School Beginnings

Hmm, it's been a crazy start this year. I teach MWF, two writing classes for early childhood education majors, one writing class for English majors, and a directed study for an advisee who couldn't get into the senior seminar class. I desperately need to publish this year.

Speaking of publishing, I just finished a second round of editing on the anthology, mostly for consistency across entries rather than for errors. I think it will go to the publications department within the next few weeks, so perhaps within a month or so, I'll be distributing the anthology. Cool, huh?

School has definitely started, but I'm not in the grove yet. Journals come in today for two classes. At that point I'll feel crushed under the weight of fifty notebooks and seventy-five papers to read and comment upon by Wednesday, but it will get done. It always done.

I feel a bit out of the NWP look. I owe Donna C. an email. I need to get the brochure ready for next summer's institute. I need to make sure someone else has reserved a hotel room for the NWP conference. I need to talk to Carlyn and Donna C. about professional development. I need to scream and punch something--okay, not really, but yelling and hitting work really well for stress relief to me. So will walking, though, and Lindsi and I will do that in the morning.

School Beginnings

• buying new clothes, a special trip to the mall or wherever
• setting the alarm clock
• meeting new people, always worrying about who would end up in my classes (I still worry about that)
• confusion as schedules change for a while
• parking woes and complaints (ooh, note to self--renew my parking decal)

I used to love the trip to the mall to buy new clothes for school. Mom would give me a budget, and we would go shopping, once we got to the point where we could afford that, probably by ninth grade. We would go to Governor's Square in Tallahassee my first few years of high school; then we switched to the Albany Mall my last few years because it had better sales. Plus, I liked the Albany Mall better--I'm not sure why. Clothing decisions were mostly my choice, but I struggled between a few nice things and more outfits from cheaper stores. More outfits usually won. I enjoyed shopping with Mom on those trips, especially the last few years. I was the only kid left at home, and that was a good time with Mom.

Now, I hate shopping. I desperately need new clothes, but I should lose weight before I buy any, so I keep wearing the same tired clothes. Mostly, I just want to be comfortable. Clothes don't matter much to me beyond that (obviously, as most people who know me and SEE me realize).

Hmm, what else about school? I liked school. I pretty much always liked school although there were certain classes I didn't enjoy and certain teachers I disliked. However, I had good teachers for the most part, teachers who knew the material, teachers who cared about students. Sure, occasionally, someone would have a bad day, but for the most part I never had problems with teachers.

There was a substitute teacher who called me "Donner." She went to school with my dad and just pronounced my name wrong. We didn't live in Whigham my whole life, so I didn't have to follow siblings or have too many people's expectations on me. It's different for my nieces and nephews. One of my nieces looks like me, and she said she had a few teachers who called her "Donna" throughout high school; that would suck.

I've gotten the first set of papers from all my students, so now I have some expectations of them based on their writing ability. I think there's been an increase in the quality of students at VSU over the years. They seem to come in as stronger writers. Yes, of course, there are always a few who need a lot of help, but for the most part, they come in with a stronger set of skills.

Oh, here's a new beginning for me--for the first time ever at VSU, my keys are missing. I think I left them in the bathroom before I went to an 8:30 meeting. When I came out of the meeting at 9:15, I realized I didn't have them. I checked the bathroom, the conference room--no keys. That's not a really good way to start the school year. Now I'm hoping someone turns them in to Public Safety and that I get a call. Thus, it's a good beginning of the school year and a so-so beginning of the school year.