Another Day Down...

The week has been pretty long so far. I just finished my first lesson plan - as homework due tomorrow. I came up with a pretty cool project (I think so, anyway). Towards the end of my government class, I will introduce the Westminster system (Parliamentary system) of democracy. I am going to lecture about the topic and have them fill in a blank graphic organizer that sorts out all the offices and positions, etc. At the end, I will split them into groups of four. Each group is going to take a baggie that has the filled-in pieces of the graphic organizer that they just made themselves, except the completed one I give them is going to have each piece cut out. They are going to put each piece into a blank graphic organizer of the Presidential system (the one we have). So, for example, the Queen (Head of State) and the Prime Minister (Chief Executive) would both be placed in the President's place since he fulfills both roles in our system.

Not sure if that makes much sense, or if it works, but I guess we'll see. I got my classroom rules back. They were not quite as well-done as the procedures, apparently. I am a bit frustrated with the feedback I've gotten so far - it is pretty clear that no procedure is perfect and no set of 3-5 rules is going to capture everything. I guess I just don't like that the comments coming back act like there is a way to be all-encompassing and perfectly efficient. I know it's just their trying to be sure I've thought of every angle and considered every possible consequence of my rules and procedures, but my gut reaction is that I have a long way to go to perfect them even though I know perfect is not practically possible. I'm going to have quite a job ahead of me this weekend to revamp all those assignments and streamline them a bit nonetheless. We also have a project for my technology in the classroom class that I want to get finished up this weekend, and a paper to write for another class.

This weekend is Reunion Weekend at ND (all the multiple of 5 classes are here - those whose 5th, 10th, 15th, etc reunions are this year), and each class make a contribution to a program or department on campus at the 50-year mark. The class of '59 chose to donate to ACE, so we had a lunch with them today. After our afternoon class, we met up for mass with them. It was a very powerful mass - between those of us who were spending our first week in training and those of us who were returning to ND after graduating 50 years ago, there was a lot of energy in the room. Then, after my night class tonight, a fellow Fisher RA and I went over to our old dorm and had mass with Father Rob and Father Warner. It was very satisfying to have such a small, intimate group of people gather at the end of the day.

Another revelation: the discussion I had at home last week about ground turkey meat instead of hamburger in dishes seems providential. One of my housemates does not eat any kind of red meat, so it looks like we're heading to turkeytown for the next two years!!!! (I figured it would easier to make that considerable concession than to try to re-learn a whole new set of dishes...everything I can cook - which isn't too much - involves ground beef or steak!)

The ACE 15 teachers (the ones entering their second summer of classes this summer) are beginning to move in. They start class Monday. It's going to be weird to have twice as many ACErs around - we're just starting to get comfortable with our group of 90.

Classroom Countdown: 74 days until my first day of school