I biked to and from workshop today -- six miles, round-trip, twice as far as I've gone before (but with a several hour break in the middle). It wasn't easy, but it was do-able. We're going to drive in tomorrow, because we have a bunch of stuff to take in, but Wednesday, we're going to try biking to campus (eight miles, round-trip -- we may end up taking the subway home if we're too tired).
Have just finished picking at my syllabi and have printed them, along with my class rosters (which latter I almost always forget to do, so yay, me.) I know what building I'm teaching in, and how to get there, and what my classrooms are. Kevin is out getting groceries right now, including milk for my office tea, and cold cuts and bread for my office lunch. My clothes for tomorrow are in the washer, and I'm going to go up and move them into the dryer before bed. I think I might actually be prepared, and can watch a half hour of silly sit-com before bed. Excellent.
As I head into a new job and a new school year, I offer a poem to you -- students now, students past, students in days to come. School can be tough, but maybe this will help. I memorized this poem in high school, and I've been known to recite it out loud in ringing tones when the occasion warrants.
Yes, I'm a big geek. That's why they made me a professor.
Invictus
OUT of the night that covers me,Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
-- William Earnest Henley
How was the first day?
Heh. Well, I forgot my syllabi at home, after all that prep, but I called Jarmila and she got on my computer and e-mailed them to my yahoo account, so I was able to print it.
But then I didn’t realize that my cross-listed class only pulled up the cross-listings separately, so for my lit class, I only had enough syllabi and handouts copied for the half of the class that had registered under lit, as opposed to asian-american studies. So that wasn’t so good. But I e-mailed them the reading they needed for Wednesday.
And my lit. books aren’t in yet, apparently (even though I stopped by last week and they said they had them, they just hadn’t shelved them yet) so we may already be a class period behind, but I think we can catch up.
And my laptop wireless is failing to work, and the MacBook Air doesn’t have an ethernet port, so I had no net in my office yesterday, which made everything ten times more difficult. But I have an appointment with the IT guys tomorrow, and Kevin says I can get a USB-Ethernet adapter for the Air, so I should have net soon, one way or another.
BUT — aside from all the technical difficulties, great first day. 🙂
Students were fine, although it’s hard to tell this early how the class will go. I think I may have scared them with how much I have planned for the semester. They will soon learn (especially if they’re reading this site, hi, students!) that I tend to start out ambitious, but generally ease up by halfway through the semester. 🙂
All syllabi scare us, frankly. It’s overwhelming to get an entire semester’s expectations handed to you in five minutes.
Sounds like a good time. Glad you’re having fun, despite technical difficulties.