How to Write 750 Words on Blogging

I've been peeping in on my some of students' blogs recently and I found some concerns over the next assignment. They ask how to write 750 words about blogs. On the off-hand chance that any of them actually look at my blog, I thought I'd give some hints.

First, don't set out to write 750 words. If you focus on the word count, you are focusing on the wrong thing. Instead, start by figuring out what you are going to say.

On thing that you might try is re-reading the assignment sheet. There are a list of questions that are designed to get you strarted. You might try freewriting about each question to see what you have to say. Then, you can develop the one that is most promising.

Again, if you are worrying about the word count before you start to write, then you are putting the cart before the horse. The word count is a measurement to help you. Yet, not all 750 words are the same. If you have 750 words that don't say anything, then you will still not receive a good grade. First and foremost, you need to develop your thesis.

Last, if you haven't been doing the blog (or haven't done it very much), you really don't have many experiences from which to draw. If that is the case, I really don't have much advice for you. This is not something that you can do in a weekend. You really needed to be keeping the blog throughout the semester. Keeping up with your blog was a way to develop the material for this assignment. Without that material, I really don't know what you will write about.

True Grit

Whew! I finished my presentation on True Grit last night, and I feel extremely relieved. It's strange, but just yesterday I felt buried. I felt as if I were juggling several things and just hoping that I can keep the balls in the air long enough not to completely drop any of them. Of course, many of us feel this way at this time in the semester...but that's not what I want to talk about. Yesterday, I wondered how I was going to get the hypertext reviewed, papers graded, and my lawn mowed. Today, however, the world looks brighter. Things that seemed impending and ominous, now seem quite do-able. I just never realized how much stress this presentation was creating.

I'm sure my current euphoria will be short-lived.

As for the presentation, I think it went very well. I enjoy getting dressed up in my best cowboy duds, and camping it up a bit. I also like the time that I spend researching for the presentation--I learn so much about a field I really know very little about.

Now, I have to start thinking about next year. The common theme for the college is going to be "transitions." It would be good if I could come up with a movie that fits in with the theme. Any ideas?

Teaching Writing

I've been thinking a lot about pedagogy. This last weekend, I went to a retreat for English teachers and listened a bit to what they did in their classes. The most significant thing that they did differently is that they required more drafts. I require a peer review draft and then a copy for me to grade. After that, I give students the opportunity to revise as often as they wish (but I'll only regrade the essay once). My idea was that the first grade serves as a benchmark and then students have the opportunity to improve. Yet, for several versions, we need to remove the whole grade issue and just work on improving the essay.

Many teachers require multiple drafts that they view before the students turn in one to grade. The students are then graded on providing significant revisions when required. I just don't know if it does that much good for me to require students to revise if they don't want to. With my system, I provide the opportunity to students. The students who want to improve can take that opportunity. Yet, those who don't, don't waste my time. With the required revisions, I fear that I would spend too much of my time looking at work produced by students who don't care and who are just jumping through required hoops with as little effort possible. Perhaps I've just become jaded (already!??), but I want to work with those student who want to learn, but I don't feel that I need to take it personally when a student doesn't feel like learning.

Yet, perhaps I need to require more. Perhaps more structure would be good for them. It is awfully easy to get behind in my class by putting off the impending essays. I know that there were students last week who were just starting the research essay for English 102. I don't know what I can say to a student who is starting that late. I try to provide advice, but I'm thinking that there is very little chance that the student will be able to finish in time. Perhaps it's been too long since I've been a student. Perhaps I've forgotten how easy it is to pull off a weekend miracle. I just know that I couldn't start researching a 10 page essay the week before and hope to have it finished by the due date.

Actually, that's a lie. I could do it. But, I don't fear a 10 page essay. I've written 25 page essays, and, after them, 10 pages is nothing. So, perhaps I'm worried for nothing.

This brings me back to the idea of requiring more. Perhaps I should require a bit more. I could break up the annotated bibliography into a couple of parts and have them due at different times. This would get students researching sooner. Next, I could have students turn in a proposal that would serve as a reminder to get started earlier. Yet, I still think it's up to the student. He or she sometimes learn not to put things off by putting things off. It took me several all nighters before I started to learn--and I still occasionally do a late-nighter or, more likely, an early-morninger to accomplish a task within the deadline.

Well, this post has rambled a bit and really never got to where I wanted it to go. That's the reason why we shouldn't show people our rough drafts--sometimes, they really are just vomit on the screen.

GROW

I just solved GROW! It took me a few tries, and I had some hints before I started trying to figure it out. Below is the order that I used to win.

egg
cube
ladder
sphere
mountain
pipe
weathervane
gear
tornado
dish
rocket
console


--Rich

Spring Break

Ugh. Spring Break is almost over, and I haven't gotten very much done. It's Thursday already, and I'm still looking at over 50 papers to grade and over 400 pages to read by Monday. It doesn't look good for our hero.

You might wonder what I've been doing with all my time. Well, I have accomplished a few small tasks. I've purchased a riding lawn-mower. Now that I have three acres, I don't think my old push mover will cut it. (Actually, I'm sure it would cut it, but I don't want to spend my whole weekends this summer walking behind a mower). I've finally attached the antenna, so I have some TV reception. I put a dimmer switch in the family room (which turned out to be a bigger job than it should have been). I got my library card updated and started reading up on John Wayne for my April Western movie presentation (we're showing True Grit, and I'm providing a pre-movie lecture).

Mostly, however, I've been watching my grandmother and my father's dogs. My dad hasn't been able to get out much over the past four years (longer, really). Actually, from the time he retired, he never really got to enjoy retirement. First, my mother was ill, and that kept him rather house-bound. Then, after she passed away, my grandmother got ill, and he's been taking care of her. As a result, he really doesn't get out much. The only vacation he's had came three years ago. That's when I kidnapped him and took him to the Grand Canyon (my wife stayed to watch Grandma). This time, he went on his own, and we agreed to watch Grandma here.

Well, Grandma really hasn't been a problem. She mostly sits on the couch and sleeps all day. We just have to adjust to her schedule. She gets up at 5 a.m. sharp, eats lunch at noon sharp, and goes to bed at 8:30. Not too much problem. The dogs, however, are another story.

One dog has a heart condition and gets pills twice a day. The other is a diabetic and we have to give him insulin twice a day. We also suspect (know) that the dog is blind. I've seen him walk straight into the couch. Yet, this isn't why they're a problem. The problem is that my house has become their personal toilet. I know they were at one time house broken, but that seems to have left them. They're small dogs, but every time we turn around there's another pile or puddle. Since we really don't have a good fence, I can't just kick them outside for the day. Instead, I spend much of my day following behind with a bottle of Nature's Miracle, cleaning up after them. Who knew that two small dogs could make such messes! Once, I was cleaning up one pile, and before I got it cleaned up, there was another!

At night, we put them in the laundry room (we don't really want to face surprises in the morning…before the first cup of coffee). Well, they spend most nights just howling (one is part beagle). It'll be nice next week when things get back to normal.

Personal Responsibility

I was listening to NPR yesterday, and a listener made an interesting comment about personal responsibility. First, let me set the context. The show was about obesity. About 15 minutes into the show, there was an e-mail message arguing against the premise of the show, which involved the idea that there might be something that will cause a person to stop "choosing" to be fat. This listener argued against the whole, "personal responsibility movement," which "promotes that fat people are fat through some failure of willpower. . ."

Uh, yes.

I guess if there is a "personal responsibility movement" then I clearly subscribe to it. Unfortunately, I see just the opposite happening today. We are quick to give into our genetic makeup and accept that "we are who we are." Genetic predestination seems to become a common excuse for everything from homosexuality to obsessed. It's almost like we are just a slave to our genes. We are being told over and over in our media to accept our genetic makeup and never fight to be any different.

I agree that we are all given different genes. We all have different gifts and different weaknesses with which to work. For some, it may mean that they are predisposed to obesity. Others may be predisposed to addiction. Others may be predisposed to violent tempers. Yet, it stops there. We then choose to be obese, addicted, or violent. This is the great thing about being a human being: we can be more than our genetic makeup.

Now, there is another approach to this "personal responsibility" discussion. (I'll stick with the obesity example simply because it is what started this discussion. I'm not trying to single out overweight people. In fact, most groups that use genetics as an excuse could used as an example). An obese person could state that society promotes unrealistic body types. As a result, this person could say that he or she is not going to try to fit those societal norms. I have no problem with a person going against society--in fact, I often applaud it. Yet, I'd have to also say that that person has made a conscious choice and must, therefore, be willing to also accept the consequences.

It just seems like there are a lot of mixed messages in the media these days. On the one hand, we still get the Romantic message to have dreams. On the other hand, we're told to accept who we are. We can "shoot for the stars" as long as they come easily. Perhaps I'm a throw-back, but I still think there is something to be said for the Protestant Work-ethic, which has kinda fallen out of favor. I believe in hard work to achieve what one desires. Yet, someone could say to me that working hard is not a guarantee in achieving the goal. I agree. There are no guarantees. Yet, it's not really about achieving the goal, is it? It's really about how one decides to live one's life. I think hard work towards a goal leads to a more fulfilled life (even if the goal is never achieved) than accepting less and living without direction.

Just think what the world would be like if everyone stopped looking for a scapegoat and started taking more personal responsibility. Overall, I think we'd have a better, and happier, society.

Grading

Grading, grading, grading.

And now it begins. We have finally hit that time of the semester where the first round of essay have come in. From this point forward, grading will be a constant part of my life. With the exception of a stray day here or there, I will always have a stack of papers that need to be grade. I'm not just trying to whine about my work here. Every job comes with some unpleasantness. For a composition teacher, that unpleasantness revolves around actually placing a grade on a paper. I really don't mind reviewing and commenting on essay, but actually categorizing the paper as an A, B, C, etc. wears me down.

Like many teachers, I would love to get away from the whole alphabet grading system. Yet, everytime I try something different (contract grading, true portfolio grading, etc.) it has backfired. It seems to me that the problem is that the students, while also disliking the alphabet grading system, have become programmed to value that system. We in education have skewed the purpose of the class from learning to GPA. Ultimately, students reduce all aspects of the value of the class down to the letter (or the number) that they receive at the end. It's really not their faults, however. My 4 year old goes to school excited to learn. He doesn't even know about GPA yet. So, where do we go wrong in the next 14 years?

I better stop here or else I'll start on a rant about certification versus education... And I have papers to grade.

Bad day

Ugh! What a bad day. Ever have one of those days where you'd like to just start over. In the movie, City Slickers, Billy Crystal tells Daniel Stern that his life is a "do-over." This day should definitely be a "do-over." Actually, now that I think about that, scratch that idea. I'm almost done with the day, so let's just call it a "get-it-over-quickly-and-hope-tomorrow-is-better."

Putting things in perspective

Think you're having a bad day? Well, this article puts everything in perspective. No matter how bad my day is going, I can rest assured knowing that I haven't yet had a whale explode on me.

Starting over

I've decided that I should try, once again, to keep a blog. I had trouble with this on my own server, so I'm starting over on the blogspot server. I'm giving students in my Comp. II class the option of keeping a blog as a semester project, so I thought I should probably make more of an effort to keep one myself. Also, I wanted a convenient place to keep a list of their blogs.

So, if you come here seeking enlightenment, I have none to offer. If you come here seeking a kindred soul, you'll find me horribly unreliable. Yet, if you come here to view the ramblings of another person stumbling through the journey of life, then you've come to the right place.

Managing to Think

While this article is geared towards Christian living and study, I think what it says is very applicable to all of our lives. As I mentioned in the last post, we live very noisy lives. There are almost constant distractions to keep us from thinking and reflecting. I often wonder where we'd be now if the country spent a little more time critically thinking about what we're being told and reflecting on the long-term significance of impending actions. But more than that, I think that a reflective life leads to a more fulfilled life. It is so easy to squander a day or a week that years seem to slip by unnoticed.

Or, perhaps I'm just starting my midlife crisis a couple of years early.