TA

Got my TA assignment...the day before classes start.  I am a little annoyed, because of how late this was found out, as well as due to the fact that I was told that I would only need to TA one semester this academic year, and I would have rather saved it for next semester when the U.S. government classes will be.  Or, I'm going to have to TA both semesters regardless of what was said.

I'm teaching introduction to comparative politics.

I'm a bit nervous.  General comparative is not my strong suit; although my thesis was technically comparative, it was a very specific case study and did not discuss the overarching themes that comparative intro classes normally delve into.

Plus, does this mean I need to buy/rent the textbooks for that class too?  I mean, I need to read that stuff also to know what I am talking about.

In a way, it's good; now I can get a refresher class while taking the 600 level comparative course at the same time.  I would like my sessions to have a Socratic seminar-type feel, but that will depend on how many people are in the course.  But I always found I got the most from my politics classes when I was in a seminar.

In other news, reading articles with the notation X | Y where that does not mean "X divides Y" is really throwing me off.  I'm going to need to ask the professor about this.  Notation differences are going to suck hardcore.