First Full Week Underway

This week is my first full week of the great college experiment, and will I jinx it if I say it's going well? Like...really well??

Yesterday was my first day biking in significant rain. Luckily I saw the forecast and packed rain pants and wore my waterproof Keens, in addition to my Showers Pass rain jacket I bought for this season. I can be SEEN.

Mondays are my long days right now. When the weather changed rather abruptly, I thought for sure was in for a rough migraine day. But woke up...mostly fine? Like a normal migraine day, not ramped up at all.

I biked off to my ASL 201 class, which was nice. It's not terribly challenging right now, since I am familiar with most of the vocab and concepts we are using. Though I met another ASL minor student who was as sweet as pie. 

Then after class, I packed up, threw on all my rain gear, and hustled out into the squall to go to North Seattle College campus for the first day of ASL 1 with Michael. My face and exposed hair were drenched, but my rain gear kept the rest of me bone dry! Better yet, I unceremoniously tossed my wet gear into the corner of the classroom in my hurry to get ready for class, putting them inside out so I wouldn't drop water all over the place. I expected to be putting on wet gear for the ride home. But when class was over, all of it was dry. It breathes well, moisture proof, and dries fast. What more could I hope for?

ASL 1 class went well. I ran into a few friends and former students on campus before class and got lots of hugs and happy hellos. Class was packed as first classes tend to be, and the class itself went very well. Interpreters even showed up, and knew Michael and did a good job! It truly felt great to be back in the classroom. I love teaching, I love mentoring, I love sharing knowledge and stirring the excitement over learning new things together.

Home exhausted. Found this greeting me in the front hallway:

We are doing a Pirates of the Caribbean theme on our Halloween display this year, and Chris is 3-D printing letters for a sign. This is all that was finished when I arrived home. I love this dude.

Chris made us sandwiches and we had lunch together before I fell into bed and took a two hour nap. Then I was in the car headed to campus for the evening class. Again, we had two interpreters, both strong in their work. Class was packed and went well. And bonus: Sebastian Launey walked into class! I had no idea he was taking the class, it was a total surprise!! I got a big hug from him and got to hear about his work.

When class finished, I had the funniest experience: I got hit on for the first time in I don't know how long. There are some older students in the evening class, which is not unusual, including a man maybe late 50's early 60's who came with a friend, a woman of similar age. After class, he came up to me and asked my name again, then if the Sunday meetups can count toward Deaf Culture Hours, and I said absolutely. Then he said, "Erm...I'm sorry...and...you are married?" With a big smile, I said yes, yes I am. He thanked me and hurried off. Ha! Chris said that's what happens when you're the sexy co-ed TA. LOL

So after all that, after weather changes and biking and class-taking and class-teaching and driving and more teaching and rearranging classroom furniture, and and and...after all that I expected to be wrecked. So what did I do? I came home and cooked dinner. And watched a movie. And went to bed at a reasonable time. And got up not feeling completely destroyed. I even decided to bike straight to campus for my Zoom class this morning, so I could do some homework reading before my afternoon lecture. WHAT??

So yeah, head to campus this morning. Getting into the bike shelter with my monster bike is still a pain in the tuckus, and I dropped my bike on the way in. Oops. We're fine. Then took my morning class in Mary Gates Hall in the beautiful atrium. I love this space, architecture and vibe, both. Having a class in sign language means not having to worry about being disruptive by taking your Zoom in a public space. Another win for ASL!

Makes for a pretty distinguished backdrop for my Zoom, too.

Finished up my online class, worked on signing up for my community learning required for my EDUC 280 class, read most of the rest of my required reading for my EDUC 310 lecture, and then headed to said lecture.

The 310 class is pretty cool. The teacher I think is a bit inexperienced at teaching in this format, and has an apologetic attitude at times with her methods. She wants to be laid back and have a creative-lead space, but it is in a lecture hall. Making tiny art in our tiny notebooks on tiny side arm tables isn't ideal. And breaking into small groups for creativity and discussion is basically impossible. But we tried!

My assigned group has one freshman, two sophomores, a junior (me), and a senior. Other than me, each around 18/19 years old. None of them had done any of the reading. LOL So after being asked if I was a Grad student or a Masters student, and explaining I was an undergrad, too, I offered to summarize the reading as I understood it so we could talk about it. I then basically lead the discussion, briefly sharing what the writing said about inequity in the Makersphere, barriers to inclusion, and systemic devaluation of non-white non-male creativity and invention in American society in general, through the lens of the Maker movement. I asked them about their creative pursuits (an expansion on a topic the teacher had already introduced earlier in our lecture) and the value society places on creative pursuits (or not). We ended up talking about the burden of feeling like you need to make your every creative effort into money, and how that can suck all the fun out of what was a simple joy. We discussed tattoos (two students had personally designed tattoos on their bodies and shared the meaning behind them); cooking (one young man said he wasn't creative at all, but mentioned he likes cooking, so we talked about that in the context of devaluing this as a form of meaningful creativity); the differences between what we conceive in our minds and our frustration at the inability to recreate it; and their understanding of maker spaces and how they are accessed and organized (addressing financial and class barriers to access, and the devaluing the ideas and contributions of different people within those spaces, such as women or POC).

One of the students asked me what I was majoring in, then looked at me and said, "You're teaching US right now!" She did not say it unkindly. They were somewhat shy at first to talk, but I kept prompting them to speak up, and by the end it had a flow. I think it ended up being a good conversation. I don't know what they would have talked about or done if I hadn't been there, since none of them had done any of the reading, and one didn't even quite know what a maker space was. I generally worry at the same time about elbowing my Shay-ness into spaces like this, where not only have I always been a confident speaker and contributor in group settings, but now I am an elder. I don't want to rob them of whatever college experience they are having by making them feel they are sitting with a pushy old teacher lady who is going to take up all the air. But I also know this: none of what we discussed today would have been discussed, and maybe they did get something helpful to take away for their homework writing this week, which will be based on this and one other reading we were assigned. In short: I hope I helped.

Here's to old teacher ladies in the lecture hall, just doin' what she do.