For the Record...

I am not thinking "Yay! 14 year olds!" And I should note that my wife volunteered... I was the only one "recruited" (read "drafted").

I'm busy preparing the lesson plan for the students this summer, and trying to get things planned for next fall too. On top of that a couple colleagues of mine from the department and I are attempting to start up a small economic consulting firm. Part of it is to make some money, dab our feet in the "professional world" (ever so gently), and part of it is to satisfy our own curiosity. We have been playing with the idea for two months now, and we're starting to get some things off the ground.
It's good to have my own class though. I can focus on the things that I think they need to learn. It is a little strange throwing out a good chunk of what I have been teaching for the past 3 semesters, but if these students are only going to have one economics class I would rather they come out understanding externalities, public goods, oligopoly, and elasticity instead of economic history, comparative economic systems (we no longer live in a 'pure socialist' vs 'pure capitalist' world, sorry folks), and banking systems (they can get that from any business class). I'm also including my typical ethanol criticism. Ethanol is my first full example for them with supply, demand, and equilibrium. Works out well in describing elasticity, complementary goods, substitute goods, monopoly/oligopoly, taxes and subsidies, quotas, price controls, tariffs, and externalities. Sadly I have had to cut the clip of from "Cartman Gets an Amusement Park" to explain why barter systems failed and monetary based systems arose. Ah well...

The Latin American Economic Development class is going to be a challenge though. Finally found an acceptable though limited text for them, and I'm planning on subjecting them to one or two classes on "microfinance" (see Muhammed Yunnus) in Mexico. Trying to take some good advice from my colleague Isaac, who has been teaching Development of Africa for a semester or two. "The subject material is too big and varied to cover it all. Just start with what you know, and let the students fill in the rest of their interest."
Any good ideas on how to do that other than forcing them to write a paper and do a presentation? Should also be noted that this course has not been taught at this school since Spring of 2002, and the professor who did it then has been long gone. She was nice enough to respond to my e-mail and send me her old syllabus but man... she really worked them hard. Don't think I have the time and energy to demand everything she did from her students.

Other than that, Ardilla and I have been having fun playing house. :P
She has been a trooper. She has sat through:
1) Three seasons of the Venture Brothers.
2) Conan O'Brien.
3) One Star Trek movie, and three original Star Trek episodes.
4) Various and sundry Family Guy episodes.
5) The Producers.
6) Blazing Saddles.

We've also been catching up on some reading thanks to the local library. Just finished up Phillip Dick's "The Solar Lottery", and I'm starting on "The Man in the High Castle." Was going to get some Cormac McCarthy, but they were checked out.

Looks like we will be getting the wedding pictures sometime soon (hopefully this year, jejeje), we have a visitor coming in a week, and we have some plans for the summer. Should be fun trying to survive it all :)