1. I am teaching a class in the fall that I have not taught in 3 years, and I was working on the online parts of the class yesterday (it is a hybrid class, so the students get a lot of content online and then we meet once a week for fun stuff). ANYWAY. I spent ALL DAY working on the content, updating some videos, making sure the whole thing meets federal accessibility standards, (kind of a pain with PDFs, honestly) etc etc etc. AND THEN. AT THE EVERY END OF THE DAY, I realized I usually teach the course on a Monday/Wednesday schedule, but this fall? TUESDAY/THURSDAY. OMGGGGGGGGG. My brother said I should just use Copilot to find and replace every Monday and Wednesday in all of my lectures and videos with a robot voice dub saying Tuesday and Thursday over it.
Also! The discussion prompt for the first week is to show a picture of your pet if you have one to introduce yourself (and find a pic of your dream pet if you are currently petless). And this? Was my pet pic 3 years ago **sob**
(this is my new pic)
2. I am
also teaching my favorite large lecture course-- this is my first time ever teaching more than 1 class a semester. (I have the world's best job-- I've had a 1:1 load all these years because most of my job is directing a big course). Part of the new contract with my existing department is an increase in my teaching load, and honestly? I am
happy to be teaching more, especially as Minnie goes to kindergarten and I have more time on my hands. I prepped that one without a hitch, but most of the magic (lol) happens in the live lecture, so there's less to put on Canvas before the semester begins.
3. The fall! When all of the kids will be at school all day! Or at least until 2:30pm. Minnie is slated to go to a school with 7:30-2:30 hours-- a total waste since Cooper and Dorothy go 9-4:30. But still! That's so much tiiiiime. I teach at 9:55 on Mondays and will stay on campus all day, since my staff meeting is on Mondays, and Cooper will probably have diving practice. Tuesdays, I teach at 9:30. And then the rest of my time is pretty flexible since both of my classes are hybrids. In the fall, I need to jump into all of my TA's courses and watch them teach-- as you might imagine, this is incredibly time consuming. It has also been really hard with only preschool childcare hours. So having a full school day EVERY SINGLE DAY? REGARDLESS OF BEN'S WORK SCHEDULE? LIFE CHANGER. Keeping marathon Mondays, though, since they've been a tradition since I was in grad school.
4. Minnie! Is going to kindergarten! I have applied to open enroll in a couple of neighboring districts, and we have applied for an internal transfer within our district, so we are not completely sure where she's going yet. But she's going! To kindergarten! My little shadow--I can't even believe it.
5. I am going to spend this whole month savoring my last ever afternoons with a preschooler underfoot. Cheers to the end of the most delightful era.
As much as I liked having more free rime once my youngest 2 got into kindergarten/all day prek, I really really missed having my little buddies to hang out with and do all the fun stuff before the big kids came home.
ReplyDeleteWhen I reuse stuff from semester to semester, I always miss some editing issue- I usually just let it lay and figure the students will cope. Give bonus points to the first kid who notices!
Enjoy the weekend!
I cannot believe Minnie is heading to K. I know you'll carve out so much great time with her solo, and it will be wonderful to have a more open schedule. Plus, between sick days and weather and PD, I feel like my kids are home at LEAST one day every week of the year.
ReplyDeleteIt's wonderful how enthusiastic you are about your job, Sarah. YAY!!!!!
It's a new era! Kindergarten is such a lovely year.
ReplyDeleteKindergarten!!!! Your last bullet is so sweet. It's so clear that you get so much JOY from being a mom.
ReplyDeleteMinnie! Kindergarten! I'm feeling very nostalgic for you (and- I guess for myself. It's hard to see your last one go.) Is there an after care option for her? What do you do on Mondays?
ReplyDeleteI'm laughing at the thought of the robot voice dub.
Yay! Kindergarten! Will is going to PK at Paul's school so we will have one drop off for the next 4 years which will be amazing for us! His PK includes the before/after care program that Paul goes to so it will all be seamless (thank goodness Paul got into it despite me registering 45 min after it opened up...).
ReplyDeleteOh, Minnie the Kindergartner! So fun. I thought of you today, with your oldest in college, youngest going to K in the fall, because I had my hair done and my hairdresser is pregnant, and her oldest is graduating from HS soon. As the mom of an only child, it’s wild to me to have such a spread, but it sure makes sense. (This is baby 6 for her, so it’s not like raising 2 only children, like it would be for me if I had a baby when my daughter graduated from HS)
ReplyDeleteI can't believe Minnie is going to be in kindergarten. This is going to be a whole new era for you! I hope you enjoy it, even though I know you'll miss having your little sidekick around. <3
ReplyDeleteOMG- your schedule makes my head spin. But it sounds like you have it figured out (aside from the need to do a voiceover on your videos). Cheers to enjoying the last few months with a prek kid and hooray for having more time in the fall. (Also so sad to look back and see your pet pic. But your new pic is hilarious)
ReplyDeleteTime for another baby? kidding, kidding! Sort of. Yayyyy, I love that you love teaching, your students are so lucky.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter goes to UW-Madison snd it’s so great to hear your enthusiasm about teaching! I’d love it if she ends up in one of your classes! And yes, preschool is such a special time! (But Kindergarten is great too!)
ReplyDelete