Teaching Week 1

          Who knew fifty minutes could go by so quickly? I certainly didn't. For the last two days I've found myself staring at the clock in awe when it reads 8:17. What do you mean I only have three minutes left? I was initially worried about what I'd do with conference time; now I see that with only 50 minute classes, I will have to rearrange some of my teaching plans so that the little group work moments I usually have (Think, Pair, Share, people!) come during conferences.
          The class iself seems like a good one. My B group was a little more dynamic this morning than the A group, but, if I had to hazzard a guess based on pure stereotypical essentialism, I'd say it's because B was mostly male and A was mostly female. I asked them to divide themselves up into A1 and A2, B1 and B2, just so I could observe the group dynamics. And I found out that B is quick and decisive while A likes to mull things over and dialogue things into a conclusion. While they didn't get much done in the 12 minutes I gave them, I got to see them in action when they thought I was focused on something else, so the time was used wisely. Now I know I have to divide and conquer differently.
          As for the proposal stuff...I wish I could say that I was far enough ahead in thinking to worry about it. But I'm not. I've looked at it, made those intuitive mental break downs (where do those come from? I don't have enough experience for it to be that easy. Maybe I'm just winging it? It usually works out though. Does anyone else just seem to Feel where things would fit?). So I can't describe my plans--at the moment the only uncertainty in the schedule is where a discussion about rhetorical moves (what Tarez was outlining in her email) might come in. I agree that taking a sample text is best--that's how I learned rhetorical analysis. Practice makes perfect. Eventually, analyzing other people's stuff becomes--here comes the word again--so intuitive that you (me? They?) begin to write in a rhetorically sound manner because the moves are familiar. I didn't understand how to write an argument until I took Communication classes and learned how to analyze arguments. Sorry to say, reading literature does NOT teach one how to write persuasively according to the current conventions of academic writing. So, where does it go? I have listed that I will be giving them student samples to read over the weekend, but since I'm in the lab on Monday, I think I'd like to let them do it on a computer screen, and teach them to use the Word comment function, which is my main way of commenting on their papers (My hands give out too easily otherwise). Then they can mark up the papers just like I will mark up theirs; we will all be revisionist (ha) editors together. So now I have to figure out where I'm going to put the samples on my page, and where I'm going to put a list of questions. Since I plan on redesigning the page to include frames (sorry Tarez, but tables make me more frustrated than the Yankees do) and Amy's Famous Background, my purple venetian blinds look.
I'm not sure what else to say. It's day two, I'm not sleeping much, and I haven't had time to do yoga in two weeks. The stairs on this campus are a nightmare. I know there are handicapped accessible entrances, but to access them you have to walk all the way around the building and enter at the basement. That seems stupid to me, and since I can't move quickly, I'm always running later than I should be, so I take the stairs to save time. Then my legs spasm, and I look like a marrionette tangled up in its strings, kicking randomly with a dazed expression.
      At some point during mentoring today, I zoned out for about seven or eight minutes. I only know this because of the clock on the wall behind Tarez's head. I don't know what happened during those minutes. I must have been looking at the computer screen, because my eyes felt weird. I haven't zoned out for that long since my sophomore year of high school, wherein I entered third period and stared at the blackboard until some part of my brain heard the bell ring. Apparently, however, I still absorb info during that time; getting it out is the hard part. Whatever happened during those minutes had to do with activities for the proposal, I think. Or activities for the CD? I "woke up" when we started talking about students not finding the CD, so whatever happened before then....oh well. I can't go back.
      It's the first week. We're all tired. It's not just me (mantra of the year: It's not just me). To quote Five Iron Frenzy: "Amy's going back to school today. Elation, jubilation beams from her face....A new hope"



One of those pictures fell down. It doesn't really matter which one, as long as the edges aren't torn. I'm sliding out of the margins onto the blank white wall. They've encouraged me to move toward mauve before because in China red is the color of happiness, which is cultural, but too bold. Mauve is global, in the maple trees, the flowers, and the hair of those girls I used to envy in high school. When I edge out of the margins and onto the wall the sign will be signified, and we can all sleep easier. I'm being held up by a silver frame I'm being raptured by the pages beneath me.