It’s a repost, I know, but enjoy this now-dead bird:

Well I’m almost finished with my first semester of officially teaching, and I’ll say it’s been fun for the most part. I definitely had some preconceptions that were shattered throughout the course, but I expected that. I’ve come to realize that, as one of my students aptly noted, I’m a “hard grader”, which I think makes me a tough professor… ? I’m ok with that label. One of my most difficult professors as an undergrad seemed to have a lot in common with how I run my class now, and in looking back I realized that I actually did learn quite a bit in his class. I hated him at the time, but any animous I have for him now is simply residual. It probably took becoming a professor myself to realize he wasn’t just being difficult for the heck of it.

It looks like I won’t be returning to MCC in the Spring, however, because they won’t be offering my section. I was given the possibility of another course, but scheduling/transportation became enough of an issue that I wasn’t able to make it work. It’s unfortunate that I live so incredibly far from the school, because I really enjoyed it out there. They’ve mentioned having me back in the Summer and Fall, and I think I’d like that.

There is an upside, though. There’s a decent chance that I’ll be teaching an art history course at one of the City Colleges of Chicago in the Spring. It could be a great opportunity to get into that system (which, let’s face it, is one of the reasons we moved to a city like Chicago), and teaching something so different would be a nice challenge. I’m also hoping at least one major school (if not more) that I’ve had my eye on will pick me up for at least a single class. That would rock my world.

Thanksgiving is tomorrow, and we don’t have a whole lot planned. Stacy’s friend Hope has flown in for a few days, so we’ll be showing her our admittedly shallow tour of the city. It’s gotten pretty bitterly cold, but I’m told it gets much worse by January, so I guess we’ll be counting our blessings for the “warmth” we’ll experience walking down Michigan Avenue.

What’s not apparent is how incredibly cold it was. We were using my coat as the dropcloth. Thanks to my student, Maggie, for the photo.

We shot out in the cold yesterday… here’s one of students right before we did individual portraits with sheet film for making cyanotypes later this week. It was overexposed, and bleached out quite a bit before I scanned it on an awful scanner in a PC lab at the school.

Ike was pretty brutal to our family’s beach house on the Bolivar Peninsula. So brutal, in fact, that it’s gone. Before (from Google Maps street view):

And after (via Mom and my brother Ryan yesterday):

Ryan erected the flag pole and flew a flag that they found.