Listification

Email students with reminders for Tuesday's class
Read 1-58 of Convergence Culture
Write response to Convergence Culture
Read 95-134 of Convergence Culture
Write response to 95-134 of Convergence Culture
Lesson plan for Tuesday (Grammar Day! Raise high the banners!) and Thursday (Final draft due, expect nobody to do readings!)
Write Toulmin + inductive/deductive reasoning quiz
Do the three Democracy-related tasks from the previous list (You ne'er-do-well! List cross-over? Extreme laziness? Get on top of things!)
Read student drafts of essay 2 and respond via email
Send students questions/guidelines for essay 2
Reread Old School
Finish reading Fun Home
Read Blankets
Read Epileptic
Read a bunch of researchy books and articles about graphic novels.

Disaster Log

The day started out well. I had high hopes and excellent lesson plans. The day ended with me sitting in my car crying. I came home to fresh sushi and chow mein. And hugs. Put on my robot jammies. This weekend I will visit Mother and Schwester Zwei, grade 25 essays, do a lot of graphic novels research. Now I can cross off "Write a real blog post." What an accomplished young lady I am.

To do: Ta da:

Start researching representations of literacy (events? myth? practices? contact zones?) in non-fiction graphic novels
Write 10 pages of creative non-fiction
Read Elbow or Bishop article
Respond to Elbow or Bishop article
Wonder why I am the only first year in Rhetoric and Writing who is also teaching. (How will I build my army?)
517 Midterm Reflection ("I was four the year the circus came to our little town on the prairie...")
Read Gee's Why Video Games are Good for your Soul
Respond to Gee ("I find your lack of faith disturbing...")
Read last section of Gee (sigh sigh sigh)
Respond to Gee
Reread 121 readings
Lesson plan for Tuesday and Thursday
Read Democracy
Plan 7 min discussion of Democracy
Use new diabolical weather machine to plan distracting thunderstorm for day of Democracy discussion
Read In Pharaoh's Army Part I
Read In Pharaoh's Army Parts II and III
Email students on Sunday to remind them to do ILP tutorials and to include all elements of Unit 1 Portfolio.
Write a real blog post

To do:

Read Shaleena and Jeremy's thesis prospectuses for MAWG
Read chpaters 1-3, 7, and 9 of The Longman Teaching Assistant's Handbook
Read Didion essays
Read The Medium is the Massage
Write response to The Medium is the Massage
Read article for practicum
Write response to article for practicum
Reread 121 assignments
Lesson plan for Tuesday and Thursday
Ten zillion other things for 121
Try not to be overwhelmed by crippling doubt and fear
Get parking permit for the Bubble Mower
Decide on seminar paper topic for Language, Technology, & Culture
Think about literacy and technology narrative
Scan and email Martin article to class
Pick up books on hold at public library

The handbook said that if I made a list and checked it off (one for the weekend, one for the week, one for long term, etc), I would feel accomplished as I went along. I would also be organized and get things done. I made this list. I did some things. I feel anything but accomplished. Unless, of course, one considers the expert art of bemoaning an accomplishment.

Ringing in October

School has started up again. Summer recap? This summer I read some books, visited with family quite a bit, got married, went to Vegas, worked at the Writing Center a great deal, ate a lot of tater tots, wrote a paper for Lisa's book, made first contact with the entities known as editors (frightful!), painted my toenails once, spent too much time in the sun, and went to orientation to learn about the fine art of teaching.

I taught my first class on Tuesday. It went all right. Tomorrow I'm starting class with Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall." If I were a freshman and were going to discuss issues in education, that's what I'd want to watch. Who doesn't love late 70s rock operas, I ask you, who? Crazy people.

I can imagine Big Bird as a methhead. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has thought of it.

I'm really tired. I'm going to go read a book. This post has too many sentences that begin with "I." Next up, "you."

The Book Smugglers

I've become particularly fond of The Book Smugglers. Collaboration. Books. Reviewing. They're marvelous. They share my love of bookery (and unreliable narrators! aww, they're so precious) and especially my liking of young adult books. Quite often those get overlooked or disregarded as unimportant, but many of the books that shaped who I am and how I view the world are young adult books. Oh yes, I value other books too, but it's nice to see a website paying attention to young adult novels and speculative fiction and what not. I'm not very fond of romance (as a genre. I don't mind when it's incorporated into other books), but there is plenty to like at the Book Smugglers. They review everything from the super popular and obvious choices (Neil Gaiman, Suzanne Collins) to the not-so-expected (Margo Lanagan, Megan Whalen Turner). Their reviews are thoughtful and engaging, and you can tell they love reading and writing about what they read. I've found all kinds of new series and authors by reading their reviews, and for that I am ever so grateful.

P.T. Barnum lies

I am going to start signing all letters, emails, texts, etc in the manner of P.T. Barnum writing to the editor of the Nation: "In great haste, truly yours." I think it will add that little something extra to my professional correspondence.

Sometimes I make up jokes that feature P.T. Barnum and Captain Ahab walking into a bar.

I was once a ventriloquist in Barnum's American Museum. It was the only job I could get that didn't involve selling opium for John Jacob Astor.