Sunday 24 September 2006

I have a mid-semester break now, for a week. For most its merely a patch without classes when we can get on with our work, and I'm one of those folk.
Since last posting I've completed a teaching round in a far away place and done another Amelia Earhart cap, one that actually fits me, and just in time to go away with the rest of the winter clothes till next year.
So, I've learned a few things...
  1. I'm bossy. I don't know where this comes from. As a kid I was generally unpopular and rent-a-crowd in style. But now, as a post grad I actually have a reputation for taking charge. Eeew! I end up in groups and poeple say 'You look like an organised person. I think you should manage the group.' 'Yeah me too' say the echoing members. I have a teeny bit of resentment until I realise I don't like group work unless I either really trust the group leader, or I hijack the group's mangment so I'm happy with the way its going. It's not that I'm inflexible, or don't like others' ideas (yeah right, you say) but I get nervous if we're without a leading focal point, so to speak. And in this society people are too polite to complain or stop me. I do this with group teaching too, unless the process has been decided upon earlier.
  2. I'm thorough, I think. I'm not entirely sure but I'm getting crap about it. People know me by name before they've met me, due do online work through uni. They say to my friends 'You know her? What's she like?' I mean, come on.
  3. I'm softer with students than I thought I'd be. When they sook, or don't feel like doing things, I try to talk them around to being motivated, or sympathise with their situation. In other cases I think 'What? forget that! get on with the job and get it done. Weak!!' Lord knows how effective indifference would be, but there has to be a middle ground I can work with. Something like 'You'll be assessed on it. And things could be worse. The sooner you start, the sooner its over.' etc etc.
  4. If someone in the group is a greater extrovert than me, I shut up. Because I, too, am a sook. At some stage I might shift the status struggle and win-over with 'superiority through maturity', but I've got to be bothered, and there are conditions attached.
So I've got my hand up for temp work in this week off but you can't plan for anything of course, in case something comes up. God willing, my industrious streak will keep up till the end of term...

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