In the air

Conducting my classes from our friends' place in Columbus, OH has been relatively without hitch - and the hitches brought lessons too! The apartment is spacious, the wifi strong, and my earbuds (usually) effective, but in order not to force our hosts to hear my classroom banter I moved around to keep out of earshot. It's easy enough if you keep laptop and earbuds charged. And students smiled broadly when they saw my background move, since this happens to them all the time, whether they're trying to fit being a student into a family home with its own rhythms and niches, all already occupied, or sharing an apartment with roommates doing their own thing. I now, too, have gestured unexpectedly out of the frame, suddenly muted as I spoke to an unseen presence to the side or above. And if I can't compete with the student, a photography major, who today moved into a darkroom explaining "my roommates are shooting a music video," I know what that feels like!