Slice of Life: Technology as friend and foe

Today, we had yet another snow day. That's the 10th this year. I'm at the point where I'm torn on these "days off." On one hand, I'm happy to not fight with the weather, and I like to have the slower pace I can take at home. But really, these aren't "days off" for me as I tend to work to try to catch up on planning and grading (as with most of me peers, I'm more reactive during the school year than I like to be).  Also, I worry that my students will leave with fewer opportunities to think, discuss, and write than they might need. That's the perpetual fear of most teachers--did the students have enough time?

I also tend to use these snow days to experiment with technology because I want to give students something to do to make sure that we don't lose all two weeks of instructional time. My juniors are supposed to be taking their end of course writing test this week, so I used Google Drive to create space for them to review some of the grammar concepts we had discussed and plan for the writing prompts in groups. I also opened up a space for them on Blackboard to allow them to ask questions about the prompts and to get suggestions about approaches from one another. I suspect some of them will benefit from these online collaborations, and I certainly appreciated seeing them edit their writing to address pronoun reference issue and noting which prompts they found challenging.

Today also gave me a chance to try an add-on that allows for voice commenting on Google Drive. Kaizena allowed me to open students' documents, highlight portions of their text, and record comments to share with the students. I managed to comment on 4 papers, once I figured out the general interface. Three seem to have gone well, but the 4th doesn't seem to want to share my voice comments. I didn't discover this until I had spent several minutes on comments that I may be the only one who can see. And, unfortunately, Kaizena's documentation is non-existent. All that there is are some articles on older versions and a video tutorial.

The insistence of companies to substitute video tutorials for actual manuals makes me more than a little crazy. I cannot always use a video tutorial. Watching a video takes time and attention. I may be searching for a quick answer (as I was today) and skimming a manual for the answers I need is so much faster. I may not be able to devote my attention to the video, especially if the software is one I'd use while I taught. Or, I may not be able to play something I'd have to listen to because it would disrupt others around me.  Videos aren't a substitute; they are a supplement.

So, while I like Kaizena in concept, I'm not sure that I'm willing to devote much more time to it until the documentation improves. I still like the idea of voice commenting, especially when I can use the comments as instructional, but I'm going to look elsewhere for a tool that will be easier to implement.

Slice of Life: New starts

Sometimes, it's easy to get so caught in the day to day scramble that things get dropped. This blog is one of those things.

So, what has consumed me? Well, a new PhD program, for one. During last year's Slice challenge, I wrote about the idea of this program and a meeting I attended of potential students as part of the accreditation process. I loved the idea of it, but I knew I wouldn't be able to leave the classroom to be a full-time student.

Then, on June 3, I got word that the program had been approved and would be accepting applications for the fall 2013 cohort. The online application would be available on 6/15, and the deadline would be 7/10. After a nervous couple of weeks, I found out I wouldn't have to that the GRE due to the tight timeline. What a relieve that was for me, as I haven't taken a math class since the late 1980s!

Of course, I was still in the midst of the school year, which didn't end until late June, so I couldn't even think about working on my package until after the application was available. Starting on June 24, the first day after school ended, I went into overdrive:

• requested all of my transcripts, 
• spent a short forever making my resume into a curriculum vitae, 
• went digging for old academic, professional, and personal writing samples, 
• requested letters of recommendation, and 
• started working on a personal statement.  

I even managed to convince a friend from the Northern Virginia Writing Project to apply, too.

By July 9, everything was in or on its way, and by July 26, while on a road trip, I received the following:

Dear Christine: 

Congratulations!  It is my pleasure to inform you that the Committee on Admissions has approved your application for graduate admission to the College of Humanities and Social Sciences' Writing and Rhetoric - PHD program for the Fall 2013 semester. The following will assist you in confirming your admissions offer and in getting you started as a graduate student.

I was ecstatic.

I'm on my second class now, and I'm challenged to find time for much else. But, I'm also stimulated and engaged by the learning and happy to be part of a wonderful community of students in the first cohort. The cognitive dissonance of upending everything I am doing with everything I'm learning gets overwhelming at times, but my peers and professors talk me off the ledge. I feel pretty fortunate, even when I'm exhausted and crazed.

The funny part is that I am still blogging as a requirement of my current class. It's just that this hasn't been the forum for it. At first, that troubled me. But, now that the Slice of Life challenge is back, I think I'm ok with having that separation.

Here's to as much slicing as I can fit in!

The search for a writing sample

It has been a long time since I've written a Slice of Life post. Despite my best intentions, I let the end of the year madness, starting with the last grades of 3rd quarter and the insanity of testing season (May-June) get in the way of my own reflection and writing. I can't believe I haven't made a single Tuesday "Slice of Life" challenge post since April...there's so much to revisit and write!

Early in my March blogging challenge, I wrote about going to an accreditation meeting for potential PhD program. Well, that program was approved and is accepting applications for this fall. Even though I won't be going for a full-time slot, I have been working on an application.

Part of the application calls for an academic writing sample. This poses a bit of a problem for me. I have some academic writing, but most of it is over 10 years old.

• While I do have some electronic copies of literary analyses I completed during my MA in English (1995-1997), I'm not sure that these are appropriate. 
• I already mentioned that my own rhetoric and composition study has some significant holes, and I have yet to turn up a copy of my 1997 thesis. 
• Most of my education courses have required shorter reviews and practice reflections. I'm not sure an "I-Search paper" or a multigenre study will be perceived as "academic" enough.
• My more recent writing has been blog or book review posts. Would my Nerdy Book Club post from April be "academic" enough?

The solution I've come up with is to present a selection of shorter writings that demonstrate a range of my work. 

1. A shorter MA literary analysis paper I delivered at a small conference in 1996 (7 pages, single spaced)
2. The I-search paper on using journals in the English classroom written in 2003 (7 pages, single spaced)
3. My Nerdy Book Club guest post written this year (3 pages, single spaced with the images removed)

I like #1 because it's an analysis that was actually submitted to and accepted by a small conference. That gives it some credibility as a peer reviewed work. Also, the paper itself demonstrates that even as a "lit student," I was already looking at the audience effect on the shaping of a rhetorical message. It's funny to see how close this is to what I ask my own students to attempt...

#2 demonstrates some thought into the practice of teaching reading and writing. Even though the journal isn't as central to my writing instruction as I envisioned, I keep going back to this practice in my teaching. I'm hoping this piece helps demonstrate that I look to research and to other teachers in forming my classroom practices, and have done so since I took education classes.

#3 also reflects on my teaching, but has a reading focus. Since I'm interested in looking at the reading/writing link, I hope this piece demonstrates that interest in more than just my goals statement.

I'm probably putting more thought into this than it needs, but that's been my pattern...lots of thinking and chewing followed by bursts of productive reflection and writing. This application process really is a slice of my life.

Tuesday slice: books in the class.

Today, as my students took a diagnostic test (grrr), I went through my library logs and figured out what students had checked out and had had since early February. Then I eyed the shelves and figured out what might be missing that wasn't recorded.

I know that books will go missing. They will migrate to beneath beds, in closets, unused bags, and even trunks of cars. Sometimes, they are needed elsewhere. But I'm hoping many of the 20-30 titles (I didn't count) come back. 

To inspire them to repatriate, I made a little display. I ended up taking two small white boards and writing down all of the missing books. Then, I used push pins to secure them to a corkboard and put little signs around them that said things like:. 

• Have you seen me? 
• I'm missing!
• Please find and return to room 213!
• If you find any other books marked KERVINA, bring them back to 213, too. Their friends miss them!
• If you have good books that need a new home, bring them to 213. They will make new friends!

Maybe they will come back. Maybe some won't.

I do know that one of the girls in the class immediately said " I have three of those! I meant to bring them today, but I woke up late and I was tired."

That gives me hope.

Infographics assignment

So, for my last slice, I'm going to do a little experiment in collaboration.

I mentioned in an earlier slice that I was working with my librarian colleagues to create as infographics assignment. Well, I'm going to share that document and invite comments, suggestions, and critique.

• I've uploaded it to Google Documents, and I've share it so anyone can comment or edit it. Let me know what you think by inserting comments, making suggestions, or asking questions. Don't get tripped up by the formatting; the conversion process destroyed it.
• Since the upload from Word to Drive destroys the formatting, I've also uploaded a PDF version so people can see it as students will.
• If I incorporate your suggestions, I'll certainly credit you on the handout and thank you profusely.

I don't know what will happen or if anyone will even look. My blog is an experiment...

Getting to know old friends

As I do not have a computer and must use my phone for today's slice, it will be less linked than usual.

Tomorrow is the last day before the last march begins. In the school year, Spring Break is the last pause for breath, the final chance to push, cajole, kid, compliment, or sometimes castigate. The end of the year is in sight, and so the momentum slows. Our students lose focus, as do we at times, as spring promises summer and our energy flags. But between us and the summer lies our last chances to learn before testing season and finals leave us wondering how we got here so quickly.

Most years, I spend the last weekend frantically sorting ideas and prioritizing. In truth, I will do more of that tomorrow. But, today, we met some old friends for a day away from our respective lives. In a place none of us live, we met to go to a play none of us had ever heard of, have dinner, and catch up.

Eric and I have known Jim and Pam since before we married. Eric and Jim met when they both lived in the enlisted dorms at Langley Air Force Base on 1997. At the time, Jim and Pam, high school sweethearts, lived several states apart. Eric and I,  soon-to-be-reunited post-high school sweethearts, didn't actually get back together until 1998, and married in June that same year.

When Eric deployed in July 1998, it was Jim who took care of Eric's townhouse and his cat Abi because I still lived in New Jersey and hadn't begun looking for a job closer, yet. When I moved to Virginia in October, Abi moved in with me in Manassas (the closest I could find a decent job) while Jim and Pam coordinated their wedding and her move from Ohio to Newport News. That's right...I've lived with the cat for longer than I've lived with Eric.

Abi, wondering why I'm disturbing his nap.

Jim, a flight line guy, got permission for me to be in his truck on the line when he guided the plane Eric and his unit returned in. Thanks to Jim, not only did Eric and I not have to worry about maintaining two households for 5 months, I got to see Eric the very first moment he stepped on American soil since a month after our wedding. Even though I couldn't get out to greet him on the runway (I didn't have flight line clearance!) and Eric didn't even know I was that close, I won't ever forget what it felt like to see him safe with my own eyes.

In the last months Eric spent in the Air Force, he lived with Jim and Pam during the week, and came to our townhouse in Manassas on the weekends until he finally went on terminal leave in June 1999. Soon after, Jim and Pam were stationed in England, and we didn't see them until Jim came back to Newport News a few years ago and got out of the Air Force himself. It's tough to get together, but we keep in touch.

About a month or so ago, Eric and I got away for a weekend and went to see a production of Julius Caesar at the American Shakespeare Theater and stayed in a local bed and breakfast nearby. We loved the production, and  immediately thought Jim and Pam would enjoy this getaway. The day we got home we suggested to them that we meet here, a place that's about 2 hours from each of us. This weekend was the first weekend that worked, so I made room reservations, arranged for tickets to The Custom of the County, a play written by Shakespeare's successors in The Kingsmen, and dinner reservations.

We have had an absolutely wonderful time.  The play was hilariously ribald and engaging. The cast has us in stitches as they engaged the audience in the play itself and sang interesting renditions of popular songs during the intermission (Nine Inch Nails and banjo...I cannot do it justice in a blog). Jim remarked he had no idea "culture could be so funny." It made me wish high schools taught more Renaissance comedy rather than drama. My students would be delighted by the innuendo so much more than they are with the whinings of Romeo and the brooding of Hamlet.

Since we met here an hour or so before the 2:00 matinee, we have stopped taking and swapping stories long enough only for the production itself. The four of us enjoyed a tasting menu and wine pairings at dinner, and a bottle of port and chocolates in the hotel as  we laughed about our jobs, Eric and Jim told Air Force stories, and we carried on as if no time had passed.

Even though I know my "to do" list will clamor all the louder tomorrow, I cannot think of a better way to have spent my day. All of us agreed we needed this time out from our routine. Tomorrow morning, we will meet for breakfast before going our separate ways once more, and will probably soon plan the next weekend away. I can't wait.

GoodReads Goodbye?

Over the last couple of years, I've been logging the books I've read and want to read on GoodReads. I've challenged myself to read more in the last couple of years by making and tracking reading goals. When I finish a book, I note the date I read it and sort it into rough categories. Sometimes, I write reviews; sometimes I just give the books star ratings. I also follow what friends, acquaintances  and even like-minded strangers are reading and adding to their virtual read and to be read (TBR) piles. In all, I've added 229 books I've read and marked another 169 to read. I'm never without a list of potential books to pick up when I'm out and about because I have the GoodReads app on my phone, too.

Now, Amazon has announced they are buying GoodReads, and I have mixed feelings about this. I freely admit I do a fair amount of business with Amazon, and have for years. Even when I don't buy from them, I have been known to look at their product descriptions and browse the reviews of customers. 

But I like the independence of the GoodReads community; though there are booksellers, publishers, and authors aplenty, I didn't feel like most of the reviews might be pimping a particular book or bookseller. In fact, the little buy bar at the bottom, which I never use, does offer some seller options. Now that Amazon is a player, I'm fairly certain that choice will disappear, and I'm not the only person to think so. In fact, Forbes even ran a column on how the acquisition will hurt competition.

I also wonder if my independent reviews will become marketing fodder, even more so than they probably are now. I know there are sites that link to GoodReads already. It's not that I have a problem with someone using my openly published review to make decisions; it's that I'm not sure I like that Amazon may start using those reviews as they see fit. Will they be able to excerpt my reviews? Even though Amazon says it will let GoodReads operate independently as it does with IMDB, I'm skeptical.

Beyond that, I'm not sure I like the vertical integration implications, a concern shared by other GoodReads users and the Authors Guild. Amazon has already moved into the publishing business by making direct deals with authors and offering self-publishing services; has had spats with traditional publishers over eBook pricing and print on demand; and is currently being sued by some independent stores over its DRM practices. Now, it's not just dabbling in the consumer review business; it owns the two major customer review sites, Shelfari and Goodreads. What am I to make of that?

So, I'm starting to investigate potential replacements for GoodReads. LibraryThing is a possibility, and they are sweetening the deal by offering free memberships. But it, too, is partially owned by Amazon through Amazon's acquisition of ABEbooks, which owned 40% of LibraryThing.

The truth is, I like GoodReads. I like the community. I like the functionality. I like the system. But I'm just not sure where this marriage with Amazon leads. 

Thoughts?