Saturday, August 11, 2007

I spent a good while yesterday assembling syllabi. I have about two weeks before the semester starts, and essentially three new classes to design:
  • Far-too-general-upper-level course: Have taught this several times, and always end up teaching it differently (because nothing works, or I get bored). This class shouldn't even be taught at colleges across the country/world - it's too general - but it always is.
  • Lower-level advanced course: This is a course I've taught as a senior seminar, but never as a 200-level. I worry that the students won't get it, as they haven't offered lower-level "basic" course at the college. I've worked some fixes to that into the syllabus - that one's almost done! - but I'm still a bit worried.
  • Lower-level odd course: This is (honestly) the course that every student wants to take. I taught it three years ago at Large Private School and it had a waiting list as long as the enrollment. Haven't taught it since then, and now it's filled immediately at Wee Private College. I've tried to revamp it somewhat, but since I never got a chance to work out the quirks the first time around, I'm not sure how much should change. Have updated some of the readings and left it at that, for now.
Other than that, I've managed to not grade final papers for the summer course yet, and I spent some birthday money (hooray Mum!) at Loft yesterday. Despite what anyone says about Loft, I haven't found anywhere else that makes reasonably-priced basic pants for women with hips. And it doesn't matter if I'm a size 6 or a size 12 -- my hips are always the pants-deal-breaker.

It's also Loft's big sale, so I got a lot of really basic stuff for not very much money. Oh, and it's "savings card" time, which means that they give you cards for the fall collection that amount to 50% off whatever you buy later. I usually load up on end-of-summer stuff (mostly to use for Spring teaching*) and then use the 50% off to buy something really nice before Big Damn Conference.

*Yes, I know that pant styles change between summer and the next spring, but I can't afford to be that stylish. As long as it's a basic cut and it fits, I'm good with it.

1 comment:

Artistic Soul said...

I hear you on hips and pants! I have a ton of pants, but none of them are really comfortable enough for me to be okay in them on a daily basis. I try to wear jeans to class as much as possible. :)