This morning, I woke up to this note from a former student:

"I was unable to get a English 1A class last semester that fit in my schedule. This last semester I, seeing that English is not my favorite or best subject, hesitantly took an English class. Unfortunately and fortunately it was an extremely hard class. Mostly because he was a hard grader ( Read more... )

I had a new experience as a teacher today that nobody thought to warn me about, and while I understand why, that doesn't make it any easier.

This afternoon I was talking with my mom about my inspiring former student, Gail, and since I was home I decided to check in on her Facebook page - only to discover that Gail passed away this summer.  Gail ( Read more... )

Sometimes I feel like St. Patricia, preaching the gospel of academic writing to the unsure masses.

Yea verily, the thesis is a strong and mighty force that guides your paper from the beginning to its righteous end. It is complete and perfect unto itself: it has a beginning, which involves the topic at hand; it has a middle, which tells the reader ( Read more... )

"Most white people in Midland City were insecure when they spoke, so they kept their sentences short and their words simple, in order to keep embarrassing mistakes to a minimum.  Dwayne certainly did that.  Patty certainly did that.

This was because their English teachers would wince and cover their ears and give them flunking grades and so on ( Read more... )

A college education involves being thrust into a crowded room full of conversations that have been going on for decades, centuries, in some cases millennia.  At first, you don't know anybody and you hardly know which circle to enter, and it's difficult to insert yourself into a debate for which you feel utterly unprepared.

( Read more... )

I got to talking with one of my fellow TAs today. It turns out that we've had one class together in the past, but we haven't really talked before today. She told me that she remembered me from that class because, during a group project we had to do, someone in my group was mad about me. She said that they said I was a bitch, although it's been so ( Read more... )

In a few short weeks, I will be done with school for a while ( Read more... )