Maybe I DON’T Want to Teach in Public Schools…

So, I’m driving with my family to one of our bigger country fairs, and on the way, we’re listening to Whad’Ya Know on National Public Radio. I’m a pretty big fan of Michael Feldman; I really appreciate his sort of deadpan humor. Anyway, the weekly show begins with Mr. Feldman doing a quick-and-dirty [...]

“She’s a super-geek! Super-geek! She’s super-geeky, YEOW!!”

Rick James got nothin’ on me!
I went into my local Barnes & Nobel to buy a gift certificate for Organic Mama’s younger daughter’s birthday present. It’s important that you understand that my ONLY intention was to walk out with the gift certificate.
I should know better by now.
Fifty-some-odd dollars later, I walk out with three [...]

Getting Ready

I’ve been thinking about my Foundations of English class today. I haven’t actually met with the students yet – our first class was supposed to be last Monday, but was taken up with the placement exam that most of the students should have already taken at that point. I’ve got five weeks to [...]

The Lessons of Yesterday

I spent today at a workshop given by holocaust survivor Irving Roth which focused on the use of memoir. It was well worth the cost of the seminar and the two hours it took to get to the university where he was presenting.
Roth started his presentation by calling up the words of John Dewey, [...]

Let’s Begin With a Challenge, Shall We?

I arrived for my first class, complete with appropriate teacher-clothes, my computer, a syllabus, the textbook and a lesson plan covering sentence structure and nouns. Oh, and a box of Dunkin Donuts Munchkins because I want the kids to like me right off.
I arrived quite a bit early, mostly because I had some [...]

A Shameless Plug

The Divine Ms. P – also known as Organic Mama – has a new blog up. She and I went to grad school together and, as luck (and my bossiness) would have it, are teaching different sections of the Foundations of English class over at Tiny Community College. I’m very excited that she’s [...]

The Keys to the Kingdom

I start my Foundational English class at Tiny Community College on Monday. I can hardly wait.
The class is essentially remedial. I’ve got six class meetings to go over the nature of sentences (I’ve got this one going on ALL THE TIME at my house – I’ve been drilling my daughters about it [...]

The New Kid Gets the Short Stick…

Joe called me this morning. “I have good news and bad news,” he told me. (“oh, GOD,” I thought, “here it comes…”)
The bad news, he said, is that there was a mistake with the course enrollment numbers and the college has combined a couple of sections of Foundational English. The combination means [...]

Oh, By The Way…

So, on Friday I went into Tiny Community College (hereafter known as TCC) to do some administrative stuff. Joe had sent me home after our interview on Monday with a packet of papers from the human resources department – a TON of papers, actually, that took me nearly an hour to fill out – [...]

Wow. You Guys are GOOD!

Also titled: “In Which a Miracle Occurs.”
Thank you, thank you for your good wishes today – they really paid off!! You are now reading the blog of an adjunct professor of English at Tiny Community College!
It was, perhaps, the strangest interview I’ve ever had – not that I’ve had that many, really, but still. [...]