Radical Eclecticity

I write this blog entry at 35,000 feet over the Bearing Sea. Of course, by the time anyone reads it, I’ll already be in China, but I have resisted the temptation to compose my words as though I was aready there. For one thing, what I write once I actually arrive will have a lot more cool details in it than this will. If I were to announce “I’m here!” and then have nothing to say about China itself, that would be a lame read. Take heart in knowing that I am there, but that’s not the point of this entry.

The point of this entry has a little something to do with how I managed to skip the entire month of May. My last blog entry was the “Yay, I’m going to China!” entry. A whole lot has happened since then, and that’s part of the reason why there’s been no blogginess. In fact, for a good stretch of time there, I became one of those dudes that didn’t have any time for people because he had too much work to do.

Now, please understand, not only do I strive to not be one of those people, I genuinely believe that connecting with others is one of the most important things we do in our lives. It is through our interrelation with others that we learn the most important lessons in life. It is only through our interactions with others that we are able to put those lessons into practice and be decent people. It is downright unacceptable to me to be a person that has no time for others.

This may explain why, when I needed to tear myself away from my workload in order to maintain my sanity, I didn’t write any blog entries. I went out and connected with someone, even if only for a short time. Be it Manny, or Michelle, or Amanda, or even the staff at the Dandelion, I need human contact to keep myself balanced and functional. Granted, my contact has been much more limited than I’m used to, but it’s been there.

So why so much work, you ask? Heh… Let me tell you about my uber-genius maneuver. See, I wanted to take a full-time class load at UCF this summer, because then I get my full GI Bill benefits, which in the absence of paychecks in the summertime, was kind of appealing to me. That meant I had to take two online classes, because I knew that I was going to be out of the area this summer. There was no way to make it to class on campus when the commute would be 18 hours long. The only two classes that were offered online this summer that fit my degree plan and program were a reading class and Learning Theories. Here’s the thing, though. Learning Theories was a Summer A class. Most of that class happened before I was even done teaching. In fact, just before I started writing this blog entry I completed my final assignment for that class. I’ll turn that in once I get on the ground.

So here’s the thing: Imagine taking an entire semester’s worth of graduate work, and cram it into five weeks, which just happen to be the last five weeks of the school year for the students you teach. Oh yeah, you also have to make sure that you’re ready to leave the country for two full months and make sure the stuff back home is taken care off while you’re gone, too. Then I also have my reading course, which is now only half over, but keeping up with just that one thing while I’m in China sounds like a vacation to me now.

Needless to say, I don’t anticipate doing this again. Too much stuff all at once. I didn’t actually bite off more than I could chew, but I was definitely at capacity. On the flipside, though, I’ve brought a bunch of books and materials with me on my trip. Over the next two months, I want to plan my courses for next year, too. That’s right, courses. I’ll be teaching sixth grade math, like last year, but I’ve also gotten the go-ahead to teach a section of Chinese Mandarin, too. I’m very excited about this. It will be a lot of fun to teach a course for which there is no curriculum and no defined standards, requirements, or benchmarks. It gives me the latitude to create the program that I believe will be the most effective. Not that I’m not given to doing that, anyway, when I think it’s necessary. The math class I teach next year is going to look very different than the math class I taught this past year, too.

In fact, I told my students on the last day of school, that I learn a lot every year. In fact, when I look back on this past year, I realize how much better I could have done it all. I even said to myself, “Wow! You really blew that, didn’t you? You didn’t actually accomplish half of the things you set out to do.”

But the point is (and I told them this, too) that I am constantly trying to learn and grow and improve myself as a teacher. I was a much better teacher this year than I was last year, and I’ll be a better teacher next year than I was this year. It was because of my students this year, and the way they helped me learn to be better, that I have grown as much as I have.

Anyway, I’m going to bring this episode of blogginess to a rather abrupt close. My neck is getting stiff and my wrist is bent all weird. Being this tall is not so great for air travel. What can I say?