Inservice

Today is an inservice for us, which means I get very little done. We did get the green light to go ahead and change the structure of our classes here. We are doing away with 9 weeks classes of American Lit, Brit Lit (try to get through Brit Lit in 45 days - plus write a research paper), Comp II, and Speech. We are combining these into Junior and Senior English. Junior English will be American Lit and Composition. It will be stretched to a full semester. Senior English will be British Lit and Composition in another semester. Speech will be divided up and parts will be embedded into Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior English classes. This has made my semester. Now we just have to sift through the dozens of text books and supplements that have been sent our way (it is also our year to institute new curriculum and texts).

I am looking forward to this process. I need to chuck some things I've been doing for too long in my classes and try some new things. Just looking at some of the American Lit and Brit Lit texts, I'm excited for new stories and poems. I'm excited for the new approaches to them. I'm excited to work some public speaking elements into my courses. And I'm especially excited to work the reading/writing connection in more detail into my classes. The task is quite daunting, but I know I'll learn a lot.