defaults and updates

So, after being told by certain people that I needed to jazz up the blog, I have done so... and I gotta tell you, I can't stand the font color on the older post, but I'll eventually figure it out and change it. Until then, I guess squint your eyes and bear it. Sorry that's the teacher who's gotten authority coming out. I've got to figure out how to keep that in check, because it'll really come to bite me in the butt one of these days, if I don't. As someone so eloquently put it, "I'd better check myself, before I wreck myself."

So, the lectures sucked on Monday and Wednesday... no other way to say it besides for it being a major suckfest... and though that might sound really fun, it wasn't. Not for me or the students. After their eyes would glaze over from me talking about punctuation, I'd start doing goofy jokes to try to bring them back to attention... but oh the humanity, they were already gone; lost; never to be seen again, at least not until the next class. And I'll give them props for continuously showing back up, because I was getting bored going over the power points that I was showing them, so I can only imagine what they were feeling. However, I felt like Friday's class went really well... and I'm actually going to plagiarize myself, because I've already written about this in my weekly journal that I'm having to do for a class:

"Well, to be honest, the power points on punctuation didn’t work earlier this week. I know that it can be uninteresting, but I had to stress to my students that it’s going to affect their grade, so they needed to pay attention. And I’m glad that I handed out handouts relating to the punctuations, sentence structures and mechanics on Wednesday. Hopefully after read about it in the textbook (finger’s crossed about that), then paying attention in the lectures (my other hand’s fingers crossed) that they will be hit with a trifecta with the handouts, and even if they won’t be masters on it, they’ll have enough references available for when they need it.

What I felt really worked was the lecture that I did on Friday. I’ve finished with the punctuation portion of the class until the first paper come back my way, and we had a class discussion about how a paper functions; why the five paragraph paper does/doesn’t work; how to start an opening paragraph; how to write a conclusion; what to put in the middle; what constitutes good writing; why I make them write for the first 10 minutes of class; why I make them read different genres and topics in this rhet/comp class. During this class, I sat on the top of the table and we just had a frank discussion about the dos and don’ts of writing. Now granted, this was all in theory and I didn’t show them real applications, but I thought it worked really effectively and the students seemed really engaged. On top of that, the students in both my 8 am and 9 am class actually responded to each other’s comments and I was able to sit back and only direct the conversation when needed. And only once did I have to tell the students in my 9 am class to not cut any other speaker off, because they all started talking at once. Also, I think everyone in my 8am class contributed at least one statement, which was really cool to see, especially since it’s so early and when I first walked in they looked really tired. And another cool thing: my 9am class actually went a couple of minutes over, and I didn’t see anyone packing up early, because they appeared (at least to me) to be really engaged in the class discussion that was taking place inside the room.

I just felt like the Friday lecture was a very effective class, and it showed my students exactly where we were going to be going from this point on, but at the same time let them look back at the previous lectures to understand why we had them."

So, now that the weekly post-script is over with, and we know that I can talk to students and keep them interested, but I can't lecture to them without my own eyes glazing over, let's get to the naughty bits, as my peeps in the UK so eloquently put it... ... ... ...actually I got nothin'.

So... what you know? I was looking at this blog earlier today, and apparently Julie likes the endings best... that's because I'm usually using these blogs as pre-writing sections before I actually go write other things (propaganda, dirty limericks, you know, items of importance), but anyways thanks for the props and the feedback, I really do appreciate it. And it's nice to know that someone out there is actually reading my rants... suckers.

However, I'm going to follow my father's advice and leaving you wanting more (he never gave me that advice... many other colloqualisms, but definitely never that one... I think the Fonz actually gave me that one... AYYYY... regardless, I find that people - and by people, I mean me - more often than not skip what's inside the paranthesis's, so I'll cite him, and let it ride). So no funny, quippy ending, that's both dirty and hilarious this time. Why? Cause I've got nothing, That's why!

However, I will give you something to chew on, at least for about thirty seconds, hopefully. My 18th Century Romantics professor said something... I don't really remember what. I think he was talking about Satan - you know, forked tail guy from the Bible... that book that if you drop can kill cockroaches. Anyways, he said something - it doesn't matter what - and my brain synapses started to spark, and I wrote this down... I've got to do something with it eventually: "The tragic character flaw with Lucifer isn't that he rebelled, it's that he didn't rebel a second time. Instead of reigning in a punishing Hell, he could instead have created another Heaven. That really would have been the proverbial, "Fuck You," to God."