le nubian,

Thanks! I've always wondered what the perspective is from the other side of high school graduation. My expertise is all 6-12 so it's interesting to read about the issues from your perspective.

One thing that is nuts-making for me is how ill prepared my students are for my class and how I scramble to prepare them for a traditional comp class. My system switched from 12th comp and lit analysis to a straight out expository class, which I hope is helpful for college (or would have been for me since I was not an English major).

But the skills? The ones they leave with are just not strong enough (I can move a kid maybe a year to a year and a half ahead if they do the work, but not much further... so if they come to me writing like a 6th grader, they might leave writing like an 8th or 9th grader, which is still not good) and they test into English 28 or English 21 and then spend 3 years just getting to English 101. It's depressing.

If you're interested in issues around community colleges, I recommend the blog "Confessions of a Community College Dean." [link] He has his ranty issues, but he's often insightful, and the way things work from inside the administration is often not the way things look to the general, even informed, public. (He is all over remediation, retention, etc.)

Oh flea, thanks for the link. Just skimming now, but yes, I can see where it's a whole different perspective.

Kat, I hope you have an easy-as-possible day.

So, if msbelle wants to take a few weeks off from her job and come to the DC Metro area, we may have just bought another house. My DH will be gone for 2 weeks in October, the person in my dept who handles most of the faculty requests will be going on Grand Jury duty for 4 weeks starting mid-October and another person will be teaching in Poland . . . Packing and moving should be fun! Oi. I never thought my DH's reaction to the house would be "let's go for it" rather than his usual "stop it" when I start looking.

Whoa! (I might be coming to DC Nov. 9-10, for a conference, and I am good at (and enjoy, albeit not to msbelle levels) packing/unpacking!)

Good like with the surgery Kat.

There's a term entry-level job at an academic library nearby. I really want to apply, but sitting down w. my resume last night was just depressing. All transferable skills and no direct experience. Also, the subjects covered are not my strong suit.

Sparky, congrats on the new house! Is it in roughly the same area?

We have some questions to pose to the inspection people about the house, like you do when the house is close to 100 years old, so we may have to repudiate the contract sometime in the next 7 days, but we're crossing our fingers as this would get us off our very busy street onto a very quiet one for the same mortgage payment.

Link goes poof soon: (poof!) If you want to know ping my profile addy!

I like my libraries new and my houses old.

Is it in roughly the same area?

Yes, same neighborhood, so no changes for daycare or school. Just tucked away on a one-block street.

The porch is divine. It's significantly larger than your current place? Wainscoting in the bathroom? And the kitchen looks great!

Congrats!