Is it spring break yet?
What, do I still have a blog?
Anyway, we've been back to school a week now...busy as always, so I should've done some blogging while on Christmas break! I did not, nor did I do much grading until the last few days...I am afraid some of my grading stack did not get finished in time for exporting semester 1 grades for the report cards. It will have to go on the new grading period instead. The problem with having three French 1 classes is that any time I want them to practice their writing skills...and boy, do they need to practice those...I have nearly eighty French essays/paragraphs/worksheets to grade. Ouch! Between teaching six subjects this year*, having three of them combined in one hectic period**, and traveling between two high schools, I do good to get my lesson plans all done far enough in advance to send copies to the copy center. Grading...happens when it happens, which is not often. Oh, and this semester I'm taking another distance course through UF (Go Gators!) so there go my Tuesday evenings, and along with them my Monday evenings and probably at least one other evening to be used for doing the homework. (This week for the first assignment I worked on it three evenings in all...Tomorrow night is the second class and I am all set to go!) I didn't take last semester's course (it was Prose Composition which I had a few semesters ago...so I took a semester off on account of the six preps and everything) and it was nice to be a little less busy, but I'm sure I can manage a course this semester. For one thing, Etymology is a semester course so this is the second time this year I've taught it...we have new books (for Etymology and also for French) this year so last semester I was constantly having to prepare quizzes, handouts, etc. but this semester I can mostly reuse things. Some things I will do differently after seeing how they worked out (or didn't) last semester, but most of the materials are still fine, esp. quizzes and review games. This first week of the new Etymology class went well; I think I have a pretty good group, most of them a lot quieter than last semester's, which boasted a few kids inclined to be rowdy. The new group have been mostly quiet and quite well-behaved, though they'll loosen up more as they get used to each other and to me.
As for the distance course, this semester it's Vergil's Eclogues and Georgics and I just finished translating Eclogue 1 for tomorrow's class. It was...a lot easier than I expected Vergil to be. I don't know why but I have this irrational morbid dread of Vergil, likely because he's one major author I never read in college, and EVERY Latin student reads the Aeneid in high school if not college! But I, since I did not start Latin until college, have never read any of the Aeneid except in translation, and well, it is long and daunting. (And I do have to read it, or anyway the first half of it - six epic books!!! - for the UF master's reading list.) Even in translation I'm still somewhere around book 4...love the story, but there's so much of it, and I have six preps! Anyway, I'm loving the Eclogues and with luck that will motivate me to plow through the Aeneid too. I can't go on being the only classicist who's never read it! :-)
The phasing out of Latin and Japanese is proceeding as planned in my school district...no Latin 1 this year and I'm teaching Latin 2 for the last time. Very depressing. The only reason I'm still here is (A) I have awesome Latin students (and some decent French ones too, for the most part...) and (B) I have awesome colleagues. Not so impressed with the administration that so blithely cut our programs, but my fellow teachers are just amazing and I would sorely miss working with them. I'd really miss my Latin 2 honors class too...and the other levels...but this group is especially talented. Ten of them, sophomores and a junior, reading through Wheelock's Latin with unusual facility. I'd love to see them at work in AP Latin (and then I'd have to read the Aeneid, since that's the only AP Latin exam there will be by the time they get there...) but I'm not sure I can hold out till then. It will depend on when/if anything better opens up. I do at least have a good job, although I dread what courses they might add to my schedule next year and the year after that when I lose (next year) both Latin 2 and 2H and (after that) Latin 3. I don't want to teach another level of French with all that grading...but I have a feeling I might get stuck with the boring Prep for College class instead (at least it was boring when I had to help with a couple weeks of it last year when they were working on SAT Verbal prep), or supervision duties (not that bad actually, esp. if it's a study hall and I have a computer to work at...can get some lessons or even grading done then), or (please no!) a sophomore English class like I had when I student taught. Some of my JCL kids will probably run for state office in March; if they win, I would hate to switch schools and leave them without an experienced sponsor next year. But if the right position opens up this spring I'll probably apply. I'd like to either stay in the Indy area (it is fatiguing to even think of moving my accumulated clutter out of this apartment...) or move back closer to Jville. So that rules out leaving Indiana, except maybe for an Illinois school near Terre Haute - that could actually be closer to home than Indy is. Also, it is a must that any position I apply for be at ONLY ONE SCHOOL BUILDING. :-) I've had enough of traveling. Other than those two conditions I don't mind much what size or type of school I might go to, how big its Latin program is or isn't (I hope I've learned from "what I wish I'd done sooner" here, what I would need to do to build a small program if I go to one...), etc...Anyplace that I'm teaching more Latin than here would be a good change.
Also, there has been knitting, lots of it. It is at Ravelry but I should show some pictures here. Maybe...by spring break? There has also been much cuteness on the nephew front, likewise with pictures, likewise I don't know when they'll show up here. Owen is ten months old now and very busy!
*Latin 2, Latin 2 honors, Latin 3 honors, AP Latin Literature (level 4), French 1 (3 sections), and Etymology
** Latin 2, 3, and AP all combined period 1. Poor kids are not doing very well with this crazy arrangement.
Anyway, we've been back to school a week now...busy as always, so I should've done some blogging while on Christmas break! I did not, nor did I do much grading until the last few days...I am afraid some of my grading stack did not get finished in time for exporting semester 1 grades for the report cards. It will have to go on the new grading period instead. The problem with having three French 1 classes is that any time I want them to practice their writing skills...and boy, do they need to practice those...I have nearly eighty French essays/paragraphs/worksheets to grade. Ouch! Between teaching six subjects this year*, having three of them combined in one hectic period**, and traveling between two high schools, I do good to get my lesson plans all done far enough in advance to send copies to the copy center. Grading...happens when it happens, which is not often. Oh, and this semester I'm taking another distance course through UF (Go Gators!) so there go my Tuesday evenings, and along with them my Monday evenings and probably at least one other evening to be used for doing the homework. (This week for the first assignment I worked on it three evenings in all...Tomorrow night is the second class and I am all set to go!) I didn't take last semester's course (it was Prose Composition which I had a few semesters ago...so I took a semester off on account of the six preps and everything) and it was nice to be a little less busy, but I'm sure I can manage a course this semester. For one thing, Etymology is a semester course so this is the second time this year I've taught it...we have new books (for Etymology and also for French) this year so last semester I was constantly having to prepare quizzes, handouts, etc. but this semester I can mostly reuse things. Some things I will do differently after seeing how they worked out (or didn't) last semester, but most of the materials are still fine, esp. quizzes and review games. This first week of the new Etymology class went well; I think I have a pretty good group, most of them a lot quieter than last semester's, which boasted a few kids inclined to be rowdy. The new group have been mostly quiet and quite well-behaved, though they'll loosen up more as they get used to each other and to me.
As for the distance course, this semester it's Vergil's Eclogues and Georgics and I just finished translating Eclogue 1 for tomorrow's class. It was...a lot easier than I expected Vergil to be. I don't know why but I have this irrational morbid dread of Vergil, likely because he's one major author I never read in college, and EVERY Latin student reads the Aeneid in high school if not college! But I, since I did not start Latin until college, have never read any of the Aeneid except in translation, and well, it is long and daunting. (And I do have to read it, or anyway the first half of it - six epic books!!! - for the UF master's reading list.) Even in translation I'm still somewhere around book 4...love the story, but there's so much of it, and I have six preps! Anyway, I'm loving the Eclogues and with luck that will motivate me to plow through the Aeneid too. I can't go on being the only classicist who's never read it! :-)
The phasing out of Latin and Japanese is proceeding as planned in my school district...no Latin 1 this year and I'm teaching Latin 2 for the last time. Very depressing. The only reason I'm still here is (A) I have awesome Latin students (and some decent French ones too, for the most part...) and (B) I have awesome colleagues. Not so impressed with the administration that so blithely cut our programs, but my fellow teachers are just amazing and I would sorely miss working with them. I'd really miss my Latin 2 honors class too...and the other levels...but this group is especially talented. Ten of them, sophomores and a junior, reading through Wheelock's Latin with unusual facility. I'd love to see them at work in AP Latin (and then I'd have to read the Aeneid, since that's the only AP Latin exam there will be by the time they get there...) but I'm not sure I can hold out till then. It will depend on when/if anything better opens up. I do at least have a good job, although I dread what courses they might add to my schedule next year and the year after that when I lose (next year) both Latin 2 and 2H and (after that) Latin 3. I don't want to teach another level of French with all that grading...but I have a feeling I might get stuck with the boring Prep for College class instead (at least it was boring when I had to help with a couple weeks of it last year when they were working on SAT Verbal prep), or supervision duties (not that bad actually, esp. if it's a study hall and I have a computer to work at...can get some lessons or even grading done then), or (please no!) a sophomore English class like I had when I student taught. Some of my JCL kids will probably run for state office in March; if they win, I would hate to switch schools and leave them without an experienced sponsor next year. But if the right position opens up this spring I'll probably apply. I'd like to either stay in the Indy area (it is fatiguing to even think of moving my accumulated clutter out of this apartment...) or move back closer to Jville. So that rules out leaving Indiana, except maybe for an Illinois school near Terre Haute - that could actually be closer to home than Indy is. Also, it is a must that any position I apply for be at ONLY ONE SCHOOL BUILDING. :-) I've had enough of traveling. Other than those two conditions I don't mind much what size or type of school I might go to, how big its Latin program is or isn't (I hope I've learned from "what I wish I'd done sooner" here, what I would need to do to build a small program if I go to one...), etc...Anyplace that I'm teaching more Latin than here would be a good change.
Also, there has been knitting, lots of it. It is at Ravelry but I should show some pictures here. Maybe...by spring break? There has also been much cuteness on the nephew front, likewise with pictures, likewise I don't know when they'll show up here. Owen is ten months old now and very busy!
*Latin 2, Latin 2 honors, Latin 3 honors, AP Latin Literature (level 4), French 1 (3 sections), and Etymology
** Latin 2, 3, and AP all combined period 1. Poor kids are not doing very well with this crazy arrangement.