Monday Again

iPod morning commute music: Bonnie Raitt, Nick of Time (1989)
Most people who know Bonnie Raitt know her from this album, which won several Grammys including Album of the Year. I first heard her in my university days, and my CD collection is weaker for not having more of her work. I suppose, though, if you're only going to have 1 album, this would be the one to own. Great stuff.

I'm really feeling thrashed today, but I'm fortunate in that I don't have any classes on Mondays this term. Saturday I was in school from 7:50 am until 9:45 pm because of our junior high entrance exam. I didn't get home until just before midnight. Yesterday I finished the FAFSA paperwork for Tatsu's financial aid and then was shocked to find out how much I'm expected to contribute towards his schooling. Of course, this is treating our Japanese salaries as if we were in America, and once I calmed down I found the page on the FAFSA site that expains how universities will take into account the individual family situations that FAFSA cannot. I wrote an e-mail to the woman in charge of foreign recruitment at the U of O asking her what extra info if any we should provide for the Diversity-Building scholarship Tatsu's applying for. Now I guess it is simply wait and see.

Today I need to get a better idea of what textbooks I want to use next year. I teach in two rotations, one for junior high and one for senior high. Basically, we follow our students up through the years, so rotation one is 7th grade in the first year, 8th grade in the second, 9th in the third, then back to 7th. High school follows the same pattern. This year I taught 9th and 12th grades, so next year (which starts in April) I'll go back to 7th and 10th grades (note my 9th grade students will be 10th graders next year, so I'll be teaching many of them again). I've been using the same textbook series for the last several years, but because we'll be in our new school from second term next year I really need to switch textbooks. This is because all our lessons in the new school will be in Computer Aided Language Laboratories (CALL), and our current texts can't really take advantage of the new technology. It's hard to decide since we can't really pilot any of the new series because the CALL systems won't be operational until after summer vacation.

So that's today's agenda: kick back and look at books. I know, it's a tough life but somebody has to live it.