...a list of notable things from the past 6 months and seeing how many of them had to do with teaching. I guess it's not surprising, given how much time I spend working, but I've had some tough times recently at school, so it was heartening to see realize that good work-related things could rise out of that.
9/28: being grateful
...for Thursdays. I don't teach until the afternoon, so unless I have a meeting or an off-campus appointment, I can have some hours of quiet, concentrated work.
9/26: enjoying
...the little Latin stories which some of the beginning Latin students wrote for extra credit.
9/25: receiving
...a quick, generous, and affirmative reply from an old friend to whom I had written, asking if they'd be up for talking with a student interested in their field.
9/21: noticing
...some evidence for verbal dictation in the manuscript of the Codex Amiatinus, "mistakes" and departures from the text that could be best accounted for if someone was trying to copy what they heard rather than what they saw. Who knows at what stage of manuscript transmission it happened--it could be that the Codex Amiatinus is copying those "mistakes" rather than making them for the first time--but it's still cool to see in action, and even though the action was centuries ago!
9/20: my upper-level Latin class
...was sympathetic today when I explained some technology issues that I encountered right before class, and then they were enthusiastic about the prospect of making collages for extra credit.
9/19: doing
...two things that I had been putting off: writing an email (that I thought was going to be difficult but turned out to be fairly easy) and creating an extra credit assignment (involving collage, that I was worried that the students might find too odd). The students may still find the collage assignment odd, but I'm okay with that now. And the email got a quick and energetic response, which buoyed my spirits.
9/18: wrapping up
...the Latin summer project with the students. It was nice to hear their final thoughts and reflections and to see them enjoying the fact that they did it.
9/16: a Saturday without
...having to work on my evaluation dossier. I swept the floors, took a walk, collaged on my own and with Chris, read for pleasure, tidied a little, and let myself not do anything school-related.
9/15: learning
...about Agnès Varda's The Gleaners and I from a student, then watching it this evening with Chris.
9/14: dusting off
...my uncial hand-lettering. It was fun to write a few alphabets and words today as I was thinking about an uncial assignment for the Vulgate class.
9/13: finding
...this short video about the Codex Amiatinus (link), which I'm asking the Vulgate students to watch for Friday. They'll also be reading a portion of the codex from its digitized images, and it was good luck that I chose a portion that has some differences (one of them quite striking, I think) from the version of the Vulgate we've been translating.
9/12: this afternoon
...I uploaded the last of my 5-year evaluation files. And then we had a good conversation in the Myths & Picturebooks class. A double hurray.
9/10: both mornings
...this weekend I've been able to take an hour-long walk outside. And both days I've enjoyed listening to One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia as I've walked.
9/8: an hour and a half
...of quiet work in my campus office, after teaching and before a meeting. I drafted the next installment of grammatical commentary on the Book of Ruth.
9/7: stopping by
...the optical shop just to see if my new glasses had come in even though I hadn't gotten a text that they had. They were there--hurray! I really like them.
As if that weren't enough of a good thing, Chris got me a lot of treats when he was in town today: a vintage children's picture dictionary, an old 45, some Mexican baked goods, plus new tires and sparkplugs for my car!
9/6: telling students
...about the blue Aldine Vergil. Here's a link to an image of one copy. I didn't realize that the only other currently known copy is the one I saw when working in the Special Collections department of the UCLA library!
9/4: working
...in a less-harried pace than anticipated today because I finished the draft of my evaluation letter yesterday. That meant that I could have the morning as a "holiday" and turn to schoolwork in the afternoon and evening.
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