molding the minds of fragile youths ...

OK, here's the deal. The professor who was supposed to teach basic and an advanced journalism courses at the local university, and be the advisor to the student newspaper, died suddenly of a heart attack in the late summer. So the university asks my boss to take over for him, to ensure continuity. She accepts and does a great job and is having a fun time doing it, even with all the extra work it means for her.

But then she has to go off island for three weeks. Week-long, work-related conference ... week of vacation ... another week-long, work-related conference.

So there's a problem. She initially taps the local news editor to teach in her place, but his job keeps him swamped.

You guessed it. Mr. Editorial Editor (me) gets to take on the responsibility.

Tonight was my first lecture (ack) and then my first meeting with the school paper's staff (not so ack, cuz it's my business and expertise, after all). No. 1, I forgot how much I sweat when I'm standing, pacing and writing on the board in an under-air-conditioned classroom. No. 2, I didn't go over the material as well as I should have, and so had some points of stuttering, some points of having to flip through the book, etc.

Not so bad, but I could have done much better. My boss has a much more natural teaching style. Me, not so much. But I'm working on it and will prepare a little bit better for the next class (two days) by doing a bit more reading. And the next one shouldn't be too tough, because it's basically a speaker for the majority of class time. I just have to do a short spiel at the beginning, then introduce the speaker.

And one of the classes I will do a lecture on editorial and opinion writing, which is definitely my area of expertise when it comes to journalism, so that should be fun.

I get to do this for 3-1/2 weeks — 7 classes. One down, six more to go. Wish me luck!

Random Guam Fact Of The Day:
• The Chamorro name for mistress — which is a very, VERY common practice on Guam — is achakma'.