The world is chaos right now, but I am taking a moment to be happy.
Today was the first day of teaching. And since instruction is 100% online, it also was my first day of teaching a class via Zoom. (I’d done chat-based Zoom review sessions last semester, and a handful of video meetings with students I knew well, but today was the real, full-blown deal.) And since I LANDED MY DREAM JOB about two weeks before lock-down kicked in, it also was my first time teaching students at California State University, Stanislaus (Stan State). I’ll be teaching TESOL courses for the English department, which is full of kind and lovely people.
Here is my proud “first day of school” photo. Very uncharacteristic of me to share a photo willingly, but I’m so deliriously happy right now—despite stupid COVID—because after so many years on the market and after coming so close, so many times, it worked out and I landed the perfect job. A school I can be so proud to be part of (Stan State wins awards for helping students with social mobility and for being the best value for your tuition dollars), and it happens to be in California right next to Yosemite National Park!? And I get to continue to teach the same types of courses I was teaching in Indiana, but with job stability now!
I was going to wear one of my two owl necklaces, but I decided to wear a necklace my late grandma gave me instead. Why? My aunt (her daughter) and I were texting right before I taught and talking about studying languages, and I learned yet another positive thing about my grandma. My aunt told me the following, regarding Spanish.
Ahead of her time, indeed.
1.) What other white mom in Chicago in the early 60’s was telling her first grader that she ought to learn Spanish? I just checked and, even today, only 20% of US elementary school students are studying a language.
2.) She was DISTANCE-learning and home-teaching her kid using distance-learning technology before COVID19 made it “cool”.
Even after she’s gone, my grandma continues to be a role model for me. I’m glad she lived to see me earn the “doctor” (PhD) title (she and that aunt watched the UCLA broadcast of the graduation from all the way over in Florida), AND the “professor” title (Visiting Assistant Professor), and now I feel like she got to be part of the day I first taught as a tenure track professor. Makes me feel warm and fuzzy.
We’ll get through this strange semester and maybe next fall I’ll get to have a sort of second first day of teaching my Stan State students: The first day of face-to-face teaching 🙂
jori lindley 