Twelve-Step Program

Hi, I'm Ashley, and I have a grading problem. Yes, it's true; when faced with a huge amount of grading, I can't commit. I look for anything and everything to do from cleaning my house, laundry, TV, blogging (for example), etc. If I call you on the phone, I'm probably trying to avoid grading, which I'm doing right now. More on this phobia later. Right now, I have a grammar irk. I can't stand the use of the word "thing". As if "thing" tells a reader exactly what he/she needs to now. I'm sick of my students using it, and I now realize that I have a "thing" problem or maybe it's just a grammar problem. Am I the only one? I admit to using thing in conversation, but when your teacher writes for the upteenth time that thing is too vague...STOP USING THE WORD!! There's my venting for this hour; Now, back to grading.

The Little Q's

Today has been one of those days when I just feel blah. I've got a pile of papers all needing to be graded, sitting there staring me in the face. I know I won't get to them all, and today, class was just mostly blah. I went over grammar (which never gets a good response of course), and I felt that most students just tuned me out, and I hate having that feeling. Most of the time, I assure myself by remembering that was usually the response in most of my college classes, students sitting there in silence, but I don't want my classes to be that way; however, they were today (at least my Comp I's). Then, as I sat down in my office to begin the arduous task of grading, I was reminded why I love teaching, especially college level. Two of my students came in to turn their papers in, and they asked my opinion on renting an apartment. Now I know that doesn't sound like much, but after the response I've had all day, students asking for help was a blessing. I sat there listening to their plans for next year and the places they looked at and the questions they had about rates, utilities, and leases; then, I flashed back to 7 (?!) years ago when I was in the same situation with the same questions and all my college years laying before me. Ahh, memories. It's times like this when students have questions about living on their own for the first time or where to find things on campus or in town that I truly love teaching at State. I love when people actually need my help, and sometimes, especially at the beginning of the semester, you don't get that. Students either don't need it or (more than likely) won't ask. Were we like that? I'm sure. I don't remember many times in college that I actually went to a professor for help, especially during undergrad.

One last point, how about those Dawgs? I was so happy this weekend to hear about my Dawgs beating Auburn! Fingers crossed for this Saturday! Go STATE!!

Go Green Wave!!

No, it's not what you think from the title. I am not cheering against my Bulldogs this Saturday (GO STATE!). For those who don't know much about my husband, he is in teaching and coaching, but for the past year, he has been working in business. Now, he has gotten back into his true love, which is at the school. He is a World History teacher/ Economics (a subject I never learned much about thanks to Mr. Zeagler) and the assistant baseball coach of the West Point Green Wave (hence, my go Greenies). As an assistant coach, the school usually makes you coach something else because they need free labor, so Alan has also been the assistant slow pitch softball coach. It has been an awakening experience for him since he's never coached girls before, and it has been a blast from the past for me. I didn't realize how I missed softball or what a great team we had at WL (4 State Championships from 1993-1997)!! However, the Lady Green Waves do not resemble the Lady Knights, nor does the head softball coach. They have struggled big time, 10 run ruled or 15 run-ruled. Then, the heart breaking lose by a point or two, but last night the Lady Green Wave had their first victory!! They played like a team who knows softball (which is a huge improvement), and they didn't give up when the other team was ahead for an inning or two. So, the Lady Green Wave improves to a 1-7 record so far! It makes the games a lot more fun when you win or at least improve!

The Joys of Back to School and MSU Football

For the few and faithful who do read my posts, I apologize for the long delay in putting up some new material. School started back for me two weeks ago, and as usual, I kinda disappear trying to get everything in order, but now I'm back and you only have to worry about me disappearing when I have to grade papers, which is like every other day pretty soon. The new school year started off rather well. I've got 4 classes this semester, but instead of teaching just 2 subjects (2 Comp I and 2 Comp II), I've got 3 subjects (2 Comp I, a Remedial, and a Comp II), which is fine because the Remedial English only has 15 students in it. So far, my classes seem to behave fairly well (you wouldn't think that would be an issue in college but these are freshmen). My Comp II class seems very sedate, which means I'm just waiting for them to come out of their shell. Then, last Thursday, in case you missed it, we had our first football game of the year against the LSU Tigers. I love football game days in Starkville. Everyone's festive (read happy and tipsy), cheering, there's hope in the air (especially since this was our first game) that maybe this would be our season, maybe we could pull off the upset. Alas, in case you missed it, we did not, but it was still a football day in Starkville. And yes, I was that teacher who had class the Friday after the ballgame. :) I was missing my share of students, but I will give them kudos that the majority of them showed up on Friday, so I'm lookin forward to a good year! We'll talk about the football season later :)