Winter Vacation

Finally!  The semester is over!  I turned in my final grades and I am officially free.  I can’t wait until next weekend where my partner and I are heading to New York for vacation.  I’m not flying to California to visit my folks this year.  And considering the major blizzards and airport shutdowns, I am glad I didn’t.

I just want to read books, write my chapter, and play video games.  And I made some progress on my chapter researching the Virginia v. Black (2003) case.   Funny how I can make some headway when I don’t have a major obligation like teaching.

In general, I love my students and they’ve been great.  Though they need to stop using Google and Wikipedia as their sources.  They need to go to the library and read a book.  I wonder if any of them had ever picked up a book.  I’ve always enjoyed the tactile nature of being in a library and thumbing through a book’s pages.  The internet as a virtual library is wonderful, but it’s not the same experience.  They also need to be patient and allow the research to develop and evolve.  A question does not have to have an immediate answer, but that it takes time to develop.  It must be all that mocha frappucinoes they’ve been drinking.

At the same time, I need to rework my syllabus.  I think I have to incorporate more writing assignments, quizzes, and the like.  It was too easy a semester, but now that I have a better grasp of this course, I can shape it the way I want it.  I also realize that my theme for the course could have been better organized.  In some parts, it was just too random, without a certain coherence for students to follow, let alone an understanding of the stakes of democracy.  I also really ought to challenge students more and don’t let them off the hook so easily.  They didn’t get away with murder, but I certainly didn’t do enough to push them or have them be accountable.

Anyways, I’m off to see the matinee showing of Happy Feet.  Hooray!

~ by Disoriented on December 22, 2006.