Mel, I hear ya! This semester I assigned four novels that I had never read before; what the hell was I thinking?!
Of course, what I was thinking was what you were thinking: This is the way to force myself to learn new material, and I'm sure I'll read them all over the winter break before school, so no problem. And, as always, I signally failed in this project and read them all right before I had to teach them! It's been an educational but exhausting term, and I'm asking myself exactly the same question you are now: What am I going to teach next term? How hard do I want to make myself work?
Yeah, I've done that too. But then, I've also gone the other route and assigned Jane Eyre Four. Times. In. One. Year. Let me tell you, by the end of the second semester, I was thinking about locking myself away in an attic.
So do what my profs did... have 8 good books and rotate them... by the time you get back to them, its like revisiting an old friend and in 3 semesters, if you keep all your notes, you have your lesson plans done, other than updating for the next few years!!! HA! And I LOVED Jane Eyre!
Miriam, that is so familiar...I totally overloaded on JE my first 3 years here...I can't even think about teaching it anymore.
My rule of thumb is to rotate one new book in each time I teach a course.
Of course .... sometime I break the rule and live to regret it.
I like that rotating idea. I've also tried to get a new one in each course, but I certainly haven't utilized material that had been used in the past and not returned to. Thanks!
I seem either to use exactly the same books or replace ALL of them - what is this thing, a happy medium??
It is unfortunately one of the only ways I get anything new read...
So how many new books DID you choose?
Commenting by HaloScan
