Week One--Check

It is a much needed weekend/Saturday as the first week of the school year started off really well.    It's always a little goofy in the fall as ISU starts on Monday and DMACC starts on Thursday.    The elementary education population has shrunk a bit so I only have one section of my health methods for those folks and the coordinator scheduled it for 11am on MWF so most of those days I don't have to be on campus until 10am.    Rest assured I go in around 9am usually but it makes my mornings pretty open.    Due to a colleague being on sabbatical for the fall, I am covering a methods class for elementary PE on MW afternoons.   I've taught it a handful of times before so it's not too much of a handful but we do have a lab with it that brings about 60 home-school kids to campus once a week.    The class was moved a couple years ago to be in the junior or senior year of the students' program so we were confident those that were truly going to make it to student teaching would take the class so I have a nice group of 23 students that I know well due to having them in other coursework. 

On Tuesdays/Thursdays I don't teach until 2pm and it's my methods class for secondary health education.    A local health teacher wanted to work with me and the class so the students had more interaction with actual high school-aged students.   His communication SUCKS though so it's making me a bit nervous about the planning and organization that needs to happen through December.    I actually need to email him after this and professionally nag him about checking his email since he hasn't responded to something I sent about a week ago.    He's actually one of my past students and many of us were not thrilled when he landed this health ed job as he's not doing it justice.    My ulterior motive is to bring better, engaging activities into his health classroom so the students do get some meaningful lessons. 

Swim & Gym will start on September 11 but I did have to review the syllabus component with those taking it a class and I have an orientation meeting for it on September 4 for everyone involved as I still have some people on payroll to help with it.   I've had a lot of new people sign up for it this fall so depending on what I want to do...I may be able to make it a larger program soon and go beyond having 40 kids enrolled. 

At DMACC I'm teaching Sports Diversity and Personal Wellness (high school version) and both are online.     Both classes have an introductory type of assignment to complete as I have to report attendance soon and if someone isn't cutting the mustard and submitting any work, they get yanked from the class.    It's DMACC's way of preventing students from abusing their financial aid. 

Gavin had a good week and I went out to lunch with him on Friday.    He's only nervous about the two labs he has on his schedule (biology and chemistry) as he can tell they require a lot of work from him.   If I remember correctly,  his chemistry TA may not speak English well either.    Our next door neighbor is in charge of the biology labs at ISU and Gavin's already bumped into him too.   Of course in the first week of classes ISU had idiots on campus one night showing "firearms" by the very northside dorms but turns it out was BB guns and an airsoft gun.    It also sounds like Gavin got to experience his first fire alarm in the middle of the night last night too.   He's enjoying his job too.   He mainly works during the slow period in a local dining center.   On one day he makes deli sandwiches per order, one day he makes pizzas and ensures enough are out for students to take if hungry, and on a third day he washes dishes.    It gives him 10 hours of work a week. 

I had hopes to do more today as I want to start attending more ISU volleyball matches but with Dan working, I didn't feel like taking Jude out by myself.    We could have gone to the Farmer's Market too but nah.    There is another volleyball match tonight at 6:30pm that I could try to go to after Dan's home from work.     I slept wrong the other night and have a huge knot in my upper right back/shoulder blade.   Staying home with a heating pad hasn't been too shabby today.   I'm also trying to finish the book "The Sun Also Rises" as my book club discusses it on Tuesday.    It's a very dry book and I'm sorry but Hemingway doesn't do much to capture the reader's attention.    Sounds like most others in the club aren't thrilled with it either.   Our next theme is "back to school" for September and I've nominated "Fahrenheit 451" as the book to read.   Not sure what the other nominations are but the book is supposed to focus on school or relate to a book we read years ago when in school.    Gavin read the book last year and said he really liked it in his AP English class which is why I thought of it.   Plus it's a story that talks about a society getting rid of books so I thought the irony would be cool for a book club. 

Guess that's it for now!    Here is Gavin on his move-in day.    I need to pop in and see what their room looks like now.    I stopped by and gave him a bag of snacks the other day (Funyons, Cheez-Its, etc.) and LeAnn sent him a care package with treats so apparently he is the envy of his friends with his little pantry in his room.   

Vacation Come and Gone---Time to Work Again

Greetings:

My time off has run out and it's back to the grind with full time work.    I've been working part-time in the last weeks as I'm still doing work for the grant at ISU, prepped for this upcoming week's orientation for new grad students, and I'm prepping for my classes that start on August 20 for ISU.    I really haven't done much for my class prep.    I really should start on that.   I'm teaching two DMACC classes too and they start on August 23. 

We were able to jet up to Minneapolis for a quick vacation and it was a combination birthday present for Dan too.   His favorite baseball team (Cleveland Indians) were playing a triple header against the Minnesota Twins.    Thankfully the Indians won 2 out of the 3 games.    I was very pleased with how Jude did with all the walking and the length of the baseball games.   We also worked in a trip to the Minnesota Zoo.  Believe it or not I think initially Dan and I were more excited to go there but it ended up that Gavin and I were more excited to see the animals.    Gavin is enamored with otters.   Ask him about it.   There was a state park with waterfalls that I wanted to go to but we never worked it in so I will try to get back and to go that.    My coworker said she'd go back up with me since she's in Minneapolis a lot to see her family.

I've been trying to do more around the house but still haven't tackled the office yet.   It's still chaos and needs to be organized.   I'm starting at it right now as I write this blog and watch my movie.    By the way I'm watching the movie "Lady Bird" and it's fantastic.    Gavin and I spent part of the day packing him up.    He just needs to pack up his clothes and he's set to move in on Tuesday.   Coincidentally my schedule may allow me to help him move in on Tuesday too as long as we get it done in the morning.    He picked out a new backpack today too and he is set with his new laptop.   Bring on ISU.   

So here's the plan in the next week:

• provide orientation for new grad students
• new orientation features a 'mix and mingle' event which is new and should hopefully make the new students feel more welcome---takes place Thursday afternoon
• work on my syllabi, primarily for ISU
• work with Dan's mom and her husband to taxi Jude back and forth as they are helping to watch Jude since I need to work 
• attend Czech Days on Saturday!

I also set the date for my Halloween party.    It has to be on Saturday, November 3 to work around ISU football but I'm excited to have a shindig for the holiday I love.   We plan to have yummy food,  some fun games, and we want people to dress up.  I plan to have prizes for some costume categories.  Some possible ideas may be:

• scariest costume
• best couples costume
• best school spirit costume

I'll probably have a goody bag for all kids that come to the party too.    I want Halloween to be my annual party to host so let's hope it takes off well this year and continues to be a hit.

I guess that's enough for tonight.    Hopefully I can rave about how well I oriented my new grad students in the next entry.   

Here's a tribute to Gavin's love of otters.