If Ever There Was Morning That Deserved Real Coffee...*

Because it IS such a morning, I am having a medium mocha at Kavarna and trying to jump start my day. I am having some difficulty in my endeavor as I am easily distracted and have so far delved into the correct use of the subjunctive in English (American English or British English? I don't know.... Auuuuuuuugh!) and gotten lost in art/poetry on the wall here at Kavarna, and, oh yes, that little Monty Python side trip...

Back to business. Last night's class was wonderful. It is going to take me a bit to back into the teaching rhythm--I have had a production hat on for so long that I've forgotten a bit about the timing and social necessities of teaching. I went into last night's class determined to be uber efficient in communicating everything I could to the class participants about the techniques and theory being presented--without overwhelming them--and I completely missed taking into account that classes for many people are also social interaction occasions. Some of the participants of this class had taken other classes together and needed some time to chat and catch up, and all of them needed a little time to learn about the rest of the group and to bond so I had to manage the delicate balance between letting them ramble and reining them in to keep them on track (and on time). After all, the purpose of the class is to HAVE FUN. Yes, they will (hopefully) learn things too, but when they leave the class it is most important that they think back on what a great time they had and how energized and motivated they feel after it (and how they want to do another one).

We finished work at 9:30, finished chatting and headed out the door at 10:00. I didn't have them clean up their stations yesterday (bad me), but I will henceforth. I got them all to sign photo releases, but I was so busy during the class that I didn't take any pics. Oh well, next week. One of my students is taking a quick trip to Murano this weekend so I will definitely plan time for chat into next week's class.

For now I'll pick up where I left off on the monstrous list from yesterday... after I call Todd.


*Thank you Wordpower for the clarification on the use of the subjunctive vs the indicative to express conditions (but what the heck is the .ws top level domain on the URL?)!

Either the Indicative Mood or the Subjunctive Mood can be used to express a condition.

In the case of a condition which is considered true or probable, the Indicative Mood is used.
e.g. If she is here now, we will ask her opinion.
In this example, the verb is is in the Simple Present Indicative. The use of the Simple Present Indicative indicates that the condition if she is here now is considered to be probable.

In the case of a condition which is considered false or improbable, the Subjunctive Mood is used.
e.g. If she were here now, we would ask her opinion.
In this example, the verb were is in the Simple Past Subjunctive. The use of the Simple Past Subjunctive indicates that the condition if she were here now is considered to be false or improbable.