Those of you who still follow me on Twitter and Friendfeed thank you have, by now, read that I’m going to be teaching again.  Can I tell you how excited I am to be back in the classroom?  I truly enjoy teaching and interacting with students, I think I learn just as much in the process as they do.

For me, learning is a collaborative experience between the students and the instructor. If I stand in front of the students droning on and on about whatever, they learn absolutely nothing but when the students are engaged and challenged, oh my gosh, you can see the wheels turning. Seriously, nothing is better than hearing a student say “You made history come alive for me.” Yes!

I attended last night’s meeting with the intention of teaching only one class but when I arrived, I was offered a second class.  Yes, it’s short notice and, yes, that means a few long nights for me but I thrive under pressure. I can’t wait for classes to begin. I’ll be teaching on Wednesday nights from 6 to 10 (for 5 weeks) and on Sundays from 8 to Noon (for 7 and 1/2 weeks).

Of course, the librarian in me won’t be pushed into the corner.  I will give my students an intro to library services and show them how to navigate the library website because, you know, gotta pimp the library services.  Anyway, they’re going to have a research paper to write and the last thing I want is to hear one of my students say “But I didn’t know that I couldn’t use Wikipedia as my only source.”  For the record, I do not have a problem with Wikipedia, I’d just like for them to use more scholarly sources.

Oh, just realized I didn’t say what I’d be teaching, it’s American National Government! Don’t groan. The class will be oh~so~interesting. The course will be mostly discussion based with a few writing assignments and, of course, a final. The topics will be broken up into four sections:

  • Constitutional Principles
  • Rights and Liberties
  • The Political Process
  • Policy~Making Institutions

And with each section I plan to show an episode of either The Twilight Zone or All in the Family to facilitate the discussions. Bet you’re interested now, huh?

So wish me luck while I get back to cranking out this syllabus!