Category Archives: housekeeping

Staying Home

ETCW, housekeeping, Lilly grant, personal life, teaching, , ,

Well, I was just thinking what a shame it was that I hadn’t updated my blog in so long that I had to go look up my login/password info, and I looked back to see that my last update was… right before ‘normal life’ crashed and burned thanks to Covid-19! So I suppose that explains why.

the front yard of a brightly-painted house with a verdant garden, sloppy grass, and a Black Lives Matter sign, on a sunny day
lots of home improvement projects, not so much with the blog updates

I got to try online-only teaching for the last quarter of the 2019-2020 school year, which was quite an experience – it felt like being a first-year teacher again, and not in a good way – and now I’m hovering in uncertainty with the rest of the world – planning for the worst, hoping for the best: I’m set to start school again (staff orientation) next Tuesday in person, but the board has pushed our start date back and put us on a hybrid model (50% of students in the building at a time, blended with e-Learning) so no matter what happens (hybrid? Virtual?) I’m sure 2020-2021 will be a heck of a learning experience.

I mean, if we didn’t understand before, we certainly know now why “May you live in interesting times” is a vicious curse.

Being used to “Dwell[ing] in possibility” like my good friend Emily Dickinson, that means I basically haven’t done any planning for the school year (yet), despite the fact that (once again) I have five preps and 2 of them are new (English 9 Honors, an all-new class, and English Lab, a remedial class that has to be planned anew each year to meet student needs (at least the way I do it)). Interesting times indeed!

So I’m going to try to figure it out as I go, as usual, and I’m going to do my annual “oh hey look a blog” posts any day now – ETCW was virtual this year, which was both better and worse, and I have another short story from the NYC Midnight competition to post – and maybe, just maybe, add some more teaching-related content… as soon as I wrap my head around online and/or hybrid teaching!

hey look I have a blog

housekeeping, personal life, teaching

So, I haven’t updated in like a year and a half… I blame that on this dude:

Kid #2, offering you tea from his plastic tea set

He’s one. So… I suspect that explains it.

  • Good thing he’s cute…
  • …really, really cute.

Tonight I spent some time updating my bio photo (hmm, my hair is now… eight inches longer and much more purple?) and cleaning up odds and ends, but I’m really hoping to update more regularly (uh, what else is new?!?). I definitely have some “Lessons from the Classics” posts in mind, since I got to teach AP Literature & Composition for the first time, and because I reworked my Creative Writing class a bit. Next year I’ll be teaching a one-semester Poetry elective for the first time (!!!) so I’m excited to dig into that genre more (I am not often an inspired poet, but I am a competent one, and I’m open to improvement, so…).

You Again

garbage post, housekeeping, Indyscribes, my writing, personal life, teaching, Uncategorized, , ,

I’ve been in one of those emotional fugue states where very little gets done that isn’t absolutely necessary – so I’ve definitely blown it re: this year’s resolution to blog weekly. Hmm. Perhaps, since it’s the solstice, I’ll have a mid-year reboot?

Or perhaps not.

I’ve been re-reading old favorite books, playing with a toddler, and watching my husband play the video game I got him for Valentine’s Day, so for once I’ve been busy with good things… but very busy, nonetheless.

I’ve also been doing some research for my WIPs and absolutely ignoring the fact that I should be prepping for the fall (I’m teaching English 10, which I haven’t taught in 10 years, so… basically a new class). It’s been great!

I keep telling myself that fallow periods are important for creativity, but it’s still a bummer. At least I’ve got a writing group to yell at me (in a good-natured way) when I fail to produce. Outside accountability is very important to me!

there’s that whooshing sound again

cowriting, garbage post, housekeeping, Indyscribes, my writing, personal life, teaching, TV, , ,

 Soooo yeah. That resolution of mine to blog more? Well…

Oh, and those ten pages I was supposed to turn in to my writing group… last Tuesday?

Hmm. And when is enrollment for grad classes for this semester? Oh. Really? Three months ago, you say…?

Yeah. I’ve been falling behind.

But I’m enjoying the ride and I haven’t fallen TOO far to catch up (I hope?) so here we go again!

Some things I’ve been putting off lately:  Continue reading there’s that whooshing sound again →

New Year, New Me? (Nah)

housekeeping, Lilly grant, my writing, personal life, Uncategorized, , , , ,

archer-wiki_characters_archer-vice_skinny-pam_01Well, after my flurry of November activity/NaNoWriMo, I sure did taper off on blogging, didn’t I?

And since today’s New Year’s Day, it’s a perfect time to resolve to blog more in 2017!

Among other resolutions, of course. But don’t worry, no “new me” stuff — as Pam says, I really like me. Continue reading New Year, New Me? (Nah) →

(insert blog post here)

housekeeping, NaNoWriMo, , , ,

goon-squad
the blogger in her natural environment

Well, I’ve done it again–in my household we call it “gooning yourself,” but elsewhere it would just be called “staying up way too late goofing off and accomplishing nothing except ending up overtired tomorrow.”

See why we just say “gooning”?

So, in addition to gooning myself sleep-wise, I gooned myself writing-wise and have run out of time to do either.

I’ll try to redeem myself tomorrow.

The Edge of My Seat

housekeeping, my writing, NaNoWriMo, personal life, , , , , , ,

I wanted to post a response to the Tweetstorm happening surrounding #TheContinent (a YA book with some serious “White Savior Narrative” stuff going on, click that link for a summary) and Jenny Trout’s response (in which she calls out her own use of racist tropes in some of her older books).

But I also want to watch election returns, so I’m probably going to go do that.

I’ll be back tomorrow with some thoughts about how I know #WeNeedDiverseBooks but also: I am a white lady.

Hopefully having survived watching the election returns (rather than posting as some sort of post-election zombie).

 

Grinning my Evil Teacher Grin

housekeeping, my writing, teaching, , ,

The_Evil_GrinI am hoping to update this thing weekly, so here’s a very short update before I leave work and go home: I wrote THREE (okay, like, two and a third) pages this month. That is two-and-one-third pages more than I have written in the previous six months!

I am also having a heck of a time with my creative writing class, as usual. They are delightful. Today we started our poetry unit and several of them were comfortable enough to admit that they HATE poetry (usually they try to pretend they like it because they think that’s what I want to hear).

I like this because I know that now I get a chance to change their minds. >:) >:) >:) >:)

Juggling

adventures, housekeeping, Lilly grant, Uncategorized

tumblr_n43v07MZqf1sjzdpqo1_500

So, feeling much like Michael Bluth is in the image above, I am trying to keep a lot of balls in the air right now. I’m currently hanging out in Muncie for the Midwest Writers Workshop, which is awesome. I’m working on a post about the last 2/3 of Bart IWT. I’m trying to ignore the fact that school starts next week. I’m excited that Sarge has just been upgraded from “my two-month-old” to “my three-month-old” and amused that I’m not the only person pumping milk in between conference sessions.

I’ve taken tons of notes, and I’ll have lots to say later, but right now I’m going to keep processing what I’ve learned.

In the meantime, I’ve also been twittering my heart out; I think I’m finally getting the hang of Twitter! If you’re interested, you can watch me twit or follow my twitterings here!