Teaching Tech Writing Next Sem

Initially, I was assigned Comp 1 for next fall, and had been planning on teaching it as an argument/ ecofem class, and I was really looking forward to it, because for one thing, it's something I cared about, and for another, I thought it would be cool. But they have since reassigned me to teach technical writing, which theoretically will be a lot less grading, and that's a good thing. But I'm afraid that I'll be bored. And I'm not much of a lecturer. I am mostly just a book discusser. That's what matters to me--that people think (and think well).

I think that's probably why I'm a bad comp teacher (ok, I'm not bad--but I'm not a Comp Queen like others I know)--because I'd argue it's more important for students to think well, than it is for them to write well. I'm probably in a minority. I'm sure most comp teachers want students to do BOTH. But I don't think it's possible to construct good arguments in writing until students can really understand the material on a deeper level. I think they should teach a class on thinking.... and I'm not talking a class on philosophy (which to me, was excruciating). But just honest and true critical thinking. I'd love to do that. But I doubt an opportunity will come up for that, because I think I'm in the minority when it comes to articulating pedagogy as "thinking first, writing later." And more than that, I'm not at a liberal arts school.

But I have decided to teach ecofem this summer. The independent bookstore where I order my books has assured me that it can get 25 copies of the out-of-print book of essays on ecofem that I love, and so I'm looking forward to that. I'm also having students read a book on women's nature writing--kind of blind, because I haven't been able to get a hold of a copy--but it sounds good from what I've read. Probably in 6 weeks, I'll have to do a lot of squeezing in, and not get to teach everything I want, but it will be ok. I'm going to make it ok. Last summer I taught an intro to pop culture, which I don't know how successful it was, but I enjoyed it. I'm hoping that this intro to women's ecology and ecofem will work out all right. It will have to sustain me through my dance with tech writing until I get back to teaching real stuff.

In other news, because my first class finished their project presentations, I don't have a 9:00 class this morning, which is good. The bad thing is, I didn't really get to say goodbye to them, as today is the last day of classes. But I'll probably send them an e-mail to tell them when they can expect their grades, wish them well on finals.