What a long, stange blog this has been

Sorry to crib the title of this post from the Grateful Dead, but it couldn't really be helped. Writers find inspiration in many strange places...

This semester I wrote about teaching, specifically at the community college level. Let me first say that I love my job, although at times I am confused, saddened, and in a rightful fit regarding issues that we deal with: violence in the workplace, grade inflation, budgets, plagiarism, creativity, endless committees, learning disabilities, technical glitches, writer's block, and a myriad of other things that come our way.

This by no means means that college composition is a boring field to be in (I guess it all depends on what a professor has her class spend time on: I'd be on the verge of committing Hari Kari myself if we had to do endless academic essays and grammar workshops). But there are great things happening in our field, and hopefully compositionists will continue to use technology to support writing environments for college students. I can't wait to see what technologies we have 10 or 20 years from now. Virtual writing spaces? Sign me up!

Hopefully this has been a productive semester for you all, too. Maybe one or two of you will continue blogging; some of you will delete your blogs the second class is over. Either end of the spectrum is OK with me. My hope is that you continue to read blogs and see the power inherent in the ability for an "Average Josephine" to have immediate access to an almost unlimited readership. As we have seen, some bloggers came up on our list of "worst" blogs, but many came up on "best of" compilations because of the scope and 3-D aspects of their sites.

So, I'll leave you with a few of my favorite professional blogs. Check them out. And if you don't find something you like or want, or need to read, then the job is for you to fill that gap:

1. Salam Pax: tinyplanet.org/iraqblog; "Shut up, you fat whiner!" at justzipit.blogspot.com; http://salampax.wordpress.com/
2. Nate Silver: http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/
3. Heather Armstrong: http://www.dooce.com/
4. "James Chartrand" et al. http://www.copyblogger.com/
5. Firedoglake authors: http://firedoglake.com/

More to come at a later date. Hasta la vista! Ciao!

Julie P. Q.

Woodbridge Campus Shooting Today

This is not going to be some eloquent post about student/professorial stress. We've all heard the stories about what happens at school (or work, or home) when somebody who is imbalanced, mad, sick, or all of the above uses violence to deal with the issues in their lives. Unfortunately, one of those common places just happens to be college campuses.

There was a shooting at my college campus today; I'm not always on campus on Tuesdays, and I was not there. I did get the following text from NOVAALERT "Woodbridge Campus Only--Slelter in Place Until Further Notice. There is an emergency on campus." Yes there was. I got in touch with a colleague and she told me that an upset student went into one of his classes and shot at the teacher. She didn't see ambulances, but there are about 30 police and state vehicles out front. Students went running. We have no idea if anybody's hurt.

To my students: give me a call (see syllabus) if you want to chat. This is not the time to worry or be alone. We're all in this together. If I have any updates on the situation I'll post here.

Student Success in Surprising Places

Karen* was a student in one of my Preparation for ENG 3 classes a few years ago. She was in her mid-twenties, had a few children, and worked while going to school almost full time. The first thing I noticed about her was her attitude. She was always ready, willing to learn, smart as hell. But she didn't lord her abilities over other students, and even though she was quite intelligent, she struggled with some aspects of college work (didn't we all?). I recall that she had a particular issue once with providing proof that she wanted that medical career. I asked her, "Where is this coming from?" She spent the next three months figuring out her motivation to become a physical therapist, and she realized that it stemmed from the time her aunt was in a rehabilitation center after suffering a fall; the time she spent with her aunt affected the rest of her life, especially her career ambitions. Her writing project described this incident and the upcomging degree requirements in clear detail.

It's important for me to say that Karen aced the English class she was in with me, although she didn't have it so easy in the next one. That could be chalked up to how she got along with her next professor; the type of work provided; how professors grade differently in a subject as subjective as English; her contexts (that is, the time and ability she had to dedicate to her work, and the other life events going on around her). She passed the class and made sure she was in line to get into a particularly tough medical program.

Knowing what I knew about her life story: that she had children in her teens and had to leave home; that she had had difficulty with family and high school; that she struggled to give her children a lifestyle that was comfortable and a mom they could be proud of, it's easy to say that Karen was motivated. Most students in her position would have caved to the pressures. I cannot imagine it myself, having gone through college in the traditional way (at 18-21), without kids and with a full athletic scholarship, to balance all of the competing needs, requirements, and desires of those in her family: those of her mother, her children, her partner, her boss. I would have easily quit just for a few extra hours of sleep a night.

Karen keeps in touch with me to this day. I even asked her to come back to ENG 3 and provide a motivational speech to the students there. Her message was, "It can be done." And then she proceeded to provide examples from her life and from her work in that class to support it (oh, and it made this English professor's heart happy to see a thesis point being driven home with supplemental support!).

Karen is now in her medical program. She'll get her degree--she works so hard at it, studying at every possible moment, getting tutors, working with her professors. She might not be a natural at some of the scientific concepts (most of us aren't), but she bullies her way through the work and makes herself bend to grasp the knowledge. She's so ambitious that she'll most likely eventually go for a master's degree. And she'll get it.

Karen is a success: the statistics suggest that she has less of a chance than a younger student who is unburdened with a full-time job and family. Peng and Lee suggest that "Demographic characteristics likely to place students at risk include low family income, low parental education, single-parent family, and limited-English proficiency. Data were derived from the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88), a survey sponsored by the National Center for Educational Statistics" (1992). This means that all of these factors coalesce to affect how well a student does, even as early as elementary school.

I am personally included in these statistics: I was raised within a single-parent family, who also, at least when I was younger, dealt with a very low family income. Luckily my mom (like Karen) survived the lean years; went back to school and eventually earned multiple masters' degrees, raising her children's chances at success. But my mom's parents had it rough: while they stayed married, my grandfather didn't get past 8th grade and worked in a labor-intensive job his whole life (as a painter); my grandmother worked, too, at a medical supply company on the line, especially to bring in money to help take care of extended family. My mom's only options were relayed to her early on: nun, teacher, or nurse. The family just didn't have enough money for something else (she always wanted to be a lawyer). Thankfully she had those options...

In an article by Christina Burke, she suggests that women with obstacles are now taking charge of their futures, moreso now than ever before. Sue Beran is one of them: "Despite difficult circumstances--working two jobs, the daily commute from Moulton, a separation and being a single mom with two small children --she managed to graduate summa cum laude --with highest honors --and a 4.0 in an associate degree in applied sciences in medical laboratory technology."

Sometimes I guess students need those life experiences to be motivated to find their passion and do the work they need to succeed. College will be here when they're ready (but, sadly, it'll just keep getting more expensive). In the meantime, students like Karen make for exciting and fulfilling teaching.

*Karen's name and a few identifying details have been changed to protect her identity.

References Cited
Burke, C. (2008). Hard Work Pays Off at The Victoria College. McClatchy - Tribune Business News. Washington: May 11, 2008. Retrieved December 5, 2009, from http://proquest.umi.com.ezproxy.vccs.edu:2048/
pqdweb?did=1476608301&sid=1&Fmt=3&clientId
=1364&RQT=309&VName=PQD

Peng, S. S. and R. Lee. (1992). Measuring Student At-Riskness by Demographic Characteristics. ERIC--Resources in Education. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (San Francisco, CA, April 20-24, 1992). Retrieved December 6, 2009, from http://csaweb116v.csa.com.ezproxy.
vccs.edu:2048/ids70/view_record.php?id=7&recnum=2&log=from_res&SID=tjbg52
mi9o8kgve3kg1t43d734&mark_id=search%3A7%3A6%2C0%2C10

Helicoptering: Or When Parents Hover and Students Run for Cover

Here's a scenario. Let me know if this sounds familiar to you: A mom wants to motivate her son into finding an academic advisor, applying for financial aid on time, taking a full complement of classes. Son is in his 20s, lives at home, and is fairly typical of a lot of students I see, especially in a very metro area. These students stay close to home, go to community college, and rely more on their immediate family for day-to-day needs (roof, car, insurance, food, health care, incidentals). Is this a good thing, a bad thing, both, or none?

In the past I've suggested to parents in this situation that they need to let their kids make decisions or else they'd have a 35 year old man-child (or woman-child) still living in the attic. For some people, they never want their children to leave home. As an educator, this is one of the worst things imaginable for me. The problem becomes: who is responsible for the 23-year-old student? His education might be partly my responsibility. That is, I have to get current, timely information to him, and I have to be able to evaluate how he processes that information so that I can tell whether or not he's learned the course content. But isn't "Jimmy," the student, responsible, too? He has to come to class, do his work (on time), and do good enough work to successfully pass the class in question.

So where do mom and dad, and grandma, and Jimmy's girlfriend Patsy come in? Unfortunately, they sometimes show up on stage and refuse to sit down. I've seen parents do their college children's homework; call and complain about grades and treatment; storm the dean's office; house, feed, wake up, cook, clean and pamper adults who do not work, but only go to school, and only sometimes at that.

This confusion is not about the hardships of the economy: there are plenty of families out there living together, working hard, and making a multifamily living arrangement work during difficult times. Rather, this confusion is more about middle-class American parents who have always given to their kids to the detriment of themselves, who email professors to find out the grades of their 28-year-old princess, who continue to pay for Jimmy's classes, even when he's failed the same one 3 times (two from a lack of showing up, one from showing up but not turning in any work). Where is the social responsibility to raise prepared adults?

I realize that this "rant" (for lack of a better word) focuses on parental responsibility and how it should be that parents transfer responsibility to their teens so that said teens are ready for the trials and tribulations of a college life. I've recently had a student complain that I got all "volcano" on him for calling him out on web surfing during a class. He never once mentioned that he was breaking a syllabus rule, and being completely rude at that. Where is the responsibility? And what would a professor like me have Jimmy's mom do? Here are some suggestions:

1. Make him go to school full time or work full time
2. Make him pay rent or get his own place
3. Stand up for your stress: don't say something then back down
4. Remind your kids of how hard you worked, how hard their grandparents worked, sacrifice.
5. Look after yourself first. Kids respond well to parents who are not punching bags or victims.

There comes a time in which parents (and professors) can spoon-feed ill-prepared students all the materials they need ("oh, you want another handout because you lost the last one?" "you'd like another week to do the work because you forgot?") but all this does is just delay the inevitable: the more excuses we as professors accept (and parents of college students accept), the harder our lives become in the end.

And isn't it typical that I write an entire post about what's wrong with some students, in that their parents were too lenient? What about all those success stories of students who struggled against the odds, put themselves through school, raise kids, work 2 jobs, suffer but succeed? I think that will have to be my next post. Because without them, it would really seem hopeless sometimes.

Posting feedback for Thanksgiving week

Just a note: I'll not be giving feedback on Wednesday/Thursday this week (due to the holiday) but on Friday and Saturday.

Hope everyone has a wonderful, safe, and relaxing Thanksgiving!

Julie

Editorial Tricks of the Trade for Quotes

How to use editorial tricks:

A quote from the article, "Continental, American Expand Peak-Day Surcharges"

• ... = means to take out text in the middle of a quote.
• (emphasis added): means to highlight some text in a quote and acknowledge it (see $10, 20...i)
• [ ]: means to add clarifying information in a quote

United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and its Northwest Airlines subsidiary are charging $10, $20 or even $30 above the published base fare on designated dates, said Ryan Berryman, senior. ... Continental [authority] has similarly expanded its surcharge dates, spokeswoman Mary Clark said. [emphasis added]

Video links

Adding Video

1. Find your Chad Vader video
2. Find the embedded link (if on the web) and copy
3. Toggle to your blog
4. Toggle to "edit HTML"
5. paste in the field before/after the text where you want it to go
6. Toggle back to "compose"
7. Publish post...

Density: Or Why Don't Students Take My Advice?

Maybe I'm the knucklehead here. Am I speaking clearly? Elaborating on my point? Being honest with my assessment of a piece of writing from a student? I think I am. But it's gone overboard, and it's a minor technicality at that. I have a few students in particular who don't cap their "i"s--in emails to me, in Blackboard posts, or in actual essays. In all three places, as a matter of fact, after much reminding. And I don't know what to do about it.

I've tried being nice, friendly, just providing a little reminder here and there about the power of academic etiquette. I'll suggest, "Hey, Bob, don't for get to cap those "i"s--this is for academic credit, right?" Then, when the issue doesn't change, I go into "Bad Cop" mode. Bad Cop consists of, over the last two semesters, institution of the "-2 Rule," which basically means that any instance of text-speak (noncapitalization, strange abbreviations, etc.) in any academic communciation with me results in a lowering of 2 points, per instance, off a student's final grade. I once had to cut 16 points from a student's overall grade for continued text addiction.

Here's how I feel about it: either the student is just sloppy, rushing, or they plain don't care. But it is my job to show them that the rest of us care. I can be reading a newspaper like The Washington Post and completely stop reading an article if I notice this error showing up. If I stop reading it enough, the newspaper loses my business.

The Collin College Faculty Association mentions issue specifically in their "Students' Guide to Academic Etiquette":

Students should check their electronic mail daily. Students should not expect instant replies to their mail, nor should they expect instructors to reply to messages on weekends and holidays. Students should avoid chat-room style of grammatically incorrect sentences, using lower-case "i" for the pronoun "I," shouting" a message through the use of capital letters, and disrespectful discourse. Students should inquire first whether attaching assignments to an e-mail is an acceptable alternative to handing them in during a class period. [Miller]

On the surface of things, this seems reasonable. I might not agree with every note that Collin College has put on that weblink, but this seems quite alright.

I have to offer one caveat: that the respect-through-etiquette goes both ways. Professors had better not wait two weeks to respond to an email or a request for help. We have to run the spell-checkers, too, in addition to being clear, concise, direct, encouraging. It's more than a matter of form: students are our employers. They pay for our services, and we need to bring our "A" game into every space in which we interact academically.

It's important to note: an error here or there is human. A consistant repetition of an easy fix is thickheaded.

References Cited
Miller, Joyce Marie. (2005). "Students' Guide to Academic Etiquette." Collins College Faculty Association. Retrieved November 16, 2009, from http://iws.ccccd.edu/jmiller/A_Student

Feedback and Commentary Shorthand

There are a few new abbreviations/acronyms I'm planning on using in feedback on blogs. Here are some clarification descriptions about what I mean:

Flow: When I use the term flow, I generally mean that a sentence is choppy because of word choice, missing words, or even a repetition that would appear in multiple sentences. To fix this issue, proofread your text out loud: 90% of the time students "catch" the error when they hear their writing.

PR: Proofreading needed. Maybe there are spelling errors, or undercapitalization (think "i"), broken words that should be combined (my self vs. myself), homonym issues (their vs. there), and so forth. Let me know if you want to learn some cool proofreading tricks to help catch these mechanical issues (ruler, out loud, back-to-front, and team reading methods are some of my favorites).

FORM: The formatting seems to be off. There could be too much white space between paragraphs, or no spacing, or neon fonts, or everything in italic (which strains the eyes).

PP: Issues with plagiarism appear. This is generally an unintentional thing (forgetting quotes, or forgetting to name the source of the quote), but because everything you post is submitted for academic grade, it's important to know that if you cut/paste, you must quote. 100% of the time. In addition, you need to name the source and hyperlink or create an old-fashioned reference.

BH: Bury that hyperlink! Place it inside a word so that there are no interruption in the flow of your text.

MORE: I want to see more details. You might be making a good point about an issue, such as "There is little doubt that we have spent billions in Iraq" but how many billions? On what exactly? Blogs are small spaces with which to do big things: convince your audience that you have researched, found good sources, and can easily back up a main argument with specifics.

REF: Look at your references--are you following MLA or APA style? Do you have the 5 main elements of a reference: author, title of piece, URL, copyright date, and access date. In addition, did you name each source in the text where you used it?

What I will do for the last 5 weeks is use these shortcuts at the end of a post, in parenthesis, like this: (RES, PR). This way, I'm giving you an indication of suggestions that aren't content related, but I'm making you do the legwork in reviewing your piece to find them. Of course, I'll always be available to help one-on-one as well.

Belonging to both Camps: Being a Teacher and a Student

Some people find it passing strange when I tell them that I am both a college English professor and a writing student. At the moment, I'm working on my dissertation to complete my Ph.D. in English composition. This Tuesday, I have a meeting coming up with both my dissertation director and a committee member, after I witness a close friend's final dissertation defense.

This is a strange place to be because of a few factors: I find writing sometimes an infuriating process, in that what I think I want to say sometimes comes out completely different than I had intended. This echoes Peter Elbow (1973) regarding "translation" of thoughts to text. Elbow suggests that our memories are quite like movies in our mind, and translating them to others is a review process that asks, "did you see that movie the way I did?" Generally people don't. In my head, I know what I am going to say, but then when I read a text, it usually isn't what I expected. I know my students go through this process a lot, too. This is generally why it's much easier to give feedback to others; we can "see" errors or mis-steps in language use, detailing, and structures in others' writing because we are seeing it for the first time. This is in opposition to working on our own texts, in which sometimes we're so familiar that we can't see the glaring issues on the page. I think the cliche here is called "not seeing the forest for the trees." We can relate this to work in a writing classroom with texts, or even extrapolate it out to life situations in which a person, like myself, pays attention to one issue without focusing on the other.

Consider this analogy: say a person is driving down the street, paying close attention to directions to get to the right place. But what they're not paying any attention to is the gas gage, which is now in the red. They won't get to their destination without both directions and enough fuel. It's unfortunate that many of us overlook the obvious (the data behind the details) when we're trying to get to our destinations. In my case, I hope I attended to enough of the structures inherent in dissertations (provided a clear methodology, enough of a literature review, and a sound thesis/issue) so that I get the "it's looking good" pep talk on Tuesday.

I sometimes think that being a teacher-student would be a benefit to my current students. Of course, I understand the anxiety of submission, of grades, of approval. I cannot tell you how many times I've left one of my professor's offices on cloud 9 simply because I got the feedback, "you're on the right track." I'm hoping to hear that this Tuesday, but part of me wonders whether this dissertation process will ever end. I suspect that this is a lot like a student in a 16-week class at about week 12. They've done quite a bit of work, and they're tired. My students might be working, with families and life situations that keep them from busy, tired, and sometimes distracted. All I can suggest now is to hang in there. At some point, this too shall pass. I thank Monique (a previous student) for that sentiment...

Reference
Elbow, Peter. Writing without Teachers. New York: Oxford University Press, 1973.

This College Grading Thing...

Over the past few semesters, I've worked with a wide range of college students: the overprepared, the underwhelmed, the "just passing time until something better comes along," the honor rollers, and a plethora of others. What intrigues me currently is that there is no one "typical" college student, but that so many college students expect classes to be "typically" easy for them.

Yes, some English classes (of which I have the most experience) will be easy for some students; these students are either naturals, in that they were the ones who won the writing awards in high school, served on the school paper or yearbook, read voraciously, and have a natural ability to write effectively regardless of their audience. They are out there. And then there are those who struggle mightily to get the A or B grade, submitting draft after draft, working overtime, getting tutors. They succeed even without the "natural" talent.

It's the others that continue to surprise me, even after 9 years of teaching full-time. When I was a college student, I never expected courses to be a "gimme." I did expect college professors to abide by their own syllabi and be reasonable, grading on topics they covered in class, to be available for help during office hours, to be pleasant and to not show favorites. But I'm noticing a trend in what I consider beyond-the-pale behavior in the demand for A grades by those whose work is not exemplary.

Here's an example. A few semesters ago, I had a student in one of my classes get a B. From all the documents and my own experiences as a grader, I know that B stands for "above average effort" and is considered a good grade. The student in question wasn't particularly bad at what she did: she showed up for all her classes; asked questions; did her work on time. Based on my rubrics for how I grade, and the grades she did, she got a good, solid B. Now here's the disconnect: I received an email from her a few days after the course was complete, complaining about the B. It seems as if Samantha (a pseudonym) figured that her attendance and regular submissions earned her the A grade.

So I ask you: what is in a grade? What differentiates an A from a B student? My answer is generally the same: it's in the writing. Showing up and asking questions is good, of course, but in an English class the writing is the significant output device, the way in which a student can display their knowledge of course concepts, their ability to negotiate the terrain of scholarly writing, and their opportunities to move an audience from apathy to acceptance.

I'm sure Samantha continued to be upset about her grade. But this is happening more often, and sometimes it just has to do not with the earned effort, but other outside pressures that revolve around both teacher and student. Consider the points made by Richard Schiming of Minnesota State University regarding grade inflation, a term coined to describe why some teachers and professors give higher grades than the average:

1. Institutional pressure to retain students;
2. Increased attention and sensitivity to personal crisis situations for students;
3. Higher grades used to obtain better student evaluations of teaching;
4. The increased use of subjective or motivational factors in grading;
5. Faculty attitudes;
6. Content deflation; and
7. Changing mission.

It happens often, and there isn't just one neat solution to fix the issue. Some students are used to getting good grades. But what college faculty need to do is make clear that there is a standard difference between high school and college work, just as there is between undergraduate and graduate-level work. That showing up is great, but it by no means is a guarantee of excellence. That every professor grades uniquely, and that students should learn the context of the classroom, meaning that knowing what to ask and give each individual professor is as necessary as completing the assignment on time.

And, sometimes, the most important thing to learn is that not everybody is an A student, and that there is nothing wrong with a B or a C.

Blogs We're Exploring This Week in Class

Hi Everyone,

Here are some blogs from previous semesters to review:

A Global Topic with a Personal Approach ...
1. Jesse: Her blog was on Environmental Defense, and how she could alter not only her habits but educate those around her to create greater change.

Immigration blogs:
2. Jesus: His blog was from the perspective of an immigrant soldier.
3. Ben: His blog was from the perpective of a native-born American with concerns over illegal immigration.
4. Monique: Her blog was from the perspective of a native-born American with friends who were immigrants.

Examples of Summary, Synthesis, Analysis: The Matrix

Summary: “In the near future, a computer hacker named Neo (Keanu Reeves) discovers that all life on Earth may be nothing more than an elaborate facade created by a malevolent cyber-intelligence, for the purpose of placating us while our life essence is ‘farmed’ to fuel the Matrix’s campaign of domination in the ‘real’ world. He joins like-minded Rebel warriors Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and Trinity (Carrie Ann Moss) in their struggle to overthrow the Matrix” (Gittes, 2006).

Synthesis: Think about how the Matrix was filmed (there is a short on the DVD and on Youtube called “bullet time” in which the Wachowski brothers explain this new filming technology). Now consider how this bullet-time technology has been manipulated, in both music entertainment (with use in music videos) and parody (think the Scary Movie franchise). These entertainers synthesized “bullet time” by expanding it out to other genres. This keeps The Matrix in the news and shows how this particular technology evolves in mainstream media.
Ways for us to synthesize “bullet time” (see “Bullet Time …sort of” on youtube): Think of ways to combine ideas from multiple sources to further your position on any topic imaginable. Using multiple sources to come up with new ideas is the main goal of “synthesis.” Could we now write an article on how technology (specifically “bullet time”) has allowed for new conceptions of the use of special effects in entertainment, using as sources not only The Matrix but Scary Movie and music videos?

Analysis:
James L. Ford’s article “Buddhism, Christianity, and The Matrix: The Dialectic of Myth-Making in Contemporary Cinema” in The Journal of Religion and Film, Vol 4. #2, 2000., provides a nice analysis of the movie with a religious-mythology focus:

Here is the abstract of Ford's article:

This essay analyzes the recent film The Matrix from the perspective of modern-day myth-making. After a brief plot summary of the film, I note the well-documented parallels to the Christian messianic narrative of Jesus. I then go on to highlight the often overlooked parallels to the Buddhist existential analysis of the human condition. In particular, I note a remarkable resonance between The Matrix and the fourth century (C.E.) philosophical school of Buddhism known as Yogacara. By highlighting the syncretic or combinative nature of the film’s symbolic narrative, I submit The Matrix as a cinematic example of the dialectical process of myth-making by means of Peter Berger’s theory of socio-cultural construction.

References cited

Ford, J. L. (2000). Buddhism, Christianity, and The Matrix: The Dialectic of Myth-Making in Contemporary Cinema. Journal of Religion and Film, 4(2), 2000. <<http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/thematrix.htm>>

Gittes, J. (2006). The Matrix—Plot Summary. Retrieved October 25, 2006, from http://imdb.com/title/tt0133093/plotsummary

My new topic: The Politics of Teaching

From the Perspective of a Teacher-Student

I had the hardest time this semester coming up with a relevant topic to blog about. I've done politics twice (and I feel burnt out enough to not try it a third time so soon). I've blogged about personal finance, about home improvement, even about my dissertation. I've been wracking my brain trying to come up with something that is timely, sometimes controversial, currently affects my life, and that is challenging to do. So I've come down to this topic: the politics of teaching.

This blog will cover the good and bad that comes with this career choice. I'd like to discuss topics that seem taboo in an educational environment: bad teachers, bad students, good administrators, bad rules (like NCLB), the politics of politics in education, crappy pay, unacceptable costs, lower standards, golden opportunities, amazing success stories, and dismal failures. It all happens, is happening around us as we speak. Since I'm a student too, this semester, this blog is being written by a student-teacher-student.

I never thought I'd be a teacher. I specifically switched majors in college to not teach: I initially studied cultural anthropology (it ended up as my minor, but I was only 3 hours away from double-majoring). I was that scared of teaching that I wouldn't go into the field. But then after not knowing what to do with myself after graduation, I went to graduate school for a degree in English literature to avoid life's responsibilities and to shamelessly (or shamefully, now as I see it) mooch off of my mom longer than I should have done. My mom asked me once, "Well, what will you do with an English degree?" I had no earthly idea. I wasn't the most responsible human being back in the day.

I ended up as a technical editor and managing editor of academic journals (in anthropology) for quite a few years until I wraped my head around the idea that I wanted to be in the classroom. At first, I adjuncted at three different colleges--good experience but seriously, the wages were obscene (when you count in grading, conferencing, and planning, are somewhere around $3 an hour). The first day I taught I thought I was going to pass out. They gave me that power. It was frightening to know that I had 24 students' grades in my hands. More than that: I had the opportunities to explore the power of writing with them, and the myriad arguments, epiphanies, dilemmas, and solutions this power comes with.

I tell you this introductory tale of my falling-into-teaching because I think that sometimes we need to face our fears. I don't know why I didn't want to teach back then, because upon reflection I always liked working with people and I always loved English. The first class I taught, back in 2000, was on a whim. One day, sitting in my office cubicle, staring at a wall, I thought, "Why not teach?" And it was that one whim that led me to where I am today. It's kind of frightening. What if I had thought instead, "I'm really craving a 7-Layer Burrito at Taco Bell?"