| (no subject) |
[Oct. 27th, 2009|11:43 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  wired | ] |
| [ | music |
| | street noise | ] |
I do realize that what I should be doing is going to bed and not posting, but there's something inside me that just won't be quiet. And so, as in past years, I have the desire to be up late. Yes, the alarm will go off at 6:55 tomorrow morning; yes, I will be teaching at 8:30; yes, I am exhausted. But no, I don't feel like going to bed, even though there's pretty good incentive to go to bed these days.
I guess that's what it means to be a night person.
There are certain things that I just can't get out of my mind these days, even when these things have little or no effect on my life.
On the other hand, there are other things tickling my mind and conscience that do affect me-
-the socioling paper, based on a 40 minute interview that I conducted in Portuguese with a native speaker from Rio. Twelve pages, total, including a six and a half minutes of the variable I was analyzing transcribed, two tables, and my interview protocol, plus seven pages of text. It was a fun (and educational!) project, but I feel like it's sorta getting thrown together at the last minute. Or...well, the interview was last weekend, and then I finally sat down to write the paper and analyze the data on Sunday. (It took frickin' forever - the data transcription and counting of tokens, etc., easily took 10-12 hours.) We were given just under two weeks to complete the project, and... yeah. It turned out to be a major timesuck. What really frustrates me is that I didn't procrastinate and I still feel like I didn't have enough time to really do my best work... This makes me feel bad about myself. :/
-Top Chef party tomorrow night, at one of my fellow classmate's apartments. Exciting!
-bureaucratic woes. Long story short: the state employees retirement fund and the incompetent HR people at OSU are conspiring to steal significant chunks of my paycheck because of some bureaucratic "error" that wasn't fucking my fault. So much for a first full paycheck this month. :(
-I <3 my students. Not all of them. But most of them. One told a story today about a guy she saw wandering around campus in a onesie-footed-pj-suit. :D |
|
|
| I'm still taken by surprise |
[Oct. 20th, 2009|10:27 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | C-bus | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  tired | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Eisley - Brightly Wound | ] |
I've been neglecting my LJ.... and, really, that's the least of the things in my life that have been neglected recently. Things are pretty crazy here, between homework, lesson planning, grading, projects, readings, quizzes, etc. I've hardly had a chance to breathe.
I'm still not a fan of the quarter system... and my professors have been assigning so much work. Life is kinda exhausting.
I got back a homework assignment yesterday, which I'd worked on for a few hours. It ended up being about 3 pages single-spaced. For just a stinking homework assignment. I got it back covered in red, with an 8.3 out of a possible 10. Clearly, my hard work was only worth a B-. But, besides whatever faults my own work contained, here's what I learned from it:
1) Educators who preach that teachers shouldn't grade in red are ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. Getting back the assignment with so much red made me feel like shit about myself. If the comments had been in green, or in blue, or in purple, or in orange, or in black, fine. But the red was awful. This makes me glad that I have yet to break out a red pen on my students here - I grade mostly in hot pink or neon orange. I think I'll grade the upcoming exam in purple. :)
2) Giving points on homework regardless of "correctness" helps students learn from their mistakes without making them feel crappy. I'm not saying that I should have gotten a perfect grade on the homework assignment just because of the effort that went into it, but... The difference between full credit and a B- is enough to upset me, considering the amount of time I spent on it. If that much hard work is only worth a B-, why didn't I just skimp on the assignment and enjoy myself doing something I want to for once? I don't give below a 9/10 to my students for their homework assignments unless they fail to try or turn in certain parts of the assignment. Why? Because it's not worth making them feel stupid. I correct stuff; I make suggestions; I point them in the right direction. But bruising their egos over some dumb homework assignment? Screw that, man.
3) I need to remember to not take grad school too seriously. I spend so much time in school and on campus (usually 8-11 hours/day) and then come home and work all night until bed that it's so hard to realize that, outside of my academic life, I am a person who has legitimate interests and needs. And that I am worth more than some stupid grade might suggest. Grad school is just...a temporary state. It's like an internship: you work hard and get paid next to nothing for your work. But at the end, you come out with...some sort of edge: a qualification that may help you find a better job. And in the meantime, staying grounded and remembering that you are worth more as a person than simply the academic crap you produce are the more important things.
4) I have the best fiancée in the world - she makes me a lovely dinner and calms me down when I'm stressed about work and have a million things to do. <3.
And that's that.
I finally was observed today in the class that I teach. I'd known it was coming soon but didn't know which day it would be. Actually, I'd been expecting it to be last week, or perhaps Monday. But, no, it was today, and ... it was fine. I was really nervous at first, but then teaching while being observed is really no different from teaching to the regular class. And my performance anxiety is a lot lower in front of my students these days - I'm comfortable with them, and I think they're mostly comfortable with me. :)
...and I think that's all I want to write about right now because I want a shower and then some sleep. When I get a chance, I'll have to write about my sociolinguistic interview. |
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Oct. 9th, 2009|12:06 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | sleepy | ] |
On the one hand, 801 already feels like it's drawing to a close...
On the other hand, I'm already freaking out about my socioling final project but am still too much involved in fieldwork assignment #1 to even think about the final project. Or about fieldwork project #2, which is going to pop up out of nowhere in a couple of weeks.
Shit. I hate the quarter system so much. |
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Oct. 3rd, 2009|01:43 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  sigh | ] |
The High Price of Being a Gay Couple, via the NYTimes.
This is infuriating. I mean, I know there are so many benefits built into the system for legally-recognized married couples, but.... agghhh.
We will never be able to get ahead financially, unless the federal government makes some serious changes soon. |
|
|
| Sto cercando |
[Sep. 30th, 2009|08:29 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | sleepy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Nek - Almeno stavolta | ] |
I feel like I've been running around like a crazy person. I've been on campus for so many hours the past ... week, I guess. So many hours. I don't want to count them. And then I've been coming home and working until bedtime - lesson planning, getting homework done; getting homework graded...
I've been exhausted. And tomorrow's going to be even worse - 8:30 teaching, 9:30 grad homework, 10:30 tutoring, 11:30 conversation center, 1:30-3:30 phonology, 3:30 observing mentor's class, 4:30 writing up analysis of observation, 5:30 meeting with other mentor about my being observed next week, 6:30 head home. Then more lesson planning and maybe some homework.
I know I bitch a lot about being a grad student... and, really, I don't hate it as much as it may seem. I had a meeting with my advisor today to get his signature on some paperwork for my travel to Austin for a conference in November. It could have been a 5-10 minute meeting, but we talked for close to 45 minutes. And it was nice. And he told me about all the cool courses I have to look forward to. And he told me about the fact that I can look forward to teaching Portuguese soonishly. And he explained to me that all the work I'm putting into teaching now is investing in my future: a glowing recommendation from my teaching supervisor is worth so much when I'm on the job market. And all this Spanish-y stuff I'm doing in my classes is also investing in my future: I may want to be a Romance linguist, but if I have a bunch of hours in Hispanic ling, then potential employers will see that as especially appealing. And if they see I'm competent in teaching intro Spanish, too, even better.
That meeting with him really made me think about my (lack of) life here. I've heard a lot of people say that they worked much harder in grad school than they did after grad school - basically that we're treated like dirt and paid next to nothing for so, so much work. On the other hand, looking at it as "investing in my future" makes me think about it in a much more positive way.
And that's all I have to say for today. Shower and then movie - since I'm badass and only had to put in a 12-hour workday today. |
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Sep. 27th, 2009|10:25 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | grumble-grumble | ] |
Another Yom Kippur that I can't really observe. Or... I guess I could observe it, but there would be all sorts of paperwork and stomachaches involved, so I choose not to.
I observed it in college... but my responsibilities were fewer then. I think I only kinda observed it last year - it was so hot in Texas, and I was walking four-ish miles a day just to get to and from school...so I felt justified in my non-observance.
Tomorrow I will be at school from about 8:15am until 7:15pm. ....
Uncaffeinated, dehydrated, and hungry.
Or I could not observe Yom Kippur.
I'm not sure which way things will end up, but I'm leaning toward at least being caffeinated and hydrated.
I guess God will just have to understand the plight of the overworked grad student...
(Also, lesson planning take approximately a fuck-ton of time, and I feel like I've been working all weekend. Oh, and I didn't get as much done as I should have. *sigh* |
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Sep. 26th, 2009|09:52 pm] |
If Lizzie loved me enough, maybe she would buy me an organic free-range kitten like the ones we got to hold at the farmers' market this morning...
<3. Heee, |
|
|
| Não esperes por mim |
[Sep. 26th, 2009|12:10 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  content & sleepy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | André Sardet & Mafalda Veiga - Hoje vou ficar | ] |
Thanks to all for the positive comments on my last few posts - I haven't really had a lot of time to respond to individual comments, but just know that I really appreciate them and all of you guys. Also, to those of you who sent me happy emails, thanks. :) <3.
Just as a quick pick-me-up, I'd like to say that I woke up this morning with an epiphany for my lesson plan for today and that my class went really well. I don't know if the students had as much fun as I did, but... it was a keeper. It's helpful to have days like this to help my teacherly self-esteem, especially knowing that I probably will have a number of flop lessons this first quarter - particularly in the first part of it.
I stayed on campus all day for the pizza party at 5:30 - yay free food, even if it means being on campus from 8:10ish(am) till close to 7pm. Long day, quite productive, on a teaching high; I met a lot of new departmenties, also, and they're so entertaining. I think I spent more time laughing this afternoon than I did on my readings (I'll regret it later, but I had fun today).
Now I must go carry poor Lizzie upstairs - she fell asleep while watching a movie with me (shocker, no? :D). Bedtime.
Happy weekend, all. |
|
|
| whining |
[Sep. 24th, 2009|10:28 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | crappy | ] |
...had a really long day today and am concerned about tomorrow's lesson plan.
I don't really have any brilliant ideas for how to fix it up, though, or how to make it longer...
:( :( :(
It's been raining all day.
I woke up feeling really nauseous at like six o'clock this morning -- still felt crappy as I was heading to school and teaching class at 8:30. Lizzie was also feel blah, so our current suspected culprit was the asian noodlely thing we made last night. *sigh* |
|
|
| Quick update |
[Sep. 23rd, 2009|10:01 pm] |
There's nothing like first-day-of-school nerves. I've been a student for most of my life, and still I'm nervous on the first day of class. What if all the cool kids laugh at me? What if my teachers think I'm dumb? This is my second year in a teacher-like role. This time around, I'm a full-blown teacher. My nerves were even worse.
I showed up about half an hour early to class with the hopes of getting all set up -- computer plugged into VGA jack so that my 2-slide powerpoint would play -- and moving desks around to make it less classroomy and more large-circle-y. I followed my first student in. So I didn't end up moving desks because I didn't want to disturb students after they had already sat down where they were comfortable. Blarg.
But things went pretty well. I felt I established myself well as the Teacher Who Only Speaks Spanish, with the exception of the last bit of class in which we went through paperwork and syllabus. Heee.
Unfortunately, I think I'm teaching a pretty dunce-like class: it's sorta...remedial. The nature of the class I'm teaching is to review everything and make some headway -- so kids with a couple years of high school Spanish can review from the very beginning and learn new stuff at an "accelerated rate" for the second half of the quarter. The thing is, instead of accelerated (which is how the dept. sells the course), it really is remedial. A lot of kids in my class had three or four years of high school Spanish. And they placed into a 101 equivalent level. The thing is, my department won't let them take 101 if they had that much high school Spanish. So they're in my class. Wonderful, no?
So class went pretty well - first day and I kept the kiddies the whole 48 minutes. I am good teacher. :) No drops yet, mwahahahah.
I'm at wit's end right now, though, because they're all having issues and emailing me out the wazoo -- they don't want to buy the textbook (or can't afford it), they can't figure out what homework to do, the audio files they need for their homework are "incompatible" with their computers (LIES) or, in any case, they simply can't open them. And, rrrrrr. NO MOAR EMAILS PLZ.
I also had my first grad class (here) today, and the class is intimidating in terms of the expectations - I have 75 pages of reading and problem set for Monday, and in the 10-week quarter we'll have three projects, one abstract, one presentation, and one final conference paper with original data collected, etc.
Remind me again why they have us newbies taking THREE classes this first quarter teaching here? Because...my pedagogy class also has a certain amount of reading, as well as TOO MANY PROJECTS. I guess I'll find out tomorrow what my third class requires... Bleh.
Oh, and did I mention that my abstract was accepted to the conference at UT? I think I might have. But now I have to deal with paperwork to see if I can get any travel reimbursement from OSU, and it involves a lot of written statements and endorsements from faculty members, etc. Not sure when I'm going to find time to take care of that...maybe Friday?
Right now: tired, headachey, in need of hot shower. |
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Sep. 22nd, 2009|11:43 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  anxious | ] |
So, so nervous.
Classes start tomorrow morning.
I'm teaching at 8:30. Spanish. All by myself. In a classroom. With 25 undergrads, mostly freshmen. With a syllabus I didn't write. And academic bureaucracy I still don't really understand.
It all kinda makes me want to puke. |
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Sep. 20th, 2009|10:53 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  all over the place | ] |
I've been meaning to post for about a week, but I've been so caught up in life that time hasn't been on my side.
Finally done with the 801 pedagogy workshop... which is nice. Tomorrow I have a "here's the paperwork to give students on the 1st day of class" meeting in my department, which I'm sure will be helpful, if longer than absolutely necessary. Then on Tuesday, we have one more meeting that... I'm quite certain will be pointless.
I don't actually want to post about other stuff right now because it's time-consuming to bother with. So the short of it is: lesson planning eats up so much time, not having control over my own time drives me crazy, and professors who assign readings before classes give me an arg.
On the other hand, getting a high five from a friend of a professor crush of mine at Midd and a professor crush of mine at UT makes me happy. :) |
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Sep. 10th, 2009|11:17 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | stressed out | ] |
Allow me to tell you about my day from hell...
Actually, the day wasn't too bad overall, until the evening at least. I'm starting to get that anxious feeling about classes (like: oh, crap - that's going to be a lot of work; am I going to have time to get it all done and make lesson plans and grade papers?).
I was already stressing out as L & I were heading home this afternoon, and I was really crampy on top of that. It was...around 5 by the time we got home, and our car wasn't out front.
As a related note: we walk to and from school because it's only a 20-minute walk and who wants to pay for a parking pass and then having to find a spot? Anyway, Columbus does street sweeping once a month, and on our street it's every second Thursday (on our side of the street) and every second Friday of the month (on the other side of the street). We remembered on Monday that this was going to be that second Thursday, but it didn't cross our minds yesterday and so we didn't move the car.
So now it's in a police impound somewhere. Of course the police impound is only open between like 9 and 4 on weekdays (closed on weekends), and we have our mandatory workshop stuff from 8:30 to 4:30. So now, carless and without the time to take care of it, we had to figure out how to take care of this.
Thank goodness for Kristin, who's a young lecturer in my department. She's going to drive us down there during our lunch break tomorrow to deal with stuff (we owe her baked goods big time!), but still, what a pain in the ass. And it's going to cost us more than I care to think about (on the order of $200?) for the fine and other fees just to get the damn thing back.
Anyway, after we get home, we start trying to figure out where to go to pick it up, or a number we can call to get more info, or...really any kind of resource. We found a couple, and then our internet went on the fritz. So I call Time Warner (because the account is in my name) and am told that, yep, our internet appears not to be working, but they can't send someone out here until Sunday. WTF. I've got time-sensitive assignments due via email pretty much every night (tonight included), and suddenly we have no internet at home. (It was at this point that I totally lost it and burst into tears. There's only so much bad stuff that I can deal with at once.)
So we heat up some leftovers for dinner, pack up our laptops, and head to Panera to get free 'tubes. Which is fine, I guess, but it's all the way on the edge of campus = not a pleasant walk at night because all the sketchy people are out in force. Anyway, we write an email to Kristin and wait a little while for a response while finishing up some assignments, turning them in, and then wasting some time online. No response by like 8:45, so we head home. Our internet is still down, but when we restarted it, it gave us like 2 minutes of connectivity - enough time to receive a response that Kristin sent back while we were on our way home.
It now appears to be working again - I guess it was a temporary outage? - but I'm really ticked off at Time Warner because ... when I pay for a service, I don't expect the service to be unreliable. I also expect it to be up and running all the time - not with some three day vacation from working before they are able to send someone out to fix their faulty technology. You know what I mean? Just.... arg.
Now: bed. |
|
|
| Que eu colhei |
[Sep. 8th, 2009|07:42 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | grrrr | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Entre Aspas - Uma pequena flor | ] |
I've been really moody today for no apparent reason. L has mostly been the victim of this today... but, it's just that right now, for whatever reason, I have very little patience for other people's errors.
I mean, incompetence always bugs me; but in this case, it's little things. Like the fact that the stupid bookstore only had one of the two textbooks I needed to buy, so I tried the other bookstore, and it was going to cost me an extra $15 to get the first book brand new. So then we ran around and went back to the first place for that first book after getting the second book at the second place. RARRRRR. It's dumb; I know it's dumb. But it made me moody.
Or, like, we wasted our afternoon in this pedagogy workshop discussing the worthless lecture this morning (and, oh, then I had to write a "reflective journal" about that lecture for homework), and I could have done fine without those wasted three hours this afternoon.
Or, like, I was advised to take a class entitled "Spanish Phonology and Morphology" - an intro class to the subject. All of us newbies were, whether we were MA or Ph.D students. And, as it turns out, we're using the SAME F*ING TEXTBOOK that I used at UT in my intro to Spanish phonology last fall. Since then, I've had a more specific, less intro-like phonology course... and I kinda feel like this is going to be a waste of my time. (As is Sonia, another "UT runaway" who left after a year and a half of Ph.D work...) At the same time, I'm taking 17 quarter hours this fall, and.... that's a lot. A full load for me would be considered 12 quarter hours, which is two 5-credit hour classes, plus a 2-credit hour pass/fail colloquium course. But, no, my department thinks that having you take an extra pedagogy class that has tests, projects, and lots of assignments is awesome your first quarter here - and for many, their first quarter teaching. AGGGGGHHHH. The stupidity! So anyway, I'm taking 17 quarter hours, so I shouldn't complain that one of the courses is a repeat of what I had last fall -- I'm sure I'll enjoy it (thank goodness it's not syntax!), and it'll feel good to know that I'm not a complete dunce.
Or, like, how Netflix sent us a broken DVD last week, which meant we went almost a week with no Netflix because of Labor Day weekend. :( I mean, it's a stupid reason to be upset, but GRARR.
And, now, the icing on the cake: so we have to record ourselves teaching our microlessons this week and next week -- using a digital video camera with an SD card in it. All of us were to be giving SD cards and SD card readers that plug into a USB port. These items were to be given to us today by our respective departments so that tomorrow morning at 8:30 when presentations start, we will be able to start recording. My department failed to do this (though L's managed to). This bothers me because now we Spanish dept. people are going to look like the workshop idiots without our supplies. :( *grumble grumble* Again, not a great reason to get pissed off, but GRRRRR.
(This song makes me feel better, though.) :D |
|
|
| Save for the winking of Venus or Mars |
[Sep. 7th, 2009|05:19 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | grad school | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | okay | ] |
| [ | music |
| | The Weepies - Hideaway | ] |
So this past week has been a whirlwind of school, homework, lesson planning, and exhaustion. I'm...not complaining; it's simply a different routine than what I had gotten used to all summer unemployed.
My last lesson taught on Friday went surprisingly well - it was a 20-minute grammar lesson, and I got some really great feedback on it, as well as some ideas for how to tweak it to make it just a little bit better. However, lesson planning to make everyday's lesson include a bunch of games and activities is going to be a real challenge, I think. I've started thinking about the first week's worth of lesson plans, and...ouf! Our first week of classes is Wednesday, Thursday, Friday (in two and a half weeks), and even just coming up with good introductory stuff is going to be crazy... The class I'm teaching is a "review" course designed for students coming in with a couple years of high school Spanish, so it goes quite fast. I've been told that I'll only really be able to cover about half of the material in class, which ... hardly seems fair - the students are expected to learn the rest on their own. Ah, well...
As mentioned in my last post, we're still making an effort to get out and about a little bit on the weekends. We did the gallery hop this weekend, before which we went out for indian food. The first football of the season was Saturday afternoon (vs. Navy; OSU squeaked by with a win at the very end, apparently), and the city was a zoo all day. We'd planned on having indian food for our date night that night, and after pouring over restaurant reviews, we decided to go to a place that was sorta in the suburbs instead of braving the drunken crowds on High St. It was a good decision.
Today we checked out Whole Foods (or Whole Paycheck, as the Gordon family calls it)... It's a much smaller store than the one in Austin (but then Austin's was the mother-ship -- the place where the chain was launched from), and most of what they had was prepared food (which...isn't our thing). On the other hand, they had our Choice brand mango ceylon tea, which we used to get at the co-op in Middlebury and had been unable to find here. It was on sale (yay!) but only because it's being discontinued (booo!), hopefully only discontinued by Whole Foods and not Choice - so we grabbed a couple of boxes.
This week (four day week, yes!) looks like it will be more of the same - early mornings, lectures, talks on how to deal with students, more practice lessons, etc. The mornings will be earlier, though, but I've been told they will include donut/coffee breaks, which the food and beverages provided by the College of Humanities. Free food (and coffee) = win! |
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Sep. 5th, 2009|10:09 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | happy | ] |
Gallery hop in Columbus is this...thing once a month where all the art galleries in Short North (kinda where we live) and downtown open up to the public all night. Lots of shops and restaurants stay open late, too, and the entire city comes out to look around, hang out, and eat/drink.
We experienced our first one tonight, and it was pretty cool.
But mainly... we saw approximately a million lesbian couples out. (There were some gay guys, but they weren't as easy to spot because we didn't see couples so much... Maybe it's a gay culture thing, but do gay guys not hold hands in public the way lesbian couples do?) Ok, ok, so maybe it wasn't a million. But they were out and visible! Columbus is like... full of them! ...which makes my inner fangirl very happy. |
|
|
| I won't ask if you don't |
[Sep. 3rd, 2009|10:04 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | exhausted | ] |
| [ | music |
| | The Animators - I won't tell | ] |
A few updates:
1. Wedding: officially changed from the place with jokers who weren't going to have a place for us to get ready.
2. Teaching workshop: meeting lots of new people, finding a couple of other "UT runaways" who transferred here. Lots and lots of work: it's 9 to 4 everyday (the first day was like 9 to 6), and then there's lesson planning half the night. For example, it's now 9:45pm as I write this, and I only *just* finished my lesson plan for tomorrow - a 20-minute "micro-teaching" lesson plan (incidentally, for grammar this time; the last one was for vocab, and the one before that was basic introductions) following their communicative method. Lesson planning - activity designing and context setting - takes a *really* long time for someone who is inexperienced (pretty much all of us in the workshop). Not to mention this chapter I'm supposed to have read by morning. :( On the other hand, 3 weeks of workshop = really long days, but also = $1000 at the end of the month, which means that our bank account will stop going down with nothing coming in.
But! My first two lesson plans went really well! We have to actually teach the lesson in front of our peers, including all of the activities we plan -- all while being observed by our peer mentors (read: grad students who have been here for a while) and our professors for this teaching class. I suspect I won't get quite as good reviews for this last lesson plan, and I'm also a little concerned it won't go quite long enough. Lizzie helped me brainstorm for extra lesson padding, though, so it'll be fine.
I have to say, though, that getting such positive feedback from my instructors (after I'd seen them nicely tear apart classmates' lesson plans) makes me feel really good about teaching. It may be Spanish, and I may not have been thrilled with that... But I can honestly say that I'm kinda excited about teaching it now. :)
It occurs to me that all of the really good language teachers I've ever had have used this method... Mark did, Kirsten did, my high school French & Spanish teachers did, Bettina did... It makes a lot of sense in a lot of ways -- but I kinda feel like they're even more focused on the oral and visual stuff here than the other teachers I've had have done. I guess I'll find what works for me these first couple of quarters. ... but I really like the idea of using more written activities than what is expected here.
Anyway, I'll be teaching Spanish 102.66 five days a week at 8:30am this quarter. It's a "review" course designed for kids who had a couple of years of high school Spanish - it starts with chapter 1 in the text book and goes through chapter 8 in the 10-week quarter. (Basically, it's what 508 was at UT.) 8:30 isn't ideal, but I figure it's good to be done first thing in the morning and then go have some quiet "coffee and grading" or "coffee and lesson planning" or "coffee and homework" time somewhere on campus before the classes I'm taking start at 1:30pm Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. This is an acceptable plan for me.
Um, what else?
Not much, I guess. We saw Milk the other night (when I had two hours of free time mostly before midnight), and ... I thought it was quite good. Tomorrow night will be synagogue (we're becoming regulars, haha!), mac&cheese, and Dear Frankie, which I haven't seen but Lizzie has. Yay, vegging!
(Also, my fiancée is lovely and packs me little second-grade-lunchies, with a pb&j sandwich on toasted bread and a little baggie of grapes. I love it!) |
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Aug. 25th, 2009|08:23 pm] |
Also, 'cause I like pictures...
Our first good picture here in Columbus, in Goodale Park.
(I have a great piece of potential blackmail material, but... I've promised to keep it to myself on threats of death. *sigh*)
:) |
|
|
| Corn cobs and candle wax |
[Aug. 25th, 2009|03:37 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | frustrated | ] |
| [ | music |
| | The Decemberists - Eli, The Barrowboy | ] |
...experienced the first bit of wedding planning FAIL today. We're staying fairly zen about this new kink, but it's a frustrating issue. :(
Otherwise, today we:
...went to a new park/conservatory with a picnic lunch of grilled cheese & apple sandwiches.
...went to the Columbus Museum of Art. Free admission in July & August, so why not go exploring? Our general consensus post-museum-visit was that we were glad to have gone while it was free, because at $8 apiece later (and that's the student rate!), it's totally not worth it.
This evening:
-black bean soup for dinner (and packaging up for late nights on campus)
-out to see a movie? or possibly just watching something at home |
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Aug. 24th, 2009|07:14 pm] |
According to CNN, linguistics is an unusual major, alongside social work, criminology, and food science.
Seriously, CNN? I'm beginning to think that L's got it right with her snub of CNN, saying that it's "not real news." |
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
| |
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
kosherchick's journal