On BlackBoard...

Last year, we moved to BB6 and I had to make major adjustments to all of my courses. Guess what? This year, we moved to BB7 and all tests/assessments (and test banks) are gone, gone, gone... all because our Tech Support "lost" my backups. Grrrrr...

So here I am, wasting days to reinvent my own "wheel," trying to put everything back together. No, I am not the kind of instructor who teaches the same course in the same exact way every semester. Maybe I should -- would save a lot of time. But I can't -- I want to reach out to students, to teach in the best possible way. Still, it's nice to accumulate resources and mix and match them every semester. It's not fun to just lose those resources...

There! I ranted and now feeling better! Now back to work... ;)

Tired...

So tired this morning... had to drag myself out of bed this morning... I am not a morning person to begin with and I didn't get much sleep. Talked on the phone until very late, then had to change a reservation. Because it was for the international flight, I kept getting "no seats left on this flight" message which was really freaking me out -- until I had a "brilliant" idea to check the seats left. Duh -- plenty of seats, just a block to prevent changes to international flights. So spent another 40 minutes listening to the most horrible elevator music I have ever heard -- can't even describe it, a mix of screaming, whining, ugh!

On a bright side, I don't really have to be fully awake on TR morning because I am teaching the basic keyboarding course and there isn't much I can do unless students work on their own, so I pretty much babysit for the first several weeks, making sure they are using the correct techniques, of course.

And that reservation? It actually means I am going to spend double time with my travel companion. Definitely not complaining here! ;)

Procrastinating, big time...

It's after noon and I still haven't accomplished anything truly useful:

• Check and respond to email
• Enjoy breakfast
• Play with cats
• Look for some books/CDs online
• Finish writing a paper (um, more like write 2/3?!)
• Update course rosters (add/drop period is over -- a reason to rejoice and celebrate!!!)
• Go through/pay bills
• Exercise
• Enjoy a long soak...

Maybe I should just go to the last two items... alas, the paper is due on Monday...

Another busy semester...

This summer has flown by so fast... I can't believe today was the last day of the first week of classes. Yep, we start the fall semester very early, much earlier than I would like, personally. I wanted a few days off between semesters so I could do absolutely nothing but, alas, that didn't happen -- posted grades for the summer semester and had to prepare for this semester. At least I have a week before my own classes start...

On a cheerful note, I look forward to an exciting trip to the Middle East in a few weeks!!! :) It came together rather unexpectedly but should be lots of fun. Any advice for traveling to Dubai? I am rather nervous about driving there -- statistics are kinda scary... Originally, I reserved an economy car, trying to stay within budget. Today, I decided to pay a ridiculous amount of money but get an SUV instead; should be much safer. What do you think?