I'm workin' on it . . .

It's not that I don't have the time - well, yes, it is. This semester's kicking my booty again. I'm ready for it to be over and I'm not even at the halfway mark. It's not supposed to be easy, right? I'm taking three classes this semester - one of them lasts the entire 16 weeks and the other two are broken up into 8 week classes (one starts when the other ends). I'm also doing an internship (45 hours over the course of 10 weeks) and I'm still trying to volunteer in Annie's class. Yes, I'm probably doing too much, but this is what people do when they are in school, right?

Since my life revolves around school right now, I'm going to tell you about my classes.

My research class is very research-y. I suspected as much. I'm actually liking the professor and the course work. As much as I hated doing research projects when I was a kid, now I kindof like the predictability of the writing and the organization that goes into something like this. The whole class is organized around a research project (which I am dutifully putting off while I write this post) that is based on something we could actually use in a classroom. I chose mine to be about computer-aided literacy learning in the classroom. Nerdy - but interesting.

My other class, an English Language Learning class, is another interesting subject. There has been a lot of talk about immigrants learning English and the pros and cons and politics of it all and I've been able to debate with vigor. It's fun to form and develop opinions about topics like this. So when I say that I'm hating this class, it's not the subject that I hate, it's the professor. We're in week four of class - still haven't had anything graded (so I don't know if I'm doing anything right). Last week - the syllabus was wrong and I ended up reading three chapters that I didn't need to read and now I need to read three more chapters out of another book. I e-mailed her to let her know that her syllabus was wrong and that I was livid that I had to spend another three hours reading the corrected chapters. She blew it off and said I could answer the questions from the reading I already did (even though the subjects are not even similar!!) and then she wrote everyone an e-mail about how her dad has stage 4 lung cancer and that he has been in the hospital so her mind hasn't been on the class. Now I feel like a heel for asking her to grade my papers and to get her syllabus correct and I don't feel comfortable e-mailing her again. What drama. I'm glad I'm only taking one 8 week class with her.

My internship officially starts this week and I am working with Annie's old kindergarten teacher. She and I work well together and I've already volunteered a ton in her class so I know the kids. It's pretty exciting to know that I will be planning and preparing for lessons. I'm hopeful and happy about that situation.

We've decided to put piano lessons on a hiatus (since little miss stubborn would just sit down during the lessons anyways). She's going to learn piano, we're just going to wait until she's 8 or 9. I found a dance class that was the same price as her piano lessons. It's close to the house and a full hour a week. She will be learning ballet and tap and she's very excited. I think it will be a good social experience as well as a fun time to get her wiggles out.

So that's what we're doing. Not anything earth-shaking, but enough that I feel like I deserve an afternoon nap. I think that's a good gauge to determine if I'm not doing enough.