At another halfway point Saturday, Jul 26 2008 

classes and daily life and general and school godsweigh 3:32 pm

Well, I am officially halfway through this second summer session, and I am still just as swamped as I was on day 1.  Words cannot express how relieved I will be when I am done for the summer! 

So far, this is what I have left to do, collectively:

  • 30 minute presentation (reading)
  • 3 finals (geometry, math history, reading)
  • Research paper (reading)
  • Reflection paper (reading)
  • Research project (math history)
  • 4 chapters of reading, plus 2 sets of questions per chapter (reading)

It’s pretty easy to see which class is dominating my time right now.  I actually did one presentation already for that class just this past week, and it went really well.  I am always ridiculously nervous until I know I’m almost finished, then I start to settle down.  Also, as long as it’s just me talking, I’m nervous.  As soon as I get interaction with my “audience” (i.e. the class), I also start to calm down.  Last week’s presentation was just a 5 minute lit review, and I got perfect marks for it.  Next week’s presentation is not actually a presentation, it’s a teaching session.  A full-blown teaching session that requires a complete and comprehensive lesson plan, plus I have to supply all the materials I’ll need.  I know I’m going to be nervous as I present what I’m going to be teaching, but once I get into the guided lesson where I’m interacting with the class, I’ll be fine.  There is a lot of paperwork involved with teaching my lesson, though, and I’m really going to have to work to figure out how to get all my copying done before Tuesday (eek!).  Anyway, I need to finish polishing up my lesson plan, so I can’t stay and talk about all the gory details of the past couple of weeks.  Hopefully, by the end of this class session, I’ll still remember enough of it to talk about it here.

 

Egads! Tuesday, Jul 15 2008 

daily life and general and school godsweigh 12:39 am

How long has it been since I posted?!?  I can’t even remember! 

Well, today started Summer II, which is the official end of Survey of Exceptionalities and the official start of Reading in Content Subjects.  This new class may just push me over the edge with all the unnecessary and irrelevant assignments.  What is it about teachers that teach summer sessions who can’t get the content across without all the busy work?  I don’t understand it!  Anyway, I don’t have time to grouse about it, actually.  I have too much to do.  The class meets for three hours every night from Monday through Thursday for the next four weeks.  I have a minimum of 3 assignments plus a chapter of reading to do every day.  I never get home before 10pm, but Monday and Wednesdays I have a 9am class (meaning I have to get up by at least 6am to be ready and out the door in time).  Suddenly, my world has shrunk to school, computer and bed.

So, pardon me if I stay relatively quiet for the next four weeks.  I’m trying to stay afloat.  It’s nothing personal.

 

Halfway Tuesday, Jul 8 2008 

Jennifer and classes and daily life and general and school godsweigh 6:38 pm

My summer classes are halfway over.  I can’t even begin to describe the relief I feel when I think about that.  Even though my classes haven’t been “hard,” it’s still a relief when you’re done.  Actually, I am done with one whole class: Survey of Exceptionalities.  Today was the last day we’re to meet.  There’s no final, and the teacher cancelled the third test, so I have nothing else I need to do.  On Monday, Exceptionalities will be replaced with Reading in Content Subjects, and I’m a little nervous about it.  I already know there’s a research paper due by the end of the session, but I don’t know how involved or extensive it’s going to need to be.  Getting a good research paper done in four weeks when you have two other classes to deal with isn’t going to be easy.  Then again, it could be another blow-off paper typical of the School of Ed.  I’ll just have to wait and see.

For my other two classes, last week and this week are midterm.  I took the midterm exam in Geometry and made an 88, but I honestly think there was a mistake in how the grade was figured.  The test was worth 300 points, and from what I remember, I lost 14 points for a couple of mistakes.  That means that I kept 286 points out of the 300, which means I should have made 95.  Add into this that the teacher mis-calculated the total points on one section of the test, and ended up giving each student 7 points to make up for his mistake.  With the extra points I should have had 293 points out of 300, which means I should have made 97.  I’m a little baffled where the 88 came from.  I could be forgetting a couple of problems that I got wrong, which is why I’m going to ask to see my test again tomorrow after class.

Tomorrow I take the midterm exam in History of Math.  I have no idea what to expect from this guy.  He’s so vague, which I was warned about, but he’s also extremely condescending, which just pisses me off.  I can usually overlook it, but sometimes it gets to me and I come home venting about what an ass this teacher can be.  He’s very knowledgeable, which makes me wonder why he’s an adjunct teacher at a podunk university and a full-time teacher at an even podunk-er junior college.  Oh well.  After this week, I have four weeks left of him and I’m done with one more math class to my credit and transcript.

My very first algebra teacher in college emailed me today.  She and I really hit it off and we spent quite a bit of time just chatting when I wasn’t in class.  I think we’re going to try to get together for lunch sometime before fall semester begins.  I haven’t seen her in 2 years, at least, so it’ll be wonderful to get together with her again.