Tomorrow is the last day of ILA

Well, tomorrow is my last day teaching Introduction to Liberal Arts till next year. And what am I doing? Blogging, facebooking, surfing, looking for an episode to Monk in which Tivo failed to record the last 15 minutes (no luck finding it)--when I should be grading and preparing.

But I really am pretty prepared. We are just going to review what they've learned, answer questions about students meeting with advisors next week, and go over their assignment for their final paper and their evaluation of the class.

It's been a very good group of students, and I'm grateful. I'll miss them all. I hope to be a part of their lives during their career at Bethel-whether it ends this year or at graduation in three years from this spring.

I hope I've made a small difference in their lives. I know they have made one in mine.

Till next time,


Suzi

Fall's in full swing

Well, the end of October is already approaching. Summer is definitely over, and fall's been pretty busy. We had snow on October 10--way too early, especially after being spoiled by a beautiful September with mild temperatures. Today's been pretty nice--sunny this morning, but getting more cloudy this aftenoon. The leaves were still green at the Oct. 10 snowfall, but now the trees are past peak and dropping leaves.

Raven thinks the cold is great, and loved the snow and colder weather. After he got his collar off mid-August, he started suffering from end-of-summer allergies and pollens. Now he's stopped scratching and gone back to being a regular dog.

I've been busy with work and school. My internship seminar started this month, and I've got assignments to assemble my teaching portfolio. I've taught one session which Tim videotaped in my journalism class, and I've done some grading. I'm also teaching Introduction to Liberal Arts (freshmen), which will wind down this week. We're having our last class sessions this week, but the students have assignments the following week, so grading won't be done for awhile yet.

At least things at work have settled down a bit. Seminary classes started the end of September, and now we're already almost to the mid-point of the quarter. We're starting to think about Thanksgiving and Christmas. Funny how quickly time goes by!

Cheri will be visiting in a couple of weeks with her sweet grand-baby--watching Joshy while Jon and Kristi take a trip to California. That should be fun! It's always nice to have Cheri around. By then I'll be done teaching and just have my Tuesday night internship class.

Christina is continuing with her criminal justice classes, and seems to be doing well. All three kids are still busy working at Sarpino's--the boys are delivering pizzas and Christina is working "in-store." Both boys are also working with Tim as well.

Tim's almost finished working on the latest house, and we're excited to see how that's working out. It gives him such a feeling of satisfaction--and it's been nice for him to work at his own pace on his own place.

So, we're keeping out of trouble so far! If anything changes, I may or may not blog about it . . .

You can also keep up with my on Facebook at facebook.com/swansmith.

Till next time,

Suzi

Blogging again

Picture of Tim and his old high school buddy, John. Unfortunately, John's mom passed away recently and he was in town for the memorial service a couple weeks ago. Tim and John look more like brothers than friends, don't they? I had to snap this fuzzy picture of them from Tim's cell phone.

Well, it's been way too long since I've blogged. Been really busy with work and school. I began my teaching internship with one of Bethel's college journalism professors, and she is teaching ENW499: Critical Issues in Journalism. All of the students (7) are seniors. This past Tuesday I lectured/led discussion based on an mpr broadcast on the future of journalism. Tim videotaped me. Next Saturday I begin my internship seminar class, where I'll be working on my teaching portfolio. In the meantime, I'm still working at Bethel in the Anthropology/Sociology/Reconciliation Department, as well as in the registrar's office for the seminary and the adult programs.

Last weekend we went with our church (Solomon's Porch) to Lake Beauty Bible Camp in Long Prairie, MN. The kids were all working that weekend, so Tim and I went up with friends from church and enjoyed a relaxing weekend, although we stayed up too late playing Mafia. The way our church plays the game is with a hand-made set of cards, created by one of our church artists, Luke Hillestad. He has made some very creative cards, including the gravedigger, the town drunk, several freemason cards, and a special mafia card: the Godfather. Last Saturday night I went to bed at 2 am while Tim and others were up till about 4:30 playing the game.

Well, I should work on the house some more today as well as grade papers and plan for next week's classes. I'll try to be more regular about blogging as well.

Till next time,

Suzi