On a rainy Monday morning . . .

It's rainy. Again. And cold, no doubt. What else is new? So I pour myself a cup of coffee and sit down at my computer. I have to restart it for it to work properly. This old battleax has seen better days, to be sure. But she travelled in my backpack throughout a 6-week solitary sojourn in the UK last summer, so I am fairly attached to her. She's warming my lap right now, like a metal kitten. Luckily, however, she doesn't purr. That would probably be a BAD sign.

I am a little unhappy about going to school today. I feel pretty trapped there. My office window doesn't open and the heating and cooling system doesn't work properly. I am lucky if there is one faucet that sprays shockingly cold water to wash my hands down the hall. There is no water fountain. In my classroom downstairs, I have to wear tank tops in the winter just to maintain some semblance of coolness. My students are overheated as well; their eyes swell shut and glaze over like they are in an incubator. I watch them as they sleep in the middle of my class and want to wake them up, but what's the point? They'll just fall back asleep . . . because they drank too much last night.

My teaching career has never been like this before. I have never had students sleep in my classes. I have never encountered so many students who simply didn't care. Usually, I can get the students on the edge to become a little interested, but this doesn't appear to be the case here. I think about this as I glance at the shower, knowing that the time approaches when I have to get up and make the inevitable steps toward my daily fate. My stomach tightens as I think of this.

But there's only six more weeks of the semester left. And I have my good students. And I have lots of plans for the summer.

I just have to survive six more weeks of torture. So, what shall I do?

I shall focus on the students who care and who really want to learn. I have done my best for the first half of the semester and now it is really up to them. And it is truly only those who really care that I can help. The others have a different path.

And after this week, we have a lot of enjoyable class activities planned; we move into our popculture unit, which is always pretty enjoyable (or at least has been in the past). And then the students get to analyze music videos as modern poetry, which is an interesting way to look at the culture that is being shaped by artists today. Of course, this all sounds good in theory, we'll see what the result is, in practice.

Perhaps the feeling of frustration is the hurdle of the BIG paper. Perhaps once we are past this hurdle, the semester will be better. Even if it is better for five weeks, I'll take it. To be honest, I'm not sure what the problem is, though I have spent the better part of two semesters trying to figure this out.

And I must focus on the students who are really here to learn; who are eager to grow and to expand their minds. And I have quite a few of those. I'd love to spend less time chasing down the ones who don't care and more time investing in the futures of these bright students. Maybe by the end of the semester I'll figure out where that balance lies.

The Secret Dancer in Me

The first time I saw this scene from the UK version of _The Office_, I thought I was going to die! I loved that the character would do such a ridiculous thing in the middle of a huge group of co-workers. The whole thing made me cringe and laugh at the same time.

And this is how _The Office_ works; it makes you laugh because it makes you uncomfortable. It makes you uncomfortable because it taps into that dark little part of yourself that is always about to make a jerk out of you in public (usually in front of a bunch of important people).

We're all just a synapse-fire away from breaking-it-down (and probably badly) robot-style--accompanying ourselves with our own soundtrack--in front of our co-workers, classmates, public officials and, worst of all, our innocent pets.

I know I have to work hard to keep the jerk side of me (like, Steve Martin's _The Jerk_)



under control. But she's always there, just under the surface, about to make everyone either laugh or cringe.

I have to admit that part of me wonders if this willingness to make a fool out of myself makes me a good teacher or just a plain idiot. But I have this little feeling that this strangeness is JUST what makes students like me; it makes me funny, approachable, and a (maybe) little more like them.

And I think most of them like that. Or at least they pretend to...

Maybe they're just scared I'll bust out into "the robot" in front of them... or worse: The Cabbage-Patch.

...not like they remember that dance...

Fall 2008 at Greensboro College

I am fortunate to teach at a wonderful institution: Greensboro College. This institution cares deeply for its faculty and students and I am proud to be a part of it.

I take education seriously. I think this is one of major reasons the English Department hired me this year. They saw how much I care about my students.

I have always been interested in using technology to teach students. At University of South Carolina, where I was awarded a joint PhD in English and Women's Studies (with a concentration in American history and culture) and where I taught as a Visiting Professor for two years (one in Continuing Education Credit Programs and the other in the Department of English), I did not have much technology at my fingertips. I requested "smart classrooms" but for the most part they only allowed me to show films, access the internet, and use PowerPoint. What was missing? My students' access to technology, as well!

Imagine my surprise when I walked into my new classroom at GC and saw a gleaming row of computers there. Each student had access to their own computer. The possibilities were endless!

I began transitioning my usual "Intro to Composition" courses into digital courses. There has been a lot of trial and error, but it has been a wonderful experience. (Plus, I help the environment--dream of all dreams!)

A few weeks in to the semester, I actually began reading digital pedagogy articles. Yes, I went into the thing mostly blind, calling forth dusty memories of ideas I had heard in presentations and conversations with coworkers at Carolina. But once I began reading the articles, everything started to click.

I CAN use the internet and technology to help students develop their writing! The World Wide Web can be their audience and anyone can read their ideas.

True, this may seem like a bit of pressure; but great things come out of challenges American history itself is a testament to that notion.

I am writing this blog right now because I just decided that I will have my Freshman at GC start up a blog as one of their end-of-semester assignments. I was reading Charles Tryon's "Writing and Citizenship: Using Blogs to Teach First-Year Composition" (Pedagogy 6.1 (2006): 128-132.) and got so excited by his ideas that I stopped mid-article and began writing this blog. I have a map of revised end-of-semester class activites to my right and, let me tell you, this whole blog thing just tied it all up in a gorgeous red velvet bow.

This semester, I teach two different courses: ENGL 1100--Texts and Contexts (essentially English 101) and ENGL 1000--Academic Discourse (a super-useful College Prep course).

My ENGL 1100 students will open and write their blog as a precursor to the final all-class group project of designing our own web 'Zine. This will get them in touch with the issues they would like to focus on within the 'Zine and open them up to discussions about the topics we will feature in the final product.

My ENGL 1000 students will focus on the creation and writing of a blog for their final project. This may *seem* easy, but trick is this: we will use the blog creation to discuss important issues regarding technology, writing, and academia. Moreover, the blog will be a testing ground for writing an academic paper. The blogs will help students think about writing arguments and conducting research in an exciting and collective environment. This will be the perfect preparation for writing college papers.

In closing, I am really happy to have the opportunity to use technology and the internet to help my students develop their critical thinking skills! I hope they enjoy it, too.