Today a fourth year at my university was murdered by a fellow student. The e-mails from the counseling center are rolling in, telling me that so many of my students will not be taking their exam because they were close with either the victim or the murderer. One of my students was the one who [...]
I think I deserve a teaching award for today. Most Determined TA, or perhaps Most Inadvertently Entertaining TA. Today, I have no voice. Between my recent bout of influenza (yes, right on the heels of my spring break illness) and my choir rehearsal last night, my throat has apparently had it with my abusive ways. [...]
I just had the best conversation ever with a former student. This girl is an international student form China who was in my Music 101 class last semester. We had several opportunities for students to share their musical talents over the course of the semester and she jumped on every chance, eager to share Chinese [...]
So, as the end of the fall 2008 semester tried its best to grind my face into the ground, I tried my best to keep blogging. I obviously failed, as the low post count for December will show, but that isn’t to say I didn’t churn out some material. In fact, I have several text documents full [...]
New semester, new posting season for Ph.Dead. No, I did not actually die at the end of last semester. It was a particularly unrestful winter break, however, due to excessive traveling and excessive our-apartment-is-falling-apart-but-they-won’t-let-us-move raging. Now, the fateful day has arrived: the first day of classes. Time to brace myself and charge headfirst into chaos. [...]
It is the end of the semester, and I am losing my mind. That is all.
((This is a continuation of Monday’s post, “No Cowboy Boots at the Symphony”.)) Grading concert reports, part trois. Some of these are so damned funny, it is my obligation as a human being to share them. – “I was looking extremely dapper with a sexy collared shirt and some nice trousers, while my roommate was looking [...]
((Brief note: the entry from 11/13 about teaching evaluations is finally done. Check it out!)) As usual, I’m spending another night grading a seemingly endless stack of Music 101 papers. The assignment this time was to attend the symphony orchestra concert and write a 2-3 page concert report. I’ve found reading these papers to be [...]
So, I asked for midterm teaching evaluations from my students today. Since this is my first time teaching a class, I gave them a pretty long evaluation to fill out: What do you like/disklike most about this class, what do you want more/less of, do you feel comfortable participating in discussions, do you do the [...]
Short post today for two reasons: 1) I have an assload of prep to do for class tomorrow 2) The Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack for World of Warcraft releases at midnight tonight. Hopefully I’m making up for length with content. I’d like to share with you some excerpts from papers my students [...]
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