Week two

...and already feeling behind on my classes.

Okay, this is week two of the semester. I'm struggling under four preps (including one grad course and a senior seminar) -- very few students, but lots of preps. I'd like to be making progress on my research, but hoo boy.

I'm so scattered that the idea for a post that I had when I logged in 90 seconds ago is already gone. But it was somewhat interesting, I swear. So instead, I'll talk write a much less interesting post about my classes, and hope the idea comes back later.

1. Upper-division medieval survey: The upper-division survey is the product of our university's agreements with the local community colleges who send us about 40% of our students: we don't offer lower-division courses that aren't commonly available at the CCs. It makes a bit of sense, but it's a bit weird to teach. Anyway, I have about 25 students in this class -- and only four of them are women. That's unusual. Due: reading guide and essay question; grading of short assignment.
   
2. Early gender history: Also upper-division. About 50-50 male-female, but the men do the slight majority of the talking. Good contributions, but this is a bit odd for this class in particular. So far going well, but I fear that my initiative to rewrite the first third of the lectures may fall by the wayside. The two new ones I've done so far, however, have been needed. A lot. Due: as many new lectures as I can.
   
3. Senior seminar on the crusades: 6 students, 5 of whom I've had before, including Sigibert, who seems to be fine since this is the only class he's taking this semester. Discussion this week was great, but it's hard to say, since next week really gets into it. Due: Grading of beginning-of-course portfolios.
   
4. Graduate class: One student. Yes. One. We had our first real meeting yesterday, and it seemed to go fine. Due: Grading of short assignment.

Bleah. Week two, and I'm already behind.