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THINGS HAVE CHANGED:

Since I am no longer a professor in the classroom, this blog is changing focus. (I may at some future date change platforms, too, but not yet). I am now (as of May 2019) playing around with the idea of using this blog as a place to talk about the struggles of writing creatively. Those of you who have been following (or dipping in periodically) know that I've already been doing a little of that, but now the change is official. I don't write every day--yet--so I won't post to the blog every day--yet. But please do check in from time to time, if you're interested in this new phase in my life.


Hi! And you are...?

I am interested to see the fluctuation in my readers--but I don't know who is reading the blog, how you found it, and why you find it interesting. I'd love to hear from you! Please feel free to use the "comment" box at the end of any particular post to let me know what brought you to this page--and what keeps you coming back for more (if you do).





Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Unexpected bonus...

First, I am happy to report that I got the essays marked before class--and had enough time to send an e-mail or two before heading across campus. My eyelids were pretty droopy by the time I was working on the last one, but ye gods does it feel good to have them done.

The students in both classes worked pretty diligently on making their corrections, many of them being smart enough to take advantage of my being there to ask a few questions, too. So, alles gut.

I have prepared my wheelie-pack for tomorrow; the one thing I haven't done is to reread the assignments for class tomorrow. On the other hand, I'm seriously considering showing a video of me presenting a paper at a conference in Portugal from a few years ago. I can only access it on Facebook--it doesn't appear to exist in any other format, and I can't seem to save it as something (though I may ask my computer guru about it)--but I can access Facebook from the laptop in the classroom and turn on the overhead projector...

There are two advantages to showing the video. One, it keeps me from having to try to crow-bar responses from them. Two, it gives them a sense of the richness of ideas possible when one reads with attention. The disadvantage is that it's 30 minutes of me being pedantic (and over-enunciating--but my audience was Portuguese, so I was concerned that they understand me ... or that's my excuse, anyway, and I'm sticking to it). Not sure what to do. I reckon I'll decide tomorrow.

In another kind of good news, a colleague sent me some discussion questions she's used for assignments about The Word for World Is Forest and Avatar, so I can now raid ideas from her to formulate the final essay topic for the 102s. I just confirmed that my library session were, in fact, booked, but I need to respond to the wonderful colleague in the library who is putting together a guide for my classes and for the topic. She's already pulled some articles about the novella, and she said pulling some for the movie wouldn't be a problem--but I need to let her know if she's on the right track with what she's found so far (I'm sure she is, but I need to confirm that), and I need to give her the essay topic(s) in case that helps her find anything further.

But not now. I do have a ton of stuff to grade, but I'm not planning on taking it to Advisement with me tomorrow: I plan on working on the essay assignment between students. We're not inundated, but there are students to be seen, so that means no concentrated attention on anything--but that's OK. I don't think I could concentrate my attention if my life depended on it (at least not any further than it takes me to drive safely home).

On a completely unrelated front, I just figured something out about our printer: turns out there is a much easier way to feed index cards than what I've been doing--and it works for feeding envelopes, too. I needed to print things up for those letters of recommendation I wrote, and in fiddling around with that: discovery! It's always good when I blunder across a technological aide I wasn't aware existed.

Now, however, I am so paralytically exhausted that I really need to just go home. Do not pass Go, do not collect ... well, anything, never mind $200. Just home. More tomorrow.

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