Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Three Beautiful Things 11/22/10: Harry Potter Takeover, Siskana's Success, The Steak Challenge Continues

1.  My WR 121 students sat face to face and discussed reconciliation as exemplified and explored in The Souvenir.  I'm impressed with how they are thinking about this difficult topic.  Then, after a short break, and late in the period, one of my students mentioned that he had worked at the local multi-plex where Harry Potter was showing on fifteen screens all through the night when it opened.  This got our discussion off track talking about the Harry Potter phenomenon in a delightful way and I cheerfully threw up my hands, broke into a big smile, and said I didn't think we could recover our earlier discussion and ended class a little early.  The students all laughed.

2.  I was eager to be a part of yesterday's composition instructors' meeting.  Our new coordinator, Siskana, led the meeting for her first time.  She did a splendid job.  Even though we weren't always discussing how we teach our classes, such discussion was always close by and I came away doing a lot of self-examination about how I teach writing, a good thing for an old dog like me.

3.  Debbie brought home a nice chunk of sirloin steak.  I was assigned the job of cook.  I am inexperienced in steak cookery and I tried my hardest to do a good job.  Molly and Debbie enjoyed what I cooked, but I thought my piece was a little overcooked.  I tried to get the steaks right where I wanted them by using a meat thermometer, but, in my mind, didn't fully succeed.  I don't quite have the hang of frying steaks.  Two things come to mind:  I want more practice and I'm thinking Lura and others are correct that a George Foreman grill is the way to go.  I'm going to get a GF grill, but, still, I'm determined to cook steak better on the electric frying pan. 

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