I Can’t Stand It

This afternoon, the Chili family was over at Bowyer’s, goofing around, watching the Red Sox at the Yankees, and just generally lazing about. I brought my computer because, well, I’m not really a huge baseball fan and I thought I might like to do a little surfing from Bowyer’s wireless.
I went up to the [...]

Five

That’s how many students, out of a hybrid class of twenty-three, did the homework for today.
Sigh.

Nothing Yet…

The letter I sent to my holdout students has, thus far, produced not a single response.  Whether this is because the students in question haven’t checked their email or because they just don’t give a shit, I don’t know.  Either way, the end result is the same.
Sigh.
While I seem to be having better luck with [...]

Thursday Thirteen

I’m writing this for today in place of yesterday’s missing Grammar Wednesday. I was very busy all day yesterday and didn’t get a chance to post. To my (two) loyal Grammar Wedensday readers, I’m sorry.
To make it up to you, I’m posting thirteen grammar mistakes it seems all TCC students make. I [...]

Because I’m a Big Softie…

… I’m thinking about sending this to the students in my hybrid class who, thus far, have turned in no work of any kind.  What do you think?  Should I hit “send,” or not?
Dear Students:
What you are reading here is a freak of nature that will NEVER happen again this semester.
I’m writing to you all [...]

I Really Need to Unsubscribe

Last year, when I was looking for a teaching gig in a high school, I signed up for the educational employment site Teachers-Teachers.com. I figured it would be a good way to distribute my resume and to tap into specific job searches that targeted only those positions that I would be interested in considering.
At [...]

Not REALLY Grammar Wednesday…

… but I couldn’t not post this.
I discovered yesterday that, since TCC does all its student surveys online, I can access the results of the surveys given for my classes through the faculty portal. I am pretty excited about this because, as many of you have noticed, I’m all about the feedback.
My face-to-face class [...]

One More Than Half

One more than half – that’s how many kids in my hybrid class did their homework.
I have 21 students in the class, and I received emails from 10 of them.  While this is worlds better than the track record for my last hybrid class, it’s still a little disappointing. My impressions of this class were [...]

Loving It

Mrs. Chili is very happy right now. I’ve got a couple of really good groups of students this term.
While I’ve only seen my Monday/hybrid kids once so far, my distinct impression of them is that they are a good bunch of kids. No one gave me that “uh-oh” feeling (you teachers out there [...]

Grammar Wednesday!

Double negatives and split infinitives!
Now, I am one who is of the opinion that, in most cases in life, living by the buffet approach is perfectly acceptable and correct. Some will call me hypocritical and others will praise my independent thinking, but I tend to pick and choose that which suits me and disregard [...]