lot, but as I’ve said before, I was exhausted at the end of the term. Spring break has been pretty refreshing.

Maybe I’ll post a longer entry about my coursework, but after 2 hours of Sunday night basketball, I’m tired, so I’ll make this short. Oh, one quick recommendation for my friends looking into graduate programs right now: be sure to talk to the students in the program before you commit; don’t simply talk with the graduate program director, the graduate school, department head, and/or professors. They’re important to talk with, of course, but it’s the students who really know the program. And once you’re at the school, be advised on coursework by both your main advisor and multiple second-year students in your program. Just get some quick feedback from several people. (I have a W on my transcript because I failed to do this — which isn’t a big deal, in my opinion.)

Anyway. Two main courses this term: ENG 480/580, The Making of Nathaniel Hawthorne, and ENG 526, Studies in the Age of Chaucer. I’m especially excited about the Hawthorne class because the professor is one of the best in the department, a fantastic teacher I was fortunate to meet early last fall; he participated in a couple of WIC program seminars last term, and I know that pedagogy and an engaging classroom are very important to him. While I’m a little cool toward Chaucer, I really like the professor for that class, too, and I have several good friends in both courses. I’m sure that both will be challenging enough, but I doubt they’ll cause too many sleepless nights this spring.

(Ack, this feels like a boring post. Maybe I won't write a longer one about my coursework!)

The final class is a one-credit practicum that prepares us to teach the business writing course next year, should we wish to do that. I’m not sure if I’ll have the time to teach it, or if the department would want me to, but I suppose the one-credit course can’t hurt. How that course’s curriculum is designed and taught is interesting to me, anyway — and I guess I’ll be studying curricula and helping to design classes for a long time. Somewhere. Because there’s big money in it. And that’s what I’m after. Bling bling. (ideophone)