Again...

I'm trying to let you all know that I'm moving. It's not exactly working the way I'd hoped, but we'll see.

...my emergencies...

Anyone who's been a teacher for any lenght of time understands the truism of that old bumpersticker/coffee cup - "Your problem does not count as an emergency for me." Well, it says something like that, but in a snappier wording. Daily, actually hourly, teachers hear excuses that are supposed to stop their world and whatever is happening in it. We grow callous and it rolls off of our backs like ducks and water. (Sorry for the silly metaphor.)

Anyone who has known me for any length of time knows that my "emergency" generator is the DH. The man is an avowed technophobe and cannot even attach documents (or download them) to emails without constant step by step instructions. I know, I know both Anthypophora and Congolia are out there thinking the same thing about me, but when I remember to do it before I hit send, I can at least attach a file. Why does any of this matter?

It matters when on the one day a week I do not have to get up early, I get woken up by a constant barage of questions shouted across the house.
"How do I turn on your computer?"
"What is your password?" (It was the first clue that something was going wrong. My computer remembers my pass word.)
"My email's not here...maybe they (???) changed your password."
"I need these documents printed before I leave for the 8am class." (Not really, he just hasn't been to class and wants to demonstrate that he is doing something.)
And my favorite thing at the end of it all..."You didn't have to get up."
Really. I didn't have to get up.

This is after I spent an hour at 10:00pm last night explaining to him that he couldn't open docx documents with his Window 2003 account and he kept repeating, "But where's the Chlamydia (read docx) document?"
Don't worry, none of us have STDs. The DH is doing an intership at the health department. Part of his current work is to translate STD fact sheets. Actually, the internship has been good. I'm pretty sure that after watching genital warts get burned off of people he will never cheat on me. Apparently it looks pretty gross and painful. Grown men cry.

My Time...

Although I've resisted the impluse to "live like I am dying" and take of on some bungee jumping, sky diving spree, I am pretty aware of the value of my time.

It's not that I always spend it wisely. If I did, I'd have that stupid prospectus done along with a few chapters. Oh well. The fact is that I am aware of how I need to budget my time and, aside from In-law visits and work men crawling all over my house, I've been pretty good about keeping my teaching time. Right now I'm on a MWF schedule. I've managed to keep almost all my grading and course prep to those times. On the latest schedule this week is set aside for individual conferences. On Friday I put out a sign-up sheet for those conferences. Since it is the end of the semester and I have such a small class, I've been able to alot 1hr for each conference. I asked the students to bring a draft of a part of their project and an ouline for the presentation due next week. I intended to run these sessions like Writing Center appointments - we could really work with anything.

When I got here at 9:30am I checked my email. The student who has today's 11 appointment wants to reschedule because she just found out she doesn't have class until 7:30 tonight so doesn't want to come from Raleigh until then. It's now 10:33 and my first ten am appointment is a now show. Now I don't have anything until 1:00pm. If I had know that I could have taken my time getting ready this morning or taken the dog for a walk or, even, just picked my nose.

Seriously. I am pissed. I have other things I could be doing.

It's raining. It's pouring.

Well, it's not pouring yet, but it did start to sprinkle.

I've never been so glad to see rain because it meant that I could stop mowing the lawn. I've been walking around to work out a little bit, but man I think I'm going to be sore tomorrow. You know, I don't even think I can muster up a, "At least I can still mow the lawn." attitude. There's really nothing good about it except when you can stop.

This morning at the grocery store there was a deal on soda. Buy two cases of Pepsi products and if you spend $25 on anything else you get three more cases of soda for free. It was a good deal because the DH drinks a lot of diet Mt. Dew and I was planning to do a big shop anyway. So, for one of my "free" options, I got diet sierra mist Ruby Splash. It's Sierra mist with Grapefruit flavor. It's really good. I didn't realize until after the DH brought me a can, that I'm not supposed to have grapefruit. First, I don't believe there is any real grapefruit juice in the soda. Also, I checked the lable on the can and there is no real juice of any kind listed. I think I'm safe, but I won't drink anymore until I figure it out for sure. I hope I can still drink this stuff, because I can already tell it's going to be refreshing this summer.

New Philosophy

Now that I'm working on the prospectus/dissertation it feels like I can really begin thinking about the job market, which means thinking about fun stuff like my teaching philosophy.

This is hard for me. Remember, I am the girl who went into therapy and said I have no goals. Of course I started teaching without a really good teaching philosophy. About 4 years ago when I did my first year to teaching at the community college I wrote a teaching philosophy. Sure it need to be fixed, but I am surprised at how much it works. You know for someone Facebook says is Sharon Crowley I get alot of mileage out of Mina Shaughnessy.

My teachinging philosophy, like all my syllabi, begin with this quotation. "The experience of studenthood is the experience of being just so far over one's head that it is both necessary and possible to work at survival." - Mina Shaughnessy.

It works for me. Once the students get past the 'weirdness' of student hood we talk about how that sentence gives us both responsibility. They have to work at survival. I have to make sure the bar is not too high or too low. My teaching philosophy throws some jargonistic turns into that mix, but it basicaly says the same thing. Now, I need to look at it again and make sure it is something I want the whole world to see.

Here is a good writing moment for me. I will show you the shitty first draft and you can help me put it all together. Oh, and just so you know, shitty is a technical term. :)

Teaching Philosophy

‘The experience of studenthood is the experience of being just so far over one’s head that it is both realistic and necessary to work at survival.’ –Mina Shaughnessy

My teaching philosophy begins with a statement of studenthood because as a teacher I help to form that experience of studenthood. As a teacher, I am also always a student. As a student my best experiences were always those in which I had to really work to accomplish the goal set for me, but that work was within my abilities. As a teacher, I can control how far over student’s heads I set their goals. It is my responsibility to make that goal realistically attainable. I am responsible for helping to craft the experience of studenthood.

I can craft the experience of studenthood both through the assignments I give and the environment in which I give them. Sometimes ‘being just so far over one’s head’ means that to survive you need the help of others. I strive to make my classroom a learning community, a community in which students work together to learn and help each other reach their goals. In a learning community it is easier for students to ask for and get the help they might need from each other to survive. In a composition class, where many students are new to the university or college setting, it is especially important to establish a sense of community within the classroom so that students do not feel they are struggling alone.

Part of the experience of studenthood is being able to recognize when you have achieved a goal. For that reason, I require students to keep an expanding portfolio of their work. At the end of the semester they will have physical proof of the work they have accomplished. This physical proof can help keep them motivated when they move on to the next semester and the goals seem too far over their heads again.

What you get...

It's never been a good idea to be smug, or to announce that you feel smug. If you do, then the universe knows to knock the wind out of your sails.

I didn't know or follow the Spohrs and I cannot imagine the depth of their grief. I'm in tears just sitting here and knowing and seeing the pain of so many people I read.

Smug

Smug is exactly how I feel. It's ridiculous that I should feel this good about doing something I am actually supposed to do EVERYDAY! Seriously, people I just need to write this damned thing.

Oooh and tonight I get to go see Neko Case. It's the first concert I've been to in 7 years. How sad is that?

Excuse me while I go read some comp theory.