Why do I have to go to a…

Why do I have to go to a cafe in order to make myself work on my syllabi? Actually working on syllabi is quite interesting and fun. Especially when you're teaching such awesome texts. New to me this year: Jeff VanderMeer's Wonderbook, Shakespeare's Macbeth, Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, Toni Morrison's Sula, Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale, Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis. I mean, those are some fabulous books. Well, I haven't read all of Jeff's yet, but I've seen some of it, and it looks v. splendiferous; am looking forward to diving in.

Syllabus planning is a fun part of the job -- why do I forget that? At least it is fun in the generating stage -- it is less fun when you are ruthlessly scything texts out of your original glorious plan because you know if you overload them with fabulosity, the students will just stop reading. I tell myself that that is what 'optional reading' is for, and at least one or two of them might actually look at those suggestions.

There will also be lots of shorter works, but I was behind on getting in my textbook orders (way behind, argh), so at least that is done, and my apologies, students. On the plus side, you should still have plenty of time to get cheap used copies online, esp. since we're not using any of the actual books for the first two weeks or so of classes.

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