WARNING: Venting Post Ahead
Like Kevin, I
question whomever titled October as "Hell Month" for us graduate TA's
because for me, November takes the cake as the most hectic. With 1010 papers to
grade, 2140 debates to create and present, plus my own graduate student
responsibilities... I. AM. DROWNING. In all honesty, I hit a point on Thursday
of last week where my motivation depleted drastically and immediately.
Seriously all of it gone - *poof*.
I feel like my
motivation is a candle that I am diligently trying to keep lit in the cold
November rain, with the November rain being all my responsibilities. Like the
Guns N' Roses song goes: "You're not the only one". I know most of
you resonate with my feelings of being overwhelmed and stressed out - so much
so, that I feel we have forgotten what my hashtag (#dontpanic) is about.
Panicking about
completing upcoming assignment? About keeping up with grading? About why your
students appear brain-dead? About talking through abject scripts? About better
infiltrating pop culture into the classroom? I hate to give the answer that
always makes people feeling this way upset, but...: #DONTPANIC. Although we all
feel like we are sitting in a room on fire...
...that doesn't
have to serve as a disadvantage for us all! We are all in the same boat, and
although we cannot expect those around us to "carry" us, we can use
one another to work smarter - not harder. Instead of panicking about how to
grade that assignment, what pop culture reference to use, or switching up your
pedagogical technique, reach out to a co-worker to talk through whatever you're
panicking. Instead of exerting all of our energy into panicking, perhaps we
should be using it into crafting the most successful experience out students
can get.
As the semester
comes to a close, we as pedagogy members need to re-direct our panics and
instead try to put that energy into a hopefully beneficial outcome for our students.
We should avoid wasting time worrying, panicking, and pondering these worries
and instead use that time to better set our students up for success. We have to
follow Emily and my's advice - #keeponkeepinon and #dontpanic.
Rudi, this was very insightful! November was definitely hell month for me. Even in my undergrad, November was the most stressful. I really like the message that you're putting through here- turn our negative energy into positive. It is so easy to forget that everything is going to be okay (as silly as that sounds).
ReplyDeleteI created sort of a mantra in my undergrad that I use now in my graduate career. It goes along the lines of: "If I can make it through this week, I can make it through anything". I use it at the beginning of a week that I know I will have papers to grade, papers of my own to write, and anything else coming my way. It really helps because when I look back after that stressful week, I'm proud and a little shocked sometimes (ha). Nevertheless, it is important to #keeponkeepinon and have the mentality to #dontpanic and to definitely work smarter, not harder! #pedamorgie #stayinurlain
Rudi, I think that this argument is, as Morgan say, it is very informing. I think that November was a very problematic month, insofar as there being a lot of things to do. However, this does not mean that we crowd out our motivation. We can find motivation several different ways within the semester. First, we can go talk to our instructors. If we have a problem, I think that we need to remember that our instructors are humans. Resultantly, they have probably been through similar situations as ourselves.
ReplyDeleteSecond, we can find motivation by talking amongst one another (i.e. TA's to TA's). A lot of the older TA's have probably been through what we are going through. They probably have ways or solutions to these problems. Talking to people inside and outside of the space is really important because it can generate good solutions.