tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102915182012-01-25T05:17:08.631-06:00I'm an assistant professor of English at Missouri State University, and I direct the Ozarks Writing Project.Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.comBlogger1221100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-68090643753466517302011-03-19T07:57:00.000-05:002011-03-19T07:57:49.360-05:00

I'm always struck by the conversations. How powerful and simple. To sit at a table and talk about our teaching. How does this not happen more at our schools? We sat in the Siceluff Hall library at Missouri State. I looked around the table on Tuesday night and wondered why conversations like this didn't happen more. Ten teachers sat around the table talking about their classrooms. We had written

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-38794920920451462962010-12-14T07:20:00.000-06:002010-12-14T07:20:24.607-06:00

Shael Polakow-Suransky is the new second in command with NYC schools. A New York Times article today discusses discusses the fact that Mr. Polakow-Suransky grew up attending very progressive schools and now supports testing and assessment. I was curious about this contradiction, and I read on. Here's a quote that stuck out to me: Until we start seeing assessments that ask kids to write research

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-73179562918192885582010-12-11T09:57:00.000-06:002010-12-11T09:57:19.382-06:00

This is not a blog post of answers. It's a reflection on OWP work and the future of some work. I'm just trying to think through some connections I am beginning to see. Yesterday, we had our Ozarks Writing Project Winter Work Day. The goal was to work on the Continued Funding Application for the grant and to do program planning for 2011-2012. The Dean of the College of Education introduced me to 

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-24294742998255560822010-10-01T00:40:00.000-05:002010-10-01T00:40:37.433-05:00

In a the media frenzy of book banning, important stakeholders in this conversation were forgotten. Who were the teachers actually involved in this ban? For months prior to Wesley Scroggins' blog posts, a parent in the city of Republic, the issue of taking 20 Boy Summer and Slaughterhouse Five was discussed. In Scroggins' blog post, he mentioned three books, the two previous, and Speak. But, Speak

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-77175398307413079602010-09-28T07:59:00.002-05:002010-09-28T07:59:54.553-05:00

Monday night the department head observed me teach. He does this every year, and I like having him in class. He doesn't make me nervous, but I think I was a better teacher last night with him in the room. Let me backtrack for a minute: I was a little nervous because at 3:35 (class starts at 4:00) I wasn't really sure what we were going to do in class. We had just read a chapter on teaching

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-45939135891621558162010-09-28T07:26:00.000-05:002010-09-28T07:26:08.717-05:00

Here's the goal for Monday night's class: 1. Try to get future teachers to know that there is more to writing than just literary analysis essays and looking at student work to correct it for grammatical errors. I've already had one of those conversations this week with a student teacher. She's a great student teacher by the way, and she had two goals for her students. The first is to

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-7658002817604054592010-09-26T13:56:00.002-05:002010-09-28T08:08:54.311-05:00

Since my tenure packet is due October 8, I've obviously been thinking about the term for awhile--say, five years or so. In discussions of education reform, this issue comes up a lot. The argument seems to go something like this: "If there were no tenure, there would be no bad teachers. Tenure keeps administrators from firing "bad" teachers." I don't think that's the case. First of all, as a

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-38644751540369259662010-09-03T13:37:00.000-05:002010-09-03T13:37:53.925-05:00

(This is not what I planned on writing today, but I heard this story and had to share it. I'll probably write about it again.) I'm sure that I've received anonymous letters--at least anonymous notes--before. You know, in elementary or junior high, someone might like you and pass along a note. As you walk down the hall, you wonder who it might be that likes you. It changes the way you look at

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-54314415096349810182010-08-24T21:35:00.000-05:002010-08-24T21:35:31.045-05:00

My new and now dear friend, Dr. Joseph McCaleb, posted this prompt to the National Writing Project's iAnthology. I'm posting my response to the prompt here and on the Ning. I'm sharing his prompt here because I think it's worthy for all of us think about as we get "back in the saddle": Joseph McCaleb, Director of the University of Maryland Writing Project, a good friend, and our guest this week

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-16189645835766526122010-08-24T13:41:00.020-05:002010-08-25T12:14:43.674-05:00

That's the question I posed to class last night. Then, I asked them to create a "Yes" pile and a "No" pile of literature. As I listened to them last night, and as I read through their comments this afternoon, I have so many questions. One thing that came up last night was that romance novels, or smut, or Harlequin novels, for many, were not considered literature. The argument was that these

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-29681379965708296402010-08-20T07:40:00.000-05:002010-08-20T07:40:32.040-05:00

Well, the big day is finally here. I've sort of dreaded this day for a long time, but now that is is here, it's not so bad. It's the start of our participation in the Local Sites Research Initiative. I'm organizing a study of high school writing in our area. This began last fall, actually more than a year ago. Our site had Teacher-Consultants (TCs) participate in the National Writing Project

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-16217462560721175862010-08-12T20:40:00.001-05:002010-08-12T20:44:23.258-05:00

I'm envious of Sara C. Allen now. She just writes what she thinks, and she is consistent. I really do envy that. I have a huge self-censorship problem. There are lots of things that I want to write about, but mostly, I stop myself. In an odd way, I think that I don't want anyone to know too much about me. Not sure why that is, and as always, I don't want to get locked in to too much self-analysis

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-75947811954818452652010-08-12T07:14:00.003-05:002010-08-12T20:46:07.237-05:00

It was interesting to hear that Thomas and Sara were going to begin blogging. I knew Sara did already, but the fact that they made this pact to blog each day is neat. It's a writing group that doesn't really meet face to face. I wonder if they talked about responding to their posts. I've been thinking about blogging a lot lately for much the same reason as Thomas--140 characters isn't enough. I'm

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-29120875043144043412010-07-06T10:19:00.000-05:002010-07-06T10:19:04.584-05:00

We wrote and shared writing this morning.  Here were some of the "big" questions: 1. How do we instill in our writing students a love of writing? 2. How we think about assessment has changed. --Cody 3. How do we push ourselves to write beyond the Summer Institute? --Vanessa 4. Writing is an exercise in understanding where we are coming from. --Tanya 5. Writing helps us dig deeper in

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-46954261186738638402010-06-29T13:43:00.001-05:002010-06-29T13:43:30.318-05:00

So, we've read Chapter Four of Because Writing Matters, and we were asked to write about a professional discovery we've had. Well, I have a professional discovery virtually each day. First, let's say, that my entire family thinks that I work too much. I don't really know how to get away from it. I have a professional network of people who I teach with, research with, and talk to on a fairly deep

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-79310485784979007192010-05-02T21:41:00.000-05:002010-05-02T21:41:54.498-05:00

We began the Summer Institute morning with loop writing (although we didn't use the prompts, it was simple a series of short writing times and we pulled one idea from each of the cycles). With some editing, here's what I wrote:

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-10339801458246116232008-07-11T11:21:00.002-05:002008-07-11T11:24:03.029-05:00

I am the most pitiful personal blogger. I've been meaning to get back into it, but the Ozarks Writing Project and other teachers blogs seem to be taking up most of my time. Today is the last day of the Summer Invitational Institute, and we have the teachers blogging--for at least the second time. We are working on incorporating the blog as a larger piece of our Summer Institute. We need to make

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-46129962941659209932008-03-03T09:28:00.004-06:002008-03-03T09:43:12.682-06:00

I was watching CBS Sunday Morning, and they had a segment on a book called Why Not Catch-21? The book discusses the origin for titles, and once I did a little research, I discovered there is weekly column in The Sunday Telegraph. The segment discussed the importance of titles. It's the first thing we notice about a paper, and it's usually the last thing that we deal with. I can't remember where I

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-33450526846255956962008-03-02T22:30:00.006-06:002008-03-13T12:17:25.356-05:00

I was invited from the very beginning. I will visit my friend Larry's blog (an Ozarks Writing Project Teacher Consultant), and when I visited last week, there seemed to be something different. It's because someone posted this comment to the district website:Posted 01/12/2008 I looked at all the blogs in Alice's Restaurant. Rather than teach students to post a podcast to the web, which they will

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-36418677114432648562008-02-22T20:07:00.014-06:002008-03-13T12:24:50.517-05:00

I went to a meeting today expecting to be able to sit quietly without having to say anything. I plan on doing that until I get tenure (just kidding, but the thought had occurred). I was sitting there minding my own business when the "writing across the curriculum" came up. This was followed by discussion of the "disastrous state of student writing in the university"--veering toward the edge of

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-77705942778063895272008-02-21T14:52:00.008-06:002008-02-21T15:14:13.822-06:00

When I began to write a dissertation about blogging, I could no longer face a blog. I just couldn't even go to the site. It was like I had to completely break myself away and focus completely on the task at hand--writing about blogs. I'll post another time about what I found, but right now I just want to focus on getting back in the saddle in terms of blogging myself.I have a methods class for

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1164575463118825102006-11-26T15:11:00.000-06:002006-11-26T15:11:03.243-06:00

I always really enjoy reading Will Richardson's posts. I do, I really do. I think he's advanced a lot of educators' thinking about blogs, but I'm crinkling up my face today as I read his latest post. Actually, let's go back a few weeks ago to the "teaching is dead" post, and now we have the "reading is dead" post along with his vast assertion that most, if not all students see Of Mice and Men as

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1164124010189998322006-11-21T09:46:00.000-06:002006-11-21T09:46:50.206-06:00

I just read Barb's post about the NWP/NCTE convention which you can find at the Teaching with Blogs link. Barb and Laura went to these cool sessions, and I attended some very practical sessions that weren't related to the classroom. I went to a session that explained how to collect and input data for the NWP Inverness surveys that they do each year to get federal funding. This will be helpful

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1163910734107252922006-11-18T22:26:00.001-06:002006-11-18T22:32:14.120-06:00

What do you say? If you've been to a National Writing Project event, it's overwhelming in the best way. For the first time, we had representatives (besides me) from Springfield. Barb and Laura came, two high school teachers who will participate in, hopefully, our first invitational summer institute next summer. I was just telling Barb about the Red Cedar Writing Project's NWP annual conference "

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1163208553668793072006-11-10T19:28:00.000-06:002006-11-10T19:29:13.683-06:00

In Sunday's New York Times, there was a front page article called "Sites Invite Online Mourning, But Don't Speak Ill of the Dead." In the last few weeks, the focus of my research has been exploring the blog posts on the class blog that are either fairly negative or sometimes outright racist. I really wanted to ignore this part of the class blog because I felt like if I "reported" this it would

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1162439827381032542006-11-01T21:46:00.000-06:002006-11-01T21:57:07.466-06:00

I was reading Barb Ganley's post about teaching a new set of students who weren't taking to blogging maybe as quickly as she would have liked. She had them do a paper version of commenting with sticky notes. In the pilot study last year, I found that students didn't comment too much. They posted a lot, but they didn't extend conversations. So, Barb and I made a decision to scaffold the blogging a

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1162438635844238062006-11-01T21:27:00.000-06:002006-11-01T21:37:15.846-06:00

I'm teaching a methods course for middle and high school preservice teachers. I went to an area school, mostly rural, and observed one of my students teaching an English IV class. It's a brand new school, and it looks like a huge hotel. The teacher had this beautiful LCD projector (is that what's it called) hanging from the ceiling and a beautiful white screen in the front. Computers lined the

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1162306072950513872006-10-31T08:45:00.000-06:002006-10-31T08:47:53.220-06:00

Well, Barb and I were really nervous. I'm doing research on blogging in Barb's class, and a local reporter called to do an article. Maybe not in all regions, but blogging feels a bit like it's on the margins. I didn't want anything to ruin our work, but the article turned out very nicely. The pictures are nice too.

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1162063774547307062006-10-28T14:29:00.000-05:002006-10-28T14:33:31.680-05:00

We're in Branson, Missouri at our first National Writing Project Professional Writing Retreat. There are fifteen of us. The windows in the meeting room face Table Rock Lake, and the fall colors are beautiful. I'll post a picture. The focus of the retreat was to write for professional publication. At first, I was a little nervous that no one would come when I said we needed to write about our

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1162001816046454312006-10-27T21:16:00.000-05:002006-10-27T21:58:53.616-05:00

Teaching with BlogsBarb was disappointed today about students' language on the blog. I have to tell you I've been impressed by what I read tonight. One student posted in her blog her self-initiated writing. She said that she doesn't often share her writing, but she was proud of this and wanted to share it. This kind of "work" was unsolicited by the teacher. The student really put herself out

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1161451647600120132006-10-21T12:16:00.000-05:002006-10-21T12:30:24.240-05:00

Well, today was the first day I had a chance to look at the blog posts from the class I am studying. There are three blogs from three different classes. They are all reading the same novel right now--To Kill a Mockingbird. This is the third time that I have worked with this teacher as she incorporated blogs into her classroom. Oddly, the first two times we had 100% of parents and students

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1159121252347938232006-09-24T12:55:00.000-05:002006-09-24T13:08:58.170-05:00

I created a CMap about blogging and composition. This is my first draft. Would love to hear any comments. This is an executive summary for a CMap that outlines the focus question: How are composition and blogging practices connected? The CMap is informed by my pilot study conducted in spring 2006, recent articles on blogging, and seminal readings in composition.

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1158153424698821512006-09-13T08:15:00.000-05:002006-09-13T08:20:32.720-05:00

Jensen in an article for Language Arts (March 2002) “names names” in the teaching of writing, and many of these names are the first that may come to mind. She mentions work and research by Moffett, Graves, Hunt, Britton, Hillocks, Macrorie, Elbow, Murray, Kinneavy, Calkins, Gray, Strunk and White, and Emig. She also mentions others that are not as familiar. The article focuses on a

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1158153250613447152006-09-13T08:12:00.000-05:002006-09-13T08:14:54.336-05:00

“What I’ve Learned from Teachers of Writing” by Graves Donald Graves’ recent article for Language Arts (November 2004) outlines the fundamentals ofteaching writing in a workshop: students choose their own topics, writers receive regular responses from anaudience, i.e. teachers and fellow students, students write a minimum of three days a week, studentsattempt to publish their work in

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1157978301918409322006-09-11T07:36:00.000-05:002006-09-11T07:40:17.906-05:00

The New York Times had an article about the publication of Susan Sontag's journals/diaries. Here's my favorite line, and then the rest of her quote. Nothing prevents me from being a writer except laziness. A good writer.Why is writing important? Mainly, out of egotism, I suppose. Because I want to be that persona, a writer, and not because there is something I must say. Yet why not that too? With

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1157633583170417562006-09-07T07:52:00.000-05:002006-09-07T07:53:03.183-05:00

“Desert Island Discourse: The Benefits of Ignoring Audience” by Elbow and Clarke (in The Journal Book) In this article, Elbow and Clarke suggest that writers ignore audience, not altogether, but especially during the beginning stages of writing. They write that many famous authors never write specifically for the audience; they write for themselves. They write that focusing on audience can

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1157585670304406832006-09-06T18:31:00.000-05:002006-09-07T10:38:47.476-05:00

Blending genre, altering style by Romano is a book that outlines, explains, and provides strategies for the multigenre paper. Romano shares student examples of multigenre writing, and he shares short assignments that students could try and include in their multigenre papers.A weakness is that he doesn't give the reader much concrete information when it comes to assessment. There is a chapter at

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1157585420726862652006-09-06T18:21:00.000-05:002006-09-07T10:21:33.976-05:00

Jim Burke is the author of the English Teacher's Companion, Writing Reminders, and Reading Reminders. Summary: Burke's book includes many resources. The chapters are short and may include procedures for a certain strategy and an accompanying scoring guide. Writing Reminders and Reading Reminders are both set up like this. I feel like a practicing teacher would find these books very handy. They

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1157584833012196642006-09-06T18:10:00.000-05:002006-09-07T10:18:03.130-05:00

Summary: This is a collection of essays written by Elbow. This books includes his essay on his experiences in graduate school, binary thinking, maps of writing, and contract grading, to name a few. The book is thick and covers a lot of material. In my notebook, I've already discussed Writing Without Teachers, and this book is a later and more explicit. I found that there were practices that he

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1157584196773061962006-09-06T17:59:00.000-05:002006-09-07T10:03:17.113-05:00

There are several books I would like to lump together: The Right to Write by Julia Cameron; Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott; Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg; and On Writing by Stephen King.Summary: Each of these books includes stories about the authors own writing life. The books also includes suggestions or short assignments for readers to try. All of the books could be considered

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1157577828528420772006-09-06T16:08:00.000-05:002006-09-07T10:12:14.053-05:00

Well, you would have thought I would have written about this already. I pushed it to the side thought because I know it so well. Russell kind of through me for a loop in our practice comprehensive exam. He said that Atwell said she's not a reading teacher. I didn't remember that part, and Dr. Fox explained that maybe she was equating reading with decoding (and NCLB), and that literature was not

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1157575082170979712006-09-06T15:38:00.000-05:002006-09-06T15:38:02.170-05:00

Teaching with BlogsI was looking for qualitative studies about blogging, and I found this. They haven't published yet, but they presented some of the initial insights. I thought it might be helpful to look at what they found. Post what you think.

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1157574823256100652006-09-06T15:03:00.000-05:002006-09-07T08:51:53.380-05:00

Well, I've been a terrible blogger. As you can see, I haven't posted since about April. I'm a little made at myself that I haven't posted all of my writings for my comprehensive exams on here. But my friend Amy and I are trying to support each other. I thought it might be easier if I posted on my blog. I'll send her my site.I'm reading Ong today and listening to the Woods Brothers.I need to

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1144957289085926292006-04-13T14:41:00.000-05:002006-04-13T14:41:29.123-05:00

Writing for Myself: Writing to Teach: Another dayHaven't blogged in a while. I guess spending too much time studying blogs. There is a blog in my media literacy class. I'm so mad I can't look at it. It's become an arena for another student to pursue me in a not-so-positive way. He's trying to prove a point that it's okay for him to call someone gay in order to disprove their opinion. Do you know

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1133541498746868432005-12-02T10:33:00.000-06:002005-12-02T10:38:18.766-06:00

Well, I considered deleting my last blog entry, especially the "I hate my life right now" because like everything, the affect of graduate school ebbs and flows. I'm feeling better today. Obviously I'm procrastinating since I'm writing this. It's just that, like most people, I hate this crunch time of the year, and I love the feeling when it is over.Here are words of inspiration for others facing

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1133412483331554032005-11-30T22:44:00.000-06:002005-11-30T22:48:03.366-06:00

Statistics paper due Monday. I hope to get done by tomorrow. Good luck.Presentation in my rhetoric class. I have a good start. It's due Monday.A fifteen page paper over the emergent theme of my class project for Qualitative. (That's not counting my final proposal for my pilot study which is due the next week). That's due Tuesday.So, if I can get my stats paper done tomorrow, then I could get my

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1133304183112032602005-11-29T16:32:00.000-06:002005-11-29T16:51:40.146-06:00

All right. Here's the situation. I spent the semester reading about rhetoric, emotion, affect, and motives. We read Adam Smith, Burke, Massumi, Sedgewick, Worsham, Hardt, Schell, Albrecht-Crane, and others. And everything I picked up reminded me of reader response theory. Now, I noticed that sometimes when I said the phrase "reader response" that people might have what Massumi might call a bodily

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1133226373077488042005-11-28T19:02:00.000-06:002005-11-28T19:11:02.873-06:00

Barb and I talked about the plans for the pilot study in the spring. I've been trying to work on IRB for Mizzou and the school district. Barb scheduled the mobile computer lab. One thing we don't have are six surge protectors to hook up the laptops. The battery power will run out in one class, and we will need it for second, third, and fourth block. She has first block prep. which is good, so

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1132861542089504852005-11-24T13:41:00.000-06:002005-11-24T14:05:10.876-06:00

It's getting to the end of the semester, and I have to turn in my final proposal for qualitative research I. I haven't worked much on it this week. Last week, I was asked so many times what my dissertation topic was. I had a good "answer." This week A's uncle asked me, and I couldnt't seem to put it into words.I do know that it is so good to say what I am thinking aloud, and to write down my

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1132588092994588792005-11-21T09:46:00.000-06:002005-11-24T14:08:22.486-06:00

This is a question I'll have to answer in my dissertation. Although students will be using these blogs to talk about literature, it is also about teaching writing as well. Students are doing so much out of school writing that school's don't even know about. It will be important to read this.Take the "how comfortable are you with digital literacy" quiz.

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1132533913105437512005-11-20T18:32:00.000-06:002005-11-29T17:19:49.646-06:00

Last week, I went to NCTE in Pittsburgh last week. We got there on Wednesday and went to the Church Brew Works. This was formerly (until ten years ago) a Roman Catholic Church. They decided to consolidate churches, and this one was going to be torn down . . . until they decided to turn it into a brewery. It was a beautiful church, and the beer was good as well. I also had the best pierogi

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1131655734398383642005-11-10T14:43:00.000-06:002005-11-10T14:48:54.413-06:00

Be very explicit on my first day of class about my expectations. I need to tell them that I teach differently. I need to tell them that this is a class that will be frustrating at times, but the goal is that we think as students and teachers. I need to tell them, like I told the high schoolers, that this will be a hard class but that they will learn a lot from it. I need to put in my syllabus

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1131550884414167392005-11-09T09:24:00.000-06:002005-11-09T09:41:24.426-06:00

Why is this so hard for me? Another conceptual framework:writing and audiencemedia literacysocial constructivismor democratizes educationQuestions: How does this social software, or tool, impact students' thinking, reading, and writing? It's social. They connect with each other. They connect knowledge. Their writing has an authentic audience. Writing and AudienceThe potential of the internet

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1131418479112759342005-11-07T20:35:00.000-06:002005-11-07T22:19:48.456-06:00

I'm reading Notebooks of the Mind by Vera John-Steiner. As I read, I'm seeing connections to blogging which I'll go into a bit more in a moment. For those of you trying or experienced with qualitative research, I've been trying to figure a conceptual framework for some research I want to do. I will have high school students use a blog as a complement to their English I class. They will use it for

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1130943484895829452005-11-02T08:57:00.000-06:002005-11-02T09:05:08.203-06:00

I haven't looked at the The Secret Life of Bees blog in a long time. I tried to check on Manila one time. There has got to be a free version somewhere that works similarly. I'll have to ask my friend Marcia. You need to post these thoughts and questions on your blog, so we'll have a record and keep coming back to it. Have been doing lots of thinking about this research. I think this is also about

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1130640451819281992005-10-29T21:43:00.000-05:002005-10-29T21:47:31.836-05:00

In my doc. seminar, we had been discussing Moffett's essay called "Inner Speech." We had discussed how sometimes people have a weird reaction to the idea of meditation in the classroom. I accidentally came across the blog. I had not heard the story on NPR. Here is his blog. http://tackingtowardtranscendence.blogspot.com/2005/10/misguided-angels.htmlI tried a writing exercise in Elbow and

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1130212759751063782005-10-24T22:43:00.000-05:002005-10-24T22:59:19.756-05:00

I'm playing devil's advocate here. Today in my rhetoric of emotions class we discussed our final paper that we have to write. I'm totally on board with it and ready to write, but something about the conversation made me question it. This is a class on Rhetoric of Emotion, Affect, and Motives. The final paper is an argumentative or persuasive paper. Donna showed us an abstract that she had written

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1130209583694176652005-10-24T21:57:00.000-05:002005-10-24T22:20:37.306-05:00

I'm reading A Short History of Writing Instruction. This post concerns mainly Halloran's section. I took history of writing and structure of the English language before, but I don't know if we ever discussed this.1) Writing tools affect how we compose. Halloran explains that "old-style writing tools necessitated a two stage composing process" (p. 170). The writer invented and did all of his

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1129991154024918742005-10-22T09:10:00.000-05:002005-10-22T09:25:54.036-05:00

We're reading Feeling Power by Megan Boler in Donna's class. I like this book. It seems related to my thinking on reader response theory and emotions and education. I mentioned this in class the other day. In education, we don't talk about the sexual/affective/gendered issues that occur in schools. As I was reading Boler books, I was thinking that I want to teach a class called Gender and Emotion

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1128782272046864102005-10-08T09:22:00.000-05:002005-10-08T09:37:52.056-05:00

It seems like as I read articles in Donna's class that I keep seeing glimmers of reader response theory. The class is the Rhetoric of Emotion, Affect, and Motives. It seems that our readings are leading us to think more about affect, and I guess I took that to mean "where is it?" And, if it's not there, "why not?"Emotion isn't a valued thing in our society. I sat at a speech tournament and heard

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1128087567245150152005-09-30T08:34:00.000-05:002005-10-01T09:19:35.313-05:00

I did a lesson in class last night. We did a Webquest. We were talking about General Semantics. The very quick and dirty definition is "the word is not the thing, the map is not the territory."If you go to this site and search for General Semantics, you'll see the web inquiry, or Webquest. I linked to articles from different media outlets concerning Tom DeLay's indictment. It was interesting

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1127920755716117302005-09-28T10:13:00.000-05:002005-09-29T22:11:21.160-05:00

Teaching is an interesting activity isn't it. There are good days and bad. I don't know if this one is good or bad. Something I was reading the other day was talking about sharing your approach to teaching. There are a lot of different approaches and it is important to make yours explicit. I wish I could remember what I was reading. I had two students come in and one of them said that half of my

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1127697426072967952005-09-25T19:56:00.000-05:002005-09-25T20:17:06.080-05:00

"This aspect of identification, whereby one can protect an interest merely by using terms not incisive enough to criticize it properly, often bring rhetoric to the edge of cunning" (p. 36). Burke gives an example of politicians doing this, but he also brings up that "Whatever the falsity in overplaying a role, there may be honesty in the assuming of that role in itself; and the overplaying may

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1127581208018865882005-09-24T11:57:00.000-05:002005-09-24T12:00:08.030-05:00

Two students in my class did a lesson with a modified book pass. They had students decorate brown paper bags with quotes or images that reflected the novel. Then, students filled the bags with objects that related to the novel. As I watched the lesson, I wondered if they would give students any criteria for what went into the bag.Last night, as I sat on my friends back porch, she had a wonderful

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1127579528319347632005-09-24T11:11:00.000-05:002005-09-29T22:36:22.863-05:00

"We may need to, for example, to reconsider our attitude toward those who delay writing. We may, in fact, need to force many of our glib, hair-trigger student writers to slow down, to daydream, to waste time, but not to avoid a reasonable deadline" (Murray, Learning to Teach, p. 39). This quote reminds me of a former professor's work on Personality and the Teaching of Composition. Teachers need

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1127503549328152762005-09-23T14:15:00.000-05:002005-09-23T14:43:34.800-05:00

I'm exploring Donald Murray like I said in my earlier post. I'm supposed to be taking notes, but before I started I tried to frame Murray and Elbow into some larger questions. We talked about Elbow last week and one day later I received an email from a former colleague telling me about an interaction that she had with a colleague who said that she "didn't believe in Elbow because she was a social

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1127501060954652002005-09-23T13:37:00.000-05:002005-09-23T14:09:00.583-05:00

I'm reading Donald M. Murray's Learning by Teaching: Selected Articles on Writing and Teaching for Tuesday's doc seminar. I had read his book about his daughter's death two summer's ago: The Lively Shadow: Living with the Death of a Child. I read it because it was by Donald Murray. I decided to do a quick Google Search on Murray. I don't know why, I guess these days I just do that, and I came

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1127354431268096182005-09-21T20:59:00.000-05:002005-09-21T21:00:31.276-05:00

We just discussed Writing Without Teachers in my doc seminar yesterday. Tonight, I was prepping to read Burke, and I decided to do a little searching. I found this article. http://jac.gsu.edu/jac/11.2/Articles/9.htm If anyone is interested.

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1127324507401972182005-09-21T12:31:00.000-05:002005-09-21T12:41:47.413-05:00

I was completing my first interview for my class project in qualitative research. After researching blogs, I found two ethnographies by Nardi, et al. When I checked my Hatch book, he said that ethnographic studies were about in-depth interviews. Okay, that makes sense, and that the paradigm would be post-positivist, meaning that we can't identify one "truth" although it may be floating around

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1127185479629339412005-09-19T22:03:00.000-05:002005-09-19T22:05:08.870-05:00

This is so funny. Watch it if you have time.http://www.badmash.org/videos/videos_flv.php?v=george_bush_512K_Stream.flv&t=Harlan%20Mcraney,%20Presidential%20Speechalist%205000

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1127182308874604232005-09-19T21:08:00.000-05:002005-09-19T21:11:48.886-05:00

Well, it is Monday evening. I drove to Columbia this morning. I went to my stats class this morning, worked in the office a bit, and then went to my rhetoric class. It's raining really hard here, and I finally went to the rec center. It was about six and it wasn't too busy. I changed clothes in the locker room, turned the corner and came face to face with one of my students from Kickapoo. It was

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1126966464859023032005-09-17T09:13:00.000-05:002005-09-17T09:33:47.683-05:00

I'm reading about Adam Smith today.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_SmithThis is the part that relates to my rhetoric class:"In 1759 he published his The Theory of Moral Sentiments, embodying some of his Glasgow lectures. This work, which established Smith's reputation in his day, was concerned with how human communication depends on sympathy between agent and spectator (that is, the individual

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1126909752299108562005-09-16T17:13:00.000-05:002005-09-16T17:29:12.310-05:00

I can't believe I haven't blogged in twelve days (at least). I was doing so well there for a while. I guess that always happens when school gets into the swing. Right now, I'm writing a conceptual framework for my class project in qualitative research. I'm not really sure what I'm doing, but I've been working on it most of the day. Tuesday was an interesting day of teaching. A few of them said

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1125670982989296282005-09-02T09:20:00.000-05:002005-09-02T09:23:02.990-05:00

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1125498674763761772005-08-31T09:30:00.000-05:002005-08-31T09:47:50.336-05:00

Quandahl was who I started with this week, and I was glad because her language seemed to be a bit more accessible. She seemed to explain her ideas better (at least for me). We see the word pedagogy again. Q. quotes Worsham when she says pedagogy is "the whole social education of members of a culture." Okay, I 'm with you there. In the first paragraph, I'm thinking that the question is "What are

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1125422096294174182005-08-30T11:55:00.000-05:002005-08-30T12:14:56.306-05:00

A student asked me today about my experiences in class, specifically what controversies had come up with parents. I never had a parent tell me not to teach a book. I was always upfront with with students about what we would be reading, and I think what we read in the canon is pretty mild language, situations, ,etc. compared to what students see on t.v. I always tried to communicate with the

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1125373961849111992005-08-29T22:43:00.000-05:002005-08-29T22:53:12.490-05:00

I'm taking a qualitative research class, and it is making me think about a project I worked on last year. I began the project by interviewing three teachers at three different stages of implementing reading/writing workshop. One was a "verteran" of the group. The youngest and newest teacher who had been using workshop for a year or two. Another had only began using workshop the sememster I began

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1125087569600300462005-08-26T15:13:00.000-05:002005-08-26T15:19:29.606-05:00

I'm taking a media literacy class, and this is the prompt that we wrote about at the end of the evening. What is media? What is literacy? Media = newspapers, magazines, television--things thtat inform society. At one time, we saw media as unbiased, purely informational. For a long time, we did not know what the results of television would be on society. Just like we don't know where the internet

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1124997216883755972005-08-25T13:44:00.000-05:002005-08-25T14:13:36.900-05:00

I think I'll be using this blog as a place to reflect on my teaching of a Young Adult Literature class for secondary English Education majors. I am also considering sharing my blog. I think I want them to see my reflections on my own teaching practices. I went to IRA in May and in a session a presenter talked about the lesson reflections that students were doing. She wanted them to look at their

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1124888353667549472005-08-24T07:56:00.000-05:002005-08-24T07:59:13.673-05:00

I don't like the first week of class. Especially when I imagine all of the final projects at the end and December doesn't seem too far off. But how hard could this be when I don't have to work full-time as a high school teacher. I have two jobs up here but that is 20 hours probably, instead of the 32 hours that I was actually in class, not counting the time planning and working after school. I

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1124816029040506632005-08-23T11:39:00.000-05:002005-08-23T12:06:08.000-05:00

Today was the first day of Young Adult Literature. I was not throw-up nervous. I did feel strange. Apprehensive. There are 26 students in class and one other one that emailed me asking for an override. I haven't emailed her back. This is what we did today. By the way, my watch was 10 minutes slow! I thought it was 9:15 and it was 9:25. Note to self: Always check to see if your watch is correct. I

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1123874491360349622005-08-12T14:17:00.000-05:002005-08-12T14:26:33.316-05:00

I am continuing to work on the syllabus. Why is it such slow going for me? I've also been adding articles and handouts to Blackboard. I hadn't thought much about this class until the last few weeks, and I am beginning to feel a bit nervous. I enjoyed my internship in the same class last year, but now I am the teacher--totally in charge. You know, I notice the more time that I have on my hands,

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1123714682627327672005-08-10T17:44:00.000-05:002005-08-10T17:58:02.643-05:00

I'm not much of a planner. I like to see what happens in a classroom and go from there. So sitting down to plan the next 18 weeks is quite a task for me compounded by the fact I have to keep asking myself what do future high school English teachers need to know about Young Adult Literature. It is Wednesday and although I haven't been constantly working on this syllabus I still thought I would

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1120739525292049982005-07-07T07:28:00.000-05:002005-07-07T07:32:05.296-05:00

about the start-up writing project in Springfield, but I woke up this morning to a British reporter on NPR who mentioned something about the underground. I sat up in bed because I knew something was wrong. I can't help but think about these other t.v. moments like Oklahoma City, the first World Trade Center bombing, and the second.

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1120046473349604522005-06-29T06:54:00.000-05:002005-06-29T07:01:13.353-05:00

Is it my destiny to be completely slammed by people? I'm taking an online creative non-fiction class. I woke up this morning to check my email and received a message from a member of my new online small writing group. Her message said that her comments usually caused people to be discouraged with their writing, so if she was too harsh or critical that I should let her know. At this point, before

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1119411086829176922005-06-21T22:26:00.000-05:002005-06-21T22:31:26.836-05:00

'Fiction, from a literal standpoint, is not true — or at least not totally true (not so as the writer is willing to admit) while creative nonfiction, if not completely true, is as true as the writer can make it. I am not unaware of the foggy grey line being drawn here, but one can't be easily literal about art and literature. The creative nonfiction writer tries to be as truthful and factual as

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1119380936361572452005-06-21T14:08:00.000-05:002005-06-21T14:13:49.476-05:00

Writing for Myself: Writing to TeachI'm sticking with this blogging thing because it is hard for me. I really struggle against it, but maybe this "publicness" makes me push myself a big--write more than I usually do? I notice spelling and punctuation problems because I am usually in a hurry and I don't read it over it before I "publish." I'm wondering about fear right now. Fear holds us back.

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1119378243240109252005-06-21T13:24:00.000-05:002005-06-21T13:24:03.250-05:00

Writing for Myself: Writing to Teach Technology autobiography I'm embarrassed to tell this story. My brother said that my parents should buy me a computer, and a lot of times he is full of hot air and I blew him off and got a word processor instead. Can you believe it? I used a word processor to write my big composition paper my senior year in high school. I used it in my freshman comp class

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1118894382879517652005-06-15T22:59:00.000-05:002005-06-15T22:59:42.900-05:00

Writing for Myself: Writing to Teach Today, the Missouri Writing Project went to Rocheport. It was a beautiful day. 83 degrees. Very windy. Blue sky. When I blog, I think of Marcia. She was on her way to Stanford to do a presentation. I can't wait for her to present her round table about blogging to the other teachers in the institute. She is having everyone make their own blog, and I think it

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1117109462351817852005-05-26T07:11:00.000-05:002005-05-26T07:11:02.366-05:00

Today is the last day of school. I am planning on posting grades and getting everything done today. I brought home a huge load yesterday. Some students helped me load the truck. And then, naturally, started looking through the trash bin and found all of these books that had been thrown away. They dug through the trash and left with a box of books. I was so proud. More later.

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1116971051168940732005-05-24T16:40:00.000-05:002005-05-24T16:44:11.173-05:00

The next two days are finals. On Thursday, the last day of school, I have lunch duty. I spent a whole semester supervising lunch. It was one of those character-building things. I met many new students, and I learned how to calm down angry students and persuade them to pick up their trash. Some of the time. The ISS teacher still calls me Cat Lady after the cat incident. It was me and 250 students

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1116889403624825562005-05-23T17:07:00.000-05:002005-05-23T18:03:23.626-05:00

This Thursday will be the last day of school. It is the earliest we have ever gotten out of school before. Usually we don't get out until after Memorial Day. One time, we didn't get out until June 6. How did I ever make it that long? It's been bittersweet lately. Actually, I haven't been constantly thinking "this is my last Monday" etc. What makes me sad is when I have students who say "Are you

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1116385620374401902005-05-17T22:07:00.000-05:002005-05-17T22:07:00.380-05:00

Well, I lived through last week. This has just been an emotionally draining roller coaster. "This" being this semester. I didn't know if I could make it, but here we are. Graduation for the class of 2005 is a week from today. Tomorrow is the Memories assembly. Seniors will be gone on Friday. Students are hearing that I won't be coming back, and they are coming by to see me. That makes me feel

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1115078664131563872005-05-02T19:04:00.000-05:002005-05-02T19:04:24.130-05:00

Well, I'm in San Antonio. Me and 22,000 other people. I'm hearing a about a lot of literacy issues that I have no clue about. I have heard of reading first--I know that the government gives your school money if you follow their directions exactly. I thought that I heard elementary teachers in my class talk about how it wasn't such a great thing. They feared it a bit. The teachers here seem pretty

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1114745613539086122005-04-28T22:30:00.000-05:002005-04-28T22:33:33.540-05:00

I've been reading blogs from 8010, and I have noticed several people mention reading. Marcia said she was going to critically analyze a text for students, and Kristen said that she didn't picture herself doing as much reading/literature as she first envisioned. Yeah! Why do I think that's good. Writing in comp is not a way to test your ability to analyze literature. Rhetorical analysis is awesome

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1114743880482911642005-04-28T22:04:00.000-05:002005-04-28T22:05:35.130-05:00

Your Linguistic Profile:70% General American English15% Yankee10% Upper Midwestern5% Dixie0% MidwesternWhat Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1114631526910430272005-04-27T14:52:00.000-05:002005-04-27T14:52:06.910-05:00

I feel in a rush, but I don't want to do this in a rush. I guess that is why I put it off. I know that this class helped me be a better composition teacher. I love how we are better at interrogating sources. I love that I can see what MU expects, and I think I have prepared the students in my class adequately--more than adequately actually. I still feel like my role is as a facilitator, as a

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1113400133911462452005-04-13T08:48:00.000-05:002005-04-13T08:48:53.910-05:00

You know, I think about blogging. But then when I finally get to a computer. The feeling is over. But I do think about it a lot. I think I will write my paper on . . . whoa, wait I sec, I almost made a decision there. I think I will wait a minute longer before I put it down. Okay, I think I am leaning toward the reading. Donna or Marcia, if you are reading, can I borrow the newest copy of CCC?

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1112802131069404292005-04-06T10:41:00.000-05:002005-04-09T08:39:34.146-05:00

I'm having a hard time writing. I sit down to write on this blog and it feels impossible to get words down. It's not like this when I freewrite, but I guess I'm feeling uncomfortable because there is an audience. I think you are my only audience though, Donna. I was looking for your blog, and I couldn't find it. I went to a blog of someone you suggested, and I clicked on a blog listed on his/her

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10291518.post-1111442878401771922005-03-21T15:58:00.000-06:002005-03-21T16:07:58.403-06:00

I feel the need to start a new post when I really change topics. So, I am changing topics and here is my new post. The quarter ended last Friday. I graded portfolios on Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday, I had to leave for a wedding in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Another story.I read two or three composition portfolios on the way to Tennessee. They wrote an I-Search paper and I stole an assignment

Kerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05164269396117042566noreply@blogger.com1