It has been quite a long time since I have had any space (or time, for that matter) to myself. Practicum ended uneventfully (though it was an amazing experience, as I have alluded to before), and then suddenly we were all thrown into a meat grinder of rapid required reflection. We needed to reflect on absolutely everything...an experience that went well, something we did that we could critique so we could do better next time, alongside several informal reflections - whether alcoholic or not - with the people I have randomly dubbed "the OISE peeps" (appropriate, I know).
It has been a time of massive reflection. And reflecting is all well and good, but now I'm pretty tired of reflecting. It has hit that point where you repeat a word over and over again until the word becomes absolutely meaningless. That's pretty appropriate, actually. The process of reflecting on our teaching becomes a bit meaningless after a time. I can see the purpose of it, but something that is a weakness one day will eventually be changed upon a single reflection on the problem. Instead of hashing it out several times, graded and ungraded, why can't we just be left to our own devices to learn by doing and to do so while learning?
And so the countdown continues. A countdown to what? Well, there are actually two things for which I am "counting down", and now I will list them for you. Okay, the list is mostly for me. But if you're reading this, you might as well indulge me and read the list as well:
1) Christmas
Oh man, am I ever stoked for Christmas. Now that the plans have more or less been hashed out, I have discovered that I will be taking the train ride home for 5 days to bask in the glory of Christmas time with the family. For the first time ever, S will also be coming down to be with my family for Christmas, but he can't come until the 23rd. Whatever, small victories!
My money troubles have been quelled for now with a needs-based scholarship I received from the university. Receiving the scholarship made me realize that my OSAP debt is more or less a ticking time bomb, but now's not a very good time to REFLECT on that (there's that damn word again), so I'm just going to move on.
Slightly related to that, I managed to get my Christmas shopping mostly done. When I go home on the 21st, I will have some time to get those last-minute gifts for the people in my life for whom gift shopping is a notoriously tedious and difficult affair. Regardless, I feel (mostly) ready to begin the holidays now that my shopping is done, and also now that...
2) School is almost over (for now).
How sweet it is! Today is the last day of class for the fall semester. There's a three-day Professional Preparation Conference beginning tomorrow, but that will be useful and interesting. I managed to sleep in this morning by accident, and I missed my last FSL of the semester. Oops. However, I am in the Learning Commons waiting for History to start, and I have my last two assignments to hand in in-hand. Once I have relinquished control of these two pieces of sh--work, and once I have endured the AWESOME PARTY that will be History this afternoon (since even though today is actually a party, History class is always a party to me), I feel as though I will finally begin to count down the days until the holidays. Sure, I still have to haul ass out of bed to attend this conference from Wednesday to Friday, but...it's not quite the same as class.
So that's my personal reflection for today. Dammit, I just used that word again.
Coming soon, a post about World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Why? Because it's out, and it's awesome, and I'll actually have time to experience it in full very soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment