Teaching Goals

I was just writing my last notebook entry for the semester for a writing class that will no longer exist, and I wondered what the students would take with them--if anything. Because I prefer to think I make a difference, I started listing some of those ideas, hoping you would help me flesh out the list.

• Teachers should be writers; if they aren't, they cannot provide much insight into the writing process.
• Teachers should take risks with writing, not always playing it safe.
• Teachers should write with students, sharing their own miscues and successes.
• Teachers should create some safe zones, places for experimentation rather than strict grading.
• Grammar should be taught within the context of students' own writing rather than as a separate pool of knowledge unrelated to writing.
• Laughter is a necessary part of writing.
• Students should encounter standards at some point in the writing process; writing is not simply touchy feely.

What do you think? What am I missing? Where do you disagree?

Decompression

Hello to all:

Back from NYC, and still having withdrawals! We saw, we wrote, we learned, we ATE, and we survived! There are many stories to tell, and many challenges ahead. I am grateful for the folks that went and kept things interesting, and especially to my travel buddy Adam (Hatch) for looking out for me in the big city. You can feel a lot more comfortable in a place like that with the Cap'n watching your back! In all, we had a great time and learned a lot. Can't wait for Washington DC in the Spring!
Joel

Favorite Places

Hmm, I like lots of places (unlike people, I guess):

• any beach, but particularly St. George Island because it's home
• my grandmother's house, now Aunt Carolyn's house, the place my dad's side of the family gathers for family get-togethers
• underneath Wes's old bed in Moultrie--okay, before you snicker, I don't actually get under there, but I like pulling out the old boxes from there; they overflow with old family photos, old notes Wes wrote as a kid (my favorite is the one with a baby tooth attached), report cards (Yikes!)
• the old barn at Grandmother's house, particularly the hayloft
• London--anywhere in London--but particularly theatres, walking in, waiting for the show to start, anticipating the ice cream at the break--so civilized
• New York--the sheer rush of people (which I can take in small doses), the crowds of cars, the multiplicity of languages
• airports--I know it's weird, but airports and airplanes are places where I get lots of uninterrupted time for writing and for people watching
• Colorado when it's snowing and I'm on skis or when I've finished skiing for the day and I'm soaking in a hot tub with a beverage of choice in my hand, letting the hot bubbles remove all aches; I've only been twice, but it's one of those places, like London, that felt like another home almost immediately
• Delaware--all the places I visited when we lived there: Rehoboth Beach, the skating rink, the boardwalk where I had soft serve ice cream for the first time, the game room for the trailer park where we lived, the creek behind our trailer, the pool in which we swam during the summer and on which we skated in the winter, the church where I attended Awanas on Wednesday night, all the county fairs we attended in surrounding counties and even states because Dad believed in exploring new areas, the lake where my brother fell through the ice
• Apalachicola--the airport where I learned to drive on the deserted runways, the library I rode my bike to in fourth grade with my brother and sister as chaperones, the Tastee Freez for ice cream cones, the woods across from our house where my siblings and I used to swing on vines and play for hours, the backyard where we brought up worms for fishing with a hammer and a stake (Sopchoppy has a worm grunting festival--I didn't know that's what it was called until recently), the church where I attended Vacation Bible School, the pretty lantana planted across the street from the church, the community center where we held our first non-chaperoned party (every parent assumed someone else was chaperoning it--what a party!); walking to the drug store to buy Tiger Beat as a preteen
• Whigham--the high school where I graduated, the old gym with its wooden floors where I cheered and danced and flirted, the old oak tree where we held bonfires (Bruce Springsteen is playing in Hildegards right now, pulling me right back into the 80s), piney woods (the place to park near Farmers' Peanut Company), the haunted bridge, all the awesome haunted houses my parents put on for my youth group, the old country roads I used to ride whenever I wanted privacy (I'd just put the top down on my Midget convertible and ride and ride and ride), the bump that put a hole in my gas tank when I put eight people in the Midget, the main street where I rode in parades, the school grounds where we held the Rattlesnake Roundup, the grocery store where I worked in high school).

Okay, I clearly moved away from the idea of vacations and just explored places, but that was fun. It was like swimming in memories. The more I wrote, the more I remembered, underscoring the generative power of writing. Despite what my students say, we don't run out of stuff to write about. Writing begets writing. So many stories lurk in all those places, just waiting to be teased from the shadows. Maybe that's what I'll do during December: tease out some shadows.

PS: If anyone gets a chance, read the Family Dinner post a few posts below this one. It's pretty funny--and of course a true story.

Vacations

After just publishing a blank page, I think I'm in need of a vacation. Of course, anyone who knows me knows that I have been saying that for a long time.

I've had so pretty bad vacations in my life. Maybe my expectations are too high, but vacations rarely turn out to be the bliss that I imagined before I started out. Some of the worst vacations I had were when I was married. Just me, my husband and his two boys or as I like to call them, the stepchildren from hell. We had three vacations during our brief two year marriage.

There was the trip through hell at Disney World with the three of them and my inlaws, the trip through hell to Myrtle Beach with the three of them and the inlaws, and finally the trip through hell to Ohio with them, in a motorhome, to my inlaw's house for Christmas. By the following Feb., by dearly devoted, soon to be exhusband met, arrested, and moved in with his next future ex-wife. By June, we were divorced and there were no more trips through hell with Daryl, Douggie, and Kevin.

I've on a cruise to the Bahamas once. That wasn't the trip I thought it would be either. A girlfriend talked me into going on a cruise. I thought, "what the hell, sure." That should have been a clue. She made all the travel arrangements. It was on the Big Red Boat, yep, the freaking Disney cruise line. Wall-to-wall kids and Disney characters. When we pulled into port at Nassau, there was another cruiseship across the dock from us. You could hear the music rocking and the partying going on. I stood on the deck of the Big Red Boat, sighing and wishing I was there. But here I was, abored ship with Mickey, Minnie, and the gang.

How about the ski vacation to hell with my sister, her first husband, another couple and their friend. Hurricane force winds at the top of one of the mountains that my sister talked me into skiing down. Did I mention that before this, I hadn't ventured beyond the bunny slopes? The wind was blowing soooo hard that I swear I was skiing uphill. And I could not stand the wife of the other couple. Half way through the 10 days in hell, Park City, Utah, I was looking for a way to escape and catch a wide-body jet back to Georgia. When I did finally get home, with all my bones intact and without inflicting some form of injury to the hostess from hell, I nearly kissed the tarmac in Valdosta.

Where to next?

Write Night

Here's the topic for tonight: Vacations. I'm sure we all have family vacations that led to interesting moments. Or perhaps our favorite vacations have been the trips we've taken alone, trips to rejuvenate ourselves. Maybe we have favorite places that we lived or visited that weren't quite vacations, such as trips for academic conferences or business trips. Let's focus on some of those trips or vacations for tonight's Write Night. As always, though, you are welcome to trash this topic and write whatever you want.

Happy Place

I have also read "The Phantom Tollbooth"! I loved the "Terrible Djinn" (spelling?) who only collected terrible sounds. I read it when I was really young, but have never forgotten its wonderful characters (the dog, Tock, who goes "tick tick tick", Rhyme and Reason, etc.) Enough about that. I think by now anyone can see that my happy place is books. Any book, anytime. Tom Clancy, John Grisham, Lincoln Childs, they all have provided me with worlds beyond my own imagination, worlds that can take me away from any and everything that might be troubling me in the real world. Literature can provide the ultimate escape, one in your mind, one that doesn't require a hangover the next morning. The beauty of good literature doesn't depend on genre, only effectiveness. Anne McAffery can take me to Pern, the world of Dragons, and Jack London can take me to Alaska to brave the harsh cold, all without a ticket or need of a reservation. Books are truly my Happy Place!

Madison Claire

This is Madison Claire Gaither. She was born on October 25, 2007. She weighed 6 lbs 5 ozs and 18 inches long. It has been a long and trying couple of weeks. We spent 5 days in the hospital. When she was born, her cord was wrapped around her neck three times. As a result, she was stressed and spent a day and a half in the NUK unit. Since, she has had several test run and two CT Scans. I believe that everything will be fine and tomorrow we will find out all the results. I truly believe that the stress of being born made her have all these problems.

We have been home for a little over a week and she has been doing great. She poops, eats, and sleeps. She is very sweet and quiet. Micah loves her and wants to hold her all the time. Yesterday I think he had a moment. He said, "I have a little sister." I just laughed and asked him if he was just realizing that.

Congratulations to Lindsi. She is beautiful. I can't wait to see her. You look really good and I hope you are doing well after the C-section. I had a C-section and the second one is much easier to recover from.

I hope everyone is well and I hope to see everyone soon.

Family Dinner

One of our routines this semester has been meeting once a month in Thomasville for a family dinner. With my parents traveling all over the U.S., my siblings and I worried that we would lose touch, so we started this new routine or tradition. This past Monday night was our November gathering. My parents were back in the South for the winter, so they joined us. (All names have been changed to protect the embarrassed.)

When Wes and I arrived in Thomasville, my parents were there as was my niece, Nicole, who works in Thomasville. We were waiting for the rest of my niece's family (my brother's family) and my sister's family. Anyway, Nicole told us that my nephew Lee, the same one who lived with us for three months last year, has a girlfriend. This was good gossip indeed (his first girlfriend), so we asked lots of questions. Finally, we decided to go inside and eat chips and salsa while we waited for the rest of the family.

They all arrived about ten minutes later, and the noise level rose. My mom looked at Lee, smirked a bit, and announced, "Lee has news." Lee looked at her blankly. "He had a first," she continued. Immediately, Wes and I thought she was teasing him about the new girlfriend, so we looked at him expectantly. He had no idea. "In your car," she prompted him.

"Oh my gosh!" I thought. "Mom knows Lee had fun with his girlfriend in his car!" I looked at Wes, unsure what to do. Wes reddened a bit, then struggled to swallow his drink, not wanting to spew it on his mother-in-law, but needing to laugh out loud.

Lee blushed and looked down. Now everyone was laughing except Mom, who seemed a little confused by the laughter. We couldn't stop laughing, and Lee shrugged as if to say, "I don't know what she's talking about."

"Your ticket!" Mom said. "You got your first speeding ticket."

New Topic--Routine

With all these new beautiful babies coming into the picture, the word routine is popping up a lot.
We all know babies thrive on routine. Children in general do better with routine. I think it is probably a way for them to feel some control over this big ole world. There is some security in knowing what will happen next.

I have never been much of a routine person--which makes me wonder why I selected teaching for a profession. I am one who likes routine for a little bit, but then I want to jump out of the schedule and run to new places. I guess I never got the 60's and 70's completely out of my blood.

However, one routine I think is cool is Sunday morning. You know, the one that begins with pancakes, two cups of coffee, and the Sunday paper. There is something exciting about the Sunday paper. It is big a full of surprises. I even love smelling the Sunday paper. Ok, so that's a little weird, but it hurls me back to wonderful memories. So then, after the Sunday paper, there is church, eating out, and naps on the sofa during the football games. So, are you a routine person or not. Do you have a favorite routine--one that makes you feel all cozy inside? Get those fingers tapping the keys!

Here's Anna!

Yea, I know, she's cute! We're both doing great. Just trying to get into a routine. I was going to take her to the next Write Night, but I don't think her Daddy is going to let her leave the house until she starts school!