Spring Sprung

Finally!

The phlox by the mailbox has turned into a pink pillow of fluffy cheer.  I did not plant these, I only manage to weed the grass out once or twice a year.  This is the only time this bed is actually attractive!

 

I didn’t plant the Carolina jasmine in back, either. I’m very grateful the previous owners did, though!

 

 

I did plant these intense blue characters, just last year.

They don’t much like the heat of our summers, but it looks like they’ll give us a nice show every spring.  By next year, they should spread out to cover the entire bed, I think.

 

As promised, the little redbud has started its show, too.

 

But just as exciting to me…

…are the sturdy little pea sprouts emerging boldly from the dirt.

There is, of course, one little hitch…the change from 50-degree days to warmer temperatures shows no sign of slowing.  Tomorrow’s highs are predicted in the low 80s!  That could be bad news for my cool weather crops, if it continues.  It’s supposed to cool just a bit and rain by the weekend, so maybe this will just give ‘em all a jumpstart, eh?

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In the meantime, I have begun teaching again two evenings a week.  It doesn’t sound too onerous, but I also need another couple of evenings for lesson planning, grading and so on.  Funny thing is, when I was in graduate school, I used to prefer doing those to my coursework, so I used my teaching duties to procrastinate from reading long journal articles and writing similarly analytical jargon-filled expositions.  (Can you tell I have no regrets about leaving the hallowed halls of higher education?)

These days, however, it’s the teaching chores I put off by procrastinating with my blog writing!  Fortunately, I have finally discovered the wisdom of hoarding my old (handwritten) lesson plans to use as a jumping-off point for my planning.  I felt like this when I finally pulled them out and realized how much easier this could have been all along:

“What…an…idiot.”

 

Still, I forgive myself a little bit…in my teaching career, I was constantly changing courses (and languages!), and this is the first time I’ve every taught the same course more than 3 times.  So by the time I had good, strong lesson plans, quizzes, activities, etc. to use with one book in one course, I was off to something different.

Hey, the best thing about teaching is that you keep learning, right?

Anyway, I have a great situation this quarter, with only SIX students in my course!  There are no men in the class, which seems to leave the women freer to be smart and assertive, without the usual tee-heeing and posturing that goes on in a mixed class (seriously, I can already see a difference).  More importantly, they all seem to be good, well motivated students.  They’ve already listened to some of my study and organizational tips, and have retained a few expressions I just mentioned in passing.  If they keep this up, they will raise the bar for me, too, and that can only be good for everybody.