“Doctor Who is a big hearted, optimistic show that believes in kindness and love and that wisdom will triumph in the end. I don’t believe it’s the kind of show that says there are bitter, twisted, nasty endings because it’s not. It’s not gritty; it’s aspirational. It says, ‘It can work. And wisdom and kindness will triumph. And love will always come through in the end.’ I think there aren’t enough people or enough shows saying that and I’m damned if Doctor Who is going to join in with the general chorus of despair.”
When you’re the one teaching, time goes by really quickly. It must drag for the students listening, but as the teacher you’re trying to say so many things and make sure they get it.
Also, I think I’ll get to show The Day of the Doctor to my students in a large cinema theater with free food and stuff. Brilliant!
Sherlock? Doctor Who? Downton Abbey? The X Factor? Here’s a unique opportunity to help decide which of ten classic UK shows gets a mention in the upcoming Marvel blockbuster
I’m voting Doctor Who. Hey, Sherlock is bloody brilliant and might be better than DW, but DW is still my favorite dammit!!! And come on, Doctor Who meets Marvel is a way cooler fan crossover! :)
I was slightly disheartened at the start of today’s class when I realized a few people were missing. But that changed after a while when the people there got into the discussion and answered my questions and seemed mostly enthusiastic.
This week I’m talking about the Classic vs. Modern era, and today was just establishing the classic era by briefly going over each Doctor and explaining the history of the show broadly and lightly observing the changes its made to today.
I also showed a few clips to help give them some context. I realized there would be no time to show an episode, and for the first time probably I talked too much and finished right on time with no time to show Dalek, even though I promised at least one episode every class.
That’s okay though, the discussion went great and people seemed enthusiastic and into it and that made me want to teach and I can’t wait to get more into it. Plus tomorrow we’re watching for sure and it’s a great episode!
Today was a bit weird. There was some technical trouble to start us off. Moreover I wasn’t best prepared, which may have made the lecture not the best it might have been. Plus I’m not sure our grading method is the best. People seemed to like the episode (Blink), but I’m not sure whether it was as chill as yesterday.
Today was just a basic introduction of the show, but next week is the deep stuff and I hope they get more fun out of it. It might have been a weird choice to show two completely random episodes, but once we establish what’s what, I think they should be able to get into the characters more and make it all work out.
It was also a bit disheartening to see some people leave midway, hopefully not my fault. It is late in the evening and they do have other commitments so it’s understandable. Hopefully I make it look more appealing next week onwards!
So a couple of days back I had said that I would start documenting my progress and experience as a teacher right here on Tumblr. It’s my first time being a proper teacher with a proper class that earns both me and the students some legitimate credits. So this is a big deal. What makes it better? That the class is on Doctor Who. Twice a week. All semester long, baby.
So all day, I was slightly shaking, especially on the inside. As the day got closer to my class (at 6 in the evening), I was getting more and more nervous. I was afraid they wouldn’t like the episode or I wouldn’t be loud enough or….something. I’m a very awkward person with a low voice who struggles to be heard. So this was way outside of my comfort zone.
But then I went with it. Being the first day, I got food for everyone, and that turned out to be a great idea. Fortunately half of the class were my friends, people I knew well. Putting them together with people I didn’t know made it easier for me to take it seriously and realize they all wanted to be here. They were also being very supportive of me which made it better.
Fortunately there was also a mic, so I didn’t have to worry about being heard. I talked, I introduced the course very quickly, and I tried an experiment.
I gave them all a questionnaire to fill. A few questions for before and after watching the episode. “What do you think this show is about?” They had to answer that both times. Before and after. They also had to rate the episode out of 10.
I did this because I wanted to see what it was like to go into a TV show like this pretty much blind, with no real idea of what it’ll be about. Of course, few of them were already familiar with the show. But majority of them weren’t, so it was fun to see them understand it.
Then we watched The Eleventh Hour, and suddenly I started worrying at every scene whether it was too cheesy, too weird, too boring. But they seemed to laugh at all the funny parts, and at the end, they seemed happy. Looking over their answers I was thrilled! They seemed to be excited to see more of it, and the average rating for this episode from them was around 9 out of 10. Much better than expected.
My favorite compliment I got back was that this class was “pretty chill”. That’s exactly the tone I wanted to hit, and even though we just barely started, that’s a promising sign. A fun class that treats these things seriously. A place to relax and learn at the same time. It was great. In fact it was when I came home and looked over their answers that I started to shake on the outside. The realization that this was getting real and it was going way better than expected. Meaning the pressure is on and I better not mess this up.
So this semester I am teaching a class for the first time. And I’m teaching about Doctor Who! I start on Monday, twice a week. And I am terrified. And nervous. And excited. And more nervous.
Initially it was with someone else, but now it’s just me. Teaching a very small class, but a class nonetheless. And it’s quite scary. Especially for someone like me, this is way outside my comfort zone.
I thought it would be cool to blog my experience. This is mainly for myself, but maybe some will enjoy reading it as well? Depends on how interesting it all turns out to be I suppose.
My hope is to blog about what I teach each week/class, my thoughts on it and just general experiences on it. I’m interested to see what I learn from it myself, both as a teacher, and as a fan.
Right now, my main hope is that the students will be into it, and will be enthusiastic about the whole thing. I guess it’s partly my job to inject that enthusiasm into them. We’ll see what happens in a couple of days.
My overall hope for the course, is to not only spread the Doctor Who love, but also to make it useful for one’s life, to help them understand themselves and the world they live in a tiny bit better.
Here’s hoping it all goes smoothly. Wish me luck!
(I shall use the tag ‘teachingdoctorwho’ every time I blog about the class…if anyone’s interested)
