In the Groove

About to finish my second week of summer teaching. A semester crammed into four weeks. I like the intensity of it. I get to know my undergrads (23 instead of 135 or so). I get to try out some new things with them, and they are a mixed bunch in the summer, more varied than during the AY: career changers, older students, some who are repeating the course for the grade they need to stay in the teacher ed program. I have one student who is both pregnant and a newlywed, writing her paper the day after her wedding last weekend. Baby kicked today while we were discussing Ben Franklin.

Though 2.5 hours a day, four days a week, for four weeks (and I do it again in Module 2) is tiring, I feel in the groove now. I am making very good headway on my book on Albert Schweitzer and his legacy. My journal's next issue comes out in a few weeks. I haven't blogged much lately, but I have read some great stuff out there. I am getting back into The Little Professor, after a hiatus, and I love Miriam's take on things. Michael Berube's blog exhaustion and subsequent emergency appendectomy make me want to find out "what's next??" when I click on his link. And I don't know how Maud Newton finds so many interesting things to report on her blog, or where she finds the time for a bazillion posts a day. But I sure appreciate it!

Tidbit: I note that John Merrow will have a new documentary about the current state of higher education on PBS airing June 23, called Declining by Degrees. A snippet about it is available here.