10/31: all books claimed
...for an upcoming reading group I'm running on Nancy Garden's Annie on My Mind.
10/30: two things
One thing not school-related: taking some pictures at the bridge this morning.
One thing school-related: having enough jack-o-lantern stickers to put on students' homework that I'm passing back tomorrow.
10/29: kindness
...from one of my students toward a prospective student visiting our class today. Before the class began, she struck up conversation with him and spent time explaining the topic of the class and how it works.
10/25: before and during
...the rain. Before it arrived: talking an abbreviated walk, including some time at the lake to take pictures. While it's coming down: making a half-recipe of the LA Unified School District coffee cake.
10/23: thinking about
...ablatives in Vergil's Aeneid, and hearing students' thoughts about which might be at play in particular instances and how different possibilities affect the emphasis of what's being expressed.
10/21: time in the morning
...to walk a little on campus, putting up posters for an event on Thursday. And some sculpture (by Dryden Wells) in the window-gallery of the campus art museum caught my eye so I routed myself to get a closer look.
10/19: a sweet strawberry
...pincushion in a sewing box Chris brought back from New Jersey. The box belonged to his great-aunt and a plaque on it says that it was gifted to her (presumably by her school?) in 1928 for her excellence in sewing.
10/18: thinking concretely
...about the end-of-semester project for my upper-level Latin class. It's time to give them more details, and I enjoyed working out some details through some morning brainstorming.
10/15: a sticker
...from a student. When I asked at the start of the quiz if there were any questions, she said that she had a sheet of stickers and wanted to know which one I wanted her to put on her quiz for me. It was a nice recognition of the stickers I routinely put on their homeworks. (I know--they're in college, but Latin is hard enough, and a sticker can bring a smile.)
10/13: asters
...along the road and on my shirt. In past Octobers we've had glorious patches of them in the yard, but not this year. Still, there are some good bunches along the ridge road. And as I drove to school today I realized that my button-down was seasonally appropriate since it is dotted with asters.
10/12: peanut butter cookies
...made with my childhood cookie stamps. I made 2 dozen for Chris' father and 2 dozen for a friend. (There were a few extras for Chris and me too.)
10/11: the turtle
...that Chris has often seen in our yard over the years was on the driveway this morning when I finished up my walk. I hung out with it until it had crossed into the grass.
10/10: laughter
...in Latin class as they recited the endings for the future active indicative: -bo, -bis, -bit, -bimus, -bitis, -bunt.
10/9: really noticing
...and enjoying the shadows that the trees cast through the windows in the hallway outside my campus office. (I actually want to trace them but don't know if I'll have the courage to do it when so many people would see me at it. Maybe I should try tracing some shadows at home first.)
10/8: learning a new trick
...in the campus room-scheduling software. This might not seem like a big deal, but it will save me time and computer clicks in the future!
10/7: an unexpected postcard
...delivered to my school address. It was from a former student (now a professor himself). He was writing from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where I had taken him--along with a small group of other students--when he was a senior (2 decades ago!) so that we could study Twombly's Fifty Days at Iliam together.
10/5: lakeside
I didn't feel well enough for a full morning walk; my cold has returned. But I went down to the lake and took a few pictures of reflections on the water.
10/4: celebrating
...the first Saturday after 5 weekends of dealing with the process of pamphlet-photographing. I mailed some pamphlets, took a walk, tried out a new printing kit with Chris, and made a cake. Chris suggested that we decorate it with punctuation, so we did.
10/3: a good workshop
...this afternoon. I called it Vergil, Venn Diagrams, and Visual Poetry. It might have been one of my quirkiest workshops yet, but once I got the idea, I really wanted to give it a try. So I did. And I'm so grateful for a room of students who were willing to experiment.
10/2: good things amidst
...busy-ness, bureaucracy, and a broken HVAC in my office building. It was 85 degrees inside my office and classroom (not good)! Hard for me to feel professional when drenched with sweat, and hard for the students to focus and learn when they're in such a hot and stuffy space. But on the happier end of things: I had good office-hour meetings with some students (even meeting one student's parent); the class translation of Vergil's description of Fama went well; my cold seems to be waning (knock on wood); and at home tonight I had time to write notes to three friends after finishing tomorrow's prep.
10/1: a quick, not long
...walk to some buildings on campus to put up some posters for an event on Friday. I was glad that I finally had the time to do it and that the morning air was still somewhat cool as I made my way.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)