Changing gears again in 101

It's hard to believe that another week has come and gone. This was also week 8, so now the semester's officially halfway over. On Wednesday, I'll be collecting another set of papers from my English 101 classes. The assignment for this paper was different (a textual analysis), which means that the papers will probably be less interesting to read, but they may be easier to grade. I hope to have them graded and returned by Monday, so that's a pretty quick turn around. Although the grading is very time consuming, I'm really excited to be finishing this unit and moving on to the next one. Our next unit is based on a borderlands theme. So, they'll be reading a variety of texts about the border, which should generate some very interesting class discussions. I'm also taking them to the Center for Creative Photography on campus and we'll be watching a movie in class. Hopefully both the theme and the activities for this unit will get them really involved. I'm looking forward to class on Friday--we'll be analyzing some political cartoons about the border/immigration issues. At the end of the unit, they'll be able to bring in additional sources to write an essay on a theme that we've touched on during the unit. I hope that will lead to some interesting papers. I've also rearranged my syllabus so I'll be doing pair conferences with them before the paper is due, allowing me to cancel class on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. As long as Mark can work out his schedule, we should be able to drive home on Tuesday night.

So, besides preparing for the papers and the upcoming unit, I'm trying to nail down a topic for my paper in Linguistics. I think I'm leaning toward teaching pragmatics in a second language. I can already tell how busy the last couple weeks of the semester will be, so if I can get this paper done way ahead of time, it would really help. I'm also still trying to get on the list of tutors at CESL--I applied through the university's HR department a few weeks ago, but just got a letter saying I meet the minimum requirements, but since I'm a student, I need to apply with a different form. Too bad, because the HR application was really a pain! So, I'll be finishing that up and turning it in this week. I'll also be registering for Spring classes on Monday and turning in my availability form for teaching next semester. If I get a T/Th teaching assignment (which is unlikely), I would only have class/teach from Tuesday-Thursday! I don't know when I'll find out, but that could be really nice.