Mmm, school starting means interesting entries from me again.

[hermionesviolin]

Pats won the AFC. (Wow, "the New England Patriots gunning for their third title in four years and the Philadelphia Eagles looking for their first.")

$2.79? When did Media Mail shipping get so expensive? However, difficult to argue with 75-cent books. And of course i had efollet open in an adjoining tab to check when stuff would be just as cheap at the bookstore once one factors in shipping.

$105.62 for 20 texts on half.com (and of course slightly over half of that was for shipping, but still much cheaper than it would have been at the bookstore).

Was so nice to just lie in bed knowing i didn't have to get up. So of course by the time i did get up and shower, there were a bajillion people in line in the bookstore so i moved my book-purchasing trip to Tuesday afternoon. See, this is why having late-morning classes is a bad idea for me. I don't ever get up in the morning, thus wasting a good chunk of my day.

AJ came back on Friday. The previous day, i told Alona i was sure there was stuff i had done wrong or neglected to do over the past near 2 weeks of AJ's vacation, and she said, "But the world didn't end, now did it?" which was comforting. By the time i left at the end of the work day today, i think AJ was still working through the backlog, but she has yet to find anything to be upset with me about (at least enough to tell me so) so that's good.

I read most of Part 1 of The Inklings at work during the downtimes. In the interest of ever getting to bed, i'll spare you the quotage. It talks a lot about W. T. Kirkpatrick's influence on C. S. Lewis being "ruthlessly logical" which of course won me muchly. It also talks a lot about story/myth and the power thereof and i was reminded of Kelly, when i told her about my Buffy paper, saying that my kind of work was gonna save the church -- making the stories relevant and interesting to young people.

We watched part of a video on Tolkien (narrated in part by Dame Judi Dench) and his son talked about Tolkien's distate for modern machines, which being my father's daughter immediately put me on edge with its talk of coercion and tyrrany, but then he talked about the LotR books and how magic and the machine are so close and how the ring had to be destroyed because if Gandalf had the ring it would be worse than if Sauron had the ring because Gandalf would be righteous, would be self-righteous, and would coerce the world to good ends, and that that's what his father feared. Given my distaste for people's tendency to insist that the end doesn't justify the means except when it's their end of choice only without actually admitting that, i was so very very pleased.

Oh, and the professor talked some about Charles Williams' interest in magic and the occult while being a devout Anglican and i got thinking about Willow and kabbalah and now very much wanna read Williams.

I'm still a bit unsure about the class, but i'm sticking with it, sure that i can make it be a valuable experience for me.

Aim of the course: Collaborative study of the Inklings, a group of scholars and friends centered in Oxford during the decades surrounding World War II, whose works of fantasy, mythology, philology, and theology have had a far-reaching influence on recent religious thought.

Our major focus will be on C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, but we will also give some consideration to Charles Williams and Owen Barfield.

[...]

Here are some of the topics and themes we'll encounter:
Representations of good and evil, moral struggle and sacrifice, fate and free will, sin and redemption, despair and hope, friendship and loss
Rediscovery of myth (and Christianity as the "true myth"); nostalgia for things medieval and archaic; the magic of words; imagination in the service of reason
Technological power: "the machine." How the Inklings responded to the challenges posed by war, environmental degradation, and social change
New voices of tradition: popular apologetics and the "romance of orthodoxy"

My MAT class consists of 2 Smith MATs (undergrad: Bowdoin and Bryn Mawr), 2 Smith juniors, a UMass senior, and me. feminist_poet, i think the prof teaches high school in your town.

I'm feeling just a touch terrified, but an hour into the class and already i had that desire to teach high school English, to instill that passion for literature in kids. Oh i've been there before, and after a few days i remember that i'm so not cut out to teach high school, but the class will be really valuable anyway. And hey, i've grown. Maybe i really could do high school. Maybe if i don't get into any PhD programs, i'll go for a MAT and go back to doing Buffy in my spare time. Dunno. Alternative plans are good to have.

English 490 is a class designed for students who are considering careers as high school English teachers. We will read and discuss texts that are commonly included in high school curricula in Ameria, and will consider strategies for teaching those texts to adolescents. Students will design lesson plans, develop units, and teach mini-lessons based on the materials covered in class. The goal of the course is to help prospective teachers forge intimate relationships with the works they may someday teach.

Requirements:

1) Students will be expected to attend all classes and to participate in class discussions.
2) Students will design and teach three lessons in front of their peers.
3) By the beginning of Spring Break, students will develop high school essay assignments for threee of the works we have considered in class. They will then write responses to those assignments. 2-3 pages for each essay quiestion.
4) By the end of the term, students will develop a curricumlum unit based on material that has not been discussed in class--a novel, a group of poems, a group of stories, or a group of essays. Students will provide answer keys for all the quizzes and tests and write written responses for all study and essay questions.

Note: The assumption of this course is that students---as advanced English majors--will have already read most, if not all, of the books to be covered, Discussions will begin with that understanding.

So, um, i volunteered to do Macbeth. (See #2.) Anyone have thoughts/suggestions?

Having everyone back is good, but having people being noisy outside my room is going to take some getting used to.

Saw Napoleon Dynamite. Um, what?

Quick poll:
[Poll #424433]

"Misery is expected to peak on Monday, as 24 January has been pinpointed as the worst day of the year."
::shrugs:: I would think the worst day would be earlier in January, when you're exhausted from Christmas and dark cold winter is swirling around you. By this late in January the days are longer and you've got February coming up and everything.

William Safire's retiring? Does any reason remain for me to continue reading the NYTimes? [I was propelled to this point by three remarkable bosses: [...] and the courageous publisher Arthur "Punch" Sulzberger, who in 1973 said he wanted "another point of view" on this page, and who stuck loyally with me when he got it. ; see also: my favorite NYTimes opener ever] Though reading some of the day's columns reminded me how much i dislike his style sometimes. Is there anyone i consistently like? Don't answer that.

Is it bad that my reaction to this was to WTF the fact that there are different laws regarding the burial of "human medical waste" versus human bodies?

"I wasn't suggesting moral relativism in the least, though a certain amount of it is necessary to exist in the world without going insane. I was suggesting that, morally and ethically, we're all obligated to confront our own motives. It's very, very easy to go after the Other, the figurehead who represents our fears and hate and insecurities."
-randomways

antheia posted a bit of a ramble about Spike, particularly post-"Seeing Red" and i replied saying "I agree with all your points." Her reply: "There is a first time for everything, and I, for one, feel a party coming on! :) "

I was recently talking to wisdomeagle about "my feelings towards/about Willow and Tara and Willow/Tara and how they changed as the series progressed" and now i have left a lengthy reply to a comment in antheia's LJ on the progression of Spike. I used to talk about writing a manifesto of my opinions on all political topics so i could just point people instead of making the same arguments over and over. I am now feeling compelled to do one of my opinions on all things Whedonverse. (It will of course take forever for either, nevermind both, of these to get written, but a girl can dream.)

Comments

[akronohten.livejournal.com]

But if you don't have to get up early, you can stay up late.

Of, if you're me, on the days you do have morning classes, you can stay up late the night before, wake up earlyish for them, be miserable until around 1:20, when you can nap, then be productive for the next 12 or so hours.

As for the most depressing day, I think it has to deal with bills from the holidays coming in, too. Which I don' thave to worry about. Instead, it's the bill from Cookesbury that I'm worried about. At least my books are $200 cheaper this semester than last (yet they're still more than what I ever paid for the same ammount of classes at DPU - I love grad school?)

[lilithchilde.livejournal.com]

Oh, man. Please continue to post about the Inklings class. Incredible.

Also, do you know the title of the Tolkien video?

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

I enjoy that you're so excited from only two paragraphs. You know i'll be posting about it and the other classes throughout the semester :) And i e-mailed the prof re: the name of the video.

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

This (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000DI875/qid%3D1106778144/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/102-4327888-1028942) is the video. The 5 Colleges don't have it, but Carol said she'd be willing to lend out her personal copy.

[hedy.livejournal.com]

Loathed ND with you-like force
I'd pick a "spring is never coming" day in february or march.

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

'loathed with a me-like force'

::grins::

A question

[feminist-poet.livejournal.com]

Hey, girl, I wonder if ya can help me. :) I ordered ONE of my text books at efollett, because it was cheaper. It is at the bookstore. How the heck do I pick it up? *feels dumb!!!!* THANK YOU! :)

Re: A question

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

Go to the bookstore (campus center basement) and go to the register and show them your ID. Think that's how it works anyway.

Re: A question

[feminist-poet.livejournal.com]

Thank you, you ROCK! :)

[feminist-poet.livejournal.com]

"My MAT class consists of 2 Smith MATs (undergrad: Bowdoin and Bryn Mawr), 2 Smith juniors, a UMass senior, and me. feminist_poet, i think the prof teaches high school in your town."

Windsor Locks, CT??????

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

Pretty sure that's what he said. He's referred to it as an inner-city school. Would that make sense?

[feminist-poet.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAH! WEll, I don;t think of Windsor Locks as the inner-city, but I guess people do, so yes, it would make sense. That kind of makes it sound like we live in the "ghetto" (god, I hate that term), though, and that is by NO MEANS the case. Windsor Locks is not a rich town, but it isn't super poor, either.

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

Well, he talked about how well over 50% of the kids at the high school are students of color and many of the students are recent immigrants who barely know any English yet or even native kids who are just reading years and years below grade level.

[feminist-poet.livejournal.com]

I could see that being the case. There is not a lot of emphasis around here on doing well in school, and I am not sure why (being a non-CT native). I don't think any of our friends finished high school - everyone got a GED.

[pardalis05.livejournal.com]

The thing about Napoleon Dynamite is that you have to see it in the proper company, or it just isn't funny. Also, you pretty much have to be in sophomoric adolescent mode.

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

I was watching primarily in the company of people who had already seen the movie and adored it. I think the problem is that really i'm never in that sophomoric adolescent mode. (Okay, i have goofy moments that could be called sophomoric adolescent, but they're few and far between and rarely if ever of the kind that would lead to enjoyment of Napoleon Dynamite i think.)

English 490

[(Anonymous)]

2) Students will design and teach three lessons in front of their peers.
3) By the beginning of Spring Break, students will develop high school essay assignments for three of the works we have considered in class. They will then write responses to those assignments. 2-3 pages for each essay question.
4) By the end of the term, students will develop a curriculum unit based on material that has not been discussed in class--a novel, a group of poems, a group of stories, or a group of essays. Students will provide answer keys for all the quizzes and tests and write written responses for all study and essay questions.

Perhaps it's just me but this seems .... hermetic. As a high school English teacher, you will not be teaching Smith students. Far from it. You will be teaching people who are younger, in most cases not as smart, and in most cases not as interested. I see no reason to believe that lessons that are successful with your peers will be successful with them. Okay, that's too extreme. Some things will work with both. But which things???? And what things will work with them that you'd never think of?

The education business is incredibly unconcerned with doing real research on "what works" and then making sure that research gets used. Too much of what teachers do is stuff that educational entrepreneurs and education professors (often the same people) and classroom teachers figure "is interesting" or "must work" or "makes sense to me" or "is something I'm comfortable with."

RAS

Re: English 490

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

This particular professor is actually big on the idea that when we teach high school we're likely gonna be teaching predominantly kids who are uninterested and/or reading below grade level. His day job is teaching at just such a high school. He's talked a lot about the importance of engaging with the text at their level, not doing the intense kind of stuff we do at the (under)graduate level, and not being afraid to do stuff like build the Walls of Troy out of sponges with the kids to get them engaged with the material.

Presenting lessons is partly to give us experience in doing that, in engaging with texts with intent to engage others, and to think about the different learning styles people have and the different ways one could approach material.

Designing essay prompts is in large part to force us to think about the realisticness of what we're asking the "students" to do -- we not only have to answer our own prompts but should also be keeping in mind who it will be who will be answering these prompts.

Student teaching is required to get a teaching certificate, because you really can't know what's gonna work until you actually try it -- and of course that's always changing with the students -- but i do think there is value in forcing you to do practice of a sort, rather than just saying, "Here's a class. Teach it."

Re: English 490

[(Anonymous)]

I almost put in a lot of "on the other hands" after "Okay, that's too extreme." There is certainly a lot that's useful in the class. And there is something perhaps unintentionally acerbic about, "Designing essay prompts is in large part to force us to think about the realisticness of what we're asking the "students" to do -- we ... have to answer our own prompts..."

But I wonder about the value of, say, talking about "different learning styles" unless there is good research about just what those styles are and how to deal with them.

And even if there is good research, it seems like you actually have to apply it to get much good out of it--and that means successfully teaching people with "different learning styles." Else it is like taking a physics course and hearing about doing problems and talking about doing problems but never actually doing any problems yourself.