Back to Teaching Tonight - I Continue to Be Amazed By How Much I Get Done Academically When Classes Aren't In Session

Thank you, Norman Rockwell. My visit to the museum in your honor in Rutland, Vermont during my days of Bread Loaf School of English (Word Loaf, according to The Simpsons) are paying off.

Boy with Teacher.

I dress more like the boy than the teacher.

And we're back. Actually, I was back last week, because my Monday class was a Wednesday, but I took that as a commercial for the real teaching still to come. Today, Tuesday, it goes full swing again, and my day of meetings is 100% evidence of this. I'm locked in until May. Ugh.

The good news is I spent most of Monday (yesterday) getting ready for the classes, knowing that I'm unlikely to find any time during the week to work on them. It's time to start thinking CWP-Fairfield summer work and I need to focus on all of that, too. 6 weeks of summer work. Woot woot!

I tried to set a portion of my evening last night aside for pleasure reading (well, work reading - it all ties together), but after cooking dinner, cleaning the upstairs, doing laundry, walking the dog and preparing syllabi, I ran out of time. Actually, Generation One of the Ubuntu Academy Kids stopped by to catch up. I felt horrible - I had nothing to feed them, as I brought all the desserts (cookies and brownies made for Chitunga) over to Leo and Bev's yesterday, so I wouldn't devour them on my own.

The collegiate syllabi is something else - always a challenge laying out the course readings, conversations, intellectual development with dates, holidays, guest speakers and assignments. The particular course I was working on, too, is one being merged officially for the first time. A few items had to be sacrificed from each to make room for the new vision (I'm sad to say that Critical Encounters  by Deborah Appleman was chopped - too many of the content area teaches wouldn't find it useful for their curriculum; instead, I added Best Practices in Adolescent Literacy Instruction, edited by K. Hinchman and H.K. Sheridan-Thomas, because it compiles some of the best scholars into one location and should give me the most bang for my buck).

It looks that I'll be going back to my out in the dark, return in the dark days that come with January and February.

It is what it is. I must count my blessings.