Returning to Writing, Or What Happens When the PhD Is #PhDONE

As of August 2017, I earned my doctorate.

(YAY!)

As of August 2017, I was offered employment at a regional two-year college and have been exploring how to be a full-time person, without being pulled in different directions while negotiating 3-4 jobs.  It’s weird.

(SUPER YAY!)

But recently, I’ve been missing the reading and writing and thinking elements that came with being in school (because connection, because accountability, because someone else telling me I must do X thing by a deadline).  It’s only recently I’ve felt at all settled enough–in my teaching, service, and professional development demands–to even think about my own projects or what I’d like to work on.  And only recently that I’ve realized with practiced balance, I can carve out some time to work on my own writing and get out into publication spaces.

And then serendipity hit (as happens often when I need some accountability).  A recent hire and I met to talk about co-requisite instruction and being on a subcommittee for a regional conference, and she asked, tentatively, if I would be up for writing meetings.

?!?!

Of course, I said yes.

Because it would be good to set aside time to write out what I’m thinking and doing with co-requisite instruction (the buzz for basic writing folks in the Comp/Rhet world) and how to bring my work and my students’ work to places to be seen, to be heard, to be cared for.

So I have dusted off this old blog page, laughed at some of my previous postings, cringed at some of what past-me wrote about, and have resurrected this space to carve out me-writing time.

Someday, I will need to remember this

Haiku d’etat

That is all.

I Keep Stealing …

But not in the way you might imagine.

I have a friend who gave me a good idea for a smaller writing assignment — one of those things that might work if I’m in an environment that wants three umbrella writing projects.  Or one I might use no matter what environment I’m in.

The piece involves the students writing brief snippet/summaries for the purposes and advantages of certain databases (i.e. EBSCO, JSTOR, and the like).  The students had to choose four based on what they were interested in, create their summaries, and then share with a peer.  AND THEN that peer had to share with the instructor.  I love that the students are getting this information a couple of times, and the make-up for the assignment/in-class activity hits on developing information literacy through practices that work (giving the students responsibility, having them access information in multiple ways and format).  Even better, the assignment shows them what specific information is also available at their fingertips, but better fits with what professors want when they say to use “sources.”

I told him I’m stealing his idea, which, interestingly enough, was built off an idea that another friend and I came up with for a five-week ENGL 1010 course.

Collaboration rocks!!