Today was the final day of the semester for teaching. I learned a lot this semester and really enjoyed teaching. It’s something I felt really comfortable jumping into. I had no training and kind of went on the fly as the semester went on.
I have to post my final grades by Sunday night. My plan, and hope, is to do them sometime Saturday late afternoon.
Then I can head up to the school Monday and see about getting my evaluations from the students. I won’t lie that I am looking forward to seeing these. Some of the kids took their time with them, some went rather fast. There are no names connected, so hopefully they were honest — whether in a negative or positive way. These types of things can only help me get better as a teacher.
- Some items that I really learned this semester included:
- How important lesson planning is and how to do it better
- Realizing that you can’t get through to all kids
- How to stick to your guns on certain things
- Never believe they know all the basic stuff, even with a basic class. You’ll likely be wrong
One professor told me it will take a faculty member five years to really find their style and way of teaching. I just hope I’m still doing this in five years as it’s something I really could see myself doing for a long time. If that’s the fact, then I look forward to many years of learning and finding myself as a professor. Hopefully it will also lead me, eventually, to getting my Ph.D.
In the end, the gig was good. I had the chance to test myself in a classroom setting with full control over the syllabus and book selection. I also had the opportunity to offset the lost money I got with furloughs at the main job and, at the same time, build my savings account back up — even if just a little bit.
For the most part, too, the students were a pleasure to have in class. That being said, no matter how hard you try, you just can’t get through to every one of them. Sometimes they just don’t pay attention or don’t care. It’s disappointing, but the truth. That was hard for me to accept. And though I still don’t fully accept it, I realize it’s part of the college experience.
But, this was a tremendous experience and one I will cherish for a long time.
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There’s a place in town that I haven’t eaten before and had the chance to do so tonight.
The food was pretty good (I had a gouda cheese appetizer; a solid steak for the main; and a creme brulee cheesecake for dessert), but the service kind of took away from it. They seemed clueless at times and there was a total of like three people (cook included) working. How is that possible?
It’s almost a waste when you have good food, yet the service is slow. Let’s put it this way — we walked in at a little after 6 p.m. and walked out just shy of 9 p.m. For a party of five, it shouldn’t take that long. ESPECIALLY when the place wasn’t even near being packed and two of the tables that had people were already eating by the time we came in!
Overall, a decent experience. But the service irked me a little.
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So I’m home writing this today because I have a furlough. Happy holidays!
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I’m nearing the end of my Christmas shopping. Of the people I have to shop for, pretty much everyone is done. I am going to try and fill in a bunch of the blanks Saturday and then finish things off with my brother on Wednesday the 23rd. Good day to shop, eh?
I’m hoping I only need to grab one or two things because this year of shopping has been rather frustrating.
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It was anywhere from 9 degrees-18 degrees here today, depending on where you were.
I like the colder weather, but this was downright bitter. No caching for me today!
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The next several days should be fun. I have four days of work remaining before I start my vacation. During those four days, I’ll need to finish our football all-stars. Though challenging, I have most of the legwork done, so hopefully can get things rolling on time and have it ready to go.
Once those are done, it will probably be the end of my working days for 2009. Then I’ll have nine days off before having to go back to work on Jan. 1.
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I received my latest pathtag today — one from my one alma mater that I did for the Mascot Club. I thought it came out well. I need to figure how to take good photos of the tags without the glare, but here’s the blue print from it:
I look forward to trading for many other Mascot Club tags!
That’s about it for now! More later!