Rummage the Stacks

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Poor Attendance

I missed a day! After swearing to be a better blogger on Monday--swearing I would write every day--I completely spaced on Tuesday.

Forgetting Tuesday, though, is better than the deep-freeze surrounding most of last semester.

The first couple days of the week this semester are really going to wear me out, though I think a lot of the excitement and hustle will start dying down after this first week is done. I hope it does, anyway; I love to teach but the start of each new semester (or ESL session) is tantamount to hostile takeovers in corporate law. The stress does something to people, somehow it changes them.

I'm auditing Japanese 101 this semester and I've already missed a day there, too; I was with a student but probably could have made it to the class on-time if I had rushed. Blaming the students when they are late to my classes is problematic when I, like them, make excuses for missing the first or second class meeting. "I swear I'll be there on Friday, teacher!"

Let's hope this truancy B. S. is something we can all shake before it starts shaking us.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Hello, Again

Most of last semester--which I was trying to document--has gone by without so much as a tweet, and it is no one's fault but my own. Quite frankly, I was too busy doing everything to make an account of it--or maybe I lacked discipline. Either way, I'm not neglecting this blog any further. I believe I even had a follower or two on feedburner or technorati.

How does a person account for lost time?

Like a medieval scribe, I believe I'll best be able to recount my experiences as a new teacher in a compilatio of many accounts from many people. Maybe if I'm tired I'll jot down a short note and expand it later, or if I'm feeling literary I could relay some of the craziest things from last semester. I'm very tired and fear I sound like I am writing a syllabus. It is evenings like tonight which will probably get a short note in the future!

I'm going to link blogs from my classes to this one. Hopefully that record will stand for a lot of the subtleties for which I might not think to account; I'm teaching two research classes this semester: one for ESL learners and one for first-year American students. I'm looking forward to all of the ideas floating around, but I hope it doesn't lead to too much unscrupulous sharing.