Friday, Aug. 25, 2006 - 7:55 a.m.

They might offer me a job teaching English (TESL, academic English stuff) in the dept that does that sort of thing. On one hand, if I'm going to be doing L2 acquisition as My Thing, doing some L2 teaching is a very good idea. Plus the really cool professor who I want to chair my commitee is the one who brought it up, it would be nice to help. On the other hand, I really don't know what the fuck I'm doing when it comes to teaching English. One of my great revelations over the summer is that I do not have what it takes to be a good language teacher. Things like (visible) enthusiasm and social skills. Also, besides three L2 acquisition classes under my belt, one TESL methods class that involved class observations and prepping mini-lessons, one supervised teaching of Academic English, and multiple proof-reading encounters, I have no idea how to teach English. Not even in theory. That's why I stopped going to Indy to help the Somali refugees: I had no idea what to do. So I can see myself accepting the position, and being completely full-time distraught over how it went and what to do next (like I was over the summer), and not doing a lick of work on my paper.

I wrote her back a 'maybe'. I said I had resolved to working full time on my qual paper and then proposal. Then I thought, what if that were true? I could get it done quick if I really did that. I mean, only two days of that produces a passable term paper: surely a month of that sort of work would produce a decent qual paper. So now I'm going to try a little self-discipline: starting Monday, it's 9-5 on my paper (with a lunch break). Don't laugh, I mean it.

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