March 31, 2008
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coffee belly.
snow day.
striped vest.
unpainted nails.
a ponytail.
deep sigh.
paragraph break.
“Yeppers.” “Michael, what did I tell you about saying ‘yeppers’?”
I did a lot this year. Just started to fill out the categories Wade emailed in order for him to write up our performance apprasials. I believe last year he wrote that he fears I’ll burn myself out. Yeppers. I hadn’t realized I presented and attended so many things this year. And then there’s all the reading I accomplished too (although, very little recreationally unless I count the Creative Writing class). It only continues next year. There’s a new presentation to put together for both the Arts & Humanities Summit (Oct 9-10, Bismarck) and GPACW in November (required blog entries versus required student essay writing – which is more complex?) and the Midwest Institute presentation in the spring (regarding the Global Blog project “success”). I really hope I am able to just read this summer. Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs… Rushdie’s novels that have been gathering dust for some time now… Fargo Rock City… there are so many. And there’s the list I had last summer too. Sheesh. Plus, Tate’s getting married. And we’re hiring a newbie. And I’ll be teaching an online course too.The RRGSC was another good one. It keeps growing; shows me how one little idea can blossom (“Hey, we should have our OWN conference someday.”). I recall talking too much about my own research, but there were a few ideas that popped in. Like using a small graphic novel and Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs in class as replacements for Rule of the Bone (perhaps I’ll implement that by the spring?). I’d even like to rid my English 110 classes of a textbook. Blasphemous, I know. I’d like to just have The New Well-Tempered Sentence (as the grammar book) and then the graphic novel and Klosterman novel. Everything else = online. And I am starting to think of having 7 projects/papers in 110. Some small (500 words), some larger (1000 words or big presentations like the PPT MusicVideo). I’d like to rethink English 120 as well. I could assign a CONTROVERSIAL PPT MUSICVIDEO, could I not? That’d be cool, but students who don’t take my 110 may be lost with that project. It could simply be an option, I suppose.
So much thinking to do. And so much more to say about the conference. Will throw my notes up on here after I grade a few more online papers.
