Anyways, this week I struggled with motivation or my lack of motivation. Lately I've been struggling with staying motivated myself, let alone trying to motivate my students. I think everything has been piling up and I was ignoring my stress (definitely not a good idea). Luckily, my time at NCA gave me a change of pace and allowed me to clear my mind. During my time at NCA I got to see some panels, hangout with friends, and see academia in a new light. Overall I loved Philadelphia and to me that was my mini vacation before Thanksgiving. Specifically, I saw a panel about secrets and secret keeping through four different auto-ethnographies. I really enjoyed this panel because not only was the writing beautiful, but the narratives' connection to secrets and secret keeping gave me a new perspective on my writing and my scholarship in general. I just was very engaged and in awe and felt very refreshed, which may seem odd.
Last week, we read a chapter in a handbook about goal-oriented communication within humor. I really enjoyed this chapter and found that humor can be used in the classroom in both good and bad ways. Although, my discretion on what is good and/or bad may be different, it is how the humor works within the dynamic of the classroom. I found that the ethnography panelists used humor within their scholarship to help bring relief and brightness to their dark stories. Between the readings and the weekend at NCA I found myself with a new perspective on how I want to approach my scholarship, and even set short-term goals to pull me out of my slump. #youdoyou
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Great post, I think humor is a great way to deal with the stresses of not only grad school, but also teaching. Throughout our pedagogy class, learning about learning has made me a better learner (obviously), so there are some things that I have learned about motivation as a grad student. Not caring about grades (and other external motivating factors) has really changed the way i view my work. Believing that I am capable, have something worthy to contribute to this field, and making mastery of the subject my main motivator, I have come to be a lot less stressed out about school.
ReplyDeleteYAS I love this! I think it's really interesting to tie humor with motivation. Having humor in a classroom and learning environment is a huge breath of fresh air and it can be the thing that keeps students going back to class. Even more importantly, humor helps students REMEMBER what's being learned in class. Your NCA panel example is fantastic - bringing relief is a great function in humor and, especially in our COMM classes, it's helpful to talk about tough subjects.
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I think our department's sense of humor is such a gift. We have to absorb and organize some pretty uncomfortable perspectives sometimes, entertaining truths that a lot of people never have to think about, ALL while being responsible members our organization... oh! and friends. It's still pretty amazing that such a variety of people can sit in one room for hours at a time and keep coming back. This week was pretty intense, and I'm smiling thinking about our inside jokes about the subconscious and different moments of delirious laughter in the library.
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