Jiffy-quick

I have about three minutes before I have to head off to my Monday physical therapy appointment, but I haven't posted in a while, so I thought I'd take advantage of the few minutes I have.

It was extremely difficult to transition from the weekend workshop to being back in professorial mode--and dealing with this place, as I now have started to call it (or, frequently, this fucking place). Poor Paul got a major dose of Grumpy, Gloomy Prof. Payne operatically saying how miserable she is when I first arrived. I don't know quite why I was in such a profoundly negative state, but I talked to him some about the weekend, and that helped resurrect some of the more relaxed, receptive, positive feelings I'd gathered up over the three days of the workshop.

I think part of my grumpy gloominess was because I realize that I really do want to shift from teaching what I teach here to teaching the Breath-Body-Mind techniques I'm learning, not only because the practice is so good for me but also because it's so very different--and in some ways so easy to teach. (Not in every way: Drs. Brown and Gerbarg are very careful to state that we have to really know what we're doing in order to teach this stuff, as it can have unexpected negative effects on certain people in certain circumstances.) And also, I don't have to grade anyone; I just evaluate to try to help improve what the person is experiencing. If I could do that more with my students in my classes, I'd be happier.

The 101 was a little more interesting than usual. There were only eight students (and one left early), so we sat in a circle instead of doing groups--and I did a lot more directive work, pointing out things in the article we'd read, as well as facilitating discussion. One student always, always, comes up with an argument against whatever is going on: I think I'm going to start calling her the Advocate--not a devil's advocate, as she isn't simply bringing up an opposing view to test the strength of an argument she agrees with; she genuinely is challenging. But, I mean, she challenges everything--including when I was praising her for issuing the challenges.

I have more to say--and perhaps I'll say some of it tomorrow. To my infinite relief, we have yet another snow day (and it is hitting a different day of the week, so it won't affect the comp class but rather the SF class), but this time I truly am going to get work done, as much as I possibly can. In fact, I'd really like to have the decks completely, utterly clear by dark tomorrow night. Don't know if I can do it, but I am certainly going to try. None of this lounging about napping stuff: I am invested in some stress relief, and getting stuff graded and out of my hair would alleviate a lot of stress.

And now I'm going to alleviate some more by going to PT.