2001-10-24
Feeling better, school stuff, posted at 7:06 a.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com I feel so much better.I think my "illness" from yesterday was actually the aftereffects of taking a dose-and-a-half of Ny-Quill the previous night, and it made me tired and cranky the next morning until around noon. Today, I feel great, except my workout colleagues have dissed me yet again this morning. I hate coming in at 6:30am and then not working out, but I've been good about making sure I make good use of my time when it occurs. Now, instead of getting on-line to do e-mail and diaryland when first hour starts, I'm getting on now, so I have the full 90 minutes to actually plan and grade. But not working out this morning was particularly annoying, because I feel so ready to. Good thing I worked out bigtime last night. I think that's another reason why I feel good.
I feel like I shouldn't work out when I'm sick, but sometimes I think I'm sick (or at least don't feel that great) because I don't work out. Damned if I do, damned if I don't. Because I came home Monday and took a three hour nap, then got up for three hours and then took Ny-Quill and slept for nine more hours to try to beat the cold I felt coming on, I didn't work out or run on either Monday night or Tuesday morning. I took Holden for a brief walk on Monday, but that was all. Last night it was beautiful here, and I couldn't stay in. Holden and I went for a three-mile run around the suburban streets at 9pm, then I came home and lifted weights and did ab workouts for about an hour. Jason has got me doing this thing he calls "manual resistance," in which he basically holds the weight down as I'm both lifting it and putting it back down. It really makes for a good workout. I've been concentrating on chest and back here at school, since I don't have a weight bench or a lat pulldown machine at home; however, since my workout partners are beign so inconsistent about coming in, I'm seriously considering purchasing one or both of them. I even priced them at Play It Again Sports last night - I could get a decent workout bench for $45, a bar for another $45, and weights for $.40/pound. That's not too bad - I'd probably spend around $120. Perhaps two paychecks from now - I've already got big plans for the spending money portion of this paycheck (Ikea! Ikea! Ikea!).
Today, my sophomores are doing "The Raven" and my freshmen are finishing up "To Kill a Mockingbird." Both are amongst my favorite works of American literature of all time, so it will be a good day. Tomorrow, I will bring in the Simpsons parody of "The Raven" and I think I'll also start showing the film version of "TKAM" - the kids will have to write a review of it. I'm actually unhappy now that I have to take the kids to an assembly 7th period on Thursday; it seems like it will destroy the momentum.
I have so many ideas for next semester. I need to figure out how to organize my time better. I'm thinking about incorporating a silent reading half-hour for all my classes on Wednesdays, where they read a book of their choice and then do presentations on the books. I think it'll be fun and enhance their love of reading and (most importantly) give me some down time. It's too late to incorporate it this semester, but next semester I think I'm going to do it.
The thing I'm most worried about next semester is an elective that I was assigned - Advanced Writing. First of all, it's an elective, meaning there is no curriculum for it. I don't feel like I'm prepared to design a curriculum yet, unless it's a literature-based course. Plus, I was an English major and I teach English because I'm a literature person, not a writing person. I enjoy writing and think I'm fairly good at it (these diaryland entries notwithstanding - I write them quickly and they're here more as a recording of my daily activities, not for being good examples of my writing), but definitely question my ability to teach it. Especially without literature to write about. I'm worried it will turn into a grammar/mechanics/rhetorical devices type of class, which I find interminably boring. It's not Creative Writing, which I think would be fun. Instead, it's just Advanced Writing. It doesn't help that it's one of the most unpopular electives in the school. I also have two sections of Freshmen, and so there's no chance to do this sophomore class again - I enjoy the material a lot in the sophomore classes (it's basically a survey American Literature course), and think I'm okay at teaching it now, but would be excellent next semester after having run through the curriculum once. Alas, I have to teach a class that no one else is teaching. There's a certain amount of freedom to that, but it's not necessarily freedom I think I'm ready for. If I get to teach an elective, why does it have to be Advanced Writing? We teach African American Literature here. Short Story & Film. Creative Writing. I could teach any of those. I could teach Women in Literature. I could teach Contemporary Literature. I could teach Science Fiction literature. But I get Advanced Writing. Maybe it'll be okay.
What a rambly entry this was!