Madness # 2

Shall we begin the journey...

Thank goodness a google account was already in my possession; however, I did not realize I could or ever would blog. To be honest, I am not at all sure what should be included in a blog.   As an "old school" English teacher, the first task at hand was to check the Eng. 575 syllabus closely for required readings, assignments, due dates, etc.  Next came the sorting of my reading materials, books and other readings.

The syllabus was organized and knowing ahead of time what the writing assignments would be about immediately started me thinking.  Because I teach quite a few different classes daily (8th grade reading, Louisiana history, DE English 102, health, P.E., 5th grade spelling and AR, plus I monitor approximately 5 other online courses from three different universities), and coach with no assistant the JV and varsity softball teams at my school, most of my college work and regular teacher work must be done randomly throughout the day when a free moment might arise or typically late at night. My best schoolwork and paper grading time through the years typically comes between the hours of midnight and 3:00 a.m.

Although I mentioned earlier that I personally was not a fan of fairy tales, I HAVE chosen to read these types of stories to my children and now to my grandchildren.  Obviously, I have and am trying to expose them to a wide variety of readings.  The assigned readings for this class offer an opportunity for me to not only read assorted tales, but the wide range of authors should afford some opportunities to examine various styles of writings.

Initially, as I scanned the assignments mentioned in the syllabus, # 4 caught my eye and my imagination.  Immediately having coached basketball, softball, and other sports for over forty years, I thought of March Madness (and a basketball Cinderella player or team).  I already have a player and a team in mind and some ideas flowing as to how to make "Cinderella" come to life as a college basketball player.  Hence, came the name for my blog site, Madness of an Old English Teacher.  I even had visions of using old style letters for the M in Madness, even thinking about expanding the title to March Madness and Much More.  However, I have not yet figured out how to master that idea of the old English letters.

I shall continue my reading, refreshing my memory about some classic tales and examining those readings that may not be quite so classic.

I am dreading a bit Assignment # 2, as I have never done a Prezi presentation, with a simple Power Point being the limit of my computer expertise.  Keep in mind when I wrote the thesis for my master's degree, the typing was done on a pica typewriter with no correction allowed (I haven't seen one in years).  Oh, and I do remember that we let the whole school out to go witness the first computer being unloaded off the back of a truck and carried into the school.

Hopefully, soon I will have some interesting comments to share about the readings and my take on "fairy tales."  I also look forward to reading the thoughts of all of our class participants.