Whig Hill

Originally uploaded by natmaconjr.

I knew I'd regret this internet thing one day. Today is that day.

So what happens when you are a shamelessly transparent blogger and you find something slightly embarrassing from a past life, on the internet??? Why, you post it so all your closest friends and the rest of the world can point, laugh, and have second thoughts about you! Obviously.

Apparently one of my professors found this by accident and showed it to all my grad school peers before I ever knew it was on Youtube. And, btw—so I won’t be embarrassed alone--the shotgun-wielding cracker is none other than Ernest Dollar.

Nanna be Praised!

OK so today’s classes were tedious for everyone involved. But that’s what lack of planning, poor facilitation techniques, and no discussion objectives will get you. That, and the fact of a broken internet connection in the classroom prevented the use of all the internet stuff I had ready to go. But thanks to the powers of reflection, assessment, and flexibility, we’ll all get over it. Next week we’re going to try some different approaches.

Speaking of internet, I set up the wireless router that I brought from Durham and it’s an open signal meaning I’m giving free wireless to this whole complex. I can’t figure out how to make it password protected… can someone help?

Check it out…The Ziggurat of Ur.

Closet Dog

Closet Dog
Originally uploaded by natmaconjr.

That didn't take long

I've already begun getting friend requests on Facebook from my students. I'm hesitant to confirm them only to keep that student-teacher distance. On the other hand, I've obviously promoted wide-open transparent policy on internet things and I might as well stand on principle. (And I know teachers at UNC-G friend students...) I'll probably go ahead and do it, but if you have any suggestions otherwise, tell me.

And if they get that far, it won't be long before they get here (the link to here from Facebook will ensure that)... So, in that event..

Hi, students. Are you on Moodle yet? Don't you have homework to be doing?

All routine after this

I think that went well, but you’d really have to ask the students. Though these classes of almost fifty kids (each) have the usual aura of ambivalence and uncertainty, they did participate in the reading activity as planned and kept the conversation going. About as well as I had hoped, and much better than I feared. As my mentor tells me, two down, forty-six to go.

That noise you hear in the background is the truck delivering my ton of bricks a few days early… got the syllabus for one of my own classes. Whew.

Good news is… I have a camera now (thanks to my benefactor) and should be posting pictures soon.

First day

That went well. First day of classes are easiest because we just introduce ourselves to each other, go over the syllabus, and talk about the expectations for this semester. I did prep them by having them work in small groups and speak in class. But the hard stuff begins Wednesday when I’ve got to get them talking and thinking about, you know, history.

The room is very hot and I sweated profusely. A few kids asked if this was my first day teaching. How did they know?

Sunday notes

Strangest thing happened. Lizzie’s leash disappeared. Now, it probably fell out of my pocket as I walked from the clubhouse to my place the other night and was picked up by the grounds people before I knew it was gone. But… since I don’t know for certain, we’ll have to entertain that more nefarious motives are at play. I have one suspect, and she’s clever and doesn’t talk. But she didn’t think her cunning plan all the way through because I just got out the backup leash.

Bike riding is great for understanding historical geography. The earliest roads ran along ridges. This is true for Indians and Europeans. Settlements tended to congregate around the highest points of those ridges. And the earliest European settlement in Guilford County was Guilford Courthouse, about half a mile from my place. Standing out at Tannenbaum Park, the spot just seems like the highest point in the county. And when riding the bike out of here, it’s all down hill in every direction. That’s not so bad except knowing that once you are wore out, it’s all up hill to get back home. I got into the gym the other day to stretch and lift some weights. And I’ve ridden many, many miles, half of them uphill. I am very sore all over.

I’m putting together a lesson per day for classes. I’ve got about two weeks’ worth and it’s all tentative. My problem at this point is having no expectation on actually how long each activity will take in class. I’m guessing at numbers—twenty minutes for this discussion, five minutes for this feedback form. We’ll get it figured out.

I plan to show parts of films in class. The idea is to take something the students are likely somewhat familiar with and have them think about those scenes in historical terms. For instance, I plan to use the scene from Troy where Achilles kills Hector and drags his body behind the chariot and compare that to the passage in the Illiad and with the several Greek images of the same scene. Then, discuss how and why each are different or the same and what that says about the producers of each media. Also want to use scenes from the HBO series Rome. They were pretty good at showing how people practiced religious ritual in a public and purposeful way. At the same time, I want to show the scene of Servillia casting a hex on Atia which is riveting and compelling, then show the director’s commentary that says, basically we have no idea how this was done and just made up the whole thing. And Caesar’s triumph scene; freakin’ awesome. Again, to think about the elements of convincing history. Now, I loved Rome and would watch it again anyhow, but this is not all pleasure. I endured Alexander last night and it was awful. Not only from a historical point of view but from an entertainment one as well. Don’t think I’ll be using it in class for anything. The big question, of course, is…will I be able to use 300 for anything constructive? Maybe, we’ll see. If you have any suggestions about films (or games like Sid Meiers’ Civilization series) that these kids might be familiar with, let me know. (It’s important that it’s already something in their consciousness, so older stuff like Ben Hur won’t do.) And once I get past  the Roman empire, we'll have to think about Medieval Europe. Any ideas?

Got the class rosters. Forty-nine in one class and forty-six in the other. I’m a bit confused, though, because some names are listed twice. I’ll do the best I can on Monday to drive away about twenty students each to get it down to a manageable size!

 

I'm embarrassed to even post this

I disapprove of this filthy smut. You should not even watch/listen to it. See? Aren't you ashamed of yourself now?

Wednesday stuff

Tedious faculty meetings at the community college (hereinafter known as CC) yesterday. For all their excellent emphasis on accountability and feedback, they didn’t offer attendees any chance to tell them what we thought of the whole thing. The department meetings were a bit more useful, if only as a way to see how things work in Arts & Sciences. Classes start next Monday and I’m in a typically overconfident mood that masks a lack of planning. But too much planning is unwarranted as my classes are of the design-build variety, which is a euphemism for I’ll be making it up as I go along. The nice thing about this learning centered business is that I won’t have to write lectures for three classes a week. The downside to that is I’m not forcing myself to learn much about Western Civ beyond what is in the textbook and the provided materials, in anticipation that classroom activity will be thrown back on the students. Anyhow, I’m excited about getting started, but fear that I might quickly discover that I’m in over my head.

Greensboro has, so far, proved far more amenable than I had expected. I rode about thirteen miles yesterday on the rails-to-trails Greenway yesterday. It’s right outside my backdoor and runs through the park. It’s very nice. Sore today. Good coffee is easy to find. Plenty of small places amongst all these terrible shopping centers to find the things I need without having to drive to the other side of town. And Edward McKay bought some of my books for far more than Nice Price used to. That was a pleasant surprise, but it has me looking real hard at some beloved, if unused, academic books and thinking, you’re next buddy, if that student loan money doesn’t come in soon.

Lizzie is still doing well. You can tell the season is changing because she started her big Autumn shed yesterday. Clumps of dog hair all over my new clean place! She’s always ready to get the hell out of the apartment. Kind of like a cat escaping from a house—shoots right out at any opportunity. And she’s still feeling stifled by the leash issue, as evident by her bounding energy when I do let her run free. But she's making this adjustment rather well.

This little neighborhood of mine is still pretty nice, but the neighbors… well… every morning there are beer cans all over the place. (Bud Lite, Busch Lite, Coors Lite, Corona Lite… .I’m not a beer snob like most of you, but will admit that that selection does say something about the people here.) It gets picked up fairly quick by the groundskeepers, but still. Usually, the late afternoon, over-tanned, very fit, twenty-something jocks playing volleyball in the pool behind my building leaves the most trash. And yeah, having to endure all the 22ish girls in bikinis sunning themselves is a real problem.

I’m still spending my mornings at the office/clubhouse taking care of internet stuff. Right now I’m doing an on-line tutorial on how to use Moodle, the course management software the CC uses. Beats Blackboard, I think. If I had a camera, I’d take some pictures to show you everything. Oh, well. Maybe when that student loan money comes in.