I just finished my intense one-week seminar (june 2- june 6) and this monday summer teaching begins (it wouldn't be so difficult because so far I only have 18 students and this is the only thing I'll be doing- not like during the fall when I'll have at least 36 students plus 6 credits).
my seminar started at 8:30 am, and ended at 3 pm. We had a fifteen minute break in the morning, and had 1 hour and 15 minutes for lunch. All I can say is that I've never written so much in a week. We had guest speakers, and on thursday, our special guest speaker gave a presentation...
the seminar is called Fife Workshop Seminar: Life Stories. We had two short articles to read, we'd listen to people's stories, we'd have discussions on structure and importance plus analysis of stories (their meaning), we'd watch videos, more discussions and lots of writing (fine with me)... as soon as I got out at 3, I'd go to the library and spend 2-3 hours just writing (writing prompt, values to me, and, extra analysis). I turned in my portfolio yestersday.
one of the nice things I liked about the class is that it seemed to be connecting and tying up everything I've learned about folklore since august 2007, and it's giving me ideas for my future classes. while responding to the prompts, i started brainstorming for memoir pieces which I might explore further in my upcoming Memoir writing class (at the end of july).
This fall, I'll be taking a storytelling course and children's folklore course. I'm supposed to be some kind of teacher's assistant in my storytelling class, which would involve collaboration with my prof (i'd help her with some lesson planning/demonstration, and student evaluation etc.). The children's folklore class is an undergrad class, which means that to make it count for "graduate level" I'd have to write a research paper or an enthographic work (both 15 pages at least). The seminar gave me ideas on what to research. it looks like i'll be doing a combination of research and ethnography maybe about children's narratives (memory and nostalgia). I have to brainstorm with my adviser before the end of June.
tomorrow, Sunday, I'll cull over old lesson plans and put something together for the week or for the entire summer (depending on inspiration)...
Posted by Michael Diezmos at June 7, 2008 4:56 PM