Don't Panic Button

I'm just about ready to go. Well, let me put it another way. It's almost time for me to get on an airplane, but I'm not really very ready. I am getting there, though.

Today, I put together my class for the semester, every assignment, reading, this and that. It's all together, waiting to be sent off so that the class packet can be made up for the students. I usually use a fairly sparse set of outside readings, but I want to give students a bit more hands on practice reading some American style essays, so I spent some time looking for appropriate essays in a typical comp reader.

And I'm cranky. What do you expect from a typical student essay that uses outside sources? A works cited section! Right. So how many essays in this book that used outside sources actually included a works cited section? Two.

If our students are reading essays without works cited sections, how are they supposed to get the idea that works cited sections should be automatic for them? They don't.

Dear comp reader publisher: Please, please, please, make sure your readings have works cited sections!

But that's done now. (Fair use and all.) I got a few other things done, too. I sent off my "just in case" information to my sibling. I got a watch to replace the one that died more than a year ago. I fed myself.

Among my plans for tomorrow, I'm going to turn in my cable modem and have the cable connection to the house turned off. That means no more sitting on the couch with the TV on, writing this or that blog post, checking email, reading blogs, checking the news.

I don't know when I'll be back posting. I expect to have internet access while I'm in Asia, but I don't know details and such.

Until whenever, que vayan bien!