A Frog-Tastic Return and (Can I Just Say?) I Love Seeing Graduate Students In Action, Especially on Day One

I remembered to pack my lunch! And are you ready for this? My older sister got me a lunch bag that (Wola!) perfectly matches my office wall-hanging. It's the first time I used it and felt lucky to be able to introduce these two fellows to one another. They got along marvelously and I packed a pesto-turkey sandwich, an apple and some peanuts. Colleagues argued that my banana wasn't ripe enough to eat, so I left it for tomorrow.

In class, I did a Deborah Appleman activity of having students define key words for the semester individually, then offered them an impromptu vocabulary test where they had to pick words and put them in quadrants, relating each to one another, developing sentences, relationships and a better understanding of all. This is how the class began and as they filled up the white boards, I simply sat back and thought, "I just love teaching. Day one and look at them out of their seats and actively engaged in the coursework."

Of course, it helps that over 50% of the class was with me last semester so the instructional ease seems to be a simple carry-over. They know my style and quickly jump into the learning without any questions being asked.

Lucky for me, too, I was given the 009 learning lab in Canisius, which is the ideal learning space with all its white boards, angles, and ways to rearrange. I'm amazed how many go into that space and simply lecture, but while I'm in there, I'm totally taking advantage of the interactive spaces. All classrooms should be designed this way. Everyone feels extra special having such design right in front of them.

And I began at Fairfield having to teach myself how to use chalk and chalkboards again. I must say, they've quickly (and out of necessity) innovated their learning spaces.

Wow...it's mid-week. Hump Day. Hmmm. I think I need to do a total CWP-Fairfield day. The 200 copies of POW '19 were mailed, but now it is time to think about 2020.

Let this be a vision day.