Ugly Classroom

This is Week 6 of the spring semester and I gathered with my Tuesday students this morning. The representative from Pearson Publishing came to explain the MyCompLab program to them. It's a valuable tool that they purchased several weeks ago along with their textbook and supplies. The rep spent about a half-hour with us and then made her exit.

Then I had the students divide into six groups to collaborate on a future writing project. A few moments later, each group told the rest of the class what they had discovered as they had discussed the project in their small group. Then they had to discuss the current summary writing project they are working on. It is due next week.

I also explained that it's now time for each of them to send me a photo of himself or herself for the photo roster that I am compiling. I told them that if they do not have a digital photo to email me they could borrow my cellphone to take a photo and then I took my point and shoot cheapie camera from my pocket and suggested they could use it. I told them that I was fully armed for photography with a cellphone in my left pocket and my cheapie camera in my right pocket.

While I had my camera out, I took a couple photos as they went back to discussing the summary project. It's such an ugly classroom in an industrial area; I shouldn't display it, but it is where we meet. I like the room because they sit at 2-person tables rather than individual desks. The tables can be turned to make working in a group easier.

My students are currently working on the "Introduction" to David Boren's A Letter to America. Boren explains that the cause for writing his book came from his experience of interviewing finalists for the Rhodes Scholarship. He asked each of them one question and not one of the candidates could answer the question and it was apparent that not one of them had ever previously considered the question. My students have not considered the question previously either, but they are now.

This is an interesting moment in the school term. One-third of the semester has vanished. Some of the students have aced their first quiz and some have bombed it. Most earned a "competent" score on their first summary project, but several (too many) did not because they neglected to do the project according to the requirements. And now they are reading Boren's hard hitting letter to them -- they are Americans -- but most of them do not know what that means. They do not know their history nor their future, and they thought coming into this class they were just going to grapple with nouns, verbs, writing a main point and supporting it.

On a lighter note, Mr. Fun sent me a text shortly after 2:00 to let me know that he had not gotten home during the noon hour and wondered if I had. The three pups were each in their crates at home waiting for someone to come let them out. This "dog mom" panicked and returned the text that her exit time from the Writing Center was still over an hour. When I arrived home at 3:35. I raced into the house, flung open the sliding door to the patio, opened each crate, and ran with the three pups to the outdoors where we pranced and danced and all the other things they needed to do. Not one of them had pottied in his or her crate. These are A+ pups! Then I brought them indoors and gave them each a snack of cottage cheese and diced pears. They never even for a moment indicated that they were mad about the long day. They are so forgiving. I love them!

Okay, that's Tuesday from our little dot on the map. Hope everyone else is doing well.

Good night from Southern California.
Rosie (& Mr. Fun, and Chloe, Mitzi, and Max), aka Carol