The cold weather this week here made us glad that we don't live farther north; but then again at least there would be snow to make the winter and cold fun once in a while. The first part of the week wasn't too bad, but then on Thursday it was bitter cold and Friday was the same. The high for the days was around 20 degrees, and with the wind chill, they said low felt like -7. That is cold for us here, but we made it through and it has been warmer, though not comfortable, outside.
Classes began on Monday, and I have to be in my office a lot during the first week because anyone who wants to get into a composition class has to go through me. I only had a handful of people to add to full classes early in the week, so I thought it wouldn't be a hectic week, but Tuesday and Wednesday crescendoed, but I was able to "fit" nearly everyone into a class that wanted to get in one. If they wanted to switch classes, they were out of luck though. Thursday and Friday were calmed down, and there were students who dropped out of sections that made everything work out pretty well in the end. I try not to add students into a section that is full but have to if we don't have the demand for another section. Since the composition classes are capped at 25, which is too large for a writing class, we don't want to give the administration or board of regents the idea that we can teach more students than we already are. I spread out the extra across the sections so that no class has more than 26, because generally a student drops after a few weeks or there are scattered absences that solve the problem of not enough computers for 26 students.
Anyway, that was the administrative part of the week, with a few other phone calls and e-mails regarding the composition program. On Tuesday I met with my two classroom classes for the first time, and am excited for the semester. I have a large group for the Literature and the Environment class and it was amazing to hear them say as they introduced themselves that they were excited about the class and looking forward to something different, for the English majors, than British or American "literature." I also have some wildlife management/conservation and biology majors, who are also excited to read and discuss environmental writers. I usually teach required classes, so to have that many people say they were glad to be in a non-required class made me happy.
My other class was also a mood-lifter. It is an honors composition class, and as a group, they are a far cry from the normal composition class. They were also excited to be there and excited to learn, and we had a great discussion about why they and most everyone else doesn't like writing -- they say high school takes all the joy and purpose out of writing. I am looking forward to working with them because I can do more advanced and theoretical things to help them with their writing because they are interested in doing something different. They will write a few formal essays, but all their informal reading responses will be in the form of letters to different people, and on Thursday they reported that writing their response as a letter to me was liberating and fun -- such a reaction is new to me -- and I enjoyed reading their letters as well.
So my two classes went well during the week, and I also began my online class, which kind of goes by itself by design, and then I grade assignments and make a few comments on the discussion board. That sounds like it is easy, but all the prep work was done last summer, and there are several assignments that have to be graded so when those are due I spend more time. I do like that I can leave all the reading, discussing, and quizzes up to them for the most part, though.
I didn't run all week because of the cold weather -- my threshold is 19 degrees -- but ran on Saturday. My legs are finally feeling normal, though I think I lost some lung capacity, if that's what you call breathing harder when I run now than I did before taking a month off.
Thursday evening after the kids went to bed JJ and I watched Pride and Prejudice, the BBC version. We had watched a couple of hours a week ago, and decided to watch some more. Once it got going, I didn't want to stop watching, so JJ went to bed and I stayed up until midnight until it was over. It was a long movie but I liked it. I have never read the book or watched the movie, but I had seen some variations on the basic story, so I could only feign surprise when Mr. Darcy and Ms. Bennett ended up together.:)
Friday night we got a babysitter and went out for sushi. JJ is starting to eat more sushi, and we both had some rolls and then an appetizer of chicken satay. After dinner, we decided to go to the International Cinema movie at the university -- free is a good price -- and watched "Mongol." We didn't really have much of an idea what it was about, but we ran into the organizer of the movies at the restaurant, who teaches at MSU, and he said it was a beautiful movie to watch about Genghis Khan. It was quite a movie, covering the early part of his life and how he came to power. Who knows if it is true, but it was fascinating and did have some amazing views of Mongolia and life in the 12th century.
Saturday morning we all sort of moseyed around the house after breakfast, reading or playing, and then later I did some work on the toy trunk that is taking a long time to finish with all the painting and putting trim on, but I got it put together and caulked, so that now only the final coat of paint needs to go on before I put the lid on. JJ hosted a baby shower for a sister in our ward, and then we all relaxed and went to bed fairly early.
Sunday morning I went to bishopric meeting and then left a few minutes early and went home so that JJ could go to ward council. I think that's how we will do the meetings -- I will go to both meetings two times a month and go to bishopric only the other two Sundays. I attended a primary training meeting after church, and they provided lunch so it wasn't too bad to stay an extra two hours. Later, the young single adults came over for home evening and that was fun. When they all left, Claire went to bed and so did we. Rachel has a little cold, which she has given to all of us, so everyone is trying to fight that away.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment