Into the second week of school...

Well, Thursday has come and gone (the first week of school has drawn to a close and we're back onto the second week of school).  I meant to blog on the weekend, but was busy visiting on Friday, sicker than a dog on Saturday (The Welcome Back to Damascus tummy trouble) and well, it's now Sunday again.  Thus I had best get blogging

The first week of school was a whirl wind.  It is a completely different environment when the international students aren't in the classroom.  It's not that it's bad.  There just doesn't seem to be the balance that existed last year.  Perhaps I ought to re-read last year's blogs and see if I felt the same way.  One of the main differences that I notice is that my students seem so much more in need of spoon feeding than in previous years.  Maybe it's a combination of factors that contributes to this dependant nature, who knows.  At any rate, I know they are children, my expectations are high and they will rise to meet them - I am sure of that.

This time of the school year is always a busy one.  More so, it seems, now that I am also taking a university class.  I still have two unit assignments to finish up from my AERO conference that I need to get finished so I can submit my unit for the credit.  I also have the regular teacher planning that is keeping me busy (I am trying to go a little deeper with the curriculum than I did last year.  I am serving as a sounding board to many different teachers and I'm trying to keep my own head above water.  Last week, once our class was put up on moodle, I began the challenging task of looking up my readings for my course.  Sadly, it wasn't as easy as it ought to have been.

First of all, my required readings are not all journals.  Nor are they ebooks that the university has permission to use.  Such resources I have no problem accessing (at school...can't get them at home).  However, I am a bit miffed that I am paying a kijillion dollars to go to university and my course readings are coming from Google e-books.  Now, if you're not familiar with google e-books, they give you reading access to some of the pages, but not all of the pages.  So, when I have to access four different websites to get a 15 page article because the university doesn't own the necessary copyright to provide the reading to students, I get a bit miffed.  With all the resources that are on the databases to which the U of A subscribes, you'd think an alternate reading could be found.

Now, I have my readings and will be able to start working on my assignments.  It's just the principle of the thing.  If I can't use a google e-book as a scholarly resource in a paper, why the heck are we using them as one of the pieces of scholarly literature that we're studying.  Arggggg.

And so ends the last 10 days.  Really not much exciting going on.  The start of the school year is draining and I sometimes find myself asking the question "Why am I doing this again."  I am walking everyday after school.  Cathy and I get in about 3 miles a day.  We've even started to run part of the 3 miles.  I feel great after the walk/run and am starting to notice VERY small changes on the scale (except for the last three days when, due to my tummy troubles, I've dropped six pounds.  I also haven't eaten more that a bun and apple juice since Friday night.)

Here's hoping for a great week.  I'm off to Athens on Thursday for the NESA teacher rep meeting.  It will be a busy weekend, but one that I am looking forward to. I am also hoping for some time to focus on rest and relaxation (yes, it's alright to rest when you're in Athens).

Next time I will hopefully have all sorts of adventures to share with you all...maybe they will be adventures induced by Ouzo...we'll see what happens.

Until I write again (hopefully on Thursday or Friday)

Tylene