Weird January

January is a very strange month. Upon returning from the holidays, we had one week before midterms, which take a week. Now, we're done with midterms (tomorrow is makeup day), and heading into a 4-day weekend (MLK Day + Inauguration Day). Students are only at school until 12:45 on Midterm days, so, really, it's a relaxing time, full of lots of grading with my radio cranked up in my classroom.

The students will return for a 3-day week next week (Wed-Thurs-Fri), and then the next week is also a 3-day week, as Thursday and Friday (Jan. 29 and 30) are Professional Development days. That amounts to just 11 days of instruction for the month of January.

So, if you're wondering why the blog is a bit light right now, that's why. I'm also still getting rid of this cold, and getting back into the gym. The gym is where I do my best thinking, which leads to the blogging.

Current issues:

1) I was part of perhaps the best prank of the year so far in the English department today. It involved an e-mail account left open on accident, and a faked Japanese Teacher Exchange application letter sent to a colleague for proofreading. I laughed harder than I have in a long, long time.

2) Today, I finished 95% of my 2nd quarter grading and am about to jump into the midterms, which I should be able to finish, or nearly finish, tomorrow. I want a clear grading slate for the weekend, because I really want to sit down and write a King Lear unit. I want to write it up like the Shakespeare Set Free guides, and really try to create something really useful. We'll see... my post-holiday money funk is preventing me from my initial plans of doing something cool (and out of town) for my 4-day weekend, so hopefully I'll be able to sit down and craft something I can just sort of go with starting on Wednesday (or Monday... I'm not really sure when I'm starting this unit).

3) I'm about 100 pages into The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. One of my New Years Resolutions is to read more, for myself. I'm doing it so far.