It's been a while since I've posted. I've been moving, starting classes, and getting settled into life as a first-year Ph.D. student. Boy! What an adjustment it has been! It's a happy adjustment, but a big one nevertheless. I'm taking two graduate courses, one in grammar and one in linguistics, so I've been pretty inundated with "language talk," but it is absolutely fascinating. I'm learning so much about how we learn and teach language, and much of it I wish I had known as a schoolteacher. For example, this week in my linguistics course we learned about genre (in the linguistical sense, which is ever-so-slightly different than the normal sense), and the ways that we can find patterns in what we read. If I had known how to point these patterns out to my less fluent readers and had the tools to teach them how to look for those patterns in their reading, I really think it would have helped them understand what they read. It's also teaching me some interesting things about how we teach writing, but I'm still puzzling all of that out.
I LOVE my grammar class. I was very nervous about it, because I feel like I don't know much about the structure of (what I now know is called) prescriptive grammar, but the class is really about understanding patterns in the language and recognizing language change in progress as it is happening all around us. I've discovered some really interesting things about the history of grammar and dictionaries and English itself. I hated History of the English language in college, and now I can't wait to take it. Turns out? Split infinitives? Not even really an English grammar rule--it was actually a Latin grammar rule that some people decided to put in English because Latin was "smart." The professor is brilliant, and I'm really excited to go to class every day. I know. I'm a dork. It's okay. This is my job now--I finally figured out how to read for a living!
I'm also teaching one class of freshman-level writing. My students are smart, and they try hard, and they engage with me and our course materials. My only complaint is that class simply isn't long enough! I mean, it amazes me. I ask them to do work, which I have no intention of grading, but will add to their education. They know I have no intention of grading it, and yet they do it anyway. Stunning. I've never seen anything like it. Sometimes, I'm not quite sure how to respond. They're really great kids, too. The writing department at the school is very supportive and gave us some great training...the training was so good I wish I'd had it before I started teaching writing to high schoolers.
I still have moments when I experience what they call "imposter syndrome," but they're fewer and farther between. I've been invited to work on a pretty major project with my program director. It's a book series for a national organization, and it's going to be a lot of work, but my name will be on the title page! I've also found a fantastic church here, and joined their grad student/young professionals group. The people are so nice, and they're always doing something, which is awesome! I'm also (randomly) learning ballroom dance. Because everyone needs a hobby.
