New Member from Tasmania

[Tasmanian]

Hi,

I've just joined this forum and wanted to briefly introduce myself.

I live in Hobart, the capital of Tasmania - the island state below the Australian mainland for those who don't know. I have a lovely wife and two little boys. I teach Humanities at a secondary school. I completed an honours degree in English and a postgraduate degree in Secondary Teaching at the University of Tasmania. My dissertation was on the allegorical function of anthropomorphism in children's literature, focussing on The Wind in the Willows, Charlotte's Web and Watership Down.

My two favourite authors are Dickens and Hardy, though in recent years I am leaning more and more towards the latter. I also enjoy Russian authors such as Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Checkov and Solzhenitsyn. I began reading Hardy's The Return of the Native yesterday.

I have read a number of threads on this forum and I look forward to engaging with you all on issues literary.

Regards,

Tasmanian.

[Virgil]

Welcome Tasmanian. Nice to have you here. Hope you enjoy it.

[Cien]

Welcome! I will have to keep myself from being rude by interrogating you on all aspects of Tasmania. (I've never spoken to anybody from Tasmania before)

Do you enjoy teaching very much? I've been thinking of maybe someday teaching lately.

[B-Mental]

Hey Tasman, welcome to the forums. They are sort of addictive...I hope you like here.

[Tasmanian]

Thanks for your welcome everyone.

Cien, yes I do enjoy teaching - particularly over the last two months (summer holidays down here!!). In fact, our school year begins in two days - aaarrggghhh! I have no idea what I'm teaching them yet.

I particularly enjoy running novel studies with my students, many of whom would not read a novel otherwise, and seeing them make connections, understanding subtexts, engaging with the characters etc. I also enjoy having class discussions with them on the 'big things' - life, death, beliefs (and being teenagers - mobile phones and iPods!).

Teaching can be demanding though - dealing with students with a lot of baggage while trying to teach the class at the same time; report writing; marking etc. But I wouldn't change it - at least at the moment. If I ever become one fo those negative, bitter teachers that we've undoubtedly all had (I hope it never happens), I hope I'll have the sense to change professions rather than making students miserable and putting them off learning (and in particular reading!)

[Cien]

The fact that you'd rather change professions than put students off learning makes me think you're an awesome teacher. I wish I'd had more teachers like you. But I've kept my love of learning despite a few crap teachers, luckily... and I've also known some amazing ones.