The Rundown

It occurred to me that only three or four of my readers really understand what I actually do for my assistanceship. General information like that is reason I got this stupid blog in the first place, so allow me to give you the rundown.

I am a teaching assistant for Dr. Nora Engebretsen’s Aural Skills II class. Aural Skills II is the second semester (obviously) of a series of IV. Therefore, most of my students are freshmen. What does “Aural Skills” entail? Ear training and sightsinging. What does that mean? (you see why I hate trying to explain my life to non-musicians?) It means a lot of things. Sightreading melodies and rhythms, interval and chord identification, various dictation exercises… and some other stuff I can’t think of at the moment. Do you know why I can’t think of it at the moment? Because I’m putting very little effort in this stream-of-conscious-thought post.

Aural Skills is always taught in conjunction with music theory (which varies in title) I-IV. I basically teach the physical side to theory, which works out fine considering my limited teaching experience comes from a very physical-practical realm.

Monday morning, Dr. E’s three sections all meet in a recital hall at 8:30. At that point, Rebecca (my counterpart) and I both play the role of bouncer. We do very little.

Wednesday, Dr. E handles all three sections, separately, in a classroom—8:30, 9:30, 10:30. Friday, I take the 8:30 and 9:30, and Rebecca takes the 10:30. Rebecca has a split assignment with another professor, so that’s where her other section goes.

I also have an office hour, but this semester it’s by appointment only, since hardly anyone came to my office hour all last semester.

Every Monday I have ear training homework to grade.

Friday I follow Dr. E’s lesson plans (or so she thinks), which means both of my sections are supposed to be identical. But something always screws up in at least one of the sections. My students generally appreciate and respond to my teaching personality—a healthy blend of mischievous humor with militant grace. Sometimes I remind myself of SFC Beach.

It’s a pretty sweet gig because Dr. E is famous for being nice. I’m glad I don’t have to work for some of the other profs… I hear things.

The part I really don’t like about this job is exemplified by this week. Every three weeks, it’s time for exams. That means the in-class ear training exam, plus individual meetings for sightsinging exams. There are about thirty kids per section. They come into my office, test on a few categories (melodic and rhythmic sightsinging, chord progressions, and sometimes interval singing). Some of these kids come in blatantly unprepared, and even more of them are no-shows. This irritates me. If you make an appointment, keep the bloody appointment. I have better things to do than sit at my desk, waiting for nothing. These kids are getting progressively worse about that. It’s disrespectful. I usually enjoy the actual teaching, but I don’t enjoy being stood up. Not when I have a thesis to defend.

The best part is that I have an office. Last year, I had no assistanceship. This year, I have spent far too much time taking advantage of having an office. Now, in the end, I have more or less abandoned my office, for various reasons. I was in the CMA far too much today for my tastes anymore. By the way, that’s Center for Musical Arts, not the Country Music Awards.

That about covers everything. So there you have it. Hopefully you have an idea now what I do for my job.