One of my favorite things about working at a small school like St. Peter’s is that I have a huge say in what my kids read for the semester. This means that I generally tend to enjoy prepping for class, since I am getting paid to re-read all of my favorite works of literature.
This also means that I have written papers for most of the books we are reading. In preparation for my last couple of classes, for instance, I’ve been able to re-visit my Biola files and print off a few of my papers. We spend the class period going over what I wrote and discussing it. The advantage to this is that I don’t have to re-prepare what I’ve already prepared before. The kids also get a real-life example of how to write and what they should or should not do in their own papers.
For example, last week I pulled off a paper that I wrote on how Ovid’s Metamorphoses improves upon Hesiod’s Theogeny and Works and Days. Not only have the kids already read both of these authors, but I have also asked them to make a chart comparing and contrasting the two. They were able to take home my paper and use it as a guide.
Today, I printed off a paper for my Medieval Lit class . It consisted of showing how Shakespeare pokes holes in Machiavelli’s idea of the perfect Prince. The main argument is that because Machiavelli’s Prince is focused on the external, his separation of body and soul will cause him not only to fall, but to turn on himself out of inevitable grief and loneliness. I also added that Shakespeare is using his play, Richard II, to draw attention to this fact.
It wasn’t until I printed off the paper that I looked at my own bibliography. On it, I used an article titled Shakespeare as a Political Thinker, by Dr. John E Alvis.
Dr. John E. Alvis. As in, the professor I am signed up to take a class from at UD next semester.
Small world indeed! I never expected to meet someone from my bibliography, much less take a class from him!
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cornerofnoandwhere says
Kelly, this is a comment to try to register another email address with you. Turns out I’ve got closer to 3 ‘primary’ email addresses.