The miracle of adrenaline

The motto of the University of Worcester is "Ad Inspirandum Aspiramus"--Aspire to Inspire.  I rather like that as it certainly fits with my personal philosophy.  Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling terribly "inspirational" today.  My cold has progressed to my sinuses, so I felt compelled to medicate.  I stopped off at Boots to purchase meds, cough drops and tissues to take me through the day.  I found a med called  "DayNurse/NightNurse" which I assume is the UK version of Dayquil/Nyquil. 

Before going in to the classroom.  I made sure to bring my tissues and cough drops, but...true to previous experience...the classroom adrenaline kicked in--perhaps DayNurse helped--and dried up my runny nose for the duration of the class.
 
After working steadily on internationalizing my Deciding What's News class, we finally had our first class meeting.  Nine of the students are from the UK, seven from the U.S.  While most of the UK students are studying Journalism, we have one student studying history and politics.  The US students represent majors in Finance, History, Communication, Art History, Psychology and one student who hasn't yet settled on a major.  The students actively engaged with each other and the class as a whole.  It was great to have different perspectives.  All-in-all, I'd say it was a successful day. 

I'm really looking forward to their responses to the material posted in the class management system.  Next week, we'll be looking at Edward R. Murrow versus Joseph McCarthy and focusing on the watchdog role of journalists with respect to the government.  We'll be contextualizing that discussion within the framework of journalism as a profession, and the International Federation of Journalists Declaration of Principles. I really love the material in this class, so I am hopeful that the students will connect with it.

Thursday is Volcano Choir day, so after grabbing a bite to eat at the Slug and Lettuce, in spite of the vile name,

(as it happens, the meal was pretty tasty), it was off to the Worcester Baptist Church Hall for choir practice.  Unfortunately, our director Hilary was also sick.  (For that matter, most of the UMD Study in England students have fallen sick too.  When I purchased my meds and supplies, the pharmacist said he's noticed a large number of people had been in to get cold remedies.)  Hilary was still going strong, but the break provided a good opportunity to exit stage right. 

The goal for the weekend--shake this cold and come up with some great exercises for the next few weeks' classes.

Before signing off, here's the sign of the day: