Woolgatherings

Untitled reflection

2011-05-17T21:57:00.000-07:00

She's nestled quietly in my lap, and I notice her legs,
at once thin, yet muscular.
Busy bruises scattered at intervals
in various shades of purple
mottle the otherwise smooth expanse
of peachy protection that, even at rest,
practically pulsates with the energy of a six-year-old.
This is just the beginning, I think,
and I grieve for her loss of innocence.

untitled

2011-05-17T21:44:00.000-07:00

I was thinking of The Flea and came up with this...

The Tear

The tear burgeoned rebelliously,
bursting through the duct,
surging across the lower lid,
and skating to a halt in the shadowed corner of my eye.

Fighting against my will,
its salty sting insisted its presence be felt
just before it burst through
the bars of my lashes and
JUMPED
to its death,
the evidence of its triumph
marring my cheek
much to my shame.

To Do

2011-04-08T12:24:00.000-07:00

*Post a pic of the plant Genyo gave me a while back which is one of the three still clearly living. One was DOA after I forgot it on the patio last fall. The verdict is out on the other yet. *Transplant plant from Genyo. Perhaps before picture. *Post pics from Girls Weekend in Itasca. *Plan a weekend road trip. Duluth I'm thinking. *Stop procrastinating with lists and grade the papers

Kickin'

2011-04-08T12:22:00.001-07:00

I think I'll start this up again. Just maybe. After finals? As the mood strikes? I haz one follower. I doubt she cares when I start. No pressure. Nice.

It's a two-fer!

2010-01-24T19:59:00.001-08:00

Yea. I haven't been on the blog in a long time...but it came up in a conversation, so here I am, writing a second post for the night! I was stumbling and came across Jim Carrey's website. It's a feast for the eyes so I was happily clicking around to watch things glow and move. Then I clicked on a link that opened Mr. Carrey's twitter page. I skimmed through it and thought, how funny it would be to read a Jim Carrey tweet. And then I felt dirty.

You see, I'm not fond of celebrity watching nor most of the celeb-reality shows out there. That is not to say I don't watch any reality TV. Oh no! Shows like Hoarders inspire me to live my life better. Survivor, American Idol, Project Runway, and The Amazing Race give me someone to cheer for. Oh sure, I went through a phase and read all the entertainment rags, watched The Osbournes, and obsessed forever about all things Bon Jovi, but I realized I would much rather live my life than watch someone else live theirs! Shows like Sweet Sixteen, Housewives of... series and The Kardashians don't hold my interest at all. I have absolutely no desire to watch their supposedly fab lives and their drama.

And that, quite simply, is why I decided not to follow Jim's tweets. He is a very funny man, and I'm sure his tweets would be giggle-worthy, but I just can't do it. There will be no celebrity tweets for me, thank you.

Love it!

2010-01-24T19:47:00.000-08:00

Cutist damn library I've ever seen. I want one of my own. Who is going to donate a red brit-style telly booth for me to get started? I'll put it on the corner where my elm used to be, and you're welcome to visit it!

Reasons to be on your cell phone in class

2009-08-31T10:36:00.001-07:00

You spot a fire or other campus hazard that has not yet been reported.

You are texting your personal banker about your plans to wire massive funds to your instructor's retirement fund.

You have a rare hearing impairment that is rectified only through the use of Verizon's 3G network.

Any additions, dear readers?

eeeeEEEEKKK!

2009-08-10T10:04:00.000-07:00

School is starting? ALREADY?

I've been "off the grid" in my own way this summer. Not much has happened on this blog, clearly. I have been avoiding Facebook and MySpace as well.

Now it is time to dust off the books, purge the emails, sort the files, edit & copy syllabi. I'm looking forward to getting into my new office space and getting all that set up. Time to refocus, re-energize, and get to work!

6 days. 40 in-car hours. 2400 miles. 8 states.

2009-06-12T13:43:00.000-07:00

McKenna and I took our first summer road trip. We left Thursday and returned Tuesday. It was, overall, uneventful. We encountered tornadic weather near Kansas City, Missouri, and the Jeep quit just as I entered the exit ramp in Moorhead. Somewhere near Uniontown, in southern Indiana, the echoes of a 4-year old's meltdown are probably still reverberating in the trees and hills. But that was it.

States we drove through: ND, MN, WI, IL, IN, KY, MI, IA

We pretty much drove all day, got to a hotel, ate, swam and slept. Still, we drove by interesting places; the scenery around Louisville, Kentucky, is pretty. Fort Knox and the Patton museum sounded intriguing. In St. Louis, we drove around the Arch. St. Charles, Missouri is probably worth another look! In fact, St. Louis definitely looked like somewhere I would like to visit.

I highly recommend the KOA in Oak Grove, Missouri, as the cabin was super clean, the grounds inviting, and the people friendly. The Comfort Suites in Albert Lea also deserves a nod; i was quoted $98 a night for either a smoking/Queen room or a non-smoking/King. The gal at the desk then offered us the jacuzzi executive suite for the same price. However, when she printed the invoice, it was actually $84! Whoohoo!

1994-2009

2009-05-22T19:01:00.000-07:00

As much as I grumbled about the cat in recent years, today was a sad day. Cody had to be put to sleep. We're still not sure how we'll break it to McKenna.

No title is forthcoming

2009-05-21T10:06:00.000-07:00

I was cleaning the kitchen this morning and decided it was time to wipe down the fridge. Look for yourself:

McKenna has been practicing her smiley faces on our black fridge using Chalk Ink, one of the greatest inventions ever! I use it to make my shopping and to-do lists:

Generally getting to draw here keeps her occupied when I'm in the kitchen, and it can be wiped off pretty easily so she can start fresh each day. She often practices her name here as well, but clearly smiley faces were the them of this week. We're thrilled because she has not really seemed to like coloring in general.

The practice of letting our daughter doodle all over our fridge, however, has backfired. Twice. Once she took a permanent marker and wrote all over my mom's white fridge door. A few weeks later, she used crayon on her bedroom wall next to her bed. Both times, while we generally shook our heads in dismay and scrubbed like crazy, she cried in great distress because, in her words, we were erasing her "decorations." Oh, make that three time: she also "decorated" her pants with an ink pen.

Since then, though, she has learned to limit her decorations to the fridge, and we get to enjoy new colorful patterns and to watch her grow artistically.

Green Thumb

2009-05-19T14:58:00.000-07:00

I do not have a green thumb. I have two houseplants I've kept alive for at least five years and one I've had for a little over a month (thanks, Jenyo). Today, however, with the help of the in-laws, we have a little garden patch in one corner of our backyard, tucked behind the hot tub. We have 20 strawberry plants, a row of corn, a row of carrots, 7 pepper plants, 4 or so cucumber plants, lil' pumpkins, a couple of beans, peas and tomato plants. We also planted a about a dozen perennials around the flowerbeds (2 sides of house anyways). The tulips on the south side are in bloom. We now only need to add wood chips to the beds and some under the tree by the garage, and that should be it for planting and landscaping this year. The weather was absolutely gorgeous as you know if you live in the F-M area. I hope you all got to soak up some rays today.

Front flower bed:

North side:

South side:

garden shot 1 (strawberries take up most of corner; start of corn and carrot rows that run along the fence are marked by the short trellis):

garden shot 2 (beans, peas, pepper, pumpkin and my clematis vines):

Part II

2009-05-19T14:57:00.000-07:00

Tootsie under the lilac bushes. I love how they create a shaded archway for my old girl:
I have no idea what these are. It is the only surviving plant from the previous owners. It looks like a mini Vietnamese jungle, assuming I know what that might plausibly look like based on extensive movie viewing.

This is a snowball something or other shrub. I hope it perks up.

I love hostas. Low maintenance. Big Leaves. Simple.

Garish. That's why I picked this one:

Birth date of William Wordsworth

2009-04-07T07:45:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to my favorite poet. The following poem has imagery appopriate for spring, and who couldn't use a little transcendentalism to start the day? This is the one that made me become an English major:

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

Close Encounters of the Wierd Kind

2009-03-03T07:20:00.000-08:00

Because I have been somewhat distracted this past week, this morning I attempted to shake up my routine.

I don't have office hours on Tuesday mornings, but students tend to come in anyway. Normally this is desirable, as many have questions they need answered or just want to chit chat. I often come in Tuesdays to prep and grade anyway. Today, though, I had a stack of assignments I wanted to grade before my 11:30 class. I didn't want any distractions, but my office--a cubicle surrounded by a dozen other cubicles--does not have a door I can shut, which we all know is the universal signifier of "hey, these are not my office hours; I'm here to grade/prep or do other fascinating work." I knew it would be futile to work at my office, so I decided to find another place. I had the public library in mind as I set out at 8 this morning; however, I remembered that it does not open until 9.

On a whim, I decided to do my grading at a nearby restaurant, The Village Inn. I figured I'd get some breakfast, another highly unusual decision, and get some grading done at the same time. I do not usually like to go out to eat by myself, and I can probably count on one hand how many times I've done it, so I was definitely out of my routine.

After ordering my breakfast, I settled in with my stack of assignments and made quite a bit of progress before my food arrived. I ate, pausing now and then to grade another quiz, and was, in general, enjoying the productiveness of my morning. Then I glanced up and knew I was about to regret my earlier decisions.

A guy was standing next to my table. Not too close. He wasn't young nor too old. He wasn't an ogre, but he was hardly Hugh Jackman. He was...um...non-descript. Anyway, he smiled and said, "Do you watch Big Bang Theory?"

I politely said, "Sorry, no."

He laughed and said, "When I saw you I thought you were Leslie from Big Bang Theory."

"Nope. I've never heard of it. Sorry. I often get mistaken for someone else in town though; apparently I have a twin."

"Oh, no. Leslie probably lives in Southern California. But when I saw you, I thought what is Leslie doing in Fargo at a Village Inn?"

I give a small smile and shuffle my papers, clearly not knowing how to respond to this as i am just beginning to piece together that this is a TV show and that he might be a little unbalanced.

"Are you a regular here?" he asks.

"No. This is the first time I've been here in two years," I reply, fidgeting with my pen.

"I'm a regular. I come here a lot. I used to go to the Village Inn in Fargo, but I don't like what they've done with their steak and eggs, so now I come here."

I don't know what to say really. I want to give him a look that will send him scooting away, but I wasn't entirely sure it would register with him anyway. What comes out of my mouth is "Oh. Well, yea, I don't usually come here."

"You must be a teacher." (As I told this part to my colleague, she quips, "I would have been like 'OK, Perry Mason. You've done enough detective work for today.'" She cracks me up).

"Yep. I decided to come here this morning to get some grading done before class. It seemed pretty quiet."

"I work at ___ .I'm a ______" I will leave this a mystery to protect the not-so-innocent; well, let's just say it is computer-geeky and leave it at that."

"Oh."

"I suppose a teacher busy grading doesn't want any company," he says as he starts to turn away.

"Yea, I'm just wrapping it up here."

As he walks away, waving as if we are boon companions, he says something I didn't quite catch. All I heard was "Monday at 4." That must be when Big Bang Theory is on. Either that or we have a date.

I left the restaurant pleased with the amount of work I got done, but kind of disturbed by the unwanted attention.

Phi Theta Kappa

2009-02-13T08:02:00.000-08:00

Our chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, Beta Xi Zeta, is gearing up for a very busy semester! Our students have already mailed 350 letters to eligible members, have begun taking applications for new members, and staffed a booth in the commons for Student Organization Day.

In the next few weeks, we will hold two orientation session for prospective members, process more applications, organize an induction ceremony for new members, and plan our trip to Grapevine, Texas, for the annual international convention. We also have a Better World Books project in the works, and one of our students will receive recognition at a ceremony and luncheon for being selected for the All-MN Academic Team.

On top of all this, we need to hold two meetings a month, create an officer training session, find new officers, and organize engaging events/activities to fit our Honor's Study Topic and Service Project programming.

Flu Kitteh

2009-02-11T18:35:00.000-08:00

As many of my students know, my house was visited by the Flu Kitteh two weekends ago. That cat is still takin' sips of my soda, I think. May you all escape his wrath.

Toddler's Thoughts

2009-02-02T14:48:00.000-08:00

Today, my daughter, who will be four at the end of May, had two funny observations.

1. "Your eyes are very green, " she says as she chews her cheeseburger. She then adds, "Just like a pickle."

2. While discussing birthdays she comes up with these four thoughts one after another: "I like white cake. It is white like the snow. There could be snow on my cake. I like to eat snow."

I think she is pure poetry today.

Prairie Fire

2009-02-02T08:09:00.000-08:00

I am co-editor of Prairie Fire, a campus anthology of student writing and art. I could not be more thrilled that, after numerous delays, the second edition is here! We are so excited to have a nice mix of short stories, poems, a speech, and art!

Students whose works were published in the anthology recieve a free copy, but it is also for sale in our campus bookstore. Isn't the cover lovely? It was created by Tabitha Andrews, one of MSCTC's graphic arts students. The layout was designed by our talented Kirsten Birst, another graphic arts student. Both put forth a lot of work to get this pulled together!

John Updike

2009-01-27T11:22:00.000-08:00

Author John Updike passed away. Students in my online and hybrid ENGL 1102 courses have read his short story "A&P." The other section will be reading it soon. I had to read Run, Rabbit, Run in a novel course during my college years. Updike's unflattering depiction of Rabbit's wife, Jenny, was one of those descriptions that has stuck with me for years! I would quote it, but I do not have my copy here, and our library does not have one either! :(

Dissecting Literature

2009-01-26T08:12:00.000-08:00

I really dislike the term "dissect" when students apply it to literature. A short story is composed of many parts: plot, characters, setting, etc. We can look at each element and appreciate how the author creates, manipulates, or portrays each part. We don't leave each part lying exposed on a table in a lab, though. What I want students to understand is that reading critically may require them to look at the parts, but the ultimate goal is to pull the parts of a story together to make the best sense of it. What good is it to discuss the characterization of Faulkner's Emily Grierson if we ignore the various settings that influence her character and our understanding of her situation?

A few weeks ago, a colleague who was preparing a "why do we need to read lit" sort of presentation for her own class asked me why I read. My immediate summary was "because it reaffirms what I already believe and it challenges me to explore new beliefs." I value both sides of that relationship. I don't want to be merely pat on the head and told I'm right all the time. I want to be challenged to think about issues in new, interesting ways. I'm dumbstruck whenever I'm confronted by others who are only interested in the head patting. Honestly, I often don't know what to do with these types.

Oh, and I don't have all the answers nor do I love all the literature we read in class. That's why I chose some of them!

No Frills

2009-01-25T17:05:00.000-08:00

This weekend I was able to spend time with my mom, two sisters, niece and daughter in a cabin tucked away in Itasca State Park. We worked on our pictures and other various projects. This was all fun, but on the drive home I was thinking about my family and what I admire about each person. Many fine qualities pop into mind, but the one that I kept returning to over and over is that they are genuine. They are not obsessed with unnecessary frills. They are not high maintenance people, and this is a trait I value both in myself and in those around me.

Evidence of frills and excess abound. On my way to work yesterday, I was driving behind a Cadillac Escalade truck. It was, considering the amount of salty, dirty snow on the roads here, very pristine. The pearly white paint truly glistened in the early morning light. As we motored along, I wondered if the driver--a female--felt better about herself for driving that rig. Does she feel superior for having that particular truck and maintaining it in such a way? Is that what makes her happy? Honestly, maybe she doesn't think of it at all. I decided that even if I had the money to drop on an Escalade, I wouldn't want one. I've never driven one; it may have the best ride and amenities, but I don't want one just on principle. I am content to drive my little four-cylinder Compass, Blaze. She left a smudge of white road matter on my black pea jacket this morning. She is not high maintenance and we get a long fine. Truly, if I had the money right now, I would buy an older Jeep Wrangler before I bought anything else.

On such morning drives, I can't crank my music because my daughter is in the vehicle, so I have a lot of time to daydream on the way to "playschool." Yesterday, after the Escalade was out of sight, I started thinking about the uselessness, in general, of earrings. What is the deal with jewelry? In particular, have you considered the marketing for earrings? They are supposed to somehow frame our face or be an expression of our personality. If I don't wear them, then, do I have no personality? Have you ever heard of a girl who said her boyfriend/spouse asked her to dance or loved her because of her earrings? Probably not. I have a colleague who makes beautiful earrings, and I once picked out a lovely green pair, thinking how nice it would be to start wearing them again. I just can't seem to find time in the morning to remember to put on any jewelry. My sisters and mom also are not obsessed with jewelry. We don't typically get it for Christmas or Valentines. I currently have two quality necklaces: one pearl and one emerald. I have worn each only a handful of times. They will, however, one day be passed down to my daughter and that is reason enough for me to keep them.

Maybe all this stems from the fact that I hate shopping in general. I have not been to the mall since the weekend before Christmas. I don't have any plans to go there any time soon either. One reason is just that it's been too damn cold to go gallivanting about town, but primarily I just avoid those places at all costs. If I go shopping, it's pretty basic: I go straight for Eddie Bauer. Not frilly. Not excessive. I sometimes treat myself to something at Cold Water Creek (usually for school-related purchases), but that's once a year at most. Yep, take me to a thrift store or Kohls, and I am content.

Now, however, I have the urge to stop by the Boys' Ranch on my way home to see what kind of sweaters they have in stock. There are a few months left of winter, after all, and with the heat turned down in my office, I am in need of some thick, woolly warmness.

Random Reading

2009-01-22T19:27:00.000-08:00

I was reminded today that I haven't posted in awhile. Since I taught 1102 tonight, reading is on my mind. Unfortunately, I haven't had a lot of time to read for pure entertainment lately. As the semester started, I was sort of shuffling between two books: Bliss by O.Z. Livaneli and Mayada, Daughter of Iraq by Jean Sasson. I haven't had time to finish either, though both are intriguing. I have been focusing on related readings for awhile.

Today, my mom gave me a book called by Immaculee Ilibagiza called Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust. There is also a DVD, The Diary of Immaculee. I could barely watch Hotel Rwanda, so I'm not sure how much I look forward to reading this, but it's important, so I will. Just a few other books I have lined up:

Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver
Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlossser
Affluenza (have skimmed snippets already) by John DeGraff, David Wann, & Thomas Naylor
Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism by Muhammad Yunus
The Working Poor: Invisible in America by David Shipler

The good news is that some of these also relate to the Phi Theta Kappa Honor's Study Topic and could be incorporated into our chapter activities. The bad news? Well, I probably won't get to these until summer!

Blogs

2009-01-15T17:54:00.000-08:00

After some minor obstacles with invitations not going through, my students are getting on the course blogs and posting practice messages. Yay!

This semester, I have four classes out of five using blogs:

College Writing II Online (using them as a step up from journal writing; not quite as formal as an essay).

College Writing II On Campus (using them for journal writing)

College Writing II Accelerated/Hybrid (same as the online course)

College Writing I On Campus (mostly as journals, various short assignments such as topic proposals possibly).

Done...almost

2009-01-11T15:10:00.000-08:00

The 0050 syllabus and schedule are done. The 1102 on campus syllabus is done, but schedule needs tweaking yet. 1101 is still pretty much a mystery, but since that class was assigned to me at the last minute, it has been relegated to the bottom of my class-related-to-do-list.

(and an hour later--the schedule is done. 1101 is all that is left! Yippee!)

Today

2009-01-11T10:19:00.000-08:00

I have finished:

1102 Online syllabus
1102 Online Units 1 & 2 (major overhaul)
1102 Accelerated syllabus
1102 Accelerated Units 1 & 2 (major overhaul as well)

I have to complete:
0050 calendar (restructured to fit 2 day format instead of 3)
1102 on campus schedule (restructured to fit 3 day format instead of 2)
1101 syllabus and schedule (I haven't taught this since last spring, so major revisions will be necessary)

Wish me luck.

No Snacking!

2009-01-10T15:30:00.001-08:00

Just wanted to post about this wierd development: I have stopped snacking. Not entirely, but overwhelmingly close! Since Christmas, I just have not been that hungry at all, but even as my appetite slowly returned over the last week, I've almost completelely ignored the potato chips in the kitchen, shirked chocolate of all kinds, and put down candy while thinking "hmmm...don't really want it."

I wonder how long this will last!

Email Purge

2009-01-05T16:31:00.000-08:00

To continue the theme of purging unnecessary clutter:

Today I purged my Groupwise (email) inbox. I haven't quite deleted the 300 messages in my inbox, but they are archived and sorted into the appropriate folders. Then I went through my archive and sorted the 1000+ messages there. Tonight or tomorrow I shall delete with a vengeance. I've heard of the systems of sorting by "do now" "do tomorrow" "do soon" but that system doesn't work for me. Many of the emails I get are not action items but informative material that I may need to refer to later. I guess I could save them in a folder on my computer, but it is so much easier to access/sort when it is in Groupwise.

I did delete a plethora of email though, and by midterm I will comfortably delete all student email from this past fall. I hang on to those for a little while just in case a question/issue comes up.

I currently have 2 emails in my inbox and will "deal with" those tomorrow!

Purge III

2009-01-04T16:52:00.001-08:00

13 more books--GONE!

Purge II

2009-01-04T15:22:00.000-08:00

Ran through a couple more shelves on the big bookcase. Getting rid of:

Royal Secrets I, II, III (3 VHS tapes. Yes, I still have quite a few).
Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland (4 VHS tapes)
Shakespeare in London AND As You Like It (2 VHS tapes--will bring to MSCTC Library, I think)
Edinburgh, North Wales, The Cotswolds, Bath (VHS)
England (VHS)
Ivanhoe (6 VHS tapes)
Ivanhoe (the book)
2 Edith Wharton books. Ya know what? I don't even really like Edith Wharton. Why have I held on to these for so many years?
A Shropshire Lad by AE Housman (Ok, so I started to thumb through it and ended up putting it back on the shelf. Damn poetry. It can sneak up on a person like that. Am resolved to keep typing now and not skim anymore pages of other books).
The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson
Edward the Second by Marlowe
Macbeth (have several copies anyway)
Four Tragedies of William Shakespeare (Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, King Lear). Oh, and that reminds me of this photo I ran across whilst Stumbling yesterday.

Now I only have two or three shelves left, but I can't get to them until the Christmas bins are put away! :) Pretty good start, wouldn't ya say?

Consider this: I moved all this stuff down to Arizona and back up to Minnesota, then over to Fargo. WHY?????

Purge I

2009-01-04T14:57:00.000-08:00

So today I went through one bookshelf. Here is what I am getting rid of:

Possession by A.S. Byatt
Dress Lodger by Sheri Holman
Strangers and Sojourners by Michael O'Brien
9 various historical fiction books about England
Billy Budd and other stories by Melville
Gone w/the Wind by Margaret Mitchell AND Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley
a book of modern poetry
The Romance of the Forest by Ann Radcliffe
101 Costumes by Cummings
The Age of Agony by Williams
Two books about the Black Plague
one children's book about the Magna Carta
The Western Experience textbook.
The Princes in the Tower by Alison Weir

Now, these are books that
a. I never read
or
b. I read and enjoyed but don't hold deep attachment to

Stay tuned for Purge II!
PS If you want any of the books listed, dear friends, please let me know! You are welcome to them.

A New Year ...a New Outlook

2009-01-01T10:37:00.001-08:00

The New Year is exactly twelve hours and thirty-seven minutes old as I write this. I have gone back and forth about resolutions, since I know I don't keep them, generally, anyway. But I do have intentions. I want to blog more often. I want to contact my friends more often. I want to simplify my home.

This has been a long time coming. I surround myself w/clutter. Clutter of memories and of hopes. Each object in my house is, if not practical, a memory of a person or place. Some are objects that in some respect are supposed to represent me or my tastes. But that is shallow. I am not my possessions. Many have come to that conclusion far before me, and I've believed it for awhile, but it is really hitting home right now for me how intensely this has come into focus today as I walked through my house, thinking about a families who have lost all their possessions for various reasons.

Besides pictures, there is not one object in my kitchen that I could not live without. I would miss a few things, such as the handcrafted shelf from my aunt that I have had since I was about seventeen or eighteen, but I will always remember that shelf and who it came from and why.

The dining room is a bit more complicated. I love my desk. It is not a roll-top but is fashioned after one. It's big though and I don't work at it. It stores all my projects and paperwork and miscellaneous office products. On it are a wire sculpture of Big Ben, something I bought myself from Target. But I've seen Big Ben. I have pictures. I don't need a cheap, somewhat crooked statue to scream "Look, Jennifer is an anglophile." On the other hand, the CD player is a must--but any CD player with decent volume and bass will do really. I would like to keep my digital picture frame even though I have not used it in probably almost six months. I would like to use it. All my other "stuff" gets in the way of stuff that matters and consumes a lot of my energy.

I have a few other collections in my dining room. I collect little castles. Sand castles but also other miniatures. I've received a few as gifts as people know my tastes, but a few I just picked up at thrift stores. One I bought at Westminster Abbey and another at the Tower of London. Those are the most authentic and the "must keep" type. Similarly, I collect mugs from, mostly, the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. I get those as gifts too and love them all. Each mug I have has a different design. A couple non-Ren-related mugs blend right in--a leather covered beer mug, a goblet I purchased in Wales. A mug from the old Union Station restaurant in Bemidji, Minnesota. Those are all keepers.

Most of these objects reside on two bookcases. I have sorted through my books two times in the last couple of months and I only pulled 10 books or so to get rid of. I have a severe attachment to books, whether I've read them yet or not. There is a wide variety--from general popular fiction and literature to small collection of medieval/U.K. related nonfiction. I have more books upstairs, in my living room, in my bedroom, and packed away in the basement. I simply cannot part with many, but I have vowed to violently purge them before school starts. I'll keep you posted.

The other problem area of the bookcases is the pictures. Picture sit on many of the shelves (in front of the books as there just is not room for them to reside side by side). The problem is that i have more in albums on another shelf, and a dresser full of pictures upstairs in our guest room that I need to sort and put in books yet. I have my daughter's first three months organized and in a book, but the rest are mostly stored on my computer and CDs yet. That is not good because again, this is more important to me than dead lifeless books collecting dust on the shelf. There. That is my motivation to get on this!

The theme continues in each room of the house--daughter's bedroom, my room, linen closet stuffed full of ....well....stuff. What would be lost by losing some of this stuff? Not much. Maybe some level of comfort and ease. Maybe a sense of accomplishment? Look at me and all my stuff. Maybe nothing would be lost and all could be gained. Sense of peace. Sense of direction. Properly aligned priorities. That is my intention for the New Year. I'll start with the books as one should always start with the hardest part.

Wish me luck.

Lessons

2008-12-17T17:57:00.000-08:00

Yesterday after I picked up my 3 1/2 year old from pre-school, we went to Arby's. With a flash of the debit card, we whisked away with our food. While waiting at a red light, I thought about all the great things I had heard lately about the holiday lights display at Lindenwood Park. I pulled over and ate my cheddar roast beef sandwich quickly so I could enjoy it in all its hot, cheesy goodness. I set up McKenna with her food and milk, and we headed for the other side of town, dodging the snow drifts not yet obliterated by the snow plows' blades and skidding sideways to stop at the rush-hour filled intersections. She and I chatted about the lights and what we would may be see all the while.

Once we arrived, I realized the attraction cost $5, a fact no-one mentioned in the raving reviews. Since, as usual, I did not have cash nor checks on hand, I turned the Jeep around and faced the daunting task of explaining to McKenna why we could not drive up to the lights taunting us from just around the bend of the road.

Our conversation:

Me, in very apologetic tones: "Honey, Mommy didn't bring any money, so we can drive in to the park to see the lights. I'm sorry. We have to go home now, but maybe we can come back tomorrow. What do you think?"

McKenna, in a wise and weary voice: "Well, I think you should have a purse, and I think you should put some money in it."

So much for the ease and convenience of the plastic.

Technologies

2008-12-09T19:18:00.000-08:00

The last few days have been fun. I learned how to participate in Second Life. I teleported into some strange places, was kicked off some islands (I didn't know they had security devices on their homes; if I got too close, I was flung away like unwanted trash), and danced for an hour to great Celtic music straight outta Dublin. As I learn about some interesting places, I'll post the slurls here.

Today, I also was cleaning out my email inbox and read an old newsletter from a listerv I subscribed to. It contained a link to Screencast-O-Matic, a software program to capture video of one's computer screen. I have been looking for this! I knew this was possible but hadn't found good free, easy-to-use software. Yes, I will admit, I even tried to video record it with a camcorder, even though I knew the refresh rate of the screen would allow for that to work. C'mon! I was desparate!

Not only is Screencast-O-Matic free, it is easy to use. Within ten minutes of creating an account, I had produced my first screen cast. Yes, it was a rough draft--no sound/voice-over and some awkward pauses--but it was just a test to see how easy it was. And it was. Easy, that is.

Since many of my online students struggle with written directions for how to save their Word files as .rtfs, creating a blogger account (yes, really), and accessing, as well, as participating in, the course wiki, this will be a life saver. Man, oh, man. Talk about appealing to the visual learners! The applications for this tool are overwhelming! Woot!

In related news, I've been pondering the increasing number of accounts I have to log into just to do my daily work. Blog, wiki, D2L, work and home email, my computer workstation, print servers, copier codes, and so on. In a few minutes I brainstormed quite a few! When I add the non-daily accounts (FaceBook, MySpace, Flickr, Wordpress, etc.), I was a bit overwhelmed.

Then I turned back to the papers on my desk, picked up my pen, and got busy grading again.

Wordless Wednesday

2008-11-19T07:43:00.001-08:00

Project Simplify » The Simplifier #76 - Becoming an Email Shape-Shifter

2008-11-17T19:50:00.000-08:00

Project Simplify » The Simplifier #76 - Becoming an Email Shape-Shifter has some tips on managing the inbox! I need to revisit this site when I have more time!

Perks of the Job

2008-11-17T18:47:00.000-08:00

One of the biggest perks of my job: watching students progress! Mind you, many of my students make me smile and I like to see former students in the hall, at Target, and so on. However, recently, two particular students have given me cause to reflect on how thankful I am that I have this job at this campus:

Today, one of my former students came in to my office. He has transferred to a nearby four-year school, but he came by to say hello. We chatted for quite awhile about the differences between that school and ours (let's just say he thinks quite favorably of our campus). It was fun to get his perspective on what students can/cannot get away with at each place, the professors, and so on. We also explore common interests such as travel plans and geo-caching. Fun stuff! It was really nice to catch up with him, and the time passed very quickly. I'm particularly pleased with how he is applying his writing knowledge and skills to his current upper-level courses!

A few weeks ago, another student, who still attends our college via distance ed but is working in another state--doing quite well for himself, was in town and dropped by to say hi as well. Again, we chatted for quite a while about not only classes and work, but common interests. Again, time flies when a person gets to chattering away, but this is the best kind of office time!

I have to say, these are two young gentlemen for whom I have extremely high expectations. Their futures are so bright, and I'm privileged to be even a tiny part of it. I hope they both keep in touch. Please understand: I have many students and I'm thrilled when they pass and I hope they all do well whether they transfer, become employed within their field, or whatever they choose to do; however, some stay in my memory a bit longer. Perhaps it is because shared interests and/or common backgrounds; maybe they took more than one class with me, or I advised them in some way outside of class. Regardless, each year a few evoke a bit of a protective--like a mother hen, I suppose--attitude in me.

As the semester end nears, I cannot wait to see who else emerges as the one(s) I anxiously await to hear from!

The Week at a Glance

2008-11-14T08:16:00.000-08:00

Sunday: Come home from weekend trip to Bemidji. Do some laundry. Grade some papers. Grocery shopping for Phi Theta Kappa spaghetti feed supplies.

Monday: drop off daughter at "playschool." Run to school with supplies for spaghetti feed. Taught a class--asked students to have prewrites ready for Wednesday. Worked rest of day (8am -5pm) on 2 online classes and accelerated class. Scramble to find students to cook 20 2-lb boxes of spaghetti! Picked up daughter. Supper. Play. Bed.

Tuesday: no school. Drop daughter at playschool after much struggle so I can work all day anyway. Spent time getting last files together for campus anthology so I could forward it all to the designer. Morning visit to chiropractor visit goes awry as I'm late--see daughter note above--and electric stim feels like I am getting 4th tattoo! Not usual relaxation routine! Papers graded for Wednesday class.

Wednesday: late for playschool again. Late to school. Scramble to get spaghetti feed set up/coordinate students who show up. LOTS of spaghetti and sauce to heat, little details like money and gloves for serving. teach class--students did not bring prewrites as asked (see above). Return their essays. go to office. Email, write formal letter to, and call students for scholarship prize I'm coordinating. Hubby says stay late and finish, so I do. Home at 6:30. Eat. Play. Sleep.

Thursday: talk to students about scholarship again. Spend day in cubicle (I can't exactly recall what I was working on, but it was a lot and it took from 8-5 to do it. Lots of emails to follow up on, drafting documents, etc.). Pick up daughter, play, eat, and watch Survivor. Play. Sleep.

Friday: waiting for drafts to come in. catch up on email. wrote this quick and now I'll go back to work.

Better World Books

2008-10-23T07:35:00.000-07:00

Our campus chapter of Phi Theta Kappa has collected 500 books for Better World Books, a social enterprise with the mission of increasing literacy and promoting environmental responsibility. Their sales raise funds for over 80 literacy programs such as Books for Africa and the National Center for Family Literacy.

The chapter also shipped over 200 books late last spring.

Women Motorcyclists

2008-10-23T07:23:00.000-07:00

My sister started a women's motorcycle riders group in Bemidji. They have meetings, they plan short road trips, and they have a lot of fun.

It makes me wish I lived in Bemidji.

And that I rode a motorcycle.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

2008-10-10T07:12:00.000-07:00

It is 9 am. It is dark, cold, and wet outside. Blah....

To Do:
Finalize Travel Lit Exam (the last day is technically Saturday, but papers can be submitted next week yet).
Grade 0050 exemplification paragraphs and prep for mid-term conferences
Update scores for 1102 discussions and blogposts

Oh...and in case I don't log in before then, Oct. 14th marks 13 years of marriage! It seems like only yesterday....sure....

PBwiki frustrations today!

2008-09-14T13:56:00.001-07:00

Previously anyone could edit our course wiki (1.0) with an invite key. It worked great all last spring and this past summer. This fall, though, numerous students could not get in even though they followed the directions. I watched one gal log in, spell everything correctly, and when she clicked "log in" it simply returned her to the log-in page. Today I created a new 2.0 pbwiki, had to create student accounts (36 of them) and then email the new username and password to each student. Much time has been wasted today. I then had to transfer over all the pages and current material from the old wiki to the new one. Numerous projects have been put on hold. :(

Allan Ball

2008-09-11T10:52:00.000-07:00

I'm really impressed by the work of Allan Ball. His works include the movie American Beauty, the HBO series Six Feet Under, the new series True Blood, and a new movie, Towelhead which is already stirring some controversy. I was a big fan of Six Feet, and the preview of Towelhead has me intrigued!

Ren Fest

2008-09-10T20:16:00.000-07:00

Huzzah! It is Ren Fest time in MN again. Saw the new Puke and Snot show. Ate bread bowl soup. Enjoyed the festivities. Marvelled at people dressed in robot outfits. WHY? How is that Renaissance related?

Time is NOT on my side

2008-09-02T19:55:00.001-07:00

I've become a single parent. No, my husband I did not divorce and yes, he is alive and well. However, his new job now takes him out of town for a week at a time. For the first month, we were lucky because he was training in town. On short notice, however, last week, he was told he'd be going to Grand Forks for a week. Granted, that is not far away. Yes, he will be home soon. In the meantime, I am flying solo. Today, I put my daughter in the tub just so I could do dishes and throw in a load of laundry. :) I've always empathized with students with kids, but more than ever I wonder how they do it! Tired, tired, tired, and I have much more to do before I collapse for the night.

Back to School

2008-08-22T07:25:00.001-07:00

As you may have noticed, I took a complete hiatus from this blog. I didn't really mean to just quit posting over the summer, but that's exactly what happened! I'm a bad, bad blogger.

Fall semester begins Monday so I will begin posting more regularly again. In the meantime, I am excited to report an update on ENGL 2320: Travel Literature. I was nervous it would not be run this term, but it currently has 16 students! The readings will include works from early explorers, the era of The Grand Tour, and then move quickly towards modern works starting with Kerouac. I've also included contemporary works like Bill Bryson, Mike Horn, and Jon Krakauer.

A new project I am working on is teaching ENGL 1102 as a hybrid course. So in seven weeks, with only 4 face-to-face meetings, our students will complete a semester's worth of learning. The course blog and wiki will still remain as key components of that course as places for journaling and collaborative projects.

Another projects on the radar include publishing the next edition of Prairie Fire, our student anthology.

Overall, it looks like it will be a very busy semester!

The Road to Hell....

2008-03-25T18:37:00.001-07:00

Talk about good intentions. After my last post, I was ready to buckle down and get some serious grading done. And then life throws a curveball (I'm mixing my cliches now). Alas, I tried to grade a batch of essays this morning and it took 2 hours to grade 9 of them! Needless to say, but I'm going to say it anyway, I did not get them done before class as I had planned.

Today was a mix of catching up on smaller grading projects (blogs, discussion boards, etc), emails (200 to read, respond to, delete), and administrative tasks (order summer books, fill out requests for travel funds, submit other required paperwork). I did a lot today and yet I feel as if I accomplished little. I did enjoy reading the posts from the accelerated class again though. I feel there are some good efforts at offering some specific details in these posts, which are only required to be around 200-250 words.

Today I bought The Kite Runner DVD. I also picked up three books that caught my eye:

Best Friends
Veil of Roses
Three Cups of Tea

Then, of course, the books that I had hoped would arrive over spring break finally arrived (stupid super saver shipping--never again!):

The Road to Oxiana
Methods for Teaching Travel Literature and Writing
Falling off the Map: Some Lonely Places of the World
Salon.com's Wanderlust

Now when will I have time to read these?! Book orders for fall are due SOON!

Sluggish and lazy

2008-03-20T00:06:00.001-07:00

Yep. Spring break is nice. I've played a couple video games (Oblivion mostly), slept in, stayed up late, and eating at normal times. I have pretty much reveled in running pants and t-shirts; no teacher costumes!

I've read and read and read. Trashy novels, academic texts, lots of stuff online.

I did some productive stuff:

read and annotated sources for my wiki research
Attended an event where one of my former BSU instructors, Will Weaver, spoke about the adaptation of his short story "A Gravestone Made of Wheat" into a film (Sweet Land).
stayed at my folks' place with daughter
worked on the wiki
read blogs
thought about lesson plans for next week
and other random bits

This weekend I'll go back to the folks' so I'm doing my part to stimulate the economy. I'm thinkin' that if gas prices do not drop this summer, that will put the kabosh on the road trips unless I get a rent a hybrid car, which would still be cheaper than driving my Jeep.

Sweet!

2008-03-12T08:07:00.001-07:00

http://peoplereading.blogspot.com/

Midterms

2008-03-12T07:32:00.000-07:00

This week is midterms. Next week is Spring Break. They couldn't have planned that better!

Last year for Spring Break, I took a ten day trip to London, which, of course, I blogged (shameless self-promotion, I know). This spring break I will be grading a major essay from each class. I will also be working on the ENGL 1102 wiki. I need a lesson plan to encourage continued content development and to introduce linking and refactoring the pages; however, I also need the students to fix current errors in grammar, documentation of sources, etc).

Other plans:
I need to plan advertising for the Travel Lit course for fall. If enough students do not register, it will not fly. It's tough to invest all the time and energy constructing a course and spending hours on creating flyers and such only to have it canceled over the summer.

What I really want to do is hit the road.

Flu

2008-02-29T17:58:00.001-08:00

By now, most of you know I've cancelled classes for most of this week due to the flu. Next week, each of my classes will be getting some sort of revised calendar to address the assignments for this week. I'm also playing catch up with my email, slowly.

Other than that, I hope you are all taking your vitamins and Airborne and such. :)

Note: scrap the Airborne plans.

Blog Update

2008-02-22T17:45:00.000-08:00

I've been browsing through the class blogs recently. Some posts are really short. The 1101 students are opening up more in the blog than they do in class :)

The 1102 students have some interesting ideas about their short story readings. Soon we'll be entering the Poetry Zone.

I'm also starting to think more seriously about the Travel Literature course I'll offer this fall. I need to start advertising it soon, and putting together a reading list. The first thing students ask when they inquire about the course is "What are you going to read?" It is quite a difficult task to narrow the list.

I also need to start thinking about getting ready to solicit manuscripts for Prairie Fire anthology again.

CCs in the news

2008-02-16T17:02:00.000-08:00

Obama on the importance of community colleges.

Slowing down

2008-02-05T06:58:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in almost a week because I'm taking a class where I am learning more about the finer aspects of blogging. As a result, much of my blogging time is directed towards class assignments and practicing in my new blog.
This morning, though, I am prepping for ENGL 1101 and grading for 1102 (all three).

Just an observation

2008-01-29T09:14:00.000-08:00

My 1102 student ROCKED their group discussions on "A Rose for Emily." There were really thorough responses as each group answered questions focused on historical, feminist, psychoanalytic, and formalist "lenses" to discuss the story. I think this activity was useful in that it drove home the point that literature can be interpreted differently and that there are multiple views to consider. It also helped alleviate some of the confusion that usually accompanies a more complex story.

The students were very funny about discussing "The Storm." I'll just say that the reactions to the story and the ensuing discussion were mixed.

Today's task: review thesis statments with 1101 and begin pre-writing activities for their first essay.

Other news: MSCTC has linked to the class blogs in a beta version of the newly designed website. How exciting! Can't wait to show the students!

Finally: How cold can it get??? I saw that it is -50 in western ND! I bundled McKenna up so she looked like the character from A Christmas Story. She turns beet red at the lightest breeze, poor thing.

Ugh.

2008-01-22T13:26:00.000-08:00

Today in my 1101 class, the lesson did not go so well. They were bored. How can I spice up thesis statements and an overview of the writing process? Maybe I don't talk about it at all...it will show up in the course after all. Maybe I just needed more than five hours of sleep to convey excitement about narrowing a topic and devising a controlling idea.

Maybe the students were as tired. Many didn't seem to enjoy the Anne Lamott excerpts about shitty first drafts, a piece usually guaranteed to induce quite a few chuckles. Hmmm...hopefully just an off day.

Regardless, I've noted for next time: more group work/hands-on activities for teaching narrowing and thesis statements.

Digital Dorothy

2008-01-20T11:07:00.000-08:00

On this day in 1798, Dorothy Wordsworth wrote:

"The green paths down the hill-sides are channels for streams. The young wheat is streaked by silver lines of water running bewteen the ridges, the sheep are gathered together on the slopes. After the wet dark days, the country seems more populous. It peoples itself in the sunbeams. The garden, mimic of spring, is gay with flowers. The purple-starred hepatica spreads itself in the sun, and the clustering snow-drops put forth their white heads, at first upright, ribbed with green, and like a rosebud when completely opened, hanging their heads downwards, but slowly lenthening their slender stems. The slanting woods of an unvarying brown, showing the light through the thin net-work of their upper boughs. Upon the highest ridge of that round hill covered with planted oaks, the shafts of the tree show in the light like the columns of a ruin."

Spring is dead-ahead. Must remember that when its 40 below here.

Wordsworth, Dorothy. "Journal, Written at Alfoxden in 1978." English Romantic Writers. 2nd ed. Ed. David Perkins. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace, 1995.

Yoga and Vertigo

2008-01-20T10:23:00.000-08:00

Yoga has recently received much attention in the Fargo Forum (a lot of it negative because so many believe it is inseparable from mysticism), so when my colleague sent an email inviting me to participate in a free Yoga session on campus Friday, I was all over it. I went with a really open mind because, despite numerous opportunities to read about it, I never cared to learn what Yoga might include beyond the poses.

I really enjoyed the meditation and focus-on-breathing aspect of Yoga. Some of the movements baffle me. This is not a new experience. I've dropped out of aerobics classes and hated nearly every moment of any non-machine related regime because I don't get the whole "breath in now while simultaneously bending in half" because that is when I want to breath out! I also can't interpret "pull your navel to your spine" chatter or instructions for other complicated procedures that contort my body. I don't GET it.

I tried everything though. I kept waiting for my back and neck to hurt (Past injury. Hit by drunk driver in AZ. Enough said), but instead, I really felt both energized and calm afterwards. I'll go again!

Two very surreal moments in two days: a friend let me us her mat during the Yoga session. I was supposed to be facing downward (the movement is to stupefyingly complex to describe here), and when I caught sight of the bubbled pattern of the mat, I had a moment of, I guess, vertigo. The pattern was swimming before my eyes and kept shifting as I looked upon it. I could not tell how close I was to the mat and was in serious jeopardy of smacking my nose into the floor. I had to break out of the pose to get my bearings. Ugh. A similar thing happened today after playing Guitar Hero III. I stopped the game, looked at my carpet, and it became a rolling, shifting sea right in front of me. I knew better than to get up. I looked at the TV instead. It grew! This is so weird and hard to describe, but it's like those crazy camera shots in movies, where a character stand still and the camera zooms up to him/her, but all the background seems to shrink as the character gets bigger. Can't think of an example now...will add one when I can.

Update: It is called, fittingly, the vertigo shot. Here are some examples from Youtube.

First Week

2008-01-17T08:18:00.000-08:00

I have one class today and the first week is wrapped up. What an energizing week! Both 1102 classes were engaging, discussing and debating ideas about Kate Chopin's "Story of an Hour." When I asked students to write their initial responses to Monica Ware's "Mislaid Plans" and Linda Pastan's "Jump Cabling" they were mixed--some got it. Some didn't. Nearly all responded, though, and went beyond plot summary. Many even talked about ironies or imagery. This reaffirms my decision to move from focusing on analysis and terms and to focus on the experience of lit and student's experiences as it relates to their readings instead.

I'm very excited that several students in the land-based class have read The Kite Runner. They are excited to read it again. A possible movie trip is in the works.

So this week: I met with 2 different ENGL1102 classes twice, met with 1101 twice, and have been communicating via email and discussion boards with the online ENGL 1102 students, who are really diving in to the introductions and making connections.

Some of my blogs have hits from outside of class! Yay!

On the home front: Tonight there is a family skate at Horace Mann. We'll try to bring McKenna to get more practice with her new skates.

First Day!

2008-01-14T16:27:00.000-08:00

The first day of class is over! I had two classes today: both are ENGL 1102s, but one is at the Higher Ed Center and one is on campus. Both classes seemed filled with eager students; I'm looking forward to reading their first journal entries to see what they thought of Monica Ware's "Mislaid Plans" and Linda Pastan's "Jump Cabling."

There were many very positive reactions to The Kite Runner as an alternative to Tess of the d'Urbervilles. I worry that the reading is too light, but the discussions may be more productive as a result.

My online students are already busy--some have taken the first two quizzes (one on the syllabus, one for practice) and posted their introduction. When they mail me their diagnostic essay, they will have pretty much completed Unit 1!

Tomorrow I get to meet my ENGL1101 class, but I have to wait until January 31st to meet the other ENGL 1101 class (blended/accelerated class).

See What I Stumbled Upon

2008-01-08T07:01:00.000-08:00

Flickr Tag Search

2008-01-04T07:47:00.000-08:00

I stumbled onto this neat tag search engine in a visual format. This makes it very easy to find photos related to interests; I searched for images of Westminster Abbey and it found over 9,000 images. I do wonder, though, about the ease of searching photos. It seems this would often be used to steal others photos. However, I was hoping to find images from INSIDE Westminster Abbey, since photography is forbidden.

Musicovery : interactive webRadio

2008-01-01T15:16:00.000-08:00

Musicovery : interactive webRadio lets me click on a mood or dance tempo and it webs musical interests. Sort of like Pandora?

Mr. Picassohead

2008-01-01T05:35:00.000-08:00

A virtual Mr. Potato Head with Picasso-styling. A silly time waster.

Sites to visit

2007-12-30T12:56:00.000-08:00

I have started in on my magazine bin. I had numerous issues of Parents magazine, Real Simple, and O to read.

Sites for kids (thanks to Real Simple Magazine--fall 2007):

http://www.jacksonpollock.org/
www.sfpg.com/animation/litebrite.html
http://www.virtual-bubblewrap.com/popnow.shtml
www.redkid.net/generator/trophy
http://www.addletters.com
http://www.howmanyofme.com/

I also checked out this site for trading:
http://www.zunafish.com/

and I've been a member for awhile at
http://www.paperbackswap.com/

Zunafish is intriguing, though, because of the videogames.

Shirley?

2007-12-16T15:46:00.001-08:00

The phone rings and I answer, "Hello?"

"Shirley?" rasps the woman on the other end. Oh no! I cringe. It's the Shirley-lady again.

"No, I'm sorry. There is no-one by that name living here."

"Oh. Ok." Click.

I wait. Yes, there it is; the phone rings again. I let the machine pick it up. I wait, but there is no message.
****

Every so often an elderly lady calls our house and asks for Shirley. No-one named Shirley lives here, and I've had this number for almost five years! I used to engage the woman in more dialogue consisting of giving her my number, asking if this is the number she meant to dial, and where Shirley might live (as it might be an area code issue). One day she called me FIVE TIMES IN A ROW, despite my increasing impatience as I explained she was dialing the wrong number over and over.

Now the calls are limited to about once every other months or so. Or maybe it's as a new holiday approaches. I think I'll start writing it down.

I wonder if she ever does talk to Shirley? Or does she only get to talk to me each time?

Whoa!

2007-12-16T15:21:00.000-08:00

I know I've read too many essays in one day when I see these words:

Babies are hard to warm up because they've been refrigerated

In fact, there were two sentences on the page (the essay is about types of babies' personalities):

"The slow to warm up baby does have a tendency to cry, but mostly because they [sic] are frightened."

Whew. Sort of...

Bundle of Nerves

2007-12-15T23:14:00.000-08:00

Randy and I are now giving a presentation regarding Prairie Fire during our faculty duty day. We were asked to talk about the project from inception to completion. Mixed feelings abound.

I'm taking a class at BSU to learn more about blogs and wikis. Can I be a grad student again? More to the point--am I still studious enough? Or have I become lazy? Will I meet deadlines? Will I have the time I THINK I will have? Am I crazy to take this in the Spring?

Next term looms in the horizon. Will the classes be more/less productive? Will I like not having ENGL 0050 for a semester? Will I enjoy the later class schedule? Will I have more or less time to spend with MayMay?

Prairie Fire

2007-12-08T23:07:00.000-08:00

It is done! The project that has taken most of my free time this semester is finished!

My dean asked us to submit a summary of the project to the online newsletter for faculty and staff. Here's what I sent:

Since Fall 2006, we have been working towards the completion of our Excellence Awards project. We proposed the creation of an annual anthology of student writing and art, which would showcase some of our general education coursework, increase interest in the college, and generate student interest.

All last year, we solicited manuscripts via visits to classrooms, emails to faculty, notices in the campus newsletter, and table tents in the commons. Last fall, we also advertised a “Name the Baby” contest and Joan Brickner’s suggestion, Prairie Fire, was the winner.

This project was the result of great support from colleagues. The Graphic Arts faculty assisted with the development of this project by letting their students know about the project and telling anyone who was interested in designing a cover to come see us. Pamela Sund also assisted and brought us a stack of projects from her first year art students. Crystal Jensen, Joan Brickner, and Mark L. Johnson volunteered to be on the editorial board. This fall, we all met and selected the manuscripts and art that would be published. Chuck Chadwick helped us obtain a Bremer grant to cover our initial printing costs. Jamie Grant, then an MSCTC Graphic Arts student and now a full-time graphic artist, is responsible for the very striking cover and the overall layout of our first edition.

The overall goals of the project were:
· To showcase student writing and art and give recognition beyond a grade
· Create potential course material for our writing courses
· To provide an opportunity for collaboration between departments
· To increase the community’s awareness of our Gen Ed program and opportunities at this
campus
· To foster a sense of accomplishment for student writers and artists
· To increase students’ awareness of the concept of audience
· To create a self-sustaining and highly-anticipated campus tradition!

Proceeds from the sales of this book will fund the production of our next edition. We already have a dozen submissions for next semester but expect many more! Students interested in submitting their work (whether it’s a sociology paper, a poem, or an oil painting), can pick up submission forms from us.

Now we have had the pleasure of seeing the project come together: the first edition of the Prairie Fire anthology is for sale at Campus Crossing. They are $5.95 and make great stocking stuffers!

We weren't expecting several things along the way: the one that worked out the best, though, was that the printers were done about a half a week before we dared to hope they would be! We were basically told it may not be finished until finals week, but when I called Thursday for an update, I was told they were done! That threw off all Thursday and Friday plans because we had to pick them up, tally the complimentary copies, create some sort of marketing in the display case we commandeered. We still want to create a bookmark-like submission form to insert in all copies to solicit more manuscripts for the second edition!

Whew.

I was nervous about the whole project, of course, but we had such positive feedback from everyone that I can finally relax and enjoy it.

Cricky! It's Crazy Time!

2007-12-01T19:21:00.000-08:00

This past week was frantic. It was filled with work on the last steps towards creating an anthology of student writing and art that a co-worker, Randy Mann, and I proposed as a project last fall. We had hoped to have it to the printers on Monday morning, but as you will soon see, that did not happen. Seriously, I scarcely recall what I did last week because since last Friday I was preoccupied with the following activities:

Took edited files from Randy and tried to lay them out in Word using a booklet template. I started Friday night and worked through-out the day Saturday. I thought it was pretty good. I emailed Randy the file so he could finish editing. He worked hard on this Sunday only to find out the editing didn't save! Six hours worth of work was lost, but he gamely tried it all again. WOW!

On Monday, I worked all day trying to get the pictures not to float, often over or under text, to random pages! I even called in the big guns and asked an instructor who teaches with Word, but she also could not make it work. It wasn't for a lack of trying! She tried text boxes, anchors, different text-wrapping, changing alignment, etc.

Since that didn't work, I sent it to the graphic artist who created our cover art. She completed it around midnight! I should have sent it to her much earlier; a graphic artist, I am not!

Then, on Tuesday, Randy and I printed it, caught minor editing errors and some inconsistencies with layout, so we called the artist in Tuesday evening and worked for a couple hours to iron out some of the glaring errors; trust me, there are still errors.

Finally, on Wednesday morning, we had the files saved to CD and we dropped it off at 9 am. At 2 pm we got the call that the proof was done. Whoo-hooo! I ran to get it, brought it back to campus and showed everyone. It's very striking! We gave it the thumbs up, and we should have copies to sell the week of Dec. 10 or early during finals week.

In the midst of all this, I graded 40 example essays for 0050, planned class, and so on. I did take Friday night off from all things school-related. Today, however, I got back on the horse.

Activities accomplished today:

Slept in until 10 am. An unexpected treat as hubby was at work and daughter was at Grandma B's. Outcome: a totally rested me who should have been able to grade all day long.
Tried to teach daughter, who returned early due to predicted snowstorm, how to pick up the cat properly (as opposed to using the tail). Result=one scratch on foot and several tears and no papers graded as planned.
Graded last blog posts for three classes. Consequence: I feel like I accomplished SOMETHING today despite not getting 0050 comparisons, 1101 Hybrid research papers, or my 1102 poetry essays graded.
Made sloppy Joes for supper. The effect? Family with full bellies and FINALLY, a non-fast food meal this week for me.
Played Tomb Raider legend on Xbox 360 for an hour. My impression? Too much fun. I simply must have hubby hide the controllers from me so I get some work done.
Read 20 more pages in The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. Accomplishment: it's like sighting an island after being through a storm at sea. It calms me. It's like it reconnects all the fragmented parts of my life: mom, teacher, student, wife, colleague, daughter, etc. In short, it's rejuvenating to read.

Bad Ads

2007-11-25T20:15:00.001-08:00

http://www.about-face.org/

I like this site!

Readings

2007-11-20T10:50:00.000-08:00

I finished The Silenced Cry by Ana Tortajada this weekend. The descriptions of the purdah, or separation of men and women by walls, screens, clothing, etc. was fascinating. The diary might be interesting to use for the travel writing as she describes the "tug" Afghanistan has on her even before she steps foot there (Quindlen also discusses this phenomenon in her book).

Even the obvious discussions a class can have about othe contrast between how free we are to travel about, borders (physical and otherwise), space and landscapes would be infused with the experience of another culture.

As Turkey Day looms near, I am reminded that several of the early American explorers also would set the stage for the course. Other works I'm considering right now:

Gulliver's Travels
Kerouc's On the Road

Books for this weekend

2007-11-16T12:39:00.000-08:00

I had time to kill between class and a meeting today, so I ran into our library to see what it had to offer in terms of literature, periodicals, and general resources for a class on travel literature. I was pleased to find the Fall 2007 issue of Out Traveler. I didn't even know this existed, but it will be fun to read. They also subscribe to Outside, which features articles on destinations. One caught me eye: "the World's 30 Greatest Trips Ever." I am fascinated.

The books I picked up include

Conquer the Impossible by Mike Horn (journey around the Artic Circle)
The Silenced Cry by Ana Tortajada (a woman's diary of her trip to Afghanistan)
True North by Bruce Henderson (Peary and Cook's journey to the North Pole)
Queenan Country by Joe Queenan (a trip to England)
Imaginary London by Anna Quindlen (all about literary London)

I returned to my office at around 1pm, started skimming Quindlen's book, and before I knew it, I had finished it! At 2:30, I closed the book and transported myself back to the here and now. I don't believe I'll use it for my class, but it was a great read, nonetheless.

Other ideas right now include some Lewis and Clark (for the regional factor) and a colleague suggested writings by Theodore Roosevelt and Bruce Chatwin. She also reminded me of the title of the movie in theaters currently: Into the Wild.

Lots of research to do, but it will be a pleasure to do it!

A Break from Grading and Class

2007-11-15T17:07:00.000-08:00

Halloween and the past two weekends have blown by. In addition to massive grading, I've been busy with MayMay. For Halloween she was a ladybug; we were harried parents.

We've discovered that MayMay loves jumping in the inflatable things. Unfortunately, she is not much of a jumper yet. She was more often pummeled by the other kids, but she yelled "jump!" the whole time she was in it.

We took a weekend to go to the Manitoba Children's Museum in Winnipeg. MayMay was fascinated with the train. She could play with buttons and levers and sit in the conductor's seat. She played with plastic food in the galley and made us breakfast. She also got to play with water, rocks, sand, pipes, a VW Bug, fun mirrors, slides, etc.

Then we went to the zoo. Yes, it was chilly, but no crowds and the animals were quite active.

MayMay saw this bad boy and yelled, "It's a puma!" Oh, you have to love Go, Diego! Go!

At the hotel, we had access to a kiddie pool, a hot tub, and a giant water slide. I've discovered that I hate dark, loop-dee-loop spaces filled with rushing water. I was certain that the local mounties and paramedics would get to practice their de-fib equipment and skills.

MayMay was not much better with water. We haven't really had an opportunity to have her swim in large bodies of water, so she was nervous but loved it. We bought her a new life jacket for the occasion. She can't balance herself though and keeps flipping over. Now, though, she wants a nightly swim in our hot tub. It's hard to say no and it's kind of nice to get more use out of it.

So this week it's been time to refocus. My accelerated class is nearly over; Wednesday night was workshopping of rough argument/research drafts. In two weeks, they turn in final drafts. The Gateway section of 1101 is just at the drafting stage; today they turned in their research notes. In 1102, the online class is working on their exam and poetry essays, and in 0050, students just wrote their in-class essay and tomorrow we discuss the next essay. There's a lot yet to do!

New Course

2007-11-14T08:10:00.000-08:00

The English folks want to keep trying to offer a "Special Topics" literature course, but since my Intro to the Novel class was cancelled for this Fall, I'm nervous about offering another. What courses will students sign up for?

We've offered two with great success: Supernatural/Horror Fiction and Banned Books. I tossed around ideas about genre fiction (but what should I call it it to garner attention? Naughty Novels and Western Wonders? Blechk.), and then my hubby asked why I didn't teach "those darn travel books that you talk about all the time?" You see, I've been on a Bill Bryson binge. I started reading A Walk in the Woods last summer after a colleague mentioned she used it in her Nature Writers course. I loved it and bought all his other travel books (and one on the English language). His other titles include (in the order I read them):

Notes from a Small Island (which is about his travels through the United Kingdom)
I'm a Stranger Here Myself (a collection of essays about moving back and adapting to America after 20 years abroad)
The Lost Continent (traveling across America)
Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe (as the title suggests, it documents his trip through numerous European countries)
Bill Bryson's African Diary (a small hardcover--proceeds to go a non-profit organization--about a quick jaunt into Africa)
In a Sunburned Country (travels across Australia)

Of course, he was on to something. I am excited by the possibilities of a class on travel literature. I can use a Bryson text, of course, and I can also use travel blogs, biographers of travelers, poetry like Wordsworths' The Prelude, novels like Gulliver's Travels, and so on. I thought about Whitman's Song of the Open Road but the excessive use of exclamation points remind me of bad emails and, frankly, irritates me.

Ideas for marketing: Escape winter! Take Travel Literature!

There's a lot of planning to do for this: what authors to include, do I limit the class to certain eras or geographies? How to blend fiction, nonfiction, poetry, etc. into a cohesive approach to the topic of travel writing. What kind of projects? It's not a writing class, but it would be fun to have the students create their own travelogue of sorts. At the very least, have them research and write about places they would like to visit.

This reminds me of the blog created based on Samuel Peyps' diary. I think this is a great way to update the text for modern students. I would love to see this done for Dorothy Wordsworth's Grasmere journal.

To do

2007-11-07T20:49:00.001-08:00

JOLT - Journal of Online Learning and Teaching Must read more about this when I find the time. Figure out a way to motivate students to read and comment to others' posts. Better to do individual blogs? Hard to track? Harder to get others to go to? How much can I get them to write? How often to grade and on what criteria? Grammar or not? If journal--no; if public--yes. Much more to figure out here.

What? No work? Right...

2007-10-27T20:36:00.000-07:00

This weekend I have graded research notes, blog posts from 1101H, discussion questions from 1101H, and the last of the process essays from 0050. Left to grade: classification AND comparison essays from both 1101 sections, 15 or so fiction analysis essays from 1102, and a smattering of late work from all courses (mostly revisions I asked for--when will I learn?)

I read about 50 pages of Bryson's In a Sunburned Country and re-read the end of Alastair McLeod's No Great Mischief (only because I couldn't remember if I had finished it when I was reading it about a month or two ago. The answer: I don't think I did! But I don't know where I left off either, so I've put it aside to re-read after Bryson. I do know that it was a good read and I want to finish it).

My daughter was whisked away by the grandparents this Thursday, so I've taken advantage of the freedom to take in a movie (Elizabeth: the Golden Age. Ho-hum), to complete some fall projects (pack away the patio chairs, clean up flowerbeds, etc), and to listen to some loud music
(98.7 has been on for 4 hours--this is rare in our house now-a-days (I hate that phrase. Why do I use it?)

Now, however, I must return to those essays and get some content created for my 1102 online class.

The Kite Runner

2007-10-20T20:53:00.000-07:00

I just finished The Kite Runner. I bought it when I thought I was going to be teaching Intro to the Novel class this fall. That fell through due to low enrollment, but I kept it in my TBR pile. This past week, after hearing two different colleagues rave about it, I made it a goal to start reading it at night instead of watching TV. I started it Friday night and finished it tonight. It was a nice break from reading essays and creating online content, which is what I did from 9-5 (and 9 to 11 pm too) Wednesday and Friday.

It's a heart-breaking story, which I won't retell here as I want people to read it. I was very much caught up in the pre-Taliban and Mujaheddin descriptions of Kabul, though.

Anyway, I won't go into detail, but I will say it was a good read, a welcome learning experience, and very memorable.

Now I go back to grading essays (example, comparisons and processes from three different classes) and prepping.

Concert

2007-10-06T09:30:00.000-07:00

When I moved to Fargo, I was pretty excited by the prospect of going to concerts and shows. Now that I've been here, though, I'm sad to say I have not attended many of the offerings at the FargoDome. Now, I completely understand that it is not their job to cater to my tastes in music or entertainment, so all I ask is that I get to attend at least one rock concert a year.

My mom, one of my sisters, and I went to Nickelback last year. We were standing, not too far from the front, and had a great time. The music, of course, was the most important thing, so I won't belabor the lack of pizazz regarding the stage setup.

One of my students was there. Let's just say that I don't think he remembers anything about the show or teaching my mother how to bang her head. It's simply too hard to explain, so I won't. She was a good sport about it all, but we soon tried to move away.

The only other drawback was standing. Let's face it: I am not a teenager anymore. My feet were killing me by the end of the show!

With all this in mind, I purchased seats for last night's quadruple hitter: Skillet, Seether, Breaking Benjamin and Three Days Grace. About four hours before the show, a student who also had tickets, informed me that there weren't "assigned" seats (that sounds very teacher-ish, doesn't it). It was open seating, but he offered to save two seats if he could find some.

My mom and I arrived about an hour early and found seats in one of the back side sections, but this was unacceptable. We quickly darted across the dome to find seats in the first section to the right of the stage. I soon discovered that my student and his fiance were sitting not too far away. I'm confident saying that they both remember the show much better than my previous student!

I really hate to admit it, but these bands no very little about showmanship! The stage set up was bland. The singers rooted themselves almost solely to the center of the stage and did not utilize their stage well. The exception to this was the lead singer of Breaking Benjamin who, at one point, walked amongst the crowd to distribute bottled water to the fans sans body guards. I thought, only in Fargo with relatively newer band could such a person trust the crowd not to mob him! Jon Bon Jovi surely couldn't do this!

This, of course, reveals my age, so let me elaborate: in the 80s, the concerts were wild! There were pyrotechnics, elaborate set designs, and much interaction between the crowd and band. There was also more smoke, barely concealed substance abuse, and a lot more hair, but I digress. I was particularly struck by the body surfing. It happened back then, too, but I never recalled the point of body surfing to include being delivered to the security team at the front so you could be dragged out of the masses. That would have been considered a failed attempt back in the day. However, the body surfing was much more entertaining to watch from our vantage point than the lead singer. After all, if I turned to find him, he was always still center stage. The whole experience brought back the memories of past concerts when I was in that crushing throng. At one concert in particular, I don't think my feet touched the floor for an hour. I wasn't body surfing--I was simply helplessly adrift in the swaying tides of the crowd.

Now Three Days Grace was really good (It was enjoyable, but not particularly memorable). They played all their hits and I knew all the songs as their CDs are what I listen to as I drive to and from work. I love when a band actually sounds like they do on their CD. Three Days Grace does. The front man was a little more lively than the others at the beginning of the show, but then also found himself stuck in front of the mic stand.

Now here comes the zinger: there was no encore. None! The last song finished, people started filing out, and the lights came on. WHAT???? This is the first concert I have been to where there was no encore. I couldn't believe it.

All in all, I'm glad we went. I did, however, have more fun people watching than band watching. I don't know if I'd go to their show again, but I'm certainly looking forward to next year's opportunities.

Texting

2007-10-04T21:43:00.001-07:00

ICU TXTING. IMHO, it is rude. TTYL.

Favorite assignment

2007-10-04T21:33:00.000-07:00

In two classes I have already given out one of my favorite in-class writing prompts:

Write three paragraphs. 1. Tell me what you are doing to be successful in this class. 2. Tell me what you can do to be more successful in this class. 3. Tell me what you need from me so that you can be more successful in this class.

I like that the students often start strong: I attend class, I read the assignments, I turn in my work on time. All of these are admirable traits.

Then comes the humbling: I can read more. I can pay more attention to when assignments are due. I could come to class more. Yes, all of this is also admirable.

The answers to the last question are either usually positive though I do not say this to toot my own horn. Some are amusing (give less homework). Some are negotiable (I don't put assignments on the board because they are in the syllabus, but I understand why you would like that).

I've seen an increase in effort, though, based on this prompt and will use it in my other classes soon!

Grading...

2007-10-03T14:43:00.001-07:00

I haven't posted for a little while. I'm grading! I have 20 ENGL 0050 example paragraphs and workshops to grade, 25 ENGL 1101 process essays and prewrites to grade, blogs in 3 classes to read and grade, and discussion boards for two classes to read and grade. Then there is the prep work to get ready for each class. I'm not complaining! I'm just making sort of a checklist of what I need to get done this week to ensure I return all student work within 2 weeks of when they were submitted to me.

5 minute blog post

2007-09-25T15:14:00.000-07:00

My challenge: in no more than five minutes I want to respond to today's 1101 class at the HEC:

I am really intrigued by many of the essay topics that emerged from the prewriting today. Some were very creative and fresh. Some I worry about being "rants" much like the second sample we read today. I like the "rap is important" idea because it has a message for the reader. The topic throws out the misconceptions people may have about rap music (or at least I hope it does). I am surprised by the babysitting topic presented. I never would have thought about it the way the writer proposed to construct it. For some people who didn't produce much writing today, I worry about how your draft will form. Will you wait until the night it is due and churn out a first-draft-perfect essay? I hope not, but I do not know. Will you finally discover what your purpose is? Who are you writing for?

As I skimmed through your work today, I tried to provide some guidance. If you don't feel you got any, let me know!

In short, if I can sum up today's experience in a sentence:

If you are excited about what you are writing about, it makes ME excited to read what you are writing about. And my five minutes are up.

SWEET!

2007-09-24T11:27:00.000-07:00

I am such a nerd when it comes to historical dramas. I absolutely loved Elizabeth, so I'm estactic to see previews for Elizabeth: The Golden Age. Huzzah!

Some other favorite costume dramas:

HBO's The Tudors (I'm impatiently waiting for season 2)
Pride and Prejudice (all versions, though I'm biased toward the A&E version) and other Jane Austen flicks (Emma, Northanger Abbey)
Vanity Fair
Jane Eyre
Braveheart
Ridicule
Jefferson in Paris
Tess of the d'Urbervilles (A&E version)
Mayor of Casterbridge (also a Hardy book)
Dangerous Beauty
Quills
The Messenger
Shakespeare in Love
and so many more...

2007-09-23T11:34:00.000-07:00

Yes, the week was filled with possible blog-worthy topics.

No, I had no time to do it.

Before I dive into the grading for the week, I spend a minute or two surfing other blogs. This is one post on plagiarism I found today that is a refreshing point-of-view from a student.

Blogging

2007-09-18T09:21:00.001-07:00

I just read a fascinating article on blogging in education. I do have my students blog, but really, I agree that posting one response to a prompt or assignment is not real blogging. Thoughts: how to encourage real blogging? If it's not tied to a grade, will students do it? What of the quality? Does it matter as long as they are writing? What is the motivation to blog? Do I require them to read each others blogs? To comment? It gives me a lot to think about, but since I'm just now implementing blogs in the 1101 (on-campus and hybrid) and 1102 classroom, I don't think we're off to a bad start. Would I like to see it evolve? Yes. To what? Links, more reflective, less self-centered. More reader-based, not writer-based. Engaging.

What I'm currently reading

2007-09-07T20:35:00.000-07:00

Before I can fall asleep at night, I usually need to separate from the course and project work that I probably just set aside five minutes before collapsing into bed. To help "separate," I read or watch mindless TV. Yes, I'm not afraid to admit it. The more horrendous my day has been, the dumber the show has to be.

Last week, after spending hours on the computer, I've been reading Alastair McLeod's No Great Mischief which is about Scots living in Canada, and it is steeped in Gaelic language and culture. Even if I don't read it for a day or two, when I do pick it up again, I'm immediately drawn in.

The mindless TV? Two are absolutely hilarious to me: Rock of Love and The Pick-Up Artist. Can shows get any dumber? If you want mindlessness and to shake your head at the stupidity of others, these are the shows to tune into. Silly, silly shows.

I'm waiting for the next season of Amazing Race though. I love that show! I could never be a contestant; I'd want to do touristy things, not run like mad through a muddy field before hopping on a ostrich, finding an obscure shop, eating weird foods unpronounceable to the average American, and then jetting off to Machu Picchu to do it all over again. :)

And there is my unwind for the night.

Is it possible?

2007-09-07T19:53:00.000-07:00

Has another week already gone by? Where did it go? My week looked a little something like this:

Go to neighbors for BBQ Saturday night; spend most of weekend getting online and hybrid course materials created and posted. Kick hubby and baby out of house for most of the day Monday in order to work.

Tuesday: work on online/hybrid classes in the morning to finish the work from last night. Go to HEC for one class. Go back to office to make copies since some textbooks are MIA. Must also make copies to give my 0050 class tomorrow. Go to hubby's volleyball game to watch our rugrat and another guy's. An hour later, I'm home, reading to the little one and tucking her in before logging on and reading posts and emails again.

Wednesday: class at 10, run to another at 11. Have lunch and check/answer emails for an hour. Office hours from 1-2:30 (spend time grading, prepping for next classes, working on the student anthology project I'm co-chairing, answering emails from students, reading discussion posts, watching the blogs, etc). Instead of leaving, I stick around to get all this done and then I ran to get pizza and pop for the Phi Theta Kappa meeting (I'm one of the two advisors) at 6. Finish office work (stop might be a better word) at 7 and head home. Meet hubby and daughter at home. She goes to bed at 8, and I start work again.

Thursday: go into office at 11 to get some work done. Meet with Dean at 2. Rush to HEC, and in the middle of my process lecture--the laptop dies. Clearly, I need a new battery. Afterwards, I lug all my stuff to the Jeep and think how nice--I'll be able to head home soon. But first, I must write a model blog post for the students in that class and hope they start to post soon instead of waiting until the last minute (as of this posting, it's looking grim). Somehow I spend another two hours in office copying pages for students since books have not come in as expected and then go home. I find out father-in-law is in town to take us out to dinner; I decline in favor of some quiet time at home (and to get some diagnostic tests graded for 0050 students). Prep for Wednesday class. Stay up way too late.

Friday: drag self out of bed. Have class at 10 and 11. Lunch at noon with hubby. Work on anthology project, Phi Theta Kappa projects, read my favorite blogs, create tutoring schedules and lessons for students. Try to leave office at 4 but get stopped by student wanting someone to look at a paper she has due soon. Leave at 4:30, run to daycare, take baby to grocery store, get home and put on Dora so I can make supper, feed family, run to post office, run after daughter for a few hours. Am currently blogging while baby plays musical destinations (wants to be in bed, then in living room airchair, then back in bed, turn on Dora, turn off Dora, turn on Veggie Tales CD, turn on light/off light, etc).

Tomorrow I meet my sister in DL for a car swap (she will detail my Jeep while my hubby installs her car stereo). I get to drive her truck this weekend (unfortunately, she sports a window decal reading "If it ain't country, it ain't music." Oh, gross! GAAA. I will jam a Rage Against the Machine CD in her player and correct her decal with a mighty red marker. :) The rest of the weekend looks much like last weekend minus the fun parts.

So far, I'm just summarizing the weeks; I hope to be able to post reactions to individual classes soon! So far, though, 2 of the 3 classes I meet with F2F are pretty quiet and I've yet to get to know the various personalities. Nor have we launched into any philosophical debates :)

Summary of the week

2007-09-02T09:05:00.001-07:00

The first week of classes is complete. I've met over 60 new students in person and over 20 via email/internet posts. The week started with ENGL 1101 at the Higher Ed Center. It is, overall, a lively group! Unlike my other classes, this group was asked to answer questions like "what is in your CD player right now, what are 2 goals you have (barring money, family, skills and other restrictions), and a fear. Then I asked them to tell me what they thought were traits of an effective teacher and they came up with quite an impressive list including honesty, understanding, effective communicator, funny, laid back, etc.

My next class was ENGL 0050 at 10 am Wednesday. It was a much quieter group, but I saw several smiling faces. In ENGL 0050 at 11 am, it was even quieter! This group isn't as talkative as the others...yet. In both these classes on Friday, we had an ice-breaker activity based on 20 questions the students answered on Wednesday. Students were asked to find a person in the class who matched a description such as "owns a motorcycle" or "has lived outside the U.S." Only in the 11 am class did a few students break out of the group and ask the instructor which description was applicable to her :) While not required or expected, it was fun to see.

The hybrid, or accelerated, class has started with mixed results; several students report not having seen the note in the class schedule that we don't meet until September 12th. Others were unaware it was an accelerated course. These are bugs that will be worked on as the hybrid course offerings are expanded. This is our first semester with these courses, so we're learning as we go! This class if working on basic tasks that aim to get them familiar with D2L and the course policies and structure.

The online 1102 course has started without a hitch! They too are working on basic introductory tasks.

In three of the five classes, blogs are being used in lieu of journals, so that will be a new twist to each class. I can't wait to see how they turn out!

All in all, it was a productive week! Next week, we start diving into content for all three classes!

Behind the scenes

2007-08-26T09:09:00.000-07:00

Classes start Tuesday and I (and my colleagues) are amped. We are looking forward to the new school year; we're ready to do what we do! We've been working long hours to prepare syllabi, answering quesitons about our classes and enrollment, attending meetings in DL, Fergus and on campus, working on committees to improve what we do and what the campus does to make students feel welcome and successful, and preparing for the first week of classes.

The week begins with a bang: Monday is New Student Orientation. Faculty will meet new students and help get them acquainted with the campus and our services. Tuesday is not only the first day of campus classes, but we also have orientation for students enrolled in our new accelerated courses.

My own to do list:

finalize 4 completely different syllabi and copy them Monday
make sure my two online course sites on D2L are ready to go Tuesday morning (this includes a lot of proofreadings, tweaking of settings, and other mundane details)
get the first day materials ready (create, copy)
try to find time to do a little grocery shopping and to clean my house! I won't have time once classes start :)

I believe my students are:
getting back-to-school supplies (for themselves and for their own kids)
spending time with family and friends
finalizing course registrations and schedules
working as many shifts as they can before classes start
some are moving
etc.

Medieval helpdesk with English subtitles

2007-07-29T12:03:00.001-07:00

What was he thinking?

2007-05-01T19:48:00.000-07:00

More news about writing and violence. Heed this advice: always consider audience.

Thoughts on books

2007-04-24T11:27:00.000-07:00

I ordered a plethora of books for my summer reading pleasure. I can't WAIT to read for fun again. Among the growing stack are novels that I may use in the my Fall Novel class, some of which I've read and some I have not (Bronte's Jane Eyre, Chopin's The Awakening, Macleod's No Great Mischief, Kerouac's On the Road, Achebe's Things Fall Apart, McEwan's Atonement, O'Brien's The Things They Carried).

However, I could not resist peeking at Bill Bryson's I'm a Stranger Here Myself. Bryson is well-known as a travel writer and I've read two of his other books: Notes from a Small Island (about living and traveling in England) and A Walk Through the Woods (about hiking the Appalachian Trail). I was hooked as soon as I read Notes. I devoured A Walk.

It was with some glee that I ripped open the Amazon.com box last night to see my new treasures. I must give myself some credit that I was able to put off reading until late this morning; however, with grading of 1102 online essays looming over me, I was only going to indulge in a short reading of, say, the first paragraph. By noon today, I had read 1/2 the book. SO much for savoring it for later.

I've decided to adopt this book as part of this class for fall.

Violence in Writing

2007-04-21T19:24:00.000-07:00

Our class had an informal discussion about violence in writing. Recent articles on the topic agree that it is important not to stifle writers' creativity, but to be cognizant of where to draw the lines; however, this topic is not a new one. Here's the same discussion from 2004.

Blue Men

2007-04-10T18:36:00.000-07:00

Friday night, I attended the Blue Man Group show at the Fargodome. I've seen their show at the Luxor in Las Vegas 5 times (yes, it was the same exact show each time, but I took different visiting family members and friends each time just to watch their reactions).

I was looking forward to seeing their "How to be a MegaStar" show. While some elements were similar to the Vegas show, the overall concept is much different and the songs are different. I should clarify: Blue Man is NOT a rock concert. The theme of the show is rock concert, but they are not a band in the traditional sense. It's a combination of mime, comedy, music, and art. There's nothing else like it. I don't think many people here "got it" though. There's nothing worse than sitting at a great show with a bum crowd that refuses to participate. Blue Man is very much an audience participation show.

The Tudors

2007-04-01T20:57:00.000-07:00

The Tudors started on Showtime tonight and I couldn't be more thrilled! Having just visited London and Hampton Court, I was thrilled to see some of the scenes details.

I blogged about my trip to London, which immediately came to mind when I watched the show. One small but critical detail that immediately caught my attention was the wood paneling in Woolsey's rooms. The movie portrayed it just like I remembered it!

Call me a nerd, but I am fascinated by the medieval and renaissance eras, so I'm thrilled to see this show. I'm hoping it has a huge following and will remain on the air for at least a couple seasons. I'm thinking it will because of the large following of such things as the Society for Creative Anachronisms (I'm not a big fan of this) and Renaissance Festivals (I'm a huge fan of these) nationwide.

It all just makes me want to reread Philipppa Gregory's novels, especially The Other Boleyn Girl. I've heard they made a movie out of it, but apparently it was only released in the UK.

Old Posts Reduced and Compiled

2007-04-01T20:33:00.000-07:00

In an effort to clean up my blog space, I've edited and reduced the old posts. I've compiled the remaining "old" information here into a few basic posts and links. The basics of the old definition assignment that first prompted me to create this class blog is still here, as are some older links to previous students work. I've since revised the assignment quite a bit and will post the other essay assignment directions as well.

Overview of definition blog

In my ENGL 1101 courses, my students are gaining experience as "real world writers" in the sense that their writing is going live! Instead of limiting our work to the classroom, we are making our writing public on the world wide web. This activity introduces students to the concept of a blog (web-log) as they develop a definition of a term that is either new or misused in certain contexts. Their task is to provide a short overview of a definition and then to link their work to other sites on the web that explain, clarify, or exemplify that term.

So far students reactions have started as a mix of fear and complete bewilderment, but by the end of the lesson, they usually admit the blog was fun and they learned a lot from doing it. Even the technophobes admit it wasn't nearly as difficult as they feared and the newly gained skills gives them more confidence to try new writing techniques.

The assignment was stated as:

This assignment's objective is to introduce you to a very public form of writing: the blog. There will be three phases of this writing project:

First, you will write a 1 1/2 to 2 page essay using the comparison or definition mode of development.
Then, you will find and save the URLs for 7-10 websites that would help your audience understand your topic better.
Finally, we will merge the first two steps and create links within our essays to make it more "interactive."

Grading will still focus on the conventions for the modes of development, but will also take into consideration the quality of your links.

We will go through this step by step, so do not worry if you do not consider yourself tech-savvy. I have some student samples below; keep in mind, however, that their assignment may have varied from yours in length and mode.

Other info given to the students:

Blog Term being defined: "Blog"

Note: there are 13 phrases linked to sites about specific aspects of "blogs." Each site the links go to further define blogging for the reader.

My Sample Blog Entry:
We're Going Blogging! Did you say flogging? That's the most common response I get when I say I'm going to introduce blogging into a composition classroom. While flogging is associated with medieval torture, blogging is one of the hottest forms of communication for the techno-savvy. The term blog is a combination of "web" and "log." It is a sort of online journal, however, most people use it to log their web-surfing finds. One hunts down information that they find interesting, or appalling, and they write a reaction, which they publish to websites like blogger.com. In fact, the google toolbar has a "blog this" button to facilitate the recording of your web-surfing. Features of a good blog are frequent posts, interactivity with readers via a comment option, links to take readers to the source of the topic under discussion, and it reveals the writer's personality. Blogs can be very useful, but they can also be a place where people post the most mundane details of their lives. Topics range from coverage of the war , which is highly controversial to, literally, "nothing." A newbie may be shocked that there is actually already a strong history of blogging. Blogs started appearing in the late 1990's and just recently became a world-wide phenomena. Blogs are just as popular amongst librarians as they are for school kids. In fact, some bloggers have taken the form from a past time to a utilitarian tool. Blogs are very similar to Wikis; however, they are not as interactive and cannot be edited by anyone besides the author. Though they are often referred to as online "diaries," that comparison can be a bit misleading. Regardless of the distinction between them and other online writing spaces, blogs are another online tool that allows people a voice on the web.

Student Blogs (the assignment for some students was a mere couple paragraph definition. This evolved into the assignment stated above):

Spring 2005/6
Adam
Cody
Mary
Semir

Fall 2005/6
Amy
Julie
Katie
Misty

Spring 2004/5
Cassie
Kari
Dawn
Nicole
Josh
Sandra
Jodi

MCC (pre-2004)

Shilo E.
Brandi S
Torrie.O.
Susan.O.
Lauren.H.

A New Start

2007-03-31T20:56:00.000-07:00

I've kept this blog pretty limited to student work. I am now going to use it as a resource for all my classes--from ENGL 0050 to 1101. I will also include some personal info from time to time.

2005-02-05T09:00:00.000-08:00

NOTE:

Because of the constant change that occurs online, I cannot be held responsible for the content of the sites behind each link.