Could It Be... SATAN?
Do you remember "The Church Lady" from SNL? I thought of her last night as I was watching the end of "Supernatural." (Any "Supernatural" fans out there?) Shawn and I used to watch the show regularly, but kind of fell out of the habit. Just by chance, we tuned in last night, and I was so EXCITED the moment Dean is face to face with the one who pulled him out of hell and identified itself as "an Angel of the Lord."
Could it be... Satan?
Shawn looked at me and shook her head sadly, and said, "Oh, honey. Don't get too excited; you know they won't go there."
Thing is, I'd be mighty happy either way. Of COURSE, I'd love it if this were actually the big bad guy, because, frankly, I could have written his dialogue right down to his baffled insistance that Dean needs more FAITH and that he (the angel) only does what God commands. But, honestly, I'd be perfectly okay if it were one of the "good guys," because he/it is certainly as scary, if not scarier, than the multitude of demons they've paraded around in that show (keeping in mind, of course, I've missed at least one entire season.) Scary angels make me happy. And of course, any time angels start talking about their "fearsome visage" it makes me smile (and he did. Seriously.)
But, in other less fannish news, I visited Mason's class today. I only stayed a couple of hours (until about 10:30 am) because they were starting to get into work where they needed to focus on individual projects, and it was pretty clear to me that I was a big distraction.
But my fears are mostly quelled. I say mostly because, admittedly, it would be difficult for anyone to live up to my extremely high standards. There *is* a lot of inistance on rule following, particularly this rather alien (to my mind anyway) idea that 5-to-6 year olds need to have "calm, quiet bodies." (Has she not read ANYTHING published in the past decade about the problems with educating boys in this country?) However, there were many, many things about the class routines that I liked. She does a rather nice greeting ritual where everyone goes around the circle shaking hands and taking turns saying "good morning, [name]," which I thought was a nice way to include every single student in a class of 28. I wasn't terribly excited to discover that Ms. D. seems to favor what I would call the "rote and busy-work" teaching methodology (a lot of copying and a LOT of repetition), it certainly has been proven to work -- though I always found it rather disengaging and boring as sin, especially if you're the type of student that catches on quickly.
But there weren't any red flags that jumped out at me watching her interaction with the class. I think her biggest fault -- which isn't anything she can control -- is that while she's perky and friendly, she doesn't seem to have a lot of natural charisma. She's very pretty and enthusiastic, but she doesn't have the ability to command attention. I found that the students crowded around me (even those that didn't know me) and seemed much more keen to follow *my* modeled behavior than Ms. D.'s. To that end, I did everything Ms. D. asked the students to do, including keeping my eyes "listening" (on her.)
So the jury is mostly still out, but I'm feeling like I have a better sense of Mason's day, at least.
In other news, I'm apparently teaching at the Loft on Wednesday nights now. I almost didn't go except for maggiedr's off hand comment on Wednesday's post about "see you in class tonight!" Thank god(dess), just by chance, I checked my e-mail at 6:30 pm, or, as I told the class, I'd have spent the night in my PJ's watching episodes of "The Closer" on DVD. Normally, I would chalk up my lack of preparedness on my own inner wackiness, but this time the Loft really did drop the ball. The last I'd heard about the class it was when someone from the Loft office e-mailed to tell me that the class would VERY LIKELY be cancelled because only 4 students had signed up. I was under the assumption they were going to call me/email me, if the class was a go... but I guess that's that whole line about asses and U Me.
Given that I was frantically printing up syllabuses a half hour before class, I think the first night went pretty well. As I told them, they got me at my MOST disorganized. It can only get better from here! (I hope.)
Well, since I haven't yet, I should write. I also heard from naomikritzer that she finally got the BSG DVDs from her sister, so I need to go collect those and catch up with this season.
Could it be... Satan?
Shawn looked at me and shook her head sadly, and said, "Oh, honey. Don't get too excited; you know they won't go there."
Thing is, I'd be mighty happy either way. Of COURSE, I'd love it if this were actually the big bad guy, because, frankly, I could have written his dialogue right down to his baffled insistance that Dean needs more FAITH and that he (the angel) only does what God commands. But, honestly, I'd be perfectly okay if it were one of the "good guys," because he/it is certainly as scary, if not scarier, than the multitude of demons they've paraded around in that show (keeping in mind, of course, I've missed at least one entire season.) Scary angels make me happy. And of course, any time angels start talking about their "fearsome visage" it makes me smile (and he did. Seriously.)
But, in other less fannish news, I visited Mason's class today. I only stayed a couple of hours (until about 10:30 am) because they were starting to get into work where they needed to focus on individual projects, and it was pretty clear to me that I was a big distraction.
But my fears are mostly quelled. I say mostly because, admittedly, it would be difficult for anyone to live up to my extremely high standards. There *is* a lot of inistance on rule following, particularly this rather alien (to my mind anyway) idea that 5-to-6 year olds need to have "calm, quiet bodies." (Has she not read ANYTHING published in the past decade about the problems with educating boys in this country?) However, there were many, many things about the class routines that I liked. She does a rather nice greeting ritual where everyone goes around the circle shaking hands and taking turns saying "good morning, [name]," which I thought was a nice way to include every single student in a class of 28. I wasn't terribly excited to discover that Ms. D. seems to favor what I would call the "rote and busy-work" teaching methodology (a lot of copying and a LOT of repetition), it certainly has been proven to work -- though I always found it rather disengaging and boring as sin, especially if you're the type of student that catches on quickly.
But there weren't any red flags that jumped out at me watching her interaction with the class. I think her biggest fault -- which isn't anything she can control -- is that while she's perky and friendly, she doesn't seem to have a lot of natural charisma. She's very pretty and enthusiastic, but she doesn't have the ability to command attention. I found that the students crowded around me (even those that didn't know me) and seemed much more keen to follow *my* modeled behavior than Ms. D.'s. To that end, I did everything Ms. D. asked the students to do, including keeping my eyes "listening" (on her.)
So the jury is mostly still out, but I'm feeling like I have a better sense of Mason's day, at least.
In other news, I'm apparently teaching at the Loft on Wednesday nights now. I almost didn't go except for maggiedr's off hand comment on Wednesday's post about "see you in class tonight!" Thank god(dess), just by chance, I checked my e-mail at 6:30 pm, or, as I told the class, I'd have spent the night in my PJ's watching episodes of "The Closer" on DVD. Normally, I would chalk up my lack of preparedness on my own inner wackiness, but this time the Loft really did drop the ball. The last I'd heard about the class it was when someone from the Loft office e-mailed to tell me that the class would VERY LIKELY be cancelled because only 4 students had signed up. I was under the assumption they were going to call me/email me, if the class was a go... but I guess that's that whole line about asses and U Me.
Given that I was frantically printing up syllabuses a half hour before class, I think the first night went pretty well. As I told them, they got me at my MOST disorganized. It can only get better from here! (I hope.)
Well, since I haven't yet, I should write. I also heard from naomikritzer that she finally got the BSG DVDs from her sister, so I need to go collect those and catch up with this season.