So I haven't written a blog in a while and honestly, I don't expect to have much time to keep it up.
I have always been the type of person to give myself too much to do. I do like to keep busy, but this is kind of ridiculous.
A great deal of this business was NOT self appointed.
I am teaching 24 contact hours.
That means I am actually in the classroom for 24 hours a week. This does not include the lesson plans, the creation of materials, or any of the grading. Nah, that has to be squeezed into whatever time I have left after all my other work duties.
This semester I am team leader in charge of three semester worth of teachers and classes. Three semesters... My own teaching semester which is a higher level computer course, as well as a lower level computer course which has been changed curricularly to be moved from a two semester course to a one semester course (and I had to plan that too) as well as the continuing second semester from the previous year. Lovely.
I have been made Teacher in charge of Assessment quality control, which means I have to assume responsibility for each assessment in each semester, the creation (although I am doing a LOT of delegation on this part), and the analysis of whether it is reliable or not. FUN... well actually it would be for me if I wasn't so darn busy.
I have also been made an Assistant Professional Development instructor. Now those of you who have been following me from China know that I LOVE PD. I could exist solely as a PD instructor and would never bat an eye. I love teaching teachers. They are just about the best students to have. Especially when you are treating the students like professionals, and they act the part. I really do love it. Most of this consists of me assisting the instructor in helping the technologically illiterate or inexperienced to try new things and develop some level of skill in embracing the tech used at this school. However, I was also asked to lead on several topics including but not limited to "how to use Chat as an English tool" and "Fun with the Assessment Manager". :) Yeah ok, I can see a theme here too.
I am also in the local writing group which recently finished a writing assignment that lead to a murder mystery adventure that was absolutely amazing. We wrote up our own characters, our own motives, our own alibis and it worked. It really worked like fine spokes on a gear, just churned out this incredible story that was as much fun to read as it was to discuss. I need this for my writing. Because as much as I like to moan that I don't have time to write, I am good. I am still developing, but I am good enough to pull in readers who have never read my work and make them want more. I am keeping all of my writing from the group to help me in later development, but if it keeps going the way it has been I may very well finish that novel that I have been working on for so long. (I am up to chapter 22, so it may well end up too big... but I am liking it so who cares).
I am also doing my first Pantomime (British interactive theatre performance).
I am still waiting for the cast list to go up, but the are looking at me for the part of the lead male interest.
yeah, you read that right.
the male lead. :)
Well, technically the male lead is ALWAYS a female in British Panto, but I still think it is cool.
The Panto is a choice on my part. I decided I needed something beyond the work life. Something where I could socialize beyond my lovely family, where I could meet and make new friends and have a boatload of fun.
I know my reading was good (3rd hand accounts have come back to me about my performance... which was in front of a room of maybe 25 people) and I know that my voice and my accent is the clearest of anyone in the group. That includes my lovely husband, even though he already nailed his part. But of course he nailed the part. He gets to play the dame.
Some of my dear friends already know what a dame is and they will immediately know why Will nailed the part. But for those who don't know... and I know that is a few of you, think Dame Edna.
A Dame is a man in drag. Not just any drag. Big, boisterous, and with obvious sexual innuendo.
Anyone who has ever met or knows my husband will be able to picture this with some ease. He plays the dame beautifully. Seriously funny stuff. He has the same gift for timing that I do (yes, I am conceited). Now, the makeup and dresses may not be his thing, but the comedy certainly is (ala Grushnik).
The Panto is a family thing too, so the kids have parts as well. Wish I could invite all of you to come and see it. Actually, I am. You are all invited to come see Dick Whittington and his many cats in Ras Al Khaimah UAE. Let me know if you plan to fly in to see us all perform, I will arrange a couch for you to sleep on (really, I will) and see to it that you get free tickets to the show! Wanna come?
To top it all off, I was chosen as a member of a team of English teachers (yeah, I know... I teach computers. But I am still an English teacher) to take a certain professional development course online from Harvard. Not a particularly challenging course yet, but I expect it to get much harder as we go on. So when this semester is all over I get to add Harvard to my resume. Yeah for me.
I think that this year is the busiest I have ever had, and it has only just begun.
All my love to my freinds and family.
I hope your year is far less busy but just as rich.
Yours Truly,
Me
I have always been the type of person to give myself too much to do. I do like to keep busy, but this is kind of ridiculous.
A great deal of this business was NOT self appointed.
I am teaching 24 contact hours.
That means I am actually in the classroom for 24 hours a week. This does not include the lesson plans, the creation of materials, or any of the grading. Nah, that has to be squeezed into whatever time I have left after all my other work duties.
This semester I am team leader in charge of three semester worth of teachers and classes. Three semesters... My own teaching semester which is a higher level computer course, as well as a lower level computer course which has been changed curricularly to be moved from a two semester course to a one semester course (and I had to plan that too) as well as the continuing second semester from the previous year. Lovely.
I have been made Teacher in charge of Assessment quality control, which means I have to assume responsibility for each assessment in each semester, the creation (although I am doing a LOT of delegation on this part), and the analysis of whether it is reliable or not. FUN... well actually it would be for me if I wasn't so darn busy.
I have also been made an Assistant Professional Development instructor. Now those of you who have been following me from China know that I LOVE PD. I could exist solely as a PD instructor and would never bat an eye. I love teaching teachers. They are just about the best students to have. Especially when you are treating the students like professionals, and they act the part. I really do love it. Most of this consists of me assisting the instructor in helping the technologically illiterate or inexperienced to try new things and develop some level of skill in embracing the tech used at this school. However, I was also asked to lead on several topics including but not limited to "how to use Chat as an English tool" and "Fun with the Assessment Manager". :) Yeah ok, I can see a theme here too.
I am also in the local writing group which recently finished a writing assignment that lead to a murder mystery adventure that was absolutely amazing. We wrote up our own characters, our own motives, our own alibis and it worked. It really worked like fine spokes on a gear, just churned out this incredible story that was as much fun to read as it was to discuss. I need this for my writing. Because as much as I like to moan that I don't have time to write, I am good. I am still developing, but I am good enough to pull in readers who have never read my work and make them want more. I am keeping all of my writing from the group to help me in later development, but if it keeps going the way it has been I may very well finish that novel that I have been working on for so long. (I am up to chapter 22, so it may well end up too big... but I am liking it so who cares).
I am also doing my first Pantomime (British interactive theatre performance).
I am still waiting for the cast list to go up, but the are looking at me for the part of the lead male interest.
yeah, you read that right.
the male lead. :)
Well, technically the male lead is ALWAYS a female in British Panto, but I still think it is cool.
The Panto is a choice on my part. I decided I needed something beyond the work life. Something where I could socialize beyond my lovely family, where I could meet and make new friends and have a boatload of fun.
I know my reading was good (3rd hand accounts have come back to me about my performance... which was in front of a room of maybe 25 people) and I know that my voice and my accent is the clearest of anyone in the group. That includes my lovely husband, even though he already nailed his part. But of course he nailed the part. He gets to play the dame.
Some of my dear friends already know what a dame is and they will immediately know why Will nailed the part. But for those who don't know... and I know that is a few of you, think Dame Edna.
A Dame is a man in drag. Not just any drag. Big, boisterous, and with obvious sexual innuendo.
Anyone who has ever met or knows my husband will be able to picture this with some ease. He plays the dame beautifully. Seriously funny stuff. He has the same gift for timing that I do (yes, I am conceited). Now, the makeup and dresses may not be his thing, but the comedy certainly is (ala Grushnik).
The Panto is a family thing too, so the kids have parts as well. Wish I could invite all of you to come and see it. Actually, I am. You are all invited to come see Dick Whittington and his many cats in Ras Al Khaimah UAE. Let me know if you plan to fly in to see us all perform, I will arrange a couch for you to sleep on (really, I will) and see to it that you get free tickets to the show! Wanna come?
To top it all off, I was chosen as a member of a team of English teachers (yeah, I know... I teach computers. But I am still an English teacher) to take a certain professional development course online from Harvard. Not a particularly challenging course yet, but I expect it to get much harder as we go on. So when this semester is all over I get to add Harvard to my resume. Yeah for me.
I think that this year is the busiest I have ever had, and it has only just begun.
All my love to my freinds and family.
I hope your year is far less busy but just as rich.
Yours Truly,
Me
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