On Teaching

General Reflections

On Online Teaching

COVID-19 changed my teaching routine in a hurry, starting in mid-March 2020, when in-person instruction ceased at Dalhousie and we “pivoted” (read “worked desperately”) to transform our courses into online versions. My blog posts reflect first that initial transition to “emergency remote teaching” in Winter 2020 and then the process of preparing as well as I could for a more deliberate online term in Fall 2020. Winter 2021 will be online as well; it seems about 50/50 right now that we will still be online in Fall 2021 (Update: I was, anyway). I thought the change to online teaching was significant enough to put these posts in their own category rather than simply filing them under ‘This Week In My Classes.”

This Week in My Classes: 2007-8

Fall Term:19th-Century Novel Dickens to Hardy; Victorian Women Writers (Graduate Seminar)

Winter Term: Mystery and Detective Fiction; The Victorian ‘Woman Question’

  • January 12, 2008: Introductions
  • January 16, 2008: Collins, The Moonstone; A. Bronte, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
  • January 25, 2008: Collins, The Moonstone; Bronte, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
  • January 31, 2008: Sherlock Holmes; Wood, East Lynne
  • February 5, 2008: Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd; Wood, East Lynne
  • February 12, 2008: Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd; Trollope, He Knew He Was Right
  • March 3, 2008: Hammett, The Maltese Falcon; Trollope, He Knew He Was Right
  • March 10, 2008: Paretsky, “Dealer’s Choice”; George Eliot, Middlemarch
  • March 19, 2008: James, An Unsuitable Job for a Woman; Grafton, ‘A’ is for Alibi; George Eliot, Middlemarch
  • March 27, 2008: Grafton, ‘A’ is for Alibi; George Eliot, Middlemarch; Trollope, “Novel Reading”
  • April 6, 2008: Rankin, Knots and Crosses; Gissing, The Odd Women

Summer Term: Women and Detective Fiction

This Week in My Classes 2008-9

Fall Term: Introduction to Prose and Fiction; 19th-Century Novel Austen to Dickens

Winter Term: Mystery and Detective Fiction; Victorian Literature of Faith and Doubt

  • January 6, 2009: Introductions; Hopkins and Tennyson
  • January 16, 2009: Collins, The Moonstone; Carlyle, Sartor Resartus and Past and Present
  • January 25, 2009: Collins, The Moonstone; Dickens, A Christmas Carol
  • February 5, 2009: Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd; Tennyson, In Memoriam AHH
  • February 11, 2009: Chandler, “Trouble is My Business”; Darwin, On the Origin of Species and The Descent of Man
  • February 20, 2009: Hammett, The Maltese Falcon; Browning, “Caliban Upon Setebos”
  • March 3, 2009: P. D. James, An Unsuitable Job for a Woman; George Eliot, Silas Marner
  • March 10, 2009: Grafton, ‘A’ is for Alibi; Matthew Arnold, Poems
  • March 23, 2009: Robinson, Rankin, McBain; Swinburne, D. G. Rossetti, Christina Rossetti
  • April 9, 2009: Auster, City of Glass; Hardy, Jude the Obscure

This Week in My Classes 2009-10

Fall Term: 19th-Century Novel Dickens to Hardy; Victorian Sensations

Winter Term: British Literature Since 1800; Mystery and Detective Fiction; George Eliot

Spring Term: 19th-Century Novel Austen to Dickens

This Week in My Classes 2010-11

Fall Term: British Literature Since 1800, Women and Detective Fiction

Winter Term: Sabbatical!

This Week in My Classes 2011-12

Fall Term: Mystery and Detective Fiction, 19th-Century Fiction from Austen to Dickens, The Victorian ‘Woman Question’

Winter Term: Close Reading, 19th-Century Fiction from Dickens to Hardy

This Week in My Classes: 2012-13

Fall Term: Introduction to Literature, Mystery and Detective Fiction, The Somerville Novelists

Winter Term: Introduction to Literature, 19th-Century Fiction from Dickens to Hardy

This Week in My Classes: 2013-14

Fall Term: Mystery and Detective Fiction, 19th-Century Fiction from Austen to Dickens

Winter Term: Introduction to Prose and Fiction, Women and Detective Fiction

This Week in My  Classes: 2014-15

Fall Term: Mystery and Detective Fiction; 19th-Century Fiction from Dickens to Hardy

Winter Term: Sabbatical!

This Week in My Classes: 2015-16

Fall Term: Introduction to Prose and Fiction; George Eliot

Winter Term: Mystery and Detective Fiction; 19th-Century Fiction from Austen to Dickens

This Week In My Classes: 2016-17

Fall Term: Close Reading; The Victorian ‘Woman Question’

Winter Term: Pulp Fiction; 19th-Century Fiction from Dickens to Hardy

This Week In My Classes: 2017-18

Fall Term: Close Reading; 19th-Century Fiction From Austen to Dickens

Winter Term: Pulp Fiction, Victorian Sensations

This Week In My Classes: 2018-19

Fall Term: Mystery & Detective Fiction; 19th-Century Fiction from Dickens to Hardy

Winter Term: Sabbatical!

This Week In My Classes: 2019-20

Fall term: Pulp Fiction, Women & Detective Fiction

Winter Term: British Literature Since 1800; 19th-Century Fiction from Austen to Dickens

Summer 2020: Retraining for Online Teaching

Fall 2020 (Online): How Literature Works; 19th-Century Fiction from Dickens to Hardy

Winter 2021 (Online): Mystery and Detective Fiction; The Victorian ‘Woman Question’

  • See ‘On Online Teaching’ at the top of this page

Fall 2021 (Online): How Literature Works; 19th-Century Fiction from Austen to Dickens

Fall 2022: 19th-Century Fiction from  Dickens to Hardy; Women and Detective Fiction

This was my first term teaching in person since COVID and teaching at all since Owen’s death. My posts for this term often combine reflections on teaching with thoughts about these contexts.

Updated December 31, 2022