Monday, April 30, 2007

Long Day, Longer Traintrack

Still on my plate for tonight: come up with a lesson plan for the 20 minutes of section that won't be covered by the students peer-reviewing each other's paper prospecti. (Plural of prospectus?)
Look at the anthropology textbooks I checked out from the library and decide which one might work for me (need to turn in book list to library ASAP). Try and determine which ethnography the students should read. (I picked "Veiled Sentiments" but forgot that the students often read it in the Cultural Core class (different from the "Intro to Cultural Anthro" that I am teaching). So, now I have to pick one that: a. interests me, b. isn't so old and outdated that I spend too much time telling the students what they shouldn't learn from it, and c. isn't too long or boring so that they actually read some of it. Perhaps you have a favorite ethnography? Okay, so you don't. But imagine you are a freshman taking an intro course in anthropology. Which of these books would you perfer to read?
1. a book about the reunification of germany and life along the border of the 2 germanys (Where the World Ended, Berdahl),
2. a book about voodoo in Brooklyn (Mama Lola, Brown),
3. a book about how working class kids in England end up being working class adults (Learning to Labor, Willis), or
something else that I haven't thought of.

In JT news: not much, but he is starting to use more tenses more often. He likes to say "I going to..." and tried out "Papa was go there" the other night. I think I better be going back to work...
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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I vote for the Germany book and then contrast it to the wall being built in Baghdad..you know it is sort of like making a line between the twin beds for her side and my side, but with so much more at stake. love, momsie/gma

Steph said...

I vote for Voodoo in Brooklyn. Although, the others are probably more significant?

I can't believe how long that train track is! Very impressive JT!

just jenn said...

that line is harder to draw when you have bunk beds. hmm. i was drawn to voodoo immediately as well, but after i thought for a moment, they all sound interesting for different reasons. pretty soon the train track will go around the entire house?!