Five Random Things, Two Random Books

I didn’t post last week because I didn’t finish any books and then about halfway through the week I was like, “Okay, but that has literally never stopped you before???” And I seriously don’t know what I was thinking but it was so ridiculous that I had to tell you all.

I mean, it’s certainly not like other stuff didn’t happen. So here’s a list because honestly my brain is kind of mush.

1. I finally got DDR–yes, Dance Dance Revolution–for my Xbox, so have been playing it almost every day. The thing about DDR is that the songs are the most important and the Xbox has the worst options for songs, I swear. They only have one DDR game with a good tracklist. All of the other ones have weird Japanese songs with NO BEAT. My daughter was watching me play, and I kept missing the arrows and she asked me “Does the pad not work?” and I was like, “No, these dumb songs have no beat.” The proof is that I did just fine on both “Dancing Machine” and “Conga.” So anyway, I need a PlayStation to get a version of the game with a better tracklist.

I did, of course, buy the version with the good tracklist and have been crushing those songs, thank you very much. But only on basic because that’s just who I am.

2. My daughter went back to campus for spring semester. She’s doing well.

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Speedy quick update

This is going to be a rushed post because school starts Monday (aka TOMORROW since I’m writing this after midnight), and I am already behind on everything. Also, my D key keeps sticking, so it’s making writing a hassle. Sigh.

Here’s what I still need to do to be ready for Monday:

  • Figure out if I’m going to have my 1C students blog or not
  • Finish my syllabus for 1C
  • Add the first week documents and assignments to Canvas for my MW 1A and 1C class
  • Revise my first day slides (at least one is out of order)
  • Update the index card questions for my 1C class
  • Prep the index cards with stickers (to put students into groups)

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5 Random Things

1. I haven’t felt like posting the past few days because I don’t feel well. All this time, lactose was destroying me from the inside out and I didn’t even know. Sigh. One thing that has cheered me up is reading Buzzfeed (curated) articles about lactose intolerance like this and this. I have also Googled lactose intolerance memes, which are hilarious.

lactose intolerant

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On Selfish Teaching

Today’s post is inspired by Two Writing Teachers, specifically Deb’s post No More Cookie Cutter Teaching. In it, she says:

As educators, we need to take ownership of our teaching.  If you think your tried and true lessons are lackluster, then change them.  Start by looking at your students and asking, what do my students need?

I teach college composition, so I actually take a more selfish approach and ask, “What types of assignments do I want to read?” and then build student choice into that. I mean, yes, obviously, I care about what they need but since I typically have to read over 100 essays at any given time, I have learned that the best thing for me is to consider what interests me.

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Catching Up on Lesson Planning #SOL18

I made a rule for myself not to grade on the weekend, but every once in a while, I get to a point where I decide to anyway. That’s what happened today. I had about five papers left to grade last night, so I decided to just get the rest of them done today.

Of course, about nine of my students didn’t turn in hard copies of their papers, so that’s a grading story for a different time. Sigh.

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Lists people are happier #SOL18

Sometimes I just don’t know what to do with myself at night, so I just go to bed. I think tonight is one of those nights. I did a lot today, so I’m going to post my to-do list of items completed, but I’m sure I’m going to leave some stuff off.

to do list
source

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I forgot to give this post a title, so now it has one

1. In case you missed it, I welcomed the new year by buying a car, establishing some goals, and just generally being awesome:

2. The non-working part of my vacation is officially over since I spent today doing some course prep/lesson planning. My goal for this semester is to bring back fun assignments so that grading isn’t as much of a chore.

The problem, of course, isn’t finding fun assignments, but fitting them all into the course schedule. My ambitions are so grand, but the semester is always too short for me to do everything I want to do.

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