food

  • The concept of "homework" seems to be lost on some students. To some, "Do this for class time Wednesday" means "Come to class early on Wednesday and complete the work." Or they stay after, complete the assignment, and hand it in as I am leaving and consider that not late. Huh. I should have pounced on this earlier on. Really. And perhaps I need to give more quizzes. Quizzes... and contests. Students may actually try harder on, say, putting together a well-done Works Cited page if they get a treat or recognition at the end.

    Derek asked a good question today about the Poetry/Lyrics Activity - Is that plagiarism? Maybe and maybe not. But, essentially, I should have them complete a Works Cited page along with this activity (or at least place who wrote those lyrics at the end). [The activity asks students to print off lyrics to 3 of their favorite songs and then take lines from each song to create a poem about themselves or about their lives.]

  • It's going to be a good day.
    Warm apple cider & peanut M&Ms.
    Documents are ready to be printed off for tomorrow.
    It's getting a tad warmer out (we may hit 20 this weekend?!).
    My two favorite shows are on tonight.
    I have someone taking me out to dinner.
    And... the weekend is so close!

    I've been attempting to grade 5-10 papers a day of the English 110 classes... and about 5 a day of the online class. I think I am behind already, but oh well. This weekend may have a few quiet moments in it... I think grading 40+ papers in two weeks is a big goal, anyhow.

  • [It just isn't going to be a good day when your mind is in la-la-land, and you pour creamer on top of your cereal. I didn't sleep well last night, it's yet another cold morning, and it's Friday. Triple whammy.]

    Three classes of mine have their first papers due today (110) or tomorrow (120), so you know what that means = doing anything to procrastinate grading the papers.

    "Well, excuse me for having enormous faults that I don't work on." - Homer J. Simpson

  • A brunch treat (since I only had coffee for breakfast): Diet Coke & peanut M&Ms. You know how long it's been since I had either? Months. Seemed like the thing to have this cold, cold morning - celebrating mundane days is fun.

    And have you ever noticed how a great song, with uplifting lyrics, can take you out of a funk?

    I was thinking last night how I should devote certain days to fun activities. Like have Yoga Wednesdays. I already "celebrate" Simpsons Sundays. Hmph...

  • Lessons Learned:
    a) Don't not eat junk food/sweets for a few weeks and then eat junk food/sweets; your/one's stomach will retaliate. Actually, eating anything out of the ordinary causes my stomach to declare war.
    b) I am not a selfish human being; others are & that drives me nuts.
    c) I definitely deserve internet access at my apartment, and I think a new Mac is in order as well. (My iBook is 5+ years old, yet she's never had a virus or crashed on me!)
    d) I can not tell how cold it is outside when I have my massive parka on; it feels "just fine" with that thing on.
    e) Turning 30 is a bigger deal to everyone who's younger than the person turning 30.
    f) Waking up in the dark is not helpful.
    g) Not being on some huge scheduling system (I think ours is called CorpTime) is rather nice; I get to be aloof that way.

    {105 class today: Memo exercises from the book as well as a Fake Company Memo activity. 120 today: Grade Unit 3's items. 105 tomorrow: Start Report Project. 110 tomorrow: Combine Monday & tomorrow's activities as much as possible; this means covering Revision vs. Editing and Introductory paragraphs and certain genres and the AAY packet as well as the 20 genres they needed to find last Friday for the Scavenger Hunt.} 

  • Well, I am at Unit 7. Finals Week is Unit 18. Sheesh. But/and time flew by.

    I did find a few audio and video pieces from other CDs I had - various tutorials on how to put a Works Cited page together or use parenthetical citations. I think those types of things will definitely enhance my online course. I would like to record my voice for a few things, though. I'll get to that eventually with podcasting.

    I am mentally exhausted. And with my heel problem, I have tried every different position for sitting on my chair today. Oh well... my mom is cooking up enchiladas tonight for the new episodes of Earl & Office. Hopefully, I'll be able to detach myself from academic thought... at least until tomorrow.

  • twins0607 [New header above: Call me a cat lady; it's alright. But I must say this banner is better than the other one... and I don't live with my cat anyway. It's complicated. Sushi, the cute cat in the banner, is sitting with a fuzzy owl.]

    <-- And to the left here is my attempt at seeing myself differently. We look like twins, eh? Which one is the real me?

    Anyhow, I got quite a bit accomplished today. Sent off some syllabi to the copy center, and I got the PPT (how I am controversial) for the first unit of the online class done & uploaded. I have started on the second PPT (the ppt of controversy), but my stomach wants to go get groceries. If I can get quite a few units done tomorrow and Friday, I'll be doing better than expected.

  • Little Miss Bound-n-Determined here. I walked to drop off my rent money... and then treked up to the school. For a town our size, this was no major feat, but not a lot of people bundle up... and walk... in January... in ND. Call it an attempt at keeping my NYResolutions. What resolutions did I decide on?: Move more everyday, drink more water, don't let annoying people annoy me, and don't eat fried foods except for buffalo wings. That last one is uber difficult because I LOVE Chinese buffets. Ugh.

    I think I already dislike my blog's newest header. But I need to prepare my English 105 & English 110 syllabi for printing. That's my goal for this morning, before noon. Then I can spend the rest of today and the week getting that English 120 Online course figured out. I did some work on it yesterday; when I get into a groove, creating templates & revising comes quickly.

  • I was going to get some work done today from the Fargohouse, but... I think I'd rather shop some more (found some good Christmas deals last night). I would like to, however, get some things completed this week... like finding controversial images for both PPTs I have been pondering. I don't want to leave a lot to do next week, but I also don't want to miss out on just relaxing these last days of 2006.

    And... I need some breakfast.

  • Last night, I decorated my place... watched the not-so-corny lighting of the NYC tree, played around with more PowerPoint possiblities (killing two birds = creating samples of projects while also creating ones that can be used in my online English 120 class themed in controversy), read a few more papers, and... searched for my stupid cell phone charger.

    "You may say I am a dreamer, but I am not the only one." - John Lennon

    "Instant karma's gonna get you; gonna knock you right on your head." - John Lennon

    Today: Create Interview Assignment for English 105's class tomorrow, grade a few more 110 papers, send out an announcement to World Lit students on what we'll be reading for the Open Topic next week, and get some cider/cookies downstairs from 2-4pm. Oh, and we have a dept meeting in about 30 min.