di·a·chron·ic (adj.): Of or concerned with phenomena as they change through time.
par·a·digm (noun): A typical example or pattern; an example serving as a model.
Friday, October 26, 2012
Middle School Student Conversations
Saturday, October 20, 2012
What the World Eats
Yesterday and today I've been attending the TYCA West conference, which, luckily, has been held at SLCC. During the last breakout session, I attended "Inviting Students to the Table: Using a Food Theme to Teach Composition," in which one of the SLCC professors, Charlotte Howe, used food as a theme to teach the English class that I teach (ENGL 1010 - Introduction to Writing). One of the books Howe uses is Hungry Planet: What the World Eats, which illustrates a week's worth of meals families around the world eat, which was used in tandem with an NPR podcast episode that featured an interview with the authors. (She also uses Food, which includes writings from Julia Child and Anthony Bourdain.)
As an example of one of the ways in which the discussion of what people around the world eat, in terms of the particulars of amounts of selection, Howe brought in the food that one family would have been allocated for a day, which included 15 ounces of a cooked version of millet - which she had prepared for the group.
We each got a small sample of the grain, which was interesting.Her handouts included a syllabus, and she discussed how she had incorporated some of the assignments that, as a department, we are to include (such as the rhetorical analysis).
Monday, October 15, 2012
Greek Orthodox Baptism & In-Laws
This past weekend, Ed and I flew out to Massachusetts for a baptism: his cousin Nick and his wife Nada, who'd gotten married six weeks after Ed and I did, had a baby about six months ago (10 months after getting married). Ed and I - along with my parents and Ed's father, and a slew of other relatives Ed and I had never met before - were invited to the baptism, which was held at Holy Trinity Orthodox Hellenic Orthodox Church.
Ed and I hadn't even known the existance of many of these cousins until our wedding, and it was of course the first time we'd met Nick's wife. (We'd been invited to their wedding, and had planned on going, but Ed's losing his job so soon after our own wedding negated the possibility of travel.)
The ceremony was quite interesting, half in Greek and half in English, and lasted an hour. Ioannis was a bit cranky during the ceremony, which I suspect was held at his normal mid-morning nap time, and of course he howled when he was being chrismed and submerged, as well as when he was being changed into his baptismal clothing. It was a beautiful church (as Greek Orthodox churches tend to be).
Nada was such a nice person, as were many of the relatives Ed and I met for the first time, and Ioannis was absolutely gorgeous.
We had a great lunch after the baptism, after which we all dispersed, exhausted as we all were. Mom, Dad, Ed, and I went out to a pub for a light, late dinner; on Sunday, Mom, Ed, and I went to Mass at an Irish church that was across the street from the Greek Orthodox church, after which we picked up Dad and met Ed's father, Nick, Nada, Ioannis, and Nada's father for lunch at a Greek deli. Ioannis was extremely well-behaved, letting all of us hold him with no fussing.
From Baby Limberopolous |
It was such a happy weekend, a reprieve that Ed and I really needed.