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A Lecturer Never Sleeps

Week three of teaching done and all I want to do is curl up and sleep for my weekend solid. However, I have going through my head a half dozen activities and tasks am trying to get right for my classes next week. Something to do with holiday choices; trolling students facebook profiles in order to critique consumer identities; a blind date based market research session... it goes on. To get right, a good lecture activity probably takes five or six hours to work out. For about 15 minutes class time. It is an exhausting ratio; but if it goes well then can recycle in one form or another forever after.

This week I have had three lectures based on a Jeremy Kyle type audience baiting TV show for instance. In one we were yelling at a bin representing BP after the 2011 Gulf oil spill. In another the poor pot plant in the corner was standing in for Kim Jong Un and his repellent regime. I have no idea if the students learnt the points about sustainable and ethical disaster management, or political influences upon consumer behavior. In fact, I suspect not. But the sessions went well, and people seemed to have fun. If I have at least entertained for an hour, I consider part of the battle won.

But I am starting to see why stand up comics can never sleep. New material, improving the material, trying desperately to animate dry and dead material; it never stops.

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