The Big Idea?
What's the big idea? I'm not sure. Isn't that a GPS term along with enduring questions?
This is my first time posting a new entry, and it took me thirteen minutes to get into the blog because I had my user name wrong. Loser!
Typing in this space feels very different from typing a journal entry on my office computer. I'm not sure how I feel about the public nature of this entry. Of course, SGWP's webpage hasn't been receiving tons of hits, so I'm not sure how public this entry is in reality as opposed to potentiality. I guess I'll find out. I write four times a week in the journal/notebook I keep during the academic year. It's a more personal space. I ask a student to take it home and check it each week, just to keep me honest and to keep me writing, but that means at most twenty people may read about twelve pages each. I wonder who will read this entry and what image of me they'll develop based on these words.
What's the big idea? The big idea may be that technology shifts writing environments and experiences. Of course, it always has. Writing changed drastically in the movement from papyrus to paper, from quills to laptops. Technology has always affected writing, but I can see it in this shift more than in others. I'm writing slower, a little more aware of a potential reader.
I haven't read many blogs or rather any blogs except this one, so I'm not sure about how to use them or why to use them. Robert's presentation (is that next week?) should provide more information and perhaps more experience with that.
I check my laptop's battery to see if it might excuse me anytime soon from writing. Nope. It's at 86% and recharging as we speak. I could write for at least another two hours. But I can't. I feel distracted today, thinking beyond today, beyond this moment. My mind doesn't focus on these words but on Robert's daily log, Brett's demo, our attempts later today to upload our memoirs and respond to others, the ripples in our community from Adam leaving and David joining us, and my plans for this weekend.
This weekend I'll write. Jennifer, a former VSU instructor, and I are meeting this weekend to write, to work toward publication on individual articles. I'll be drafting a teaching demo and article on teaching grammar within the context of students' own writing. I don't remember what Jennifer is writing. We're meeting near her parents' house so that her parents can babysit her daughter while we write Friday, Saturday, and perhaps Sunday morning.
When I get leave the Institute today, I need to swing by the library to check out Image Grammar or something like that--I can't remember the exact title. I also need to pick up the collection of grammar articles in my office. I hoped to leave directly from school, but I didn't pack last night, so that won't be happening. Still, I'm creating a space and time for writing. I must get a complete draft of the article this weekend. Then I can finetune the presentation before Sept. 14, which is when I'll present it at the SGWP strand of the Wiregrass Festival. After that, I'll send it off for publication, perhaps to The Journal of Teaching Writing or Teaching Writing in the Community College. I don't really see it as a Composition Studies article. Maybe CEA Journal?
Oh well, the big idea is that I must stay professionally active as a scholar. I can't bog down in the administration end of running the Writing Project.
The National Writing Project works hard to help teachers develop professional identities beyond the classroom. Teachers must excel in the classroom, but sometimes administrators don't seem to realize that getting out of the classroom to attend and present at academic conferences helps them in the classroom. Energized, active teachers bring more to the classroom.
I look at the community already forming this summer and think, "This is the big idea--these people, this community, these experts." I'm proud to be a part of this community. I can't wait to see how it grows.
This is my first time posting a new entry, and it took me thirteen minutes to get into the blog because I had my user name wrong. Loser!
Typing in this space feels very different from typing a journal entry on my office computer. I'm not sure how I feel about the public nature of this entry. Of course, SGWP's webpage hasn't been receiving tons of hits, so I'm not sure how public this entry is in reality as opposed to potentiality. I guess I'll find out. I write four times a week in the journal/notebook I keep during the academic year. It's a more personal space. I ask a student to take it home and check it each week, just to keep me honest and to keep me writing, but that means at most twenty people may read about twelve pages each. I wonder who will read this entry and what image of me they'll develop based on these words.
What's the big idea? The big idea may be that technology shifts writing environments and experiences. Of course, it always has. Writing changed drastically in the movement from papyrus to paper, from quills to laptops. Technology has always affected writing, but I can see it in this shift more than in others. I'm writing slower, a little more aware of a potential reader.
I haven't read many blogs or rather any blogs except this one, so I'm not sure about how to use them or why to use them. Robert's presentation (is that next week?) should provide more information and perhaps more experience with that.
I check my laptop's battery to see if it might excuse me anytime soon from writing. Nope. It's at 86% and recharging as we speak. I could write for at least another two hours. But I can't. I feel distracted today, thinking beyond today, beyond this moment. My mind doesn't focus on these words but on Robert's daily log, Brett's demo, our attempts later today to upload our memoirs and respond to others, the ripples in our community from Adam leaving and David joining us, and my plans for this weekend.
This weekend I'll write. Jennifer, a former VSU instructor, and I are meeting this weekend to write, to work toward publication on individual articles. I'll be drafting a teaching demo and article on teaching grammar within the context of students' own writing. I don't remember what Jennifer is writing. We're meeting near her parents' house so that her parents can babysit her daughter while we write Friday, Saturday, and perhaps Sunday morning.
When I get leave the Institute today, I need to swing by the library to check out Image Grammar or something like that--I can't remember the exact title. I also need to pick up the collection of grammar articles in my office. I hoped to leave directly from school, but I didn't pack last night, so that won't be happening. Still, I'm creating a space and time for writing. I must get a complete draft of the article this weekend. Then I can finetune the presentation before Sept. 14, which is when I'll present it at the SGWP strand of the Wiregrass Festival. After that, I'll send it off for publication, perhaps to The Journal of Teaching Writing or Teaching Writing in the Community College. I don't really see it as a Composition Studies article. Maybe CEA Journal?
Oh well, the big idea is that I must stay professionally active as a scholar. I can't bog down in the administration end of running the Writing Project.
The National Writing Project works hard to help teachers develop professional identities beyond the classroom. Teachers must excel in the classroom, but sometimes administrators don't seem to realize that getting out of the classroom to attend and present at academic conferences helps them in the classroom. Energized, active teachers bring more to the classroom.
I look at the community already forming this summer and think, "This is the big idea--these people, this community, these experts." I'm proud to be a part of this community. I can't wait to see how it grows.
posted by Donna Sewell at
9:14 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home