(no subject)

Back to class today! The first half hour was spent with admin issues, since government funding has changed (again! but we're totally fine for this term, and possibly next) and government rules have changed and many explanations were necessary. We're in a transition period, and then the admin staff change again. When the new people come, they'll see out the term and then sort out what they want to do. It was worth spending time explaining this, because all the changes have been accepted without any feel of unease by the students.

For me, the only change until the new staff arrive is that my term is a week shorter and I get an excursion with my students on the last teaching week. This gives me three weeks for solid writing of dissertation instead of two, and about the same pay packet, so it all works well. I suspect my students will worry about the extra holiday closer to the time, so there will be a project taht those willing can undertake during the longer break.

The excursion is to the National Gallery and there will be manuscripts, so I introduced my class to the basics of manuscript production. They were fascinated by the difference between a codex and a scroll. Next week I shall take along some show and tell and we'll talk about the hands they'll see. The last week before the excursion we'll talk about the actual works they'll look at.

To match, I'm teaching them some writing techniques (re-teaching for some of the students) that they might encounter if they read the literature on display. I started with alliteration, of course, even though there is nothing terribly alliterative in the exhibition. This is the fourth time I've taught alliteration - the class loves it, but finds it forgettable. Not sure what I will do next week or the week after, but I have *days* to work this out.

My Wednesday classes so often entail throwing out the class plan in favour of interesting subjects that have arisen...