Dusting off the LJ
So. . . I guess it's been awhile. I wonder if anyone even still looks at this thing.
It seems silly to attempt to recap everything since the last time I updated this thing, especially since I'm not sure when that was (yes, I could go look, but, meh).
So instead I think I'll do a 2009 year in review (a bit early, perhaps, but not by that much).
2009 has been an interesting year, in both positive and negative ways. Tim started school last fall and successfully completed the first semester of his freshman year. Our agreement was that he'd see one semester through and then decide whether he wants to continue or not. He does wish to continue and I think he's feeling better about himself for being able to tackle the school thing.
We've been even poorer, though, as he did not get a work-study position as we'd hoped. Hopefully he'll get one next semester. Work study doesn't pay a whole lot, but it would help grease the wheels. My income is enough to barely cover the bills (if it's a good month w/o any extra expenses). It would be nice to have just a little more.
I have just one semester of coursework left. The spring semester holds 1 literature class (the child in literature), 1 fiction workshop (led by the editor of The Fairy Tale Review), and an internship with The Fairy Tale Review (mostly reading manuscripts). It shouldn't be too bad. I don't yet know what I'm teaching.
Last semester I taught my first workshop, intro to creative writing. I had to cover 3 genres, which I didn't like. I covered short fiction, poetry, and drama (one act plays). I didn't feel like I got to cover anything in depth, although that's not the goal of the course. The course is supposed to just introduce students to 3 genres and then perhaps they'll choose to pursue one further. Meh. I wouldn't have minded splitting the semester into 2 genres, but 3 just seemed to be too much. That said, I still enjoyed it far more than teaching composition. Several of my students showed promise, and the worst I felt toward anyone was indifference. It's always nice to have a class where I don't hate any of the students.
As far as my own coursework this fall, I took 1 lit class (Utopian/Dystopian Literature) and a creative writing pedagogy class. I enjoyed the lit class, although I think I was one of the only ones in the class who did. I actually like the paper the turned in and will likely revisit it to revise and submit (it was about language's role in dystopias--both as a control mechanism and means for rebellion). The creative writing pedagogy class had useful moments, but it also had plenty of eye-rolling ones.
Ok, so far I'm only covering fall 2009. That's fine--I'm pretty sure I was still updating this thing through the summer.
My laptop died early in the fall semester. Rather than being a disaster, though, it ended up being okay. This was largely thanks to my officemate who had an HP tablet laptop she was willing to part with and my mother-in-law who was willing to give us the $250 to buy it. I do love my new toy! Also, I managed to get my laptop to boot up one last time so I could pull everything off of it onto my flash drive, allowing me to salvage those few things I'd forgotten to back up. So it could have been far worse. I had to hold the laptop at a strange angle to get it to turn on--a solution that literally came to me in a dream. When I woke, I thought it just might make sense as the laptop's malfunction mostly had to do with it no longer being able to find it's hard drive. Tilting it allowed everything to come into contact with itself. If I had the know-how I'd crack it open and try to fix it, but I don't. So currently it's a paperweight.
I've had several poems accepted this year, mostly noted as Facebook status updates when I found out. So that's been good for the ole career. I still need to get at least one or two critical essays published in peer reviewed journals to really be competitive, though--especially if I want to apply for a hybrid creative writing/literature position (and since those are becoming far more common, I do want to apply for them). Also, I need to present non-creative and non-rhet/comp things at conferences. So, in my roughly 2 remaining years of PhD time, those are the primary goals (after passing my exams and writing my dissertation, of course).
Rook continues to do well in school, although he has the misfortune of having a teacher without a sense of humor. I knew he'd have to learn how to deal with such people at some point, but I hoped it'd be a little later in life. Despite her humorlessness, though, she's still usually charmed by him and he's at the top of his class. She told me he's most likely gifted and reads at a 3rd/4th grade level. He does need to improve his handwriting, though, which we've been working on.
Well, this is long enough and Tim wants to go to the comic book store (new comic day, after all).
Happy year end holidays!
It seems silly to attempt to recap everything since the last time I updated this thing, especially since I'm not sure when that was (yes, I could go look, but, meh).
So instead I think I'll do a 2009 year in review (a bit early, perhaps, but not by that much).
2009 has been an interesting year, in both positive and negative ways. Tim started school last fall and successfully completed the first semester of his freshman year. Our agreement was that he'd see one semester through and then decide whether he wants to continue or not. He does wish to continue and I think he's feeling better about himself for being able to tackle the school thing.
We've been even poorer, though, as he did not get a work-study position as we'd hoped. Hopefully he'll get one next semester. Work study doesn't pay a whole lot, but it would help grease the wheels. My income is enough to barely cover the bills (if it's a good month w/o any extra expenses). It would be nice to have just a little more.
I have just one semester of coursework left. The spring semester holds 1 literature class (the child in literature), 1 fiction workshop (led by the editor of The Fairy Tale Review), and an internship with The Fairy Tale Review (mostly reading manuscripts). It shouldn't be too bad. I don't yet know what I'm teaching.
Last semester I taught my first workshop, intro to creative writing. I had to cover 3 genres, which I didn't like. I covered short fiction, poetry, and drama (one act plays). I didn't feel like I got to cover anything in depth, although that's not the goal of the course. The course is supposed to just introduce students to 3 genres and then perhaps they'll choose to pursue one further. Meh. I wouldn't have minded splitting the semester into 2 genres, but 3 just seemed to be too much. That said, I still enjoyed it far more than teaching composition. Several of my students showed promise, and the worst I felt toward anyone was indifference. It's always nice to have a class where I don't hate any of the students.
As far as my own coursework this fall, I took 1 lit class (Utopian/Dystopian Literature) and a creative writing pedagogy class. I enjoyed the lit class, although I think I was one of the only ones in the class who did. I actually like the paper the turned in and will likely revisit it to revise and submit (it was about language's role in dystopias--both as a control mechanism and means for rebellion). The creative writing pedagogy class had useful moments, but it also had plenty of eye-rolling ones.
Ok, so far I'm only covering fall 2009. That's fine--I'm pretty sure I was still updating this thing through the summer.
My laptop died early in the fall semester. Rather than being a disaster, though, it ended up being okay. This was largely thanks to my officemate who had an HP tablet laptop she was willing to part with and my mother-in-law who was willing to give us the $250 to buy it. I do love my new toy! Also, I managed to get my laptop to boot up one last time so I could pull everything off of it onto my flash drive, allowing me to salvage those few things I'd forgotten to back up. So it could have been far worse. I had to hold the laptop at a strange angle to get it to turn on--a solution that literally came to me in a dream. When I woke, I thought it just might make sense as the laptop's malfunction mostly had to do with it no longer being able to find it's hard drive. Tilting it allowed everything to come into contact with itself. If I had the know-how I'd crack it open and try to fix it, but I don't. So currently it's a paperweight.
I've had several poems accepted this year, mostly noted as Facebook status updates when I found out. So that's been good for the ole career. I still need to get at least one or two critical essays published in peer reviewed journals to really be competitive, though--especially if I want to apply for a hybrid creative writing/literature position (and since those are becoming far more common, I do want to apply for them). Also, I need to present non-creative and non-rhet/comp things at conferences. So, in my roughly 2 remaining years of PhD time, those are the primary goals (after passing my exams and writing my dissertation, of course).
Rook continues to do well in school, although he has the misfortune of having a teacher without a sense of humor. I knew he'd have to learn how to deal with such people at some point, but I hoped it'd be a little later in life. Despite her humorlessness, though, she's still usually charmed by him and he's at the top of his class. She told me he's most likely gifted and reads at a 3rd/4th grade level. He does need to improve his handwriting, though, which we've been working on.
Well, this is long enough and Tim wants to go to the comic book store (new comic day, after all).
Happy year end holidays!