\nThe end of the semester cannot come too soon
\nLast night I dreamt about essays.
\nYou know those dreams, as a student, in which you arrive in class to discover there’s a huge test on something you’re completely unfamiliar with? Well, teachers get ’em too.
\nI told one of my colleagues about the essay dream. Her recurring nightmare – she’s in a classroom, and the students are talking, throwing things, and generally being rowdy. At the top her lungs, she’s shouting for order; but her voice comes out in a tiny, inaudible whisper.
\nShudder.
\nMonday, November 24, 2003<\/b><\/u>
\nBetter blogged than never<\/b>
\nYou know it’s a real phenomenon when it gets spoofed in The Onion.
\nHaving said that, I was about to apologize for the recent inactivity when I realized that I’m not alone. Many of my fellow bloggers are behind the times, and mine is not the most out of date. So pppthtth.
\nMy excuse is the same old tired one about being up to my eyeballs in correcting and planning. There are exactly 12 school days left before the end of the semester – and for my 101 class, that means only 5 classes. There is no way I’ll have time to teach them everything they need to know! In retrospect, I guess I should have started discussing poetry earlier in the semester, but in my defense, it sucks. Ah well, live and learn (or not, in the case of my students).
\nNot all poetry sucks, of course. I do like limericks. And the best part of being the teacher is I get to choose what we’re reading, so I can skip the namby-pamby Wordsworthian fluff and get right into the meatier Blake and Auden.
\nStop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
\nPrevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
\nSilence the pianos and with muffled drum
\nBring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
\nLet aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
\nScribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
\nPut crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
\nLet the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
\nHe was my North, my South, my East and West,
\nMy working week and my Sunday rest,
\nMy noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
\nI thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.
\nThe stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
\nPack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
\nPour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
\nFor nothing now can ever come to any good.<\/i>
\nSaturday, November 15, 2003<\/b><\/u>
\nWhat government funded research is doing these days:
\nProving that Kansas is flatter than a pancake.
\n
![\"kansas-1a_1b.gif\"](\"http:\/\/www.golding.ca\/maggie\/images\/kansas-1a_1b.gif\")
\nThe philosophical implications alone are staggering.
\nThursday, November 13, 2003<\/b><\/u>
\nThere’s something in the hair<\/b>
\nFirst I was a brunette. Then a blonde. Then a brunette again.
\nAnd now for something completely different:
\n
\nMonday, November 10, 2003<\/b><\/u>
\nStill learning something new everyday<\/b>
\nI’m once again up to my eyeballs in corrections. This week, it’s the final exam for my Prep students, including essays, and another essay for my 101 students.
\nPart of the final exam is reading comprehension, based on a short text by Timothy Findley in which a father commits suicide by jumping off a bridge while his son looks on. One of the exam questions is, essentially, why. One student wrote that the “father had good reasons and he wanted to commit suicide. It was not a one day pansy.”
\nI am assuming the student meant ‘a passing fancy.’ Nonetheless, I love it. I vote we adopt it into the language immediately.
\nAnother dream that will never come true…<\/b>
\nThe Concorde’s last flight has come and gone. My dad forwarded some pix from the final flight.
\n
![\"concorde.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/www.golding.ca\/maggie\/images\/concorde.jpg\")
\nTuesday, November 04, 2003<\/b><\/u>
\nFirst the bad news:
\nIt’s friggin snowing.
\nThe good news: I have managed to get through all my corrections.
\nThe bad news: Another in-class essay to correct today, for tomorrow. And another one will be written in-class on Thursday. And an exam, including an essay, will be written Friday.
\nThe good news: It’s official – I will be teaching two courses next semester, both on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I will be able to leave home Tuesday morning, and go home Thursday afternoon. So, good to be working, and good to be home more often.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"