20150818.0607

The first day of teaching went well enough. There were some hang-ups, of course, but I expected to see them. Sometimes, students take a while to get into things, and classes that are quiet to begin grow more engaged, if not boisterous, as the term goes on. Tomorrow will be another easy day (yesterday passed out and reviewed the syllabus and course calendar; tomorrow will be an in-class writing day), helping me to get situated and the new students to grow more accustomed to how the collegiate writing classroom works. Perhaps I will take some time to return to one of my older policies and try to draft an essay of the kind I expect from my students; I shall have close to four hours in the classroom tomorrow, much of it occupied only with looking out over the student body unless I find some other use for the time. Either assessing submissions as they come in or working to model behavior for my students suggests itself as a good use of that time.

Today should also be a relatively easy day; I have decided that it will be a reading day more than anything else. A thick novel sits on my desk, waiting for me to page through it. Journal articles call out to me, as well. I may do some writing other than in this webspace and in my personal journal, but if I do, it will be during the breaks I take from reading that are not occupied by my duties at home. The Mrs. works today, and I do not, so I will be watching over Ms. 8. It is the way of things for us at Sherwood Cottage, that one of us works and the other attends to the home, and since our schedules are as they are, we both have the opportunity to do both. There are rewards to the setup, certainly, although I am aware that even my contingent status affords me privilege in the matter; how many other fathers have work that allows them to spend time with their children as I do with my child? But, as I have noted, it makes getting work done a bit more difficult.

I can read, however, more easily than I can write, in part because I have much more practice in doing so. My writing, after all, is informed by reading, and there are many pages I turn without producing pages of my own. It will be nice to take a bit of time and read something that I need not write up for freelance work (although I expect I shall have more freelance work before long, if there is not already an order waiting for my attention), something that I am not reading for a specific paper to write and present or publish (although I expect I shall need to do some of that soon, as well). My daughter already mimics the act of reading--or perhaps more; seeing her develop new skills seemingly suddenly is uncanny, and I would not be surprised if she is getting some meaning from the funny marks on the paperboard pages she turns while she giggles. Perhaps we two can read together, a bonding experience I would be happy to have again and again.