I realized that it's been a while since I posted an update about what's been going on lately...I guess that means I've been feeling busy! There have been a few interesting things happening, so here goes.
Last week, I started a 6-week study offered by Global Connections about reaching out to Muslims. It's from the Crescent Project, which I don't know much about, but the first session was pretty good. I decided that since I have so many students who come from this background, I should really do more to learn about it. With that in mind, I also went with a couple of friends to the International Festival at the mosque in Perrysburg last Saturday. We got to take a tour of the building, bring home lots of free materials about Islam (including an English translation of the Quran), and eat some really tasty middle-eastern food.
Also, last semester, I got several colleagues to collaborate on about 5 or so proposals, which we submitted to both OH and the international TESOL conferences. We found out about a month ago that all of our proposals were accepted for the OH conference (in November). Just this week, we heard that three were accepted for the international conference in the spring (it'll be in Philadelphia this year, which is driving distance for us.) According to the acceptance email, only 24% of proposals were accepted, so we're pretty pleased that we all get to present! (And that our department will help with some of the cost :-).
On a more personal note, I made a bit of a resolution at the beginning of the semester to get into better shape. I didn't have much choice, as many of my work clothes didn't fit after the few pounds I gained over the summer. I've been keeping a closer eye on what I eat, and I've been walking to and from school and doing some additional exercise at least 5 days a week. I'm glad to say I've lost 5 pounds, and I hope to keep it up. To that end, when a colleague asked me about joining in on a work-sponsored walking/fitness contest, I agreed. The idea is that we have a team of four people who will, collectively, walk the distance from BG to Plymouth Rock. The program goes for 6 weeks, and to get that distance done in that time, each one of us should walk just under 10,000 steps/day. We'll see how it goes! (Thankfully, any kind of physical activity counts, so we can put in things we already do, such as household chores :-). I haven't done this sort of thing before, so I'm interested to see how the team and competition aspects go.
Well, I think that covers a few of the more interesting things from the last few weeks!
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