Graded final portfolios
Tweeted a response to someone
Was told I had misunderstood
Ate more than I should have
Cuddled with my dog
Downloaded some images I might use next semester
Unpacked my veggie delivery (mostly fruit this week)
Cleaned up my living room so my visiting teachers could get in
Chatted with my visiting teachers
Went to tithing settlement
Chatted with my daughter
Graded more portfolios
All in all, an ok day.
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
It will all work out; it will be ok.
What a day!
I started off by voting. This was probably the longest ballot I've ever voted on. Last night my family sat around and went through it with the League of Women Voters guide, and it took well over an hour to figure out who to vote for in each race which judges to retain (well, that was easier--all of them, following the recommendation of the judicial review website my husband found), 5 constitutional amendments, and then the bond issues. By the end I felt like, "Borrow all the money! I don't care any more; just don't make me read any more 4-pt. type!" Then I went to the polling place this morning and they gave me something I didn't expect--a flair felt-tipped pen. I had to fill in all 742 bubbles again. Whew! Even copying the bubbles felt like a lot of work.
After that I got a nice long visit in with my dad and stepmom. They're in town for a conference, and I sat and visited with them for several hours and had a lovely time. I had a meeting at 5:30, and I had to meet my daughter at 5 to give her a notebook she'd left home, but I figured I had just enough time to get from place to place. I had left my phone at home, but I knew where I needed to be and when I needed to be there, so everything would be fine.
Well, here's where the hard part begins. I drove to the theater to meet my daughter, but she wasn't there. I waited, and she still didn't show up. Finally it was 5:25, so I left and was only 10 minutes or so late to my meeting. Thank heavens, the interpreters hadn't left, because without my phone I couldn't let them know I was on my way.
The meeting was good, but chaotic and a bit overwhelming. The conference we're planning is next week, so all the last-minute details are coming up. It will all work out; it will all be ok. I noticed when I booted up my computer that I had an extremely large number of unread emails (because, of course, I didn't have my phone or my computer all afternoon). We got through the meeting with, of course, a long list of things for each person to do. (It will all work out; it will be ok). I stopped at the theater on my way home to give my daughter her notebook, and this time she was there (in the middle of a rehearsal, but I tried to be discreet).
At home, I finally started going through my email. Turns out I had left a half-set-up appointment with a student at 5:00 that I didn't know she'd accepted and I'd forgotten about. (Really, it will all work out; it will be ok.) Then a presenter at the conference emailed me to tell me she hadn't gotten the message her paper had been accepted. What!? I hope she can still do it, because hers was one of the talks I was hoping to go to. (It will.)
Hard day, but: my daughter gave me a hug and my student graciously agreed to reschedule.
I started off by voting. This was probably the longest ballot I've ever voted on. Last night my family sat around and went through it with the League of Women Voters guide, and it took well over an hour to figure out who to vote for in each race which judges to retain (well, that was easier--all of them, following the recommendation of the judicial review website my husband found), 5 constitutional amendments, and then the bond issues. By the end I felt like, "Borrow all the money! I don't care any more; just don't make me read any more 4-pt. type!" Then I went to the polling place this morning and they gave me something I didn't expect--a flair felt-tipped pen. I had to fill in all 742 bubbles again. Whew! Even copying the bubbles felt like a lot of work.
After that I got a nice long visit in with my dad and stepmom. They're in town for a conference, and I sat and visited with them for several hours and had a lovely time. I had a meeting at 5:30, and I had to meet my daughter at 5 to give her a notebook she'd left home, but I figured I had just enough time to get from place to place. I had left my phone at home, but I knew where I needed to be and when I needed to be there, so everything would be fine.
Well, here's where the hard part begins. I drove to the theater to meet my daughter, but she wasn't there. I waited, and she still didn't show up. Finally it was 5:25, so I left and was only 10 minutes or so late to my meeting. Thank heavens, the interpreters hadn't left, because without my phone I couldn't let them know I was on my way.
The meeting was good, but chaotic and a bit overwhelming. The conference we're planning is next week, so all the last-minute details are coming up. It will all work out; it will all be ok. I noticed when I booted up my computer that I had an extremely large number of unread emails (because, of course, I didn't have my phone or my computer all afternoon). We got through the meeting with, of course, a long list of things for each person to do. (It will all work out; it will be ok). I stopped at the theater on my way home to give my daughter her notebook, and this time she was there (in the middle of a rehearsal, but I tried to be discreet).
At home, I finally started going through my email. Turns out I had left a half-set-up appointment with a student at 5:00 that I didn't know she'd accepted and I'd forgotten about. (Really, it will all work out; it will be ok.) Then a presenter at the conference emailed me to tell me she hadn't gotten the message her paper had been accepted. What!? I hope she can still do it, because hers was one of the talks I was hoping to go to. (It will.)
Hard day, but: my daughter gave me a hug and my student graciously agreed to reschedule.
Monday, April 8, 2013
Critical Discourse Analysis for the Win!
So I spent the weekend watching the LDS General Conference. Every six months the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a conference in which the leaders speak and members and other interested people watch, either from their TVs, at stake centers, or now on the web. I usually watch/sleep through at least most of it, and I usually find that I'm uplifted and strengthened by the talks.
A speaker who is consistently one of my favorites (and not just mine) is Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. When my husband was a student at BYU Elder Holland was the president of the university, and I enjoyed hearing him and his wife speak from time to time. Now he's a member of the church's quorum of the twelve apostles, one of the highest positions in the church. In terms of conference, this means that he now speaks in every conference.
One of the things he does in his talks that I really love is that he gets into a scriptural story or concept and really explores the wording and motivations and context to make it more meaningful and powerful, and he updates some of the language to make it more accessible. I am often amazed and thrilled at the insights I get from listening to him speak, and yesterday was no exception (I hope that link works; right now it loads a template page).
This talk was about faith, and Elder Holland shared the story from Mark 9, beginning at verse 14, where a father asks Jesus if he can do anything to help him and his son, who is possessed by evil spirits. He discusses the anguish and faith of this father (Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. Mark 9:24) and the compassion of Jesus, who cast out the spirit and raised up the son. As always when I listened, I was excited and inspired. And I finally figured out why: Elder Holland does critical discourse analysis on the scriptures!
Critical discourse analysis is a branch of linguistic analysis that I have always had mixed feelings about. It's usually done to uncover bias or discrimination in texts, and it's a valuable and important sort of analysis, but when I do it I always find a dark cloud hanging over me. It's incredibly depressing, because you're always looking for the negative. In general I'm a pretty positive person, so once I realized this I decided to stay away from it. But here is a situation where the technique of examining language, power relations, and society is used to highlight the positive and redeeming nature of Christ's loving response to a man who was willing to trust, to exercise his faith. Wow! Now that I can get excited about!
A speaker who is consistently one of my favorites (and not just mine) is Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. When my husband was a student at BYU Elder Holland was the president of the university, and I enjoyed hearing him and his wife speak from time to time. Now he's a member of the church's quorum of the twelve apostles, one of the highest positions in the church. In terms of conference, this means that he now speaks in every conference.
One of the things he does in his talks that I really love is that he gets into a scriptural story or concept and really explores the wording and motivations and context to make it more meaningful and powerful, and he updates some of the language to make it more accessible. I am often amazed and thrilled at the insights I get from listening to him speak, and yesterday was no exception (I hope that link works; right now it loads a template page).
This talk was about faith, and Elder Holland shared the story from Mark 9, beginning at verse 14, where a father asks Jesus if he can do anything to help him and his son, who is possessed by evil spirits. He discusses the anguish and faith of this father (Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. Mark 9:24) and the compassion of Jesus, who cast out the spirit and raised up the son. As always when I listened, I was excited and inspired. And I finally figured out why: Elder Holland does critical discourse analysis on the scriptures!
Critical discourse analysis is a branch of linguistic analysis that I have always had mixed feelings about. It's usually done to uncover bias or discrimination in texts, and it's a valuable and important sort of analysis, but when I do it I always find a dark cloud hanging over me. It's incredibly depressing, because you're always looking for the negative. In general I'm a pretty positive person, so once I realized this I decided to stay away from it. But here is a situation where the technique of examining language, power relations, and society is used to highlight the positive and redeeming nature of Christ's loving response to a man who was willing to trust, to exercise his faith. Wow! Now that I can get excited about!
Friday, April 5, 2013
Reflection
This afternoon I attended a discussion on using reflection in my composition classes. I realized a couple of things over the course of this discussion. One, I haven't been using reflection enough in my classroom. And two, I haven't been using reflection enough in my life.
Though we were talking about how to create assignments and activities that will help our students reflect effectively on their writing, I was struck by the necessity of reflection in general in our lives. Reflection is how we make sense of the world, the way we make the connections that give us inspiration.
I remembered one semester in particular when I was taking what felt like too many classes. I was rushing from assignment to assignment, writing responses and essays that I hadn't had any time to think through, just to get the assignments in on time. And I was miserable, because nothing made sense or seemed to fit together.
So I try now to be sure that when I write a response to a reading that I've actually thought, at least for a few minutes, about what it means, how it relates to other things I've read, and how I might be able to use this perspective/experience in my own work. The more I'm able to do this, the more satisfied I am with my work and the better my work is.
I've come across a few blogs and websites this evening that talk about reflection, mostly in an educational setting, though this morning LinkedIn also sent me a post about scheduling downtime--for what the author calls it 'strategic thinking'--into the work day.
Then there are all the spiritual practices that have arisen throughout history: prayer, meditation, scripture study, mindfulness. These are all ways to focus and reflect.
As we go about our lives we experience many things, but until we take time to reflect on them, the connections don't become apparent. But those connections are where new ideas (or new implementations of old ideas) come from, and for me that is where the excitement is!
Though we were talking about how to create assignments and activities that will help our students reflect effectively on their writing, I was struck by the necessity of reflection in general in our lives. Reflection is how we make sense of the world, the way we make the connections that give us inspiration.
I remembered one semester in particular when I was taking what felt like too many classes. I was rushing from assignment to assignment, writing responses and essays that I hadn't had any time to think through, just to get the assignments in on time. And I was miserable, because nothing made sense or seemed to fit together.
So I try now to be sure that when I write a response to a reading that I've actually thought, at least for a few minutes, about what it means, how it relates to other things I've read, and how I might be able to use this perspective/experience in my own work. The more I'm able to do this, the more satisfied I am with my work and the better my work is.
I've come across a few blogs and websites this evening that talk about reflection, mostly in an educational setting, though this morning LinkedIn also sent me a post about scheduling downtime--for what the author calls it 'strategic thinking'--into the work day.
Then there are all the spiritual practices that have arisen throughout history: prayer, meditation, scripture study, mindfulness. These are all ways to focus and reflect.
As we go about our lives we experience many things, but until we take time to reflect on them, the connections don't become apparent. But those connections are where new ideas (or new implementations of old ideas) come from, and for me that is where the excitement is!
Thursday, April 4, 2013
So grateful
Thursdays are long. I teach at 8:00 am. I have a class that goes until 6:30 pm. By the time I get home all I want to do is crash, and that's often (like today) what I do. But I have an awesome husband who makes sure dinner is ready and the dishes get done. He does the laundry every day, and he handles calls to insurance companies (why are there so many calls that have to be made to insurance companies?).
When I got home today I smelled the most wonderful thing--bread! The smell of bread is the smell of heaven, I'm convinced. And he makes bread, homemade bread, every week or so, so we always have homemade, whole wheat bread.
I'm a lucky girl.
When I got home today I smelled the most wonderful thing--bread! The smell of bread is the smell of heaven, I'm convinced. And he makes bread, homemade bread, every week or so, so we always have homemade, whole wheat bread.
I'm a lucky girl.
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
No Pain Day
Today I didn't have any pain in my leg. I felt some discomfort, some stiffness, and a little awkwardness (but less of each than yesterday) but nothing I would call pain. Hooray! It's been five weeks since the accident, and my healing has followed the most linear progression of anything I've ever done. With the significant exception of the one day three weeks ago when I squatted and undid all my progress, every day has been better than the day before. Amazing! Today I used the stairs to go both up and down, no elevator at all. I walked at something like a normal pace and with something like a normal gait. I really couldn't be happier. And I actually felt happy today, not just tired. There is much still to do, but I feel like I'm in a good place, physically.
I turned the heel on a sock for Benjamin. This is also good news. I was about two inches from finishing the pair when I finally saw him and had him try on the finished sock. Too tight. Grr! so I'm now on the foot portion (finished the gusset too) of the first sock again, and I'm ready to push forward and get them done. The only thing slowing me down is the ribbing. I decided to make his socks ribbed, so the foot is half ribbed and half not. I make mistakes at both transition points. But then I fix them. These socks are from a pretty sock yarn that's mostly green with dark blue and magenta in it. I really like it and it gets lots of comments. I hope he likes to wear them when they're done!
I turned the heel on a sock for Benjamin. This is also good news. I was about two inches from finishing the pair when I finally saw him and had him try on the finished sock. Too tight. Grr! so I'm now on the foot portion (finished the gusset too) of the first sock again, and I'm ready to push forward and get them done. The only thing slowing me down is the ribbing. I decided to make his socks ribbed, so the foot is half ribbed and half not. I make mistakes at both transition points. But then I fix them. These socks are from a pretty sock yarn that's mostly green with dark blue and magenta in it. I really like it and it gets lots of comments. I hope he likes to wear them when they're done!
Monday, September 3, 2012
Sweater progress
I finished the ribbing for Joe's sweater! This is maybe the fifth time I've reached this point or beyond, but I'm determined it will be the last. I'm finally knitting on the right size needles, and with un-kinked yarn. I need to finish this sweater so I can move on to another project.
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