Small Changes

Hello from the sick ward. We're getting better but slowly. Oh, so slowly. Most of the time it sounds like a twisted round of Marco Polo in the house, consisting of coughing instead of yelling. A round of coughing will start in one room and will soon be echoed in another. So not fun.

On the other hand, G's voice is now so low that I'm going to have to beat the women off him. We ventured into the land of the living today for a Target run, and women were falling all over themselves trying to help him because he sounds like a sexy Darth Vader. Oh, puh-lease.

Remember when I said I want to make some small changes around the house this year? Well, I am a woman of my word. Here's the first change: a rug in the dining room!

Before

After

I like how it pulls the whole room together and makes it look more cohesive! It makes me happy and helps balance the enormous and depressing chore of putting away all the Christmas decorations.

Speaking of small changes, I've started making them to my syllabus as well. It occurs to me that from your point of view, it may not make sense, these changes. I'm not doing a major overhaul, just a few tweaks that I think - like the dining room rug! - make the class and the lessons more cohesive. Instead of three major papers, I'm increasing the load to four (although each one will be a bit shorter and worth a bit less of the total grade). I'm lightening the homework load, just a bit, from their book and adding a required amount of reading responses (like, mini analytical papers) for book excerpts and articles that I'm selecting for additional close readings. It's more work for them - and me - but these changes also keep the lessons fresh, and overall they're very interesting. Or, at least, I like to think they're interesting! One of the best pieces of advice I got as a new instructor is to give writing/paper assignments that I wouldn't mind doing. I've always remembered that and I spend a lot of time thinking of how to make things as interesting (relevant, thought-provoking, important, significant) as possible, while giving students a choice regarding their work.

Teacher of the year, right here.

But it feels like a lot of work (after all, I've been laying around for days). Good thing I have a large DDP from Sonic for fuel.

I'm leaving the Christmas tree up so that I can gaze adoringly at it for one more day.

This week is full of appointments and a crazy schedule. The countdown begins for the Spring semester.