Quick precis

Today was a bit flurried: meeting of the Chancellor's Award committee (I'm now secretary, but it only meets about twice a year, so no big whoop); first meeting of P&B (three new members--and I'm officially Bruce's second in command on the committee); back-to-back sections of 102. I took the PowerPoint thingy out for a spin again, and it worked best the final time--but that's partly because of the students in the class. They were the best of the lot in being able to evaluate their own work and realize they were summarizing and observing, not reaching for interpretation and analysis. Terrific. I did have two brand-new students today (and should have had a third, but he didn't show)--and I know they feel lost as hell, but with luck they'll get dialed in pretty quickly.

I'd hoped to get all the logs from the Short Story class marked and ready to return tomorrow, but that's not going to happen. I'd have to skip dance class to do it--or get up at 4 a.m., which I refuse to do at this stage in the semester (or, I hope, at all: part of the point of the new system is that I won't ever be that frantic). It's not really a worry; it would have been nice, but it's really the next lot that they need feedback on. And I'll have time tomorrow after Advisement, maybe even during advisement--and probably more on Thursday, during what eventually will be one of my office hours. However, knowing that I won't get those back tomorrow, I'm now going to turn my attention to the 102 logs and try to get those done before Thursday's classes. The juggling begins.

Even with the new photo rosters, I am just beginning to know students' names, and I don't like that. I haven't been able to come up with a new idea for a name-learning exercise, so I'll use the same one I've been using for years. It's dopey and the students kind of hate it, but it works for me. I'm leaving sticky notes for myself all over the place, reminding myself the various start-of-semester snippets I still have to take care of (like that exercise, plus getting the students to fill out their information cards, handing out first paper assignments, that sort of thing). Nothing feels out of control yet; I just don't trust my memory. I get caught up in teaching and forget about the apparatus, as it were.

I'm a bit addled right now (for no good reason), so it's probably a good thing that I can get out of my head and into my body, stop thinking and dance. One of the things I love about partner dancing--and riding, for that matter--is that if I think, I get worse at it, so I have to stop thinking and just feel, respond. Nice. I'll take myself out for dinner and read the current "just for fun" book (Robertson Davies, Fifth Business, first in the Deptford Trilogy), then West Coast swing and hustle. Departmental assessment meeting at 9:30 tomorrow morning, so a slightly earlier than usual alarm, but no trauma. And that's tomorrow. Today is today.