I remember watching that 1960's movie starring Fred MacMurray (from My Three Sons, and yes, we did watch a lot of Nick at Nite at my house!). The professor accidentally invents flubber, which ends up being quite the desirable substance! The Absent-Minded Professor was a great movie.
Little did I know that I would end up marrying an absent-minded professor. I don't think he'll invent anything in his science lab, but he can be the distracted (forgetful?) type. I alluded to a story about him, and the funny thing is, is that this is a repeat. He has actually done this twice, and fortunately caught himself twice. While heading out the door and emerging in the bright day outside, Randy looks down at his feet and notices that he has two different shoes on! This happened in Irvine 5+ years ago, but also on his first day of classes this year. Of course one reason that I love him is that he always keeps my life interesting!
School has been in session since the 29th, but because of the Labor Day holiday, Randy didn't get to teach all of his classes until yesterday, the 10th. He taught his first graduate level class on Monday afternoon, and it is so hard to believe that he could have been in that class just a little over one year ago.
As a teacher you develop a reputation. It is interesting seeing Randy manage his teaching persona. I developed mine when I first started teaching elementary school, but college is a totally different thing, especially since some of his students are older than him. Randy got to start this process when he was an adjunct writing teacher at Biola, some 10 years ago. He has honed his skills over the last 10 years of being an adjunct, a T.A., and now a professor. That is one of the best things about teaching: being able to learn and change as you go along.
We have had some good laughs the last year as Randy has heard little tidbits of what the students think of him. First of all, he has been known by the grad students as Randy-O. Because we have a ridiculously long last name, Randy has never been able to have an e-mail address with his full last name. In Irvine the e-mail was rontiver@.... In Maryland he has randy0@.... So the graduate students have nicknamed him Randy-O. Now that he has contact with more grad students, it will be interesting to see if that name sticks. Also last week, Randy was reading the campus newspaper (which gets published every school day) and found an opinion article about an unnamed professor. Turns out it was him. It is funny the reputation you earn, even before you meet your students. You definitely need to read this article! Fortunately the girl is making fun of herself, too, as she should!
Teaching is full of surprises!
Sep 11, 2007
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2 comments:
Randy has me beat on the shoe thing. My own absent-minded professor specialty involves locking myself out of the house up to once a month. That's why our doors now lock only by deadbolt or key... no more little twisty nipples on knobs.
Washing my hair twice in one shower (and not because a shampoo bottle says so) comes a distant second, although it throughly amuses Adina.
Oh boy! Randy has a tough time with keys and locking himself out, too. In Irvine he became quite good at breaking in to our apartment. He routinely loses his keys, sometimes permanently. And in July he left my keys on top of the car and lost them on a local street. He went back to retrieve them and the keys were so squished that they all needed to be replaced.
It is nice to know he is in good company, Lawton!
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