Welcome to Class!

Good morning Third Quarter Writers!

I am so pleased that you chose to join this writing community. Together, we will stretch ourselves to write with voice and purpose. Daily, we will endeavor to channel our creativity and fortitude into strong composition.

Today's writing prompt is to introduce yourself to the writing community. Who are you? Don't use your full name, please. Why are you enrolled in this course? How often and in what style do you typically write? What are you hoping to gain from this class? What should we know or understand about your personality and temperament that will help us to work and write with you?

Once you have completed your first blog, please get a copy of the course syllabi and the reading for tonight.

Welcome, welcome, welcome!

Becky

Aches and Joy

On Monday, I got a hair cut and what I first thought were really cool chairs, actually turned out to be a huge pain in my knees. Your legs hung the whole time and had no place to prop and it turns out that the weight of my calves, feet and shoes is more than my knees like. Even today, I am achy. Could be the lack of sleep and my age...:)

I won't perseverate on the Obama Inauguration except to say that it was emotional and joyful for me. I've been thinking lately about what a student said earlier this year about Presidents and how we should stand by them. At the time, I thought that my freedom as an American citizen meant that I could stand in peaceful opposition to my commander in chief idealogically, but that yes, in the end, I believed in the intellect and vision for the role of president. Today, I feel fully like I stand with our President and I like that-- and surely, over the course of his tenure, I will disagree with policy or rhetoric, but I like to think that on the whole, I am better represented in the oval office than ever before.

To grades: I need to submit grades for the term on Friday which means all blogging ceases at 10 am on Thursday. I read through people's blogs yesterday and the average blogger this month posted 10 times, and that number doesn't actually touch on the number assigned-- or offered (that number is higher:) So, check your blog to see how often YOU were writing.

Either today or tomorrow, please turn in to me a self-assessment of your writing this term and this course. Due to the nature of the assignment, you may type this up and turn it in as opposed to posting it if you so choose. Thank you in advance for a curiously funny and intriguing term of writing. Many of you used the blogging tool really effectively and I hope it allowed you to vent, process and create in a new way.

Have a stellar day!

4 am Missive

You know how you can feel nauseous when you're overly tired? That's me, right now. It's about 4:15 and I've been awake since midnight with Quinn. He's got an ear ache and isn't feeling well, and thus, isn't going to sleep. Suffice it to say, I won't be with you today. Sorry!

Thoughts for today: I just finished reading Prep, a book given to me by Sidney. Heard of it? It's told from the perspective of a young woman going through 4 years at a boarding school, but because she's from the mid-west, attending an East coast, swanky school, she feels isolated and alone. It's been a while since I've read young adult lit and it was engrossing, even as I despised the character's preoccupation with a boy and her gruesome self-loathing... but it reminded me in kinder sections of how complicated and emotional high school can be. Adolescence is not an easy time of life. I've decided that I need to read at least 2 young adult books each year from now on so that I never get too detached from the experience. Recommendations? Thoughts? What should adults never forget about who you are and what you feel?

Remember to write about the change project and your writing venture. Only 3 more days!

Pretty coherent for someone who wants to sleep desperately, eh?

The Final Countdown

Do you hear music in the background?

I don't even know who sings that song, or if that's just a chorus line. If your life were a soundtrack, what songs would characterize you?

Here's a sample of my life:

It's Raining Men (for the irony of it-- though I do live with three males)
Itsy Bitsy Spider (this and other kid tunes characterize my drives with Quinn. I don't have a CD player either so this is me singing)
Somewhere Over the Rainbow (I'll be out of debt someday:))
Stay (song with high school BFF)
Hangin' tough (you know, because I'm resilient and NKOTB rocks)
Baby Got Back (kidding... sort of. It's the only song I know of that references my name)
???

There's just 5 more days of blogging. 5 more days to excel. 5 more days to earn a credit! Make those 5 days a testimony to your greatness!

Write! Write! Write!

6 word challenge

So NPR was covering this contest yesterday where listeners could submit six words (a short phrase) that they would like to hear in the inaugural address of Obama. I thought I would challenge you today to create a series of 6 word phrases that the country needs or wants to hear from Obama.

For example, "Invest in civic resources- they're renewable". I stole that, by the way. They mentioned it yesterday on the show and it stuck with me.

One of the pipes leading to our kitchen sink is frozen and so we have no hot water for dishes. Our kitchen is cluttered. Quinn woke up at 6 today. I am wearing mis-matched slippers. Quinn is wearing his Star Wars t-shirt again today, though he helped me hand wash it last night and hang to dry.

I'm having a bit of a conundrum about what classes to teach next term. Any ideas?

Don't forget to update your change work and also venture into your writing project. Just one week left!

Extra credit to anyone who will blog through the inauguration next week. Heck, you should all try some real time blogging--- say, watch a show online and blog throughout it with your review. Fun stuff.

Mixed feelings

I just spent the last half an hour reading blogs and commenting. The heel of my right hand is sore because I rest it too hard on the desktop. Odd, but true. There was a real diversity to what people wrote about today. I'd have to say that my favorite writers of today were Faith and Morgan. Their free association made me thoughtful and they were interesting blogs. Victor too has been composing some great memoir entries. On the other side of things, people wrote with passion, vigor and anger about many things. Others wrote contemplatively about topics I felt compelled to debate. I suppose that's a good thing, right? That your writing should invigorate me, or less formally, piss me off enough to question whether I should maintain my teacher personality in my responses...

I wonder, at a school this size, what do students think about teachers? I remember when I was about 20 and I was at the Gay 90's with some friends, catching the show and dancing. When we walked downstairs from the drag show, I saw my high school English teacher at the bar and I fled the other direction. I didn't care so much about his sexual orientation, but I certainly wasn't interested in chatting him up at the bar. Are the teachers here your confidantes? Mentors? Instructors? Do you imagine we experience the same levels of anger and joy as you? Should I bring the concerns from this forum to the leadership?

I feel trusted- at least in this writing community- and that is an enormous thing. Why do I feel that way? Because people share with honesty and candor their emotions. Or, are you censoring?

I'm compelled to leave you with a topic brought up in one of your peers blogs that I was drawn to-- the school's vision statement. What is the purpose of a vision statement? How is that different from what is actually in place? Why do we organize a vision statement around the ideal instead of the actual? Who owns a vision for a community-- who is in charge or realizing that vision?

Sadness

It was an interesting weekend. For a few months now, my Mom has been talking about how Shadow- our family dog- was doing poorly. Her hind legs barely worked and she had a hard time getting up and down stairs. Still, I mostly ignored her remarks because who wants to think about the end of a life, and a precious one at that. When I was a sophomore in college, a group of pre-teachers traveled to Arizona to teach for two weeks on a Navajo reservation. There, I learned a great deal, took up smoking camels and found a destitute and sick puppy that I would rescue and adore. This weekend, my Mom and brother brought Shadow to the same vet where a childhood dog being put to sleep would bring tears to my hyper-masculine father's eyes... and where I would refuse to return. Shadow was my first baby, if you will. When I found her, she was only 6 weeks old (they estimated) and horribly ill. Imagine a Caravan full of college students, driving back to Iowa and in the back seat is a puppy who won't stop throwing up or peeing blood. I held her in my arms, trying to force water down as I wept silently. It was not a pretty trip. Her recovery, though, was a thing of beauty and she was the most loyal and loving dog a person or family could know. So, I feel awfully sad. My Mom, a single mother since I was in 5th grade and a dog owner for the past 40+ years is sad and feeling the loneliness of an empty house. All of this contributes to why I seemed to say over and over this weekend, "We're a family" when with Luke and Quinn. The three of us would be crossing a street or sliding down a slide together and I would happily say, "We're a family". And why? Because when Quinn was born I learned about a new kind of love, one that would validate and hearten my feelings for all other important people in my life, but also stands alone as unique. Shadow was a wonderful companion and enormously sweet (the anecdotes go on and on) but she became a secondary concern once Quinn was born. This wasn't because I intended to be neglectful or found her boring, but Quinn demanded/needed (and I delivered) more attention. I'm not sure why I'm starting your week off with such a blog, but there are just some things you have to write about to begin to grieve or process things. Good writing, for me, can put off or take the place of a good cry. Alright, so there's one of my stories from my weekend. You have 8 days left to blog. Many of you have yet to commit to a final writing endeavor/project. Please be sure and update us about your work to change a part of you. Have a strong day of writing.