A break from taking a break

I used to be a regular blogger, but perhaps the challenge of full-time work and full-time studies has overridden my blogging discipline. Or maybe I've nothing new to blog about since I essentially work in the same place I did when I was an MA student, and I have gone back to school taking similar kinds of classes that I did when I was an MA student. Academically, I might not have anything new to add right now.

However, this new semester, I am teaching a new class: educational psychology. I am certainly not an expert in this field, but I do have a lot of experience with teaching, and I have taken classes in educational psychology, and I did get hired for the job, after all. So I guess that I'll be fine. It helps that Kimberly and I will both be teaching sections of this course, so we share ideas and plan together. I'm sure that if I get stuck with something, she'll help me out.

I'm also continuing to send off job applications. Although I do not intend to get hired this year, the process of applying has helped me to update my CV, find references, and, most recently, to write a statement of teaching philosophy. I had written a teaching philosophy a few years ago when I first started grad school (as an assignment for a course), but I misplaced it, and I figured it was time to reflect on these past few years of teaching and how I feel about it. It's hard to put all of that experience down on a couple pages of writing, but I suppose I captured the main essence of how I feel about teaching. In any case, it has helped me to self-reflect as I start a new semester with new groups of students.