Just Two More Classes to Go (Well, Four) But I'm Collecting Projects on Those Nights Hoping I Can Grade Fast & Get Up & Out to See the Family

I did another online class tonight because I want to limit my chances for getting sick before the holidays; the last thing I want to do is to get my parents sick. Gallagher's last chapter in Write Like This continues to be a superb ending to a course on writing. I love that he bullets out his final thoughts to explain that the Wizard of Oz would be a lousy writing teacher. Why? Because he hides behind a curtain. The best writing teachers come from behind the curtain and share the difficulties of writing with their students. I always love this teaching this particular class, and his last chapter seals the deal for us all. I paired it, with the workshop on scriptwriting, naming why such writing has always been effective with ELs and students with learning dis/abilities.

Of course I have the Scarecrow saying, "Bryan, you don't have a brain, either." 

I'm waking up today in anticipation of numerous items coming to campus and at home - ones that need immediate attention and that I must turn around quickly. This is the editing world. I need hard copies of what it looks like before I hit send for print. 

I'm also on search committees and, of course, we are meeting in the last weeks of a semester to interview candidates. There should be a moratorium for no meeting the last two weeks of a semester, but that is never the way it goes. I suppose I should be thankful that any zest for holiday parties or wishes for department joy disappeared a long time ago, so I don't have to put any of those on the calendar. Not sure who would show up anyway, and truth be told, it's probably for the best. 

There's no place like home. There's no place like home. There's no place like home.

And I'm very much looking forward to being in my home as things wind down (the lights on the tree...the lights in the window), as well as heading to my childhood home for a few days while I have a minuscule break. 

And I'm loving the espresso, European coffee I happen to pick up because my usual coffee was out of stock. I always by my coffee at Ocean State Job Lot because it's usually $10 cheaper, from overseas, and a billion times more flavorful than what we get in grocery stores in the U.S..

Time to sip and get going. Happy Thursday.