Bearshorty's musings

Today’s class was all peer review and individual conferences – some students were surprised to learn that you can have a god argument when you use one author to show how the second one is wrong. But it is nice to see students have an epiphany about their writing whether the structure of the whole paper or when they say outloud what their topic sentences should be or what makes a connection. This is the part of the semester when it is starting to click.

Norman Conquest lecture is tomorrow – I’m pretty much combing old lectures and can do this in my sleep but I’m excited. I get to do history in my own subject and it has been awhile since I got to teach medieval England. Great and very clever clip of Bayeux Tapestry animated.

I read Part 2 of “El Cid” in the evening. I definitely need a new book for next semester, having to read it twice in a year is a bit too much. I’ll probably read more than the students would bother for a discussion class tomorrow.

( Dexter S6E5 )

My office hours this morning were actual office hours. In between finishing the grading of In-Class Exercise 3 and writing the next one, I had four students show up to talk about their paper that is due on Wednesday. Office hours is such a resource and I remember just how much my TA in American History of 1960s helped me with my research paper. I wish more students realized that office hours are here to help.

During my lunch break I started reading Ibn Battuta’s “Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-1354” which I will assign my student for Paper 2 along with Marco Polo. This text is actually found on Medieval Internet Sourcebook and it is very easy to read and fun too. He left home in Morocco at 21 and I keep wondering how did he pay for his travels as his pilgrimage to Mecca ended up just one leg of a journey of almost thirty years through North Afrika, Mali, Middle East, India and China. The printed in the adjunct office was out of cartridge so I still need to print 25 out of 52 pages but it is a good reading so far. Now I need to come up with the assignment question for it and Marco Polo – both medieval travel accounts.

In class, we just had the discussion on El Cid. The students needed to come prepared with two quotes from the book and then explain what the quotes mean – in preparation for their paper. I kept trying to get through to them about analyzing instead of summarizing. I did have to spell things out for them, because sometimes you have to repeat things five times, like showing them on the projector screen the buttons to push to insert footnotes. Or repeating about the need for topic sentences and thesis. Even thought just a month ago we had a class on writing that talked about citations and how to write a paper and they have notes and handouts. At least some of them ask. Most students came prepared, at least having read “El Cid” although I’m not sure about the Fletcher excerpts. But one guy didn’t even have the book yet even as I pointed out to him that he had the syllabus with the book list from the beginning of the semester and the paper assignment since almost two weeks ago. I suggested that when he went to the bookstore he also buy Marco Polo book too.

I had insomnia again. This usually happens when I have to get up at 6:30 the next morning but my brain just wouldn’t shut down. At one point, I even used the old trick of changing direction in bed – I put my pillow where my legs usually are. This sometimes helps, actually, and it did a bit. I need to stop overthinking.

But despite four hours of sleep (or maybe less, I try not to look at the clock), I had a really nice productive day. I started reading “El Cid” before breakfast. It is a very short book (140 pages) about a Spanish knight of the eleventh century (I use the word “Spanish” very loosely since there was no united Spain yet) who was banished by his king and is pillaging and conquering in order to amass money to bribe his king into letting him come back. This poem (of which I have a prose translation) is based on the real person, Ruy Diaz of Bivar, but, of course, it is also a heroic epic so it does rather exaggerate his exploits. It was written about a century after the guy died. Since there are three sections, I’m reading a section per day and today it is “Exile.” I like it so far, it is fairly detailed in its descriptions and a different style than French medieval romances or other vernacular literature of the time. I do roll my eyes at the incredible and amazing fights against the Moors where there is very detailed and gruesome slaughter. So far I actually liked the most El Cid’s wife’s recitation of faith as part of the prayer since I can use that in teaching to show what people were expected to know. I think this book will be really fun to teach.

In the morning, since I brought my computer with me, I also did some online library/articles/book review research and I think I figured out the book that I will need to write my lecture on El Cid. Richard Fletcher’s “The Quest for El Cid” (London, 1989), according to reviews, gives a nice history of Spain in the period and explores the real Ruy Diaz to compare him to the poetic version. I love the ability to find books and academic book reviews online. Before the internet it would have taken much longer than one hour.

In class today, my students were discussing Naipaul’s essay “East Indian” in preparation to their final exam next week. The first class was really confused about the main point and the article in general. I’m really not supposed to help in this discussion – the final exam does test their reading comprehension too. But I couldn’t help it – I did direct the discussion a big as we went over about the meaning of each section. I asked them to summarize one section where he talks about how Indians (from India) immigrated to Trinidad (in West Indies) and what it meant for the culture and they were over thinking. I’m just glad that the second class seemed to understand the reading much better – so it really just depends on reading level.

As I took a break from doing my own work in the afternoon I saw an ad in one of my emails that was looking for an adjunct for a summer course at one the Universities in my area. The topic is “The Middle Ages in the Movies.” While the chances of me getting hired are not that great, I couldn’t resist a topic like that and spent some time figuring out how I would teach it. I wrote the course description and I emailed it to the people who are hiring for this. Here what I would do if I taught this:

( Middle Ages in the Movies )

I ordered Mama her birthday present today. I wanted to get her hand cream and I got L’Occitane en Provence hand cream for Bear’s Mom last year that I thought Mama would like. My friends also like it. She likes Ahava, but my friend is going to Israel this winter and can probably get that for me there). Anyway, L’occitane’s website had a free shipping promotion, so it worked out well. I wasn’t sure if I could make it to the store in the city this December.