Monday, September 12, 2005

What a difference a year makes

I haven't really blogged a lot about my classes yet---part of it's the anonymity thing, but mostly it's because I've been trying to get back into the rhythm of the school year and trying to figure out the class dynamics. So I haven't really felt "ready" to blog about teaching, specifically, until today.

Last year at this time, I was teaching a course in a subfield that I don't work in but that I absolutely love. I was thrilled to be teaching this course, and I had a lot of fun with it. The catch? I was the only female in the room---all of my students were male. I've blogged about this before because, sadly, it's happened to me more than once in my career here. And it's a weirdly uncomfortable position to be in.

This year, I'm teaching that class again. I'm just as excited---more so, because I've tightened up the syllabus and I'm going to try some new twists on things (and I have a theme! I love themes!). But the biggest change? The class is about 30% women. Not perfect, but infinitely better.

What a difference a year makes!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, that's great! Congrats! And I bet your presence as a faculty member absolutely has something to do with it!

Ianqui said...

Good for you. It's so much better when the classroom dynamics are more to your liking. Last year, when I had 80 students and didn't even learn their names, I just didn't care about them. If you have a reason to care, it makes things so much better, doesn't it?