Oh, look, nearly another month gone by without a blog post. Here’s a quick overview of what’s going on.

1. Teaching. I got another class 2 weeks ago when another instructor got a better job and quit mid-semester. Overall, the new students seem sharp and hard working. This is now the norm – UVU has come a long way!!! Adding all those 4 year degrees I think has had a very good impact on the school. Right now I have a 3″ pile of papers, of which I’ve graded just over 1″. As long as I chip away a little every day, it gets done. Good papers are EASY to grade! A pleasure, I can almost say (and sometimes say quite sincerely). Bad or rather undeveloped papers take 5-10 times longer since I have to pay much closer attention. That’s why I try to be as helpful and motivating as I can. Well, that’s one reason. I ran into a student from last semester this week who told me that not only is his opinion of English greatly improved due to my class, but he now enjoys *learning* from his education rather than just checking things (assignments, courses) off. Imagine that! It make me think I should maybe keep on teaching, but…

2. I may end up getting a job with Adobe this year. Omniture, actually, which Adobe bought. Advanced web analytics stuff. Designing systems companies to track how effective their web pages are. That would triple my income, which I desperately need.

3. My “final” revision of my textbook arrives this week, and I’ll see if I can get it approved for use. If so, I’ll get marketing it to other instructors, too. If that works, then I may be able to afford to teach after all. We’ll see how it goes. Continue Reading »