Two good teaching sessions in a row - enough to send me through the roof with joy. I'm trying to explore more options for group work with my first years: today's exercise really worked. I hated group work in undergrad - mainly cos I ended up doing the bloody work. So I did pay careful attention to who was doing the work in each group and will break up the class differently next time. But they really did pull something off - and they were paying attention to the text.
THEN I got to pat the police horses as they stood majesterial guard outside the Uni. Max is beautiful and his person very cheery - the kind of police officer straight out of a children's book - I wonder if the horses make community work easier (for people unafraid of horses!). Animals always invite people closer. These are not the average pokey pony mind you, but massive great beasts. But lovely and soft with big dark eyes. It really did make my day - I was immediately cheered and grinning as I set off for an afternoon's work at the library.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Monday, October 06, 2008
To quote Calvin...
...the days are just packed. My constant disbelief at the passage of time seems to be a regular feature on this my blog. But - OCTOBER?! When did that happen?? As Nas commented this morning on our way to campus - 'I'm a doctor!'. That still hasn't worn off on me, even though I appeared on the pass list back in January and got my purdy degree in print in July.
Packed with what? Teaching has started - so that's five mornings a week - and the library still eats my time up every afternoon. Luckily, it's quite busy these days with the students back and such. At least the afternoons pass quickly enough. We had a totally successful surprise party at our flat last weekend - in addition to our first ever party in the UK, it was a double surprise party for two friends' birthdays. Facing down the clean-up the next morning, however ... nah - totally worth it. So sucessful indeed that we're already planning the sequel - '6 Degrees of the Doctor' - for Halloween!
And I saw a fox! I'm not sure where he lives - I don't know that it's a he either, but I've called him Mr Fox so 'he' it is for now - but we saw him the other night come into the parking lot of our flats and sniff about. He is beautiful: lovely white-tipped, bottle-brush tail. I hope he gets lots of rats and lives well. With all the students around ours, there should be loads of fine rubbish to be had!
We also saw Die Welle (spoilers on that link) at the local rep cinema - always excellent. They have a cat named Tibbs (whom Nas and I call, rather unimaginatively, Oscar) that lives there. Proper theatre cat. Anyway, the film - yes, Die Welle: interesting if very predictable. But interesting nonetheless - mostly for the very cool houseboat of the lead character, with its conceptual art on the walls, and pristine lake outside. I also just really really like listening to German. I must learn. Add that to my days!
Packed with what? Teaching has started - so that's five mornings a week - and the library still eats my time up every afternoon. Luckily, it's quite busy these days with the students back and such. At least the afternoons pass quickly enough. We had a totally successful surprise party at our flat last weekend - in addition to our first ever party in the UK, it was a double surprise party for two friends' birthdays. Facing down the clean-up the next morning, however ... nah - totally worth it. So sucessful indeed that we're already planning the sequel - '6 Degrees of the Doctor' - for Halloween!
And I saw a fox! I'm not sure where he lives - I don't know that it's a he either, but I've called him Mr Fox so 'he' it is for now - but we saw him the other night come into the parking lot of our flats and sniff about. He is beautiful: lovely white-tipped, bottle-brush tail. I hope he gets lots of rats and lives well. With all the students around ours, there should be loads of fine rubbish to be had!
We also saw Die Welle (spoilers on that link) at the local rep cinema - always excellent. They have a cat named Tibbs (whom Nas and I call, rather unimaginatively, Oscar) that lives there. Proper theatre cat. Anyway, the film - yes, Die Welle: interesting if very predictable. But interesting nonetheless - mostly for the very cool houseboat of the lead character, with its conceptual art on the walls, and pristine lake outside. I also just really really like listening to German. I must learn. Add that to my days!
