Cinnabar and Alabaster

that sounds--i know it sounds--like i'm the teacher & she's the sub. it won't stay that way. i'm committed to not doing that, for her sake and the students', and as we move into the next unit, which will be more her baby than mine, it should reverse to some degree, at least & even out. yesterday she really was stepping in to oversee a day of class i'd planned & had originally assumed i'd be there for, so i'm hoping those factors justify the impression, so long as it doesn't last.

3 of our students already know her, either because they're in other classes w/her this term or had one in the past, which is good for everybody, & she's really excited about the subject matter & about getting to know them... we're going to meet next week to make sure we've got everything solidified through the beginning of spring break, & then meet again early in the break (before i run off to CCCCs) to talk about the next unit plan, but the preliminary conversation we had after tuesday's class about her plans & ideas sounded great--easily continuous w/what they've started on but also different in tack, so that those whose demands and expectations haven't yet been much addressed will get their turn.

i've talked to miao about his intentions & what's the best use of his time, leyla about her recovering, shweta (with a lot of missing each other) about getting her back on track, & emmanuel about his concerns about having missed a chunk of american schooling somewhere along the way, which i think might make him a little less familiar with some of our vocabulary, but doesn't really set him so far back comparatively as he imagines. i've posted grammatical resources (kudos to cheryl & marc & the mighty grammar gym), hoarded a lot of their work so they won't have time to lose it between now & next week, read a bunch of things in advance of pinning a grade on them as a collected mass when it all comes in... i formally introduced molly & explained what was going on with becky on tuesday, & everybody seemed okay; molly's worried, & becky's worried, that they'll do some panicking about grades and who's doing the giving at some point, but i'm trying to keep a hand on that pulse, & i'm not feeling any nervous flutters. i've reassured them that we'll all stay in close contact & that nobody's going to be pulling any switches on them wherein they were told to work for one person's set of goals & now they're being graded on another, & so far it looks like they're believing me. & i'm believing me, & molly's right there w/me on that, so i'm knocking on wood out of habit rather than concern.

& it's going to be okay. that's really what this entry is about; i meant it to be about what's actually going on in the class, what the students are working on in their projects, how collaboration seems to be going here as compared to in 205... but they seem to be doing okay, or at least doing something that promises to coalesce into a thought-baked textual creation of some type taking on the theoretical complexities of teaching style by way of imitation, so i'm rather freed up at the moment to worry less about the "what" of their activities than about the multitude of different "hows" i feel responsible to at the moment.

next week, i promise content. but there really are a whole host of different layers to pay attention to when doing this, & you can't hit them all every time.

listening to: animals on wheels | plot lost sixteen