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Fire up the patriotism!
Mar. 11th, 2003 03:45 pmYeah, baby! This just makes me all patriotic! I'm so glad to know our lawmakers are on the ball with such critical matters! ;)
We'll show them!
We'll show them!
Mar. 11th, 2003
Class tonight is an adventure. I'm actually able to type while my students are working, because I kinda had to change the format of my class. I'm not sure if I should be griping or not, as it seems to be working frighteningly well. It turns out there are three CIS classes scheduled at the same time. And oddly enough, all three of us instructors think we actually need a lab of computers to teach our students how to -use- computers. Madness! The other two instructors worked it out so one of them gets the big computer lab with a projector from 5:30-7:30pm, and the other gets it from 7:30-9:30pm. Guess where that leaves me? Screwed, blued, and tattooed, oh yes. Anyway, so instead of my normal lecture/break/lab work cycle, I switched. Lecture, then instead of going straight to the lab, I did the class assignments for my students on my overhead in the classroom. Then we had our break, and came down to the crappy lab, and they're doing the same class assignment they watched, but on their own, and I'm going to help anyone who needs it.
I was -really- bum kicked about this whole thing, very afraid it would shortchange my students in instruction time, but the weird thing is, it's working amazingly well! The complaint I get semester after semester is that I take time to help everyone, even if they're slow. This way allows the students who are comfortable with the info to finish up and get out of here quickly, and lets me help the students who need the help in a one-on-one fashion. So what I've been dreading all day has turned out to be a good system...so far. I'll be keeping an eye on class morale, and seeing how people feel about it as the weeks go by. Not much to do about it this semester, but we'll see how it affects what I do in coming semesters.
I should not, however, read CNN.com while I'm in class. A Blackhawk helicopter crashed at Ft. Drum in New York, killing 11 soldiers. They have not listed the names of the dead yet. My brother is stationed at Ft. Drum, and does train in Blackhawks. I am, needless to say, kind of heartsick right now, and doing what I can to distract myself. Or I will when I'm done writing. I ache for the families of the lost soldiers, and yet I find myself praying that it's not Eric, and that he was safely away. I don't know if he's left for the middle east yet, so he may not even be in the country. All I can do right now is pray and think positively.
I was -really- bum kicked about this whole thing, very afraid it would shortchange my students in instruction time, but the weird thing is, it's working amazingly well! The complaint I get semester after semester is that I take time to help everyone, even if they're slow. This way allows the students who are comfortable with the info to finish up and get out of here quickly, and lets me help the students who need the help in a one-on-one fashion. So what I've been dreading all day has turned out to be a good system...so far. I'll be keeping an eye on class morale, and seeing how people feel about it as the weeks go by. Not much to do about it this semester, but we'll see how it affects what I do in coming semesters.
I should not, however, read CNN.com while I'm in class. A Blackhawk helicopter crashed at Ft. Drum in New York, killing 11 soldiers. They have not listed the names of the dead yet. My brother is stationed at Ft. Drum, and does train in Blackhawks. I am, needless to say, kind of heartsick right now, and doing what I can to distract myself. Or I will when I'm done writing. I ache for the families of the lost soldiers, and yet I find myself praying that it's not Eric, and that he was safely away. I don't know if he's left for the middle east yet, so he may not even be in the country. All I can do right now is pray and think positively.
