Sigh. Time marches on. As I write this, people at Champlain are hard at work on the first week of classes. I miss the campus, I miss my colleagues, I miss my students, I miss my office. I actually dreamed that I crashed a Champlain English department meeting, and Katie wouldn’t talk to me because I had left.
Classes start at Vanier next week, so I’m up to my eyeballs in calendars of various shapes and colour codes, preparing assignment schedules, reading lists and lesson plans. I dropped off my course outlines today, and checked the bookstore – two of my three book orders are filled, and the third is “on the truck.” Some things never change.
My third Performa course has already begun. This one is called Instructional Strategies, and involves being video-taped twice, once presenting a course plan to my fellow students and once actually teaching. And I can’t even teach naked and try to sell the video. I’ve already been subjected to the first round, and now I have to write a self-assessment, presumably one that makes more useful observations than “I’m now rethinking my haircut” or “well, never wearing that t-shirt again.”
I really do miss Champlain – but I have to admit, it’s nice being at home for the back-to-school gearing up with Colin and Robert. Robert starts kindergarten next week! All the requisite supplies are ready – not only bought, but labelled, down to the individual crayon – and we’re all excited.
But, still… I have no one to throw that really annoying bumpy superball at, Zeffie! Champlainers, if you’re out there, I miss you all and will be thinking of you often as I get to know my new home.