Zumba and Apples. And Bananas.

Ok, even if you're friends with me on FB, bear with me for a minute, okay?

I haven't even showered yet after my invigorating bike ride and Zumba class at the Y, just so I could share with you tonight's experience. Aren't you lucky?

You see all sorts of people doing Zumba, which is really fun. It's usually mostly women; there is 1 guy who goes to my class who is an older guy in his 60s. He kind of dances to his own beat, does what he can but there is definitely no hip swiveling or shimmying of any kind:)

There are young girls with lots of energy and some who are cautious, there are middle-aged women, there is one lady who shakes her hips like I've never seen before; I'm afraid she'll pull a muscle one of these days! There are people who've done Zumba for a year and know every move by heart and others, like me, who are new at it and turn the wrong way or take several beats to figure out what in the world they are supposed to be doing with their feet!

But tonight. Tonight a new visitor to Zumba took the cake. I walked in, set my water bottle and keys down and noticed immediately that in the front row was this guy, with muscular calves, wearing too-short mesh shorts, a very tight white shirt that was just a size or two too small. As in, when he lifted his arms his beer belly was bared for all to see.

He swiveled his hips, jumped up and down, danced from side to side and was really surprisingly graceful! But. But it was very distracting and I admit I was a little relieved when he left halfway through so I could concentrate!

I do love that people of all different shapes/ages/sizes/exercise levels, etc do Zumba. If you are curious about it, go try it! I guarantee you'll have fun! I even talked my mom into it and now she loves it and is going to go at least twice a week:)
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That being said, it was a good day. Nothing too exciting happened, except Z got a small basketball and he spent some time practicing this afternoon. It's very hard to teach him things because he wants to do it HIS OWN WAY. Because he knows everything. Sigh.


I do hope that practicing will help him gain some confidence for his class. We want him to have fun while he learns!
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I am going to start helping B grade papers for his classes, something I actually really enjoy doing. We are both getting something out of the deal. He gets to save time (and time is VERY precious when you are dissertating and working 2 jobs!) and I get a trip to JoAnns! (when we get money, of course:)

Anyways, he has been telling me for a few weeks how a lot of his students, especially in his first class, are not trying at all and not listening. This is completely different from a University of Chicago student where the prof says something ONE time and you'd better remember it. It's very frustrating for a teacher to say things 8 times and have the student say, "Huh?"

So he gave them an open-note quiz last week (OPEN NOTE, mind you) and most of the people got the essay questions totally wrong!! Seriously, it was like "What color are apples? Support this with 2 arguments." (This was not the question, of course, but I am going to show you how ridiculous the answers were.)

"Apples are purple because God wanted apples to look like Him and apples grow in the ground. Therefore they are purple."

"Apples are red. God made them red so we could see them and diversify the integrative perspective of the narrative." (huh?)

"Bananas are yellow. They are good to eat because they are healthy, in my eyes."

Seriously. I wanted to mark so many of them with a 0 but Ben said I had to be nice:) Darn it. He said they do a lot of coddling at this university and he has to go right along with the flow. When this one girl answered her questions perfectly, I wanted to draw exclamation points and stars all over her paper. But I didn't:) She did get extra credit though...

I pray when he gets THE job, he can work at a place where students are stimulated and encouraged to learn and try hard; a place where he can feel like he is really teaching and helping them think and learn.

And a place where the students can tell the difference between apples and bananas.

Alright, I know you think I've totally lost it by now. I'll try to be more normal tomorrow so don't give up on me! :)