Tuesday, February 07, 2006

supporting yourself through grad school

This week the class schedule for spring quarter arrived on campus. My first move was to look up the class I will be TAing in order to determine how it will fit into my schedule. To my horror, I discovered that one of my least favorite professors will be teaching this course. She's an adjunct who taught the required course my first quarter as a grad student. That course was the first she had ever taught at the graduate level, having just graduated from the same program. She, like many new professors, was overly demanding, argumentative, and a mediocre teacher. Having taught for ten years before returning to grad school, I'm quite discerning when it comes to teaching. I also didn't like her need to indoctrinate us into our new discipline. So I regularly wrote about my dislike for the readings and the whole "grand tradition" in the response papers we were required to write. The last thing an new professor, not yet confident in her own abilities, wants is someone who is willing to speak up and disagree. I'm sure she remembers me and my attitude. So now I facing a dilemma, because I would like to TA the class, it sounds interesting, and I need the money, but I don't want to get into an uncomfortable situation.

No comments: