Dear Class,
You have officially survived the first half of our class. Way to go.
Reflecting on Week 7:
- Your insights in the discussion boards were so interesting to read. I know it was a stressful two weeks in class as you crafted your first major essay and took Test #1, and I am impressed with your hard work. I love that we add reading gorgeous literature to the mix of our current chaos, and I feel honored to work with you.
- I received your mid-course feedback, and I just want to say thank you for being so kind and helpful. One student asked for more specific feedback about what is going well in his/her work, so I'm trying to highlight strengths better, and several students said it has been challenging taking this course as it pilots in I-Learn 3. Thank you so much for your patience and diligence as we work through the bugs. I spend hours dealing with these issues every week, so I can relate to your frustrations and confusion. Keep reaching out when you see problems; I'll keep doing my best to serve you, as will our course designer. We want you to be able to focus on the incredible content and our group learning in our class. I promise this class can be life changing if you let it shape you!
- Finally, your tests were wonderful to read. Although I get a sense for writing ability in the small writing assignments, the essays shine bright lights on strengths and weaknesses. I love the chance to help you see what I see and give you formative feedback. I've attached a few strong sample student essays for your reading enjoyment.
Looking toward Week 8:
- There are only two lessons this week.
- Jennifer D. and Laura will be leading discussion in our Questions for your classmates: Week 8 board this week. If you have a question you are dying to ask the class about our reading this week, fell free to post it by Tuesday evening.
- I plan to grade your Week 7 small assignments by Tuesday evening and your essays by Saturday evening.
It took almost two hours to discover my spiritual thread topic this morning.
My husband is usually very quiet when he gets ready in the morning if I'm sleeping. This morning was different. I could hear him muttering and grumbling before 6 am, and he finally declared that he couldn't wear his Batman costume because it was too small. Mind you, he'd bought it on Saturday--how much bigger could he have gotten in 40 hours?!--and he had already snipped the mask that came with the costume to make it fit better, so there was no returning that costume. $50 were now down the drain, and then he dealt another mortal blow: he'd need to use the Dracula costume he'd bought as a back-up! So we were $100 into our morning. . .and the baby woke up.
I was able to put the baby back to sleep, lecture my husband about all the money he'd cost us and suggest that he find some way of compensating for the loss; I finally offered one nice compliment--he looked scary. We said our morning prayer and off I went on a run, musing on possible spiritual thread topics. We could talk about gluttony (all those delicious treats that make Batman costumes too small), bounty, keeping an eternal perspective rather than letting the small things get in our way. . . and then I thought about all my nagging and scolding from this morning and found our topic: angels.
I was an angel at our neighborhood Halloween party, and the irony of my costume didn't escape me. I want to be an angelic influence, and I will this week! Please review Elder Holland's "The Tongue of Angels" conference talk and share some things you have done/are doing to be an angel this week.
I am cheering you on and praying for your happiness and success!
Sincerely,
Sister Bowen
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