I got my first check from my teaching job a week or two ago and was surprised at how little I'm making. Because of all the time I'm putting into writing quizzes, assignments, informational handouts, and worksheets, I'm making less per hour teaching than I'm making as a part-time church secretary. Matt pointed out that the first semester of teaching is always time consuming. I'll have my materials already written for next semester and should make the same money for less work. Sounds good to me! :) I'm already committed to teach the same class again next semester. There will be some things I'll change, but a lot of what I've put together is really good, and I'll use it again.
At least I think it's good, and other teachers who have heard about it think it's good. Somehow the department chair got one of my worksheets and liked it enough to have it copied it for his classes. However, I totally agree with Matt's answer when people ask him how the teaching is going: "The teaching's great, but I'm not sure about the learning." Actually, I know a bit about the learning. A month into the semester, my students still have trouble finding subjects and verbs in sentences. I'm taking one more stab--my third--at teaching it on Thursday. They have to be able to find subject and verbs to know if they have complete sentences and to be able to make subjects and verbs agree. There were many fragments and run-ons in their first paper, and they're struggling with subject-verb agreement. At first, I thought that they were just struggling with or ignoring the rules for making subjects and verbs agree. I've wondered if they're just picking what sounds right instead of trying to apply rules. From the way they talk, I know that they absolutely should not just go with what sounds right to them. But I'm not sure that they're not trying to make verbs agree with words that aren't the subject because they can't find it.
I'm pretty excited about the project we're working on in class. I'm assigning a paragraph at a time of what will be a review of a children's picture book by the end of the semester. On Thursday, they're turning in a plot summary, essentially a one-paragraph book report. They'll eventually write paragraphs about what they like/dislike about the books they've chosen, whether they think children would like the book, whether adults will like it enough to buy it for children, and probably a "close reading" basic literary analysis. I don't know if they'll get into the analysis, but I'm really looking forward to it. The book I'm writing about is The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig. It's a kind of hippie retelling of the three little pigs where the bad guy turns good when he sniffs a house made of flowers.
Other than teaching and working at the church in the mornings, I've mostly taken it easy. I've been really tired since my cold a few weeks ago and have taken many naps. The house gets messier and messier, but I haven't had the energy to do anything about it or actually feel guilty about it. When I have no energy for guilt, you know I've been worn out. :) I cleaned out the fridge on Sunday, so I think I'm gaining strength. Matt is doing well, enjoying teaching his fantasy literature class and reveling in the new football season. We're considering a daytrip to Louisville this Saturday. There are many used bookstores that we haven't visited since February. And we really need some ethnic food, definitely some Ethiopian and maybe a Filipino lunch buffet. Sounds like a good time to me.
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