Marvelous Madison

Let it be known that I have now finished two whole semesters of my graduate degree! Yay! And as far as I know, I am doing A-OK. Of course, my testing and evaluation of ELLs course is somewhat up in the air. The course was online, and since I received no feedback from my prof, I had no idea of how I was doing. Then it was time for the final project, which I was grossly underprepared for. I just don't think I got enough from the prof, the readings, and the online "class".

The assignment was to create an entire testing program for English Language Learners in a school. Some people had it easy because it they were already in a school working, they were allowed to write about the system that they work with. Those of use not currently teaching ESL in a school (which, if I were, why would I be taking this class???), had to make up a school, make up a student population, and create an entire program from scratch. It is a good thing that my school and students are fake, because I don't want to screw anyone real up too badly. Anyway, even though that class has been over for a month, I have heard nothing from the prof, nor have I received any grades back. At all. None. Not even from the little reflection I wrote the very first week of class back in June. Anyway, I'm a little freaked out.

So now I am just doing stuff around the house for my family until my next semester starts up again in a few weeks and work starts again at about the same time. I should be beyond busy in just a few weeks. Yay!

I went to visit my boyfriend in Madison this past weekend to see his new place. He moved into a house with two brothers and lucky for me I like them. The house is rather spacious, although they need to give it a good scrub down because it is pretty dirty. Joe and I went to the zoo, which was pretty awesome, especially for a free zoo. They had rhinos, giraffes, seals, tigers, orangutans, penguins, etc. We also went out to the Sundance movie theatre opened by Robert Redford, and that place was neat!

We say "Paper Heart" and it was cute. My favorite was the interviews with the people, and I got a kick out of the puppets. The theatre has assigned seats, which is weird, but kind of nice. Also, it has a rooftop bistro and you can get bottles of wine, cheese plates, spaghetti and meatballs, hummus, fish and chips, etc. to eat on the roof or take into the movie theatre with you. We had popcorn and I had a root beer and Joe had a Spotted Cow, but I am pretty sure next time we are going to go crazy and get a meal or some appetizer that would be ridiculous to eat at a movie.

Next weekend I'll be going out to the cabin with Joe, Dani, Linnea, Kyle, and Andrew. Unfortunately, Derek is unable to make it. It should be a good time with the canoe, crokinole, mad libs, and movies.