The academic calendar is full of rituals. Fall book orders, winter break, spring cleaning. All year long, I let things pile up. I stack papers in my office at school. I tuck stray notes into my desk ...
Last Thursday, I went to my first solo teaching conference. I’ve been to some stellar academic conferences in the past several years, traveling to California, Kentucky, and Connecticut. I have ...
In an attempt to indulge my non-teacherly interests, I’ve been taking a class through my university called, “Foundations of Visual Communication.” It’s the first in a series o...
As we at THTT evaluate our summer goals and look to the future, I’ve been contemplating the rhetorical concept of The Blog, as well as the future of this particular blog. Over a year ago, ProfK...
This morning was surreal. I emerged from the subway and looked around. There were people everywhere wearing suits, and skirts, and real shoes. I couldn’t spot a single backpack. Not one pajama-...
Over the past few months, I’ve thought about THTT…a lot. I missed writing, reflecting on pedagogy, and asking questions. I missed the community of teachers, writers, and students I’...
Spring is the season for resurrections. THTT is not immune. After almost an entire academic year of silence, I was forced to shake off my blogging negligence by our friend @laurabond. One recent afte...
“Peer review is the most important writing you will complete in this course.” I drill this phrase over and over. And I believe it. The genre of the peer review is one that prepares studen...
Last week, I began my first full-time teaching gig as a lecturer of writing. It has been surreal. Free coffee. An office. No more mid-afternoon naps in my car between classes… With the exciteme...
Last Wednesday afternoon I was quietly packing up my things and congratulating myself on a successful first week of school when an urgent email popped up on my screen. The inquiry was seemingly simpl...
You hear a knock at the door. When you open it, you almost don’t recognize the woman standing in front of you. She’s a little more tan than when you last saw her, a little slimmer, and de...
I haven’t taught anyone anything in a month. Well, I’m sure that’s not true…just not in the formalized Me Teach, You Listen way. And it feels glorious. However, on June 27th I...
As we all close the books on Spring 2011 and submit those final grades, now begins what is usually my absolute favorite part of teaching. No…it’s not summer break (that would be cheating...
Almost as soul-sucking and anxiety inducing as doling out grades is composing the response that accompanies–or justifies–that grade. At the beginning of my teaching career I provided 3/4t...
The following is a guest post by Ay Be. Ay Be is an instructor of writing and, as this post will show, too hot to teach. Before collective bargaining began hogging the spotlight earlier this year, g...
Back in February, in response to a group of students who were disappointed with their grades, Prof. KM offered her defense of the B+. On her way to problematizing the grading system in general, she r...
The following is a guest post by P.T. Steve. P.T. Steve is a college writing instructor in New England and a guest blogger at Too Hot to Teach. I tried semester after semester to overcome it—by donn...
When we grade, we writing teachers like to pretend that we are robots. Here we are, just objectively sifting through the data, assigning values as though they are self-evident. We calculate the num...
As Hatepril turns to May and the weather here in the Northeast finally warms, I find suddenly that I have reached the promised land. Grades have been submitted, final committee projects completed fo...
Today’s round of last days was especially tricky. First of all, I’m sick. Can I just say that perusing style blogs, which is usually my zone-out reward, kills me this time of year. I se...
Last week, I was still in the depths of “da funk” when Thursday, my last day on campus for the week, rolled around. As I left my office for the one meeting standing between me and my wee...
Ms. Kat’s recent post on fitting a yoga practice into the whirlwind of an adjunct lifestyle has helped me reflect on how my own yoga adventures affect my teaching life. This semester, for the first t...
Lately, I’ve noticed an abundance of articles circulating about the trials and tribulations of being an adjunct. I’ve avoided these issues, preferring my ignorance. I prefer not to dwell ...
After reading ProfKM’s post on Agalloch, I decided to give myself a chili pepper. A chili pepper for going to yoga. It’s that time of the year when you wake up on a Saturday morning to gr...
In case you didn’t already know, I’ve been wrestling with a case of the end-of-semester funk. It turns out, a great way to dispel the funk is to break out of your normal routine. Last n...
It’s THAT time of the year. There are four weeks left in the semester. Yet, there are still 3 projects up in the air for your class. Thanks to the recent time change, waking up at an already t...
I never thought I would be a blogger. Until the past year, I had not been intrigued by blogs. I didn’t understand the appeal of one-sided discourse: moms sitting at home vigorously typing about...
This weekend I eagerly followed the commentary on Heather M. Whitney’s ProfHacker post, “When student evaluations are just plain wrong.” While I think the post does an excellent jo...
I woke up this morning with a very specific idea that I wasn’t sure I believed. It was: “strong transitions are the best indicator of sophisticated writing.” The line isn’t as dramatic as the one fro...
I’d like to inform the readers that I, Miss Kat, have an interview on Thursday. While I’ve scored interviews for professional jobs in the past, none have rattled me as much as this upcomi...
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