Mexico Pictures

As promised, here are some pictures from Chihuahua! Here, I've only posted ones with me in them, but my friend that took the photos posted all of them on facebook (for those of you who want to see more scenery and stuff).

Here we are with the rental car:



The next few were taken during my presentation:

Notice the cool school logo in the background (and ignore the weird look on my face!):

Here I am at the end--you can see I'm relieved!

This is the coordinator, presenting me with a certificate. They gave us a cool mug, too, but part of the picture peeled off when I put it in the dishwasher... :-(

A picture of the poster for the conference--this was all over the place!

And, a couple of photos from our sight-seeing (if you look closely, you can see me in the top one):

So, there's some pictures from the trip...almost like you were there!

Today, I collected the second essay from my students and completed the first take home exam for Dr. Troike. Tomorrow, I have a presentation in my other class (but I'm not really nervous about it; we're all friends!). I think I need to start getting some serious work done on my final projects--the end of the semester will be pretty intense.

Finally Catching Up

It's been a while since I've posted an update, so here goes.

I'm finally starting to get caught up with school and teaching. My studying for the SLA theory exam paid off--I only missed one point! (I really didn't expect to do that well, but I was thrilled!). I've also managed to stay caught up on the readings for that class, but I have a presentation to prepare for next week and the week after. I'm sure it'll come together. I've mostly caught up with the readings for Dr. Troike, which is good because we've got a test in his class on Tuesday. It's a take-home test, but I'm hoping to be well-prepared so I don't have to spend every waking hour on it. We'll see how that goes...

What's really incredible is that the semester is already halfway over. I've got to get serious about my final projects (I've done a fair amount of work on one, but I have almost no idea what to do for the other two). Today, I decided what classes I'll be taking in the spring and submitted my teaching availability form. It's so hard to believe it's that time of the year already. (It's also hard to believe I'm just two classes away from having an MA!)

As far as teaching goes, I did finish grading papers, and I returned them last Monday. My students were a little disappointed, but no one argued with me about the grades, which was nice. I did let them rewrite to earn up to 10 points back. The rewrites have been graded, too, so now I have a week off before collecting the next essay. Thankfully, essay 2 has a personal element, which makes them much more fun to read!

Finally, the trip to Chihuahua was good. Things were a little rough on Wednesday; we spent over an hour getting the rental car, discovering that I was too young to help drive, and started hearing a disturbing break noise once we arrived. It all worked out okay (we got our break pads replaced and the rental company took the cost off of our bill), but it was a rough start. Other than those glitches, it went pretty well. I was incredibly nervous before the presentation, but it was fine. I made note of a couple things to do differently in the future, but the audience was really attentive and kind. After the conference, we had a really nice lunch with some of the faculty from the University. That evening, Deida (the friend who organized all of this) took us around town. We got to see some cool things (including part of a concert by a famous musician!). I didn't take my camera, but the others did, so I hope to get some pictures from them to post here soon. It was a good experience, and I'm glad I went. But, I'm also glad I'm home and not planning to leave town again for a while!

One day at a time

I've been putting off updating this blog, partly because I honestly don't know what to say, and partly because I've felt too busy to take the time to figure it out. Obviously, the last weeks have been difficult. The silver lining has been the support we've had from our friends and family in ABQ, Tucson, and elsewhere.

Since we got back in town, I've been struggling to get caught up with school and teaching. Last weekend was devoted almost entirely to studying for my first exam in SLA Theory; since that test, I've put most of my energy into grading papers (which were turned in while I was in ABQ). At this moment, I'm down to the last 6, but then I have to go back through and make the final call on the letter grades. Sometimes I spend too much time deliberating (for example, between a C+ and D-). Ultimately, the difference in point value isn't that much, but the students certainly have different reactions to those two grades (I certainly would!). The grading has been time consuming, and particularly unpleasant because the essays are pretty weak. I guess I'll have to offer some kind of re-write option.

Since I had so much work to catch up on, I really haven't spent much time thinking about anything else. Maybe in some ways, that's made things easier, but I fear it will catch up with me eventually. I'll have to make time to work through my own emotions and to find ways to support Mark as he does the same. Right now, I just feel drained. (But, to be fair, I always feel that way after grading papers, and I've already done 12 today, which may be close to a record.)

The business will continue this week. Once my papers are graded, I'll have a pretty good amount of reading to catch up on for one of my classes. On Wednesday, I'm leaving town to present at that conference in Chihuahua. I'm not nearly as excited about going as I was a month ago; but my teaching advisor encouraged me to go, and because several other people in my classes are going, too, one class I would have missed has been cancelled, and the other professor promised not to cover any new content. So, at least I don't have to worry about falling further behind in class. The details for the trip are really coming together last minute, which I'm not really comfortable with, but I'm trying to go with the flow. It looks like we'll be driving a rental car down (no driver as originally proposed) and staying in a hotel (but we don't know which one). We'll all present on Thursday (mine is first thing in the morning), then drive home Friday. It'll be a long time in the car, but I expect to enjoy the company. I'm also very thankful to be coming home quickly so I can have Saturday and Sunday to do my normal routine and spend some time with Mark.

Anyway, that more or less covers what's going on at this point. It's probably time to get back to work.

In memory

http://derek.idratherread.net/

Presenting at Conferences

Although I've come a long way in the past year toward feeling more comfortable talking in front of people, giving presentations is still not my favorite thing to do. There's something about the authority that comes with being the teacher that makes me feel less nervous (unless it's the first day of class) than when I'm speaking to a group of peers in a formal presentation-type setting. Nevertheless, presenting at conferences seems to be a good thing to do. It's hard for me to get over my shyness and my feeling that I don't really know enough about anything to be able to share my knowledge with other grad students and professionals. But, I've decided I should try to do it anyway (plus, if I'm presenting at a conference, I can apply for funding to help with my expenses). Also, it does look good on a resume (or a PhD application, although I'm feeling less and less interested in taking that route).

That said, I may have mentioned that I submitted a proposal (along with two of my friends and our teaching advisor) for the CCCC conference in the spring. I can't remember what that stands for (we just call it the 4 C's), but it has to do with college composition. Well, we just found out this week that our proposal was rejected. I'm not heart-broken about it, because I really would prefer to go to the TESOL convention again, anyway, but it would have been fun to go with that group. Thankfully, I had a "Plan B" regarding TESOL--the deadline for proposals for the main conference is long gone, but the graduate forum proposals weren't due until December last year (and this year's info isn't even posted yet). So, I think I can submit the same proposal for that part of the conference. Having been to the grad forum last year, I feel like I've got a good chance of getting accepted, and it'll be a pretty low-stress environment.

But, I've also just been invited by another EL/L student to present at a conference at her home university in Chihuahua, Mexico in October. She's asked several people from EL/L to do it, and her university is offering to pay all of our travel, accommodation, and dining expenses. (Plus, we don't have to submit any proposal for approval--our friendship has essentially pre-approved us.) I decided the offer was too good to pass up, so it looks like I'll be heading to Chihuahua with some friends in about a month! The conference is for undergraduates in their English department, and I can present on the paper I wrote for Dr. Troike last semester. (I've already got a powerpoint and handout to go with, so tweaking things for this conference should be pretty simple). Also, they want us to present in English (so that's a relief!), but I'm sure I'll still have plenty of opportunities to practice my Spanish (which I really need to do more of). We're still working out the details, but I've decided to go for it. (Mark, by the way, has been very supportive of the whole idea since I mentioned it as a possibility earlier this week. His enthusiasm has definitely helped me feel up to taking advantage of the opportunity.)

Quick Update

Another week has come and gone. It's amazing how quickly time is flying by now that we're back in school! It was wonderful to have a long weekend, but it really made the week feel short. In general, that's okay, but it was a strange week as far as my teaching went. Not only did we not have class on Monday, but my classes are participating in a research study for a PhD candidate, so Wednesday's class was spent taking a pre-test for that research. That left only one day of real teaching during the whole week. In a way, it was probably good for my students to have a little break as far as the demands for my class go. They really are in a major phase of adjustment in their lives, especially the international students. So, I don't feel too bad that they had an easy week in my class, but they are supposed to be drafting the first couple of pages of their first essay for Monday, and I'm afraid I didn't do enough to prepare them (again, especially the international students). Really, Friday's class was jam-packed. I was definitely trying to cover too much material, because I wanted to prep them for writing (going over thesis statements, overall essay structure, and paragraph structure) AND prep them for the full-class workshops we'll do next week. I also hoped to give them time to start drafting thesis statements so I could go around and offer individual help. Well, I had to rush through the workshop instructions, so we'll have to take some extra time on Monday for that, and my second class didn't get any time to draft (the first only got about 5 minutes--not long enough). Well, I'll just have to see what I can do next week!

Other than teaching, I've been doing a lot of reading for 2 of my 3 classes. Unfortunately, it's all been pretty tough this week! Difficult concepts, long articles. I'm hoping things will become clearer with more time and repetition.

Yesterday, I also got to go out to lunch with my 1st year EL/L "mentee" (courtesy of the English Department). EL/L has a "mentoring program," which basically consists of a free lunch with each other at the beginning of the fall semester. I got paired with a very nice student, and she and I seem to have a lot in common. So, we had a nice time.

Hooray for Long Weekends!

I think that week two went better overall than week one, but I'm still thankful for the long weekend! My current plan is to do all my regular work today (chores, reading, etc), take Sunday off to relax, and use Monday to work ahead. I'd like to at least start gathering ideas for my final projects and maybe start some preliminary research (we'll see if I get that far). The last week has been busy, but I did start to feel on top of things by Wednesday. I'm still working on figuring out how to divide my time, but I have been able to get all the readings done and plan for my class more efficiently.

My 101/107 classes are going pretty well. I remember thinking last fall about how amazing it is that the two sections can be so different. Now that I have a split section and a 107 class, the differences seem even greater. My 107 class, for example, is really quiet! It's hard to get them to discuss the readings as a class, and I haven't yet figured out how to make sure they are actually understanding the texts without just lecturing at them (not how the course is designed, nor my preferred way to teach). I have learned most of my students' names now, although there are a handful I still hesitate on. There is one Chinese student in particular whose name is difficult for me to pronounce. I don't think I've said it right yet, but I do know who she is! Overall, it seems like the class periods are just too short to do everything I want to. Maybe it's because I got used to having longer classes in summer school and I'm planning too much. As always, teaching requires constant evaluation and adjustment. But that's one of the things that keeps it interesting!

As far as my life as a student goes, I think 2 of my 3 classes will be really interesting, but the 3rd I'm not sure about. Right now, I've found myself sitting in class thinking things like "who cares?" and "why does this matter?" I think the problem is that we're talking about some very abstract theories about language and since I'm more interested in the practical, teaching-related stuff, these theories aren't appealing to me. And, of course, they're difficult to understand. Mark has warned me that it's no use questioning the importance of this material...I still have to learn it if only for the sake of the class. (He's right, of course!) So, I'm trying to fight off those thoughts and wrap my mind around the ideas anyway. I'm also hoping it will get better as we get further into the semester. Other than that, though, I think school is going well.

I think that's about all there is to say about what's going on at the moment...I suppose I'll have to get back to work!