I need to get out more...

...if by "out," I mean into other classrooms. In the last two weeks, I have sat in on three classes -- one of my fellow T.A.'s (who is teaching the same class that I am) and two by professors who are on my committee and are teaching works on my exam lists. I know it sounds cheesy, but I feel that seeing them teach has already enriched my teaching, if only by reminding me that there are always other ways of doing things. I think one thing I've learned is that it's okay to give students more of my own direction and general sense of the text; I tend to expect them to generate most of the discussion and discussion topics, but I think there may be such a thing as too much Socratic method in a ten-week class. I think I can focus more on generating very specific starting points for discussion, pointing not only to passages and general themes but to specific patterns and language that begs for close reading.

Finally, I've noticed that I really admire those teachers who are able to pull threads together and make the entire class discussion make a lot of retrospective sense. This, I think, will take a lot of practice.