I mentioned an "Invisible Writing" exercise I'm trying in class in my 30 day meme yesterday. It is a free writing exercise I found in a textbook I was reviewing for possible use. Another way to get away from the "fix as you go" syndrome.

Basically, you sit down at your computer and pull up a new word document, set up your margins, etc. and type ( Read more... )

My graded were successfully posted about five minutes ago. I am officially on break from school until the 3rd week in January or so. I started The Mayor of Castro Street last night and am nearly 50 pages in. I can already tell that it will be a "make myself put it down" book. After that, I have He's the One lined up. That should put me at 23 or so ( Read more... )

I curl up on the loveseat with lit tests and an all day Christmas marathon on ABC Family Channel. A lot of my favorite Bass Rankin specials are airing, as well as some others.  Tonight, there's a brand new one about the Miser Brothers from Year Without a Santa Claus, which was my favorite back then. I should be finished grading today and have ( Read more... )

I didn't have a final to give until 1 o'clock, so I slept in since I had been feeling so poorly. I left the house around noon, thinking something just wasn't right. I had finished the medicine Dr. Grace had given me for the pneumonia a day or two before, but I just couldn't put one foot in front of the other. But I had a final to give and, by God,  ( Read more... )

Except for the grading. My last class was today. Once the papers come in and are graded, no school 'til the 26th of January. I got lotsa reading to get done during that time. Tonight, I'm doing laundry and packing for my weeknd in Nashville with Chris H. And grading a few of the research papers that came in this morning...maybe.

So, it is a pleasnt autumn morning and all is right with the world. I am very much looking forward to my Lit classes today. We are on Act 3 of Othello and as I said last week, They are really getting into it. I just finished typingup the quiz for today. Because of the difficulty of the language, I do my quizzes over Shakespeare a little differently ( Read more... )

For two reasons:

1) My lit students are actually looking forward to continuing Othello. They are really getting it, even with the "language barrier," and getting into it. Teachers who tell me kids don't like Shakespeare aren't doing it right.  They like it if you make it accesible to them. I can't wait til Tuesday!!!

2) Ugly Betty threw me for  a ( Read more... )

So today's discussion in my research writing class centered around using the Kentucky Library here on campus to find primary sources in the form of letters and diaries, as well as other firsthand documents found there. It is always an interesting class because they often don't realize what a wealth of information is there. One of the biggest ( Read more... )

Today is my first unofficial day off from classes. I have an appointment for bloodwork for yet another follow-up from last spring. The appointment falls at a time that covers part of two of my classes. Since I don't like to get one class ahead of the other, I cancelled all three. The students didn't mind AT ALL, especially the two freshman classes ( Read more... )

So today is one of those "I love my job" days. It started whenI arrived on campus around 9:10 to search for a parking spot before my 10:00 office hours. It's alays harder tofind soemthing on Tues/Thurs when I come later. Surprise of surprises, there was a spot in the lot directly across the street from Cherry Hall, the buildng that houses my office ( Read more... )