Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Beginning of a New Semester... going slow and finding balance.

Today was the first day with my third years, and yesterday was the first day with my first years. I started it out a la Ben Slavic with "Circling with balls" but I circled with cards. I still spent small amounts of time explaining procedures/rules but it was way less than I had in the past.  I think that my students enjoyed it over all.  I remember that the TPRS community mentions that the first 3 days of class are crucial because students decide whether or not they can "do it" in this time frame.  I hope I capture my students again.  They say they understand between 80-100% which is great.  I just continue to try and go slow, and try and bring in the students' interests. 

On another note, I've been feeling exhausted, so it's been tough to start the semester out with a lot of enthusiasm.  I wish I could do more, but I'll try and get a good nights' sleep tonight.  That has been tough because I've been stressing a lot about the start of my grad class again next Thursday.  It'll all end up fine. I'm going to take Michelle Whaley's advice and be aware of the over-achiever gene kicking in.  I'm definitely still striving to find balance between myself, work, school, and life.  On a positive, Gus says that it gets better with every semester; and that's saying something since I started my masters last semester!

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