Saturday, December 04, 2004

A new day has dawned

It's amazing what a good night's sleep to do.

One of the downsides of being a teacher at any level is that we often feel overresponsible for our students and their sometimes obnoxious behavior. I'm managed to slough off that overresponsible feeling from yesterday and move on to things that a) I can control and b) are more important to me.

The funding for Teaching American History grants is almost at the finish line - and the bonus is that, at least right now, it looks like it will total $120 million. I was working with a teacher in a school district "in state" but not technically part of our 'service area' but ultimately decided that an active role is not wise because of academic turf wars that would possibly hit at the regents level. Since our best university president was fired because of being too successful in relation to other regents schools, I know better to go there and will file it under the title of "no good deed goes unpunished." It would be different if the profs at the school were willing to put teachers' interests and needs first but . . .. .

Have worked on some personal travel plans that are not centered around work. Am trying to focus more on at least scheduling personal time so it doesn't get lost in the waves of work. I'll go to the Ohio/KY area to see several sets of relatives that hve settled there. Was going to drive but a $218 airfare from Springfield made it much more advantageous to fly. (The last time I checked - when direct service first started between the two airports - it was almost $540). Depending on their schedules, I will stay with two different cousins who are brother and sister and their families and also visit my favorite aunt/godmother.

Dead week is next week and then finals so the semester will soon come to a close. Hope to be further ahead in planning this spring. I'm anxious to do the online class with the grant teachers on historical cognition. Not much work has been done on it and what has been done has been primarily in the UK. I'll also be teaching Modern America, 1912-1941 and the Teaching and Student Teaching courses.

Now, back to cleaning the house . . ... and then putting up Christmas decorations to go with the tree - esp. timely since I will be leaving the day after Christmas and won't be here that week to enjoy the tree and deocrations.

Comments: Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]





<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

Subscribe to Posts [Atom]