Today is as good as any to write. :)
After a semester of stats and proposal writing, plus teaching like crazy (comp and 2 online literature classes, 50 papers for every assignment but amazing traditional college students and dual enrolled students), I am done with my course work for my doctoral program. So yesterday I wrote a poem, and it felt wonderful.
It was about a visit to our humanities-based research class by MSU professor and nonfiction writer, Marcia Aldrich. As a gift to her and the class. I started with this line: "She enters the room with laughter and a bag." Often, we try to get students to create a "hook" to get readers into their writing, but I realized that sometimes you need to find a "hook" to get yourself as a writer to be engaged. This line propelled me into writing the rest of it. I want to think about this more with my students. I ended it this way: "I am left with more questions in my notes than answers: a good sign of a good presenter, of a good teacher, of a good poet. I am left with more inspiration than theory. I am left with more."
This fall I also presented at the Teaching English at the Two-Year College midwest conference, and it went really well. It was on repurposing technology in the composition class. This coming year I will have a chance to present at a couple of other conferences, which is a growth experience for sure. http://www.tycamw.org/Columbus%202011%20Conference.htm
As I look back on the year and all the amazing experiences I had in the classroom and out, I am sure that my Study Trip to Vietnam was the most life changing. I hope to have reflected on it enough by now to write about it soon. Here is me at the Temple of Literature in Hanoi.
