Authority and the Illusion of it.

How does a GA create an environment suitable for teaching in addition to keeping student involvement up? This becomes tedious when we, as GA's, have an unspoken responsibility and yet seemingly little authority over our own classroom. Now, please do not get me wrong, I am not on a crusade to level the playing field, mostly because I know it will not happen, but I am going to rant and I do not think I will be alone on this issue (rather vocalized or not).
With recent events in seasonal weather, it has once again been hammered into our consciousness that we, as GA's are less than human, or at least faculty. When ice covers the ground and slows productivity enough to require the closing of a University, several professors decide in favor of personal safety, and the safety of their students, as opposed to a full classroom for the day. This "privilege" does not, it seems, transfer to GA's and I am simply curious as to the reason. "If you live down a dirt road in a holler fifty miles from here and can't get out of your driveway because a tree is blocking it, then find a sub. :-)", I wonder how many other individuals not constrained by their high rank were forced to locate a substitute in the harsh weather, or if not forced, how many actually did?
It seems as though G.A.'s are little more than educated Pinocchios dancing for the amusement and productivity value of the puppeteer, Stromboli. And we all wonder why we do not have the authority to command a classroom and maintain student attendance when we ourselves are dancing on a high wire powerless to enforce any of the policies which we are also forced to include on our syllabus.

Comics and the classroom

In my personal life, I watch a lot of stand up comedy. I often incorporate these elements into my classroom. I like to approach the classroom as a humorous environment, in addition to a learning environment. Recently, I have developed two new lessons that I am going to center around a specific comic, Gallagher. Now, for those familiar with this comic I am not going to smash food (yet), but there is a skit he does involving mismatched clothing that I am going to restructure to fit the unity of an essay. This will involve bringing a random amount of clothing and going through a routine that elaborates on how ridiculous it is when people dress like this, then link it to how ridiculous some essay structures are.
The other routine I am going to adapt involves style. This is discusses by Gallagher because we all need style to get through life. I am merely going to revamp the routine to reflect personal style in essays. Thus far, what routines I have included from various comics have greatly increased their attention. I enjoy the responses from the students and also enjoy the interaction. Most of the routines do involve the students and that allows me to have a greater effect (I hope).

Disney Project (pre research paper)

Last semester, I included an extra credit project that revolved around exploring the basis for various Disney films. The students were to chose any film from a preselected list (a list which excluded some of the more obvious ones such as Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, etc) and research possible connections to previous books, movies, plays, etc. This was originally given as an extra credit assignment to be written in the form of a textual analysis (assigned after the T.A.) and was not "due" until the final day of the semester. This semester, after my lecture on looking further into texts and using the Lion King and Little Mermaid as examples, both classes seemed to be more eager to explore these possibilities than last semester. So, I have decided to include this as a project, a small project before or even perhaps during the initial stages of the research paper to give them another view on research.

Into the texts (Textual Anlysis)

As part of my lesson plans for the Textual Analysis, I include lyrics from music. The students deal with critical Analysis everyday of their lives, they just may not be aware that is what it is called. Anytime they justify a piece of music they like over another or even have to "talk up" a movie they may like but their best friend does not, they are engaging in critical analysis. This semester, I am going to try to go a step further and try to convey the importance of getting into the texts by all of us singing. Now, this may seem a little radical, but in other fields of lit this is not so different. Plays are meant to be heard, not read. Poems to be heard and read so why should we assume that music lyrics do not have the same qualities. They also have elements other than the words that aid in the message. So, I am going to provide an overhead of "Come Together" and use a recording of the version which appeared in Across the Universe. I feel this will help bring in a sense of inclusion to the text and may even get them to look at the text in a different way. Either that or they will all think I am nuts.

poor attendance

For the past several weeks, I have been struggling with the low class attendance. This has led to a general low self esteem issue for me and all because I was not focusing on the half (literally the half) of the class that is showing up to learn twice a week. I have been intent on that fact that I have been dropping the ball that I have been constantly questioning everything I am doing, even though I have altered very little as far as what I did last semester. Having heard a lot from the other GA's in the office, of whom I know are Kick Ass teachers, I have finally come to understand that the spring semester just plain sucks. This is a lesson that I am sorry I had to take almost five weeks to weed out for myself, and that a line from the movie, The Emperor's Club is actually true, "The value of life is not measured by a single failure or a solitary success." We must not forget about those that do show up and do want to be there. I was allowing the negativity, that I thought reflected on me and my personal methods of teaching, to block the good that I could have been doing to those that were showing up and supporting me every class period. I know we are all tired and ready for the semester to end, but man, I can not believe I ignored the positive ones and focused on the negatives.