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Jan. 21st, 2015 10:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jhameia- I can't get enough of ranting about my TA assignment and I'm still grading the quizzes. I've decided that for discussion sections I'm going to go off syllabus as much as possible and just try to help the students develop some basic stuff first. If they ever come back to these readings, yay, if not, no sweat. By the end of the quarter they will develop at least the ghost of close reading skills.
I assigned an in-class assignment yesterday: think of something interesting that happened in the last week and write about it... something that engaged you intellectually. Could be any media.
It was slightly disheartening to see how hard some of the students had to think just to remember something interesting. One student even asked me to assign him something because he couldn't come up with anything.
- I went to the Black Comics Arts Festival in San Francisco last weekend! Eric drove us up, and we listened to Welcome to Night Vale all the way.yeloson hosted us! I'd brought my inflatable beds and Eric and I slept in the living room. We had dinner with oyceter and Randy, and Emily managed to get in from the South Bay, and Claire managed to garner enough spoons. We met at Borderlands and went to the Ethiopian place next door.
On Sunday, there was an afternoon panel. Eric, Chris and I went for dim sum; Eric went out of town to visit family and Chris and I just chilled. I should have graded but I was like, nah, I'mma hang out with this cool buddy and read Tumblr and Facebook and be quiet. Emily said she could make it into town for the evening programs, which started at 6pm. She got in at 4! So Chris and I headed out to Schoggi Chocolates and the three of us had a marvelous time.
The first evening panel, "March to Freedom" was a pretty interesting mix: two academics who teach Black comics in African-American studies classes, Afua Richardson (artist of Genius), Erika Alexander (co-writer of Concrete Park), and Andrew Aydin (artist of the MLK bio March, also aide to Congressman John Lewis).
The second panel, "Nappy Hour" was also really interesting, although they should have let the one female panelist speak more. Both panels, though, were really well-moderated.
Monday, now, that was a full day! Breakfast at Lois the Pie Queen (at which I had chicken and waffles... I'd never had it before and whoof, that was a MEAL), then it was off to the Metreon. We were early and wandered into the Expo before it officially opened but that was cool because there were fewer people and we got to talk to damn near everybody! I got to talk to many neat people! I also got to sit at my publisher's table and help sell books! It was such a good time. I bought many things with the cash I'd brought along for the day. I bought prints from Afua Richardson. I also bought the Concrete Park tradebook #1 (and Erika and Tony gave me the first issue for free). I also met these cool people! I was so impressed with the concept--a 6yo girl discovers her tears can bring things back to life but it ages her--that as soon as I saw the organizer, John (who's also published by my publisher), I yelled at him to come over and check out this cool project and wouldn't it be neat if they could come to AstroBlackness in March? I took pictures.
I also have this habit of sneaking away when I see people deep in conversation with each other and apparently this is disconcerting to people because they'll turn around and look for me and I'm never where they left me. (Apparently I am now Quantum Jaymee.... because I "exist as a probability of being at any location at any time.") (This was so good I am resurrecting my old blog and renaming it that.)
The last panel we caught was the one with Sebastian Jones and Amandla Stenberg (which I missed most of... but that's OK because I got to meet Amandla at the Stranger Comics book and ask her all I wanted to say and even got a picture with her). I REALLY wanted to stay for the panel with Kevin Grevioux but alas, it was time to drive home.
On the way back, we stopped at Pea Soup Andersen's because I wanted to buy some wine (Eric declined to eat there; it was too white) and we got some In and Out. More Night Vale. Got home around 11pm. Not too bad!
- I decided to take part in the Tiny Tub Two Worm Challenge, although I'm using a glass jar instead. The idea is to put in two immature earthworms and see how long it takes for them to reproduce and double their numbers. I put in two VERY small earthworms, one is practically a hatchling, it's almost transparent. And then I labeled the bottle with the date and put it on a shelf.
I actually have two jars, with some shredded paper, some washed eggshells, tea leaves, and an apple core. For one of them, I wrapped up the stuff in a tissue and stuffed that into a toilet roll, just to see what would happen. I haven't seen the worms in them since. The other jar is still empty of worms, and I'm thinking of filling it further with stuff before I put in any worms. Might put bigger worms into that one. I'll bring one of them to my office, too, to have someplace to dump finished tea leaves and tea bags. I've also amassed quite a few stackable tubs which I might try using, too, starting with maybe five worms in them.
- I'm babysitting HH's dog this weekend so I really need to clear my floor of things that might look tempting to a dog's teeth. It should be fun though, since apparently this dog needs five walks a day (she's spoiled rotten) which means I'll get out of the apartment.
I assigned an in-class assignment yesterday: think of something interesting that happened in the last week and write about it... something that engaged you intellectually. Could be any media.
It was slightly disheartening to see how hard some of the students had to think just to remember something interesting. One student even asked me to assign him something because he couldn't come up with anything.
- I went to the Black Comics Arts Festival in San Francisco last weekend! Eric drove us up, and we listened to Welcome to Night Vale all the way.
yeloson hosted us! I'd brought my inflatable beds and Eric and I slept in the living room. We had dinner with oyceter and Randy, and Emily managed to get in from the South Bay, and Claire managed to garner enough spoons. We met at Borderlands and went to the Ethiopian place next door. On Sunday, there was an afternoon panel. Eric, Chris and I went for dim sum; Eric went out of town to visit family and Chris and I just chilled. I should have graded but I was like, nah, I'mma hang out with this cool buddy and read Tumblr and Facebook and be quiet. Emily said she could make it into town for the evening programs, which started at 6pm. She got in at 4! So Chris and I headed out to Schoggi Chocolates and the three of us had a marvelous time.
The first evening panel, "March to Freedom" was a pretty interesting mix: two academics who teach Black comics in African-American studies classes, Afua Richardson (artist of Genius), Erika Alexander (co-writer of Concrete Park), and Andrew Aydin (artist of the MLK bio March, also aide to Congressman John Lewis).
The second panel, "Nappy Hour" was also really interesting, although they should have let the one female panelist speak more. Both panels, though, were really well-moderated.
Monday, now, that was a full day! Breakfast at Lois the Pie Queen (at which I had chicken and waffles... I'd never had it before and whoof, that was a MEAL), then it was off to the Metreon. We were early and wandered into the Expo before it officially opened but that was cool because there were fewer people and we got to talk to damn near everybody! I got to talk to many neat people! I also got to sit at my publisher's table and help sell books! It was such a good time. I bought many things with the cash I'd brought along for the day. I bought prints from Afua Richardson. I also bought the Concrete Park tradebook #1 (and Erika and Tony gave me the first issue for free). I also met these cool people! I was so impressed with the concept--a 6yo girl discovers her tears can bring things back to life but it ages her--that as soon as I saw the organizer, John (who's also published by my publisher), I yelled at him to come over and check out this cool project and wouldn't it be neat if they could come to AstroBlackness in March? I took pictures.
I also have this habit of sneaking away when I see people deep in conversation with each other and apparently this is disconcerting to people because they'll turn around and look for me and I'm never where they left me. (Apparently I am now Quantum Jaymee.... because I "exist as a probability of being at any location at any time.") (This was so good I am resurrecting my old blog and renaming it that.)
The last panel we caught was the one with Sebastian Jones and Amandla Stenberg (which I missed most of... but that's OK because I got to meet Amandla at the Stranger Comics book and ask her all I wanted to say and even got a picture with her). I REALLY wanted to stay for the panel with Kevin Grevioux but alas, it was time to drive home.
On the way back, we stopped at Pea Soup Andersen's because I wanted to buy some wine (Eric declined to eat there; it was too white) and we got some In and Out. More Night Vale. Got home around 11pm. Not too bad!
- I decided to take part in the Tiny Tub Two Worm Challenge, although I'm using a glass jar instead. The idea is to put in two immature earthworms and see how long it takes for them to reproduce and double their numbers. I put in two VERY small earthworms, one is practically a hatchling, it's almost transparent. And then I labeled the bottle with the date and put it on a shelf.
I actually have two jars, with some shredded paper, some washed eggshells, tea leaves, and an apple core. For one of them, I wrapped up the stuff in a tissue and stuffed that into a toilet roll, just to see what would happen. I haven't seen the worms in them since. The other jar is still empty of worms, and I'm thinking of filling it further with stuff before I put in any worms. Might put bigger worms into that one. I'll bring one of them to my office, too, to have someplace to dump finished tea leaves and tea bags. I've also amassed quite a few stackable tubs which I might try using, too, starting with maybe five worms in them.
- I'm babysitting HH's dog this weekend so I really need to clear my floor of things that might look tempting to a dog's teeth. It should be fun though, since apparently this dog needs five walks a day (she's spoiled rotten) which means I'll get out of the apartment.
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(no subject)
Date: 2015-01-22 03:53 pm (UTC)That's pretty sad about your students not being able to come up with anything to write :-/