As I saw my colleagues in the hallway, it was easy to see that they too are 'making these donuts." Late October is the time for teaching-heaviness...transitioning the responsibilities of the course to the students so they can complete projects and demonstrate their learning for the semester. I'd argue that this is the third lap around a football field in the mile-long race of a semester. Each move made in the classroom needs to be delicate, precise, pertinent, and helpful. The wrong one and the students flip out into anarchy, stress, and paranoia. When they see the end coming, they fall into angst. There's nothing worse than a room full of students freaking out.
And speaking of angst, a large portion of my day yesterday was spent copy-editing P.O.W.!, the summer anthology of young writers at Fairfield University. Although I did poetry a few weeks ago, yesterday I tacked the fiction. We're looking to publish a 170 page book and my eyes went batty. It's a lot of adolescent drama to peruse in one sitting: love, break-ups, imaginary worlds, and fights with the parents. One things for sure...our publication will showcase what it means to be a teenager.
When I finally got home last, I procrastinated by thinking of a strategic lesson to help my freshmen students with their research and the readings we did for class from the anthology Everyone's an Author. They read about arguments and so, curse my brain, I found an Op Ed that is relevant to each of my student's research interests. It took me 90-minutes, but I did it.
Wola! I have my objectives for today's class.
With this noted, my arse is tired of sitting. My back hates it, too. I'm ready for some good cheese to go with this Thursday whiiiiiiiiinnnnne.
Happy Halloween. I can't say mine will be eventful at all.
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