Bearshorty's musings

Students came to my office hours – mostly for practicing for the map quiz. Which I will need to grade this weekend. Maybe Thursday.

Today was the last official class. It was mostly map quiz and a review for the final exam. They get to study up on five themes. For each themes, let’s say trade, they need to come up with three paragraphs with one source each and write an essay about it. They know the themes and they can bring a sourcebook to class. For one student, who is horrible at maps, we actually did an oral map exam because he can’t spatially see, I think.

( House S7E20 )

Tonight I was figuring out books for “History of Law” class next semester, if I get to teach it. It all depends on enrollment. But here is my plan so far:

1.Andrew Riggsby, Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans
2. James Brundage, Medieval Origins of the Legal Profession
3.Hunt Janin, Medieval Justice: Cases and Laws in France, England and Germany, 500-1500

I’m not sure about Janin yet, I will get it in the library this week and check it out, but I’m pretty sure about the other two. Brundage is a bit big but I won’t use the whole book, more like select chapters. And I will use some primary sources online too. Even if I don’t teach it, it is really fun to think about.

No Heterosexual Explanation - when even when we take off slash gaggles, the scene in a movie or tv doesn’t make sense unless the two characters are together.

There was a terrorist attack in Minsk today. In the central metro station, on one of the escalators. 12 people died and more than 100 injured. I have ten minute break between lectures and I checked my phone and I saw that Papa called a few times and left a voicemail. The voicemail just asked me to call back but in a tone that was wrong. I called him back and the news was just a bit hard to process especially as I needed to give another lecture right then. It happened during their rush hour and no one knows why so far. Some think it might be the government opposition or even the government itself to distract from the insane economic situation where price have gone up 50% lately. No one had claimed responsibility. It just breaks my heart. It’s my city. I was born there. I lived almost thirteen years of my life there. I was just there in June. Every time I think about it, my chest tightens. My family is all ok, Mama called them as soon as she heard and I emailed my friend Sveta to make sure she was fine. But it doesn’t matter. It is my city. Who gets up in the morning and thinks that killing innocent people makes any sort of statement.


I still need to write about my day but everything just seems to pale.

In the morning I finished writing the lecture on the Mongols and their Empire in the 13th century. Most of it I’m learning myself and it is actually fun to do that. I then finished the Powerpoint as well. I started the lecture the night before but I knew I had some time in the morning. Then I gave that lecture in the afternoon. I think it went well. I gave my students time in class to read the Muslim perspective of the destruction of Baghdad so we could discuss it. That way I got some participation. I started writing down who talks too, and told them this, which got many to talk too. The most amusing moment of discussion was when one girl brought up Disney’s “Mulan” and how Mongols were portrayed in it and what it meant for their reputation.

Somehow the account of the horrors stuck with me; when I went to write my corresponding Methos drabble, that is what I focused on. This drabble fic, with one drabble for every lecture, each representing a period in history seen through Methos’ eyes, will be interesting to look back on and proofread in May, since it is fun to see what in each lecture struck me personally.

During my reliable lunch of chicken fajita wrap I also grade the quizzes for one of the sections. I really need to grade their Paper 1 this weekend.

Today was just a warm summery day. All students were out tanning and playing in the main quad.

( House S7E19 )

Girls get to puberty faster. Doctors are not sure why? Really? And it has nothing to do with our food and air and and all the chemicals in our systems? Somehow I find it sad. Developing breast by 7? Sad. 15% of American girls start to hit puberty at 7. And for black girls it is 23%. That is full five years younger than it was for me and I was pretty average in my time.

The article on domesticating animals in March National Geographic was pretty interesting. I read it this morning as I had to get up at 7am and adjust to the time change. I never really thought about that domesticated animals changed their genes and evolved to coexist with humans more. I mean, I knew humans developed genes like lactose tolerance in order to have domesticated animals but I never thought of things like multi-colored coats or floppy ears are genetic markers of domestication.

In the morning I worked on In class exercise 3 prompt and Paper 1 assignment. Professor S. sent me good discussion categories on El Cid and her old paper prompt (which was very broad). So I sort of adjusted her prompt and combined it with the discussion categories (religious attitudes, male honor, female honor, money issues, political relationships etc) to ask:

How does El Cid help us understand life in medieval Spain (specifically, your topic)? Can we trust El Cid as a historical source?

She will use my prompt. Since we are collaborating, I also send her my “Writing a Good History Paper” handout, which I developed in teaching in the writing program with the help of previous handouts from other instructors. Prof. S. said that she will not only give it to her students but will show it at the department meeting to adopt for the history department. Which is cool. And students do need detailed instruction of what a paper should be.

I bought blue headphones this time. Frelling plastic casting! It was really hard to pry it out.

Class 3 is so much better. I’m reminded of this every week. They listen to the lecture like they care. I put on the Gregorian chant for them today since we were doing Christianity.

Mama made Napoleon cake with proper cream. Yummy.

( House S7E16 )

This morning I got to my office early. I was proofing a friend’s article and then I actually had someone come to office hours. She needed help with maps for the Map Quiz on Wednesday – how can one not know what country Rome is in? But at least she came and worked on it with me. Still, sometime the geographical lack of knowledge astounds me.

I gave my Judaism lecture in the first class but for the second class we had a guest speaker, so I will have to catch that class us. Local College is hiring a modern global historian so the guest lecturer was talking about modern nationalism. She did ok, not brilliantly but she took questions well.

( House S7E14 )

I wore my new pink shirt today with my grey suit. I do like dressing up for work sometimes.

The office kitchen had a very delicious cake in honor of Valentine’s day, which was fun. I really don’t like this ‘holiday’ even as I had a significant other for the last twelve years. Too much high school ‘woe is me’ memories. It just puts too much pressure for all around. Bear and I will celebrate later and I was way too busy to pay attention to it today. I did like the cake.

Prof. S who teaches Section One of my class (I teach Sections 2 and 3) had to cancel her class this morning and accidentally sent the email to one of my sections as well. So about five or so students did not pay attention to who the email was from and though my class was cancelled too. Ah, well. They just missed Cyrus, and Philip and Alexander. She also asked me if I wanted to adjunct next semester at local college too. That is a good thing, I'm not not sure of the logistics yet.

( House S7E12 )

First lecture today. After giving the first lecture I get settled in the class. Today’s lecture was on Mesopotamia. I teach two sections of the same class back to back. Each class is one hour and thirty minutes long with a ten minute break in-between. I discovered that I don’t get bored giving the same lecture twice. I just get into it. And the second lecture actually goes more smoothly. I think it is also the students in the second class. There are more kids there willing to talk and ask questions and that really helps. Plus the video worked in the second class with sound and I knew the perfect place to play it because of how the first section reacted. I use this clip from Star Trek: TNG episode “Darmok” where Picard tells the story of Gilgamesh. My students were technically supposed to read some Gilgamesh for today but of course no one wanted to talk. So I played the clip as the summary of the story and then we talked about it.

( House S7E10 )

Exercise: 31 min on bike – I did the expert course and I only got 16 out of 20 flags before I stopped.
Cross stitch: light blue and pale blue for little bear’s blanky.

Happy Birthday, Papa!

I was dreaming that I was grading when my alarm clock woke me up since I had to grade more before my class. I was vaguely disappointed that I had another paper to grade.

Today was an easy class since it was really collect papers and give papers back and evaluations day. I did do a mini geography lesson since my students are reading an essay by Naipaul and he mentions lots of countries. I had a few students who didn’t know where England was; not even what continent it was on. Sigh.

In the afternoon, Mama and I stopped by the russian food store to get bread and a poppy seed cake-type thing for my dad for his birthday. I do love that store. I got myself smoked cheese. I adore smoked cheese.

Papa’s coworkers bought him cake and we had that after a semi-festive dinner. Mama made olivie salad – which is traditional for any festive table and is my favorite thing ever. It was nice.

( House S7E8 )

I tried watching “Hidalgo” and was not really in the mood for it; it was too much a boy angst movie. I’m just sending my Netflix movies back unwatched. They’ve been sitting on my shelf to long. I did watch the latest “Fame” movie online instead. It was fine. The original was much better.

( Tempest Act 3 )

So today was a big grading day. I took breaks to watch “Sherlock” online and “House” live. Otherwise I graded. I managed 18 papers by midnight, which is a lot for one day. They take forever. They are only five page papers but I have to write a lot of comments on the margins and a big comment at the end and point to two things students should work on their next paper. Once I get into the zone I can do 30 minutes per paper but until then it takes 40-45 minutes. And they slowly kill my brain. The good news is that the kids are steadily improving. Most are hovering on C+/B cusp and I even gave one “A.”

( Sherlock: The Great Game )

( House S7E6 )

I went to campus for the day and I find that I’d rather wake up at 6:30 and leave the house and be in a library than get up at 8 and work from home.

I stopped by my history office to pick up a few world history textbooks and my awesome packet of map transparencies. One of the things I love about teaching is that publishing companies send free textbooks and books. So I actually have several different world history textbooks even as I never taught world history. Now that the possibility of teaching this class is there, I figure I should brush up on early civilizations a bit. I took East Asian history in my first semester of undergrad and I don’t remember much and I really need to remind myself of trends and such. And I need to figure out what I want on my syllabus. I read the first chapter today about Neolithic Revolution and how and why agriculture and domestication of animals really changed human development. This is not really new stuff to me, but I did need a review. And my brain needs a bit of a shake up since it forgot that Neolithic just means New Stone Age (I do know some Greek roots, technically. Wake up, brain). It is nice to have pre-history chronology again in my head. Tomorrow – Mesopotamia and Egypt (I actually still remember learning about it in sixth grade).

I also wrote the next question for my writing class although I’m still not too sure about it. They will still work with Pollan and Kingsolver article and will have to talk about the rights of individual animals/plants vs the right of the species to survive. As I was grading more midterms today, I found that many had hard time with the midterm question, beyond the basic level. But at least the midterm helped me make a list of weak connections and stronger connections.

Warner Brothers released nine TV spots for Harry Potter movie so I thought I’d link them. I can’t wait.

Having a falafel and Wendy’s chili and for lunch was a great combination.

( House S7E5 )

In the evening, my neighbor asked me to proofread her nursing master’s program papers and then we had some tea. She invited me to come with her family to Shabbat dinner at a rabbi’s house on Friday. It should be interesting. I haven’t been to one for a long time.

I picked up the New Yorker Magazine yesterday while I was at the New Yorker Festival. I read an interesting Malcolm Gladwell article “Small Change: Why the revolution will not be twitted.” He was challenging the idea the social media can actually influence real meaningful change in the status quo since real activism is high-risk and depends on real personal connections between participants and on hierarchies, both of which social media like Twitter or Facebook lack. He doesn’t deny that social media can be good for some things like networking and information gathering and new ideas but he points out that it is not how real meaningful change (like the Civil Right Movement type of activism) works.

( House S7E3 )

( Highlander S6E5 )