This and that
I will do a Starwood retrospective post at some time. Really. Although I tend not to do them, only talk about doing them. Y'know, like showers. *g* So maybe I won't. But maybe I actually will!
Anyway. We got back Sunday evening and Monday morning at 9am I started teaching in an intensive program for incoming international TAs. This is three hours a day, five days a week, for four weeks. They get more than the three hours, since they have to do observations and meet with senior TAs and students and also meet with a tutor, but I'm responsible for three hours. It's a combination of spoken English (especially pronunciation and intonation), cultural info, teaching skills and anything else they need to know before they get bombarded by Midwestern undergrads (mostly freshmen and sophomores - these TAs will generally be handling lab sessions for 100 level classes) who have little to no experience dealing with foreign accents and plenty of expectations about getting good grades.
I'm teaching a group of chemistry TAs. I was supposed to have eight of them, but one never showed up. I have four Chinese, one Sri Lankan, one Kenyan and one Turk. The Sri Lankan and one of the Chinese are male, the rest are female. They're all enthusiastic about their field and about teaching. It's kind of weird because in one sense, they're colleges - fellow grad student/TAs, although in a very different field. In another sense, they're my students.
So I never did get a day to sort of collapse after Starwood. And wound up doing that yesterday. Which means today I've got a bunch of prep work and marking to do along with laundry and other chores. Whee.
And! I had one of those weird half-awake morning insights about what to do for a second class at Starwood! I've been wanting to do a Tarot 201 class, going beyond the basics. But you need to teach two to get in for free and I never could think of something for that second one. But then I thought of a make a tarot card class! Bring a lot of collage type stuff and make a card for meditation or whatnot. Like the stuff from tarot study! What do you all think?
The new tat is still flaking in bits. When it's done with that, which probably will be a couple more days from the looks of it, I'll get a good pic and post it.
Anyway. We got back Sunday evening and Monday morning at 9am I started teaching in an intensive program for incoming international TAs. This is three hours a day, five days a week, for four weeks. They get more than the three hours, since they have to do observations and meet with senior TAs and students and also meet with a tutor, but I'm responsible for three hours. It's a combination of spoken English (especially pronunciation and intonation), cultural info, teaching skills and anything else they need to know before they get bombarded by Midwestern undergrads (mostly freshmen and sophomores - these TAs will generally be handling lab sessions for 100 level classes) who have little to no experience dealing with foreign accents and plenty of expectations about getting good grades.
I'm teaching a group of chemistry TAs. I was supposed to have eight of them, but one never showed up. I have four Chinese, one Sri Lankan, one Kenyan and one Turk. The Sri Lankan and one of the Chinese are male, the rest are female. They're all enthusiastic about their field and about teaching. It's kind of weird because in one sense, they're colleges - fellow grad student/TAs, although in a very different field. In another sense, they're my students.
So I never did get a day to sort of collapse after Starwood. And wound up doing that yesterday. Which means today I've got a bunch of prep work and marking to do along with laundry and other chores. Whee.
And! I had one of those weird half-awake morning insights about what to do for a second class at Starwood! I've been wanting to do a Tarot 201 class, going beyond the basics. But you need to teach two to get in for free and I never could think of something for that second one. But then I thought of a make a tarot card class! Bring a lot of collage type stuff and make a card for meditation or whatnot. Like the stuff from tarot study! What do you all think?
The new tat is still flaking in bits. When it's done with that, which probably will be a couple more days from the looks of it, I'll get a good pic and post it.