New school year, Elijah's cool room

Ok, the school year is moving along now. We've now completed over a week of classes. My schedule is both easier and more difficult than last year's. It's a little easier because I'm taking less classroom hours, meaning the only course I'm taking that actually requires me to go to a class is German (third semester). But obviously, this will be the hardest German class I've had yet, and to be honest I thought 2nd semester was bad enough. I'll be required at various points during the semester to not only write entire essays in German, but also deliver speeches in front of the class. In addition, my other courses will require major papers of me. These will be major papers done en route to my Master's Thesis, so they'll require a lot of critical reading and research. I am also working as a Teaching Assisstant and that is proving to require a lot of outside work as well as office hours, grading papers (which takes a long time), and of course I have to go to the regular Monday/Wednesday lectures, and then prepare my own stuff for Fridays. But I am really enjoying it so far. As opposed to teaching teenagers in churches where the pastor and parents would prefer I have no expectations of the students and never actually teach anything at all, teaching is of course the main goal of my job now. And I don't get hassled for being tough. On this level, it is expected that the course-load be tough and that the students will put forth a lot of effort--especially since this is UGA, where all accepted students are coming from high schools where they already proved themselves to be excellent students. This year's freshman class has the highest average high school GPA and highest average SAT scores of any entering class ever. I have 2 sessions on Fridays: 9:05 and 2:30. The morning class has 25 students and the afternoon class has 19. They're almost all first-semester freshmen. A funny story is that on Monday, just before Dr. Godlas's lecture, a student (who apparently had just added the course and missed my lecture on Friday the 17th) came up to the row where us TA's were sitting, looked at me and asked, "Are you Dr. Hopper?"

The course is RELI 1006: World Religions. It is a really interesting subject and I am really enjoying it. Dr. Godlas orients all lectures and discussions around the subject of how religion scholars and religious practitioners can work to increase mutual respect and understanding of each other while lessening the potential for violence (which has obviously become all too closely associated with religions around the world). You can see a good picture and lots of information about Dr. Godlas here. He also has an award winning website here, containing lots of great links and information concerning the critical study of world religions.

In addiition to my school load and my TA employment, I am also trying to hold down 2 other jobs here in town. Right now, I'm about to start working a regular schedule however. That will help. I'll be opening the store (7:45 - 3:45) on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and working nights at the restaurant. I don't know how long this will last, but for now it's very helpful.

In other news, Elijah's room just got a little bit of redecorating to look more boyish.