Here we go again

Looks like we might be starting another semester out by taking a hurricane break. Prayers and well wishes to those of you in Katrina's path.

238 Eager Young Minds

I just made the mistake of tallying up the total number of students I have on my rosters this semester: 238. That's in six sections, so it comes out to an average of 39.6 students per section. Four are composition. The other two are literature. We are required to have six essay grades per semester. How many hours of grading does that add up to?

Never mind. I don't want to know.

I hope everyone is getting off to a good start. I actually expect to have a good semester. I just have to get a few panic attacks out of the way first.

1987

I realize it is old hat to comment on the year the incoming freshmen were born, but I get a little more unnerved by it every year. This year's freshmen would have been born in about 1987. Wow. I feel old and out of touch.

New Player - An Introduction

I have just come aboard (pardon the Naval allusion - but that's me). My name is Brian. I've just begun a new position at a small 2-year college in south Georgia, Abraham Baldwin Ag. College. Previously, I taught in Nashville, TN, for 4 1/2 years. My area of specialty is medieval literature with an emphasis in Arthurian literature. Consequently, I teach a lot of composition. There's not much call for medievalists these days, certainly not in 2-year colleges. Despite that, I seem to fit a few historical and etymological snippets into each semester. It's interesting how students find it fascinating or mind-numbing. There's not much in between.

As for the Naval reference, that predates my medieval bent. I spent 12 1/2 years as an engineering officer in the U. S. Navy before I started teaching. Don't ask how a theatre arts BA got me a gig as an engineer. It has something to do with naval "wisdom." Anyway, I have a lot of naval-ese tucked into my method and my language.

I look forward to learning about composition best practices and sharing with everyone here. I am particularly interested in incorporating technology into the classroom. I am building a blog into my comp sections this coming semester, so I will share my wins and losses as we go. I have already learned from reading past postings and following a lot of embedded links. Thanks for that up front.