*An interesting tidbit--one of the articles I read in the anthology we use written by the wife of the director of the EL/L program, who is also a prominent figure in linguistics and second language teaching. In the article, she mentioned that she is friends with the linguist who developed the Klingon language for Star Trek. I thought that was pretty cool! (Her point was to show one of the unexpected ways linguistics can be used in our society.)
Mark and I are about two-thirds of the way through our new complete James Bond movie collection. We're watching them in chronological order--next is The Living Daylights with Timothy Dalton. I also finished reading the most recent of the Codex Alera books (the one Mark got for Christmas) and started re-reading the first in The Ellie Chronicles so I remember what's happening when I read the second one (which I got for Christmas). I've watched the first few episodes of Full House Season 4, too.
One of my other "to-do's" for the break was to find more information about possible summer jobs, and I've complied a pretty good list of possibilities. (But, it's really too early for me to apply for them at this point, which means we can't make any plans for the summer yet.) Here's my list so far:
- Teach summer session English 101 or 102 (I would have to apply, but the decision is really made based on a ranking given to me by the EL/L Director, which is based on input from my TEAD; and the availability for these jobs is slim. I would also only be teaching during one of the three summer sessions, which would give Mark and I some flexibility in terms of leaving town for a while, but might not provide enough income.)
- Teach in the New Start program (a special writing program at UA with a separate hiring process, but I can't teach both summer 101/102 and New Start.)
- Teach for the Institute of Reading Development (this sounds interesting, but the schedule could be tough and would prevent us from really being able to leave town. It would probably be good experience for me, and the pay is certainly better than the UA jobs.)
- Tutor at CESL (very appealing--I have already applied and been added to their tutor list, but still need to meet with the tutor program director to find out how much tutoring work there is and whether or not it would be enough to support us over the summer.)
- I can also look into tutoring and/or substitute teaching at the local community college.
So, having a nice list of options has made me feel more optimistic about the summer, but I may have some not-so-easy decisions to make when it's time to weigh the pros and cons (should I be offered more than one of the above jobs). I'll keep you informed as the job search continues throughout the semester, and, of course, appreciate any input you might have.
Before I stop writing this post and get back to work, I did want to mention that the door handle on the driver's side of the Focus broke yesterday. I was just pulling it to get out when I heard this funny snapping noise, and then the handle wouldn't do anything. So, all day yesterday I was getting in and out of the car by climbing across the emergency break and stick shift from the passenger side. The door has stayed locked, but won't open from inside or outside. I imagine we'll need to take off the inside door panel to see if we can figure out what happened and fix it; but it also happened to drizzle all day yesterday, so it wasn't a good time to check it out. I'm thankful that if something had to break on the car it was this, which, while annoying, is not critical.
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