The Avocado Pit Won!

Yesterday was a strange one. About 1:30, I was eating a late lunch and fixing Guacamole. I had cut, pitted, scored, and scooped out two avocados and was attempting to remove the pit in the third avocado. Well . . . needless to say the pit won. My knife slipped and sliced the inside of my index finger just below the first knuckle as if it was trying to fillet my finger.

Blood squirted everywhere as I moved to the sink. I grabbed a paper towel and wrapped, but it was soaked so quickly I realized I needed to apply pressure and get my hand above my head. The second paper towel I held tight on the deep ugly gash and held my hand above my head. I put a third paper towel between my first and second fingers, applied pressure by squeezing my fingers together and kept my hand above my head.

My android phone was laying on the counter charging. I touched the phone icon and called my sister. Her ring song came on and I swiped on the speaker phone. I told her I just cut my finger really bad and asked, could she take me to the hospital.

Luckily she had just gotten out of the shower and was getting dressed. She arrived about twenty minutes later.

The nurse who took off my blood soaked paper towels asked how I’d done it. I said “It was an avocado pitting.” He laughed and said “You need to tell everyone that you were juggling three avocados, slicing, and pitting and caught the knife instead of the pitted avocado.” We all laughed!

Five hours later I left the emergency with seven stitches in my finger and the prospect of surgery to repair a nerve.

My advise, the next time you are preparing guacamole use a SPOON to remove the pit!

Is it really January 2012?

The sun is shinning, there are still some green patches of grass, and the pond is not frozen solid. It does not look or feel like January. Is this because of climate change? Who knows. I just love sitting here in the sun writing in my blog for the first time in many months. Teaching first-year writing is frustrating, energizing, and demanding. The grading or assessing of the student writing can really become tedious, but I’ve learned to only do no more than six in one sitting. Six is the magic number otherwise I become very crabby and it shows in my comments.

Another semester, only this time I’m driving to a new campus. It takes about forty-five minutes, I think I’m going to start listening to books on tape. Maybe this weekend I will visit the library and see what I can find.

Enjoy the Sun!

2nd. Masters is Done! Hooray!

Yes, I finally finished my grad project, had it printed and handed in to the department heads. I’m teaching a pilot English 120 for UPOD and one English 121 course. You can read my project on my Teaching web site.

Also check this site out for using comics in your classroom:

http://onesheetworkshop.blogspot.com/

Blessings!

Late to My First FYWP Meeting as an Adjunct!

Yes, I was 28 minutes late because I got so engrossed in working on the Weekly Grid for my  English 121 class that I lost track of time this morning.  How embarrassing! Thank goodness our Teaching Circle talk didn’t happen at the beginning of the meeting.

I’m beginning to think I in one of those low astrological phases, where one planet is trying to knock out the other and I’m caught in the middle. The date book, I bought for this year, should have been an indication of this phase because it is bound upside down! Yesterday, I was almost hit by other cars not seeing me three times! I’m going to have to work very hard at staying out of trouble.

So my motto from now on is “Think, Look, & Listen  before doing anything!”

Now, I must get back to finishing assignments, lesson plans, and the weekly grid.

Classes begin tomorrow!

Back on Track, Writing the Grad Project

A week ago I was STUCK. Finally, Sunday I sat down on the floor with the print out of my draft 2 and 3, with a selection of colored markers and scissors. As I sat there. it hit me that I’m finally at the end of this project and the tears began to flow down my face. It was at that moment I realized why I’d been stuck. I did not want to be done! That fear of finishing had a hold of me and kept me from writing. The end of a long project is always emotional.

When I began to color code the different aspects of draft 2. For instance, bright pink for my experiences, peach for instructor A1, and mint green for instructor A2, I began to feel I was finally moving forward. I then cut the draft apart and matched up all the same colored parts, stapling where needed. This process is from Patricia Dunn’s book Talking, Sketching, Moving that I have used before, and also had my students do as a revising activity.

I then let the process percolate. On Tuesday morning in that not-quite-awake sleep I could see how my project would look. I could see all the parts in their perspective places. When I got up I went right to my computer (after brushing my teeth, taking my pills with some ice tea, and eating some yogurt) and began to reshape, rewrite, and revise the grad project. What a glorious feeling. I shared this feeling with my Teaching Circle that afternoon. Writing is a process, a long, sometimes, exasperating process.

This morning I again got up and continued to reshape, revise, and rewrite. I met with my reader/adviser and went over my questions, her comments and suggestions. I really am charged and ready to finish this project.

So to all of you out there, who may be stuck on a writing project, get unstuck by coloring coding, cutting up, and acknowledging your emotions!

Going to See the Final Harry Potter Movie!

I’m geeked, primed, totally ready to be sucked into the vortex of Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2. I’ve re-read the last half of book seven, watched Deathly Hallows Part 1 and made arrangements to go with friends to see the movie this evening. My ticket is bought.

I started this journey when I read the first Harry Potter book in January 2000 and then re-read it for my intro to Children’s Lit class I took in the fall of 2004. Books two and three are hardcover editions printed and bound where I worked at the time of their 36th and 27th printings respectively. Book four is a softcover edition I bought at Meijers.  Book five is another hardcover edition I received on June 6, 2003 printed and bound by Edwards Brothers in Ann Arbor. I’m not sure where I book six, but book seven is by far the most impressive. I stood in line, (queue) at Blackwell’s bookshop in Oxford, England with six other fellow students and bought it at midnight Saturday July 21, 2007. I was in Oxford taking my last class towards my master’s degree in Children’s Literature. It was thrilling to see people of all ages sitting on the curd outside the store with their noses in the book reading intently. Several of our group finished the book during our ten day stay. I waited until I got home to read it.

Oxford, England 2007

So here I am writing about going to the last movie on the second day of its release. Will it disappoint me? Will it surprise me? Or will it just fulfill my expectations and end this eleven year journey?

“Protego! Stupeyf! Protego totalum . . .Expelliarmus!” and all the other spells that will be whispered, yelled, and shouted this evening.

What Hollywood did to Rosemary Sutcliff’s Novel?

I finished Sutcliff’s The Eagle of the Ninth yesterday, what an incredible story. The two main characters, Marcus and Esca are fully formed personalities right out of Roman/British history of the first century. But, the movie adaptation The Eagle, is a shame, to say the least. The producers, directors, and screen writers gutted the story and made it about war and killing. They totally reversed the characters personalities, and did a poor job of that. Why is it Hollywood producers/directors/screen writers can’t give the male characters some caring human qualities? Why does is always have to be about hate, revenge, and killing? The book, written by a women, was none of that and yet it depicted the strife and violence, as well as the caring passionate love of human beings toward one another. Sutcliff also did an excellent job of portraying both cultures equally, something the producers/director/screen writers did not; the movie was about a civilized Roman versus a savage Britain.

Read the book, it is by far superior to the movie.

Thrilled to Give a Guest Lecture on Comics

Yes, I was thrilled! Last Tuesday I gave a lecture on comics and graphic novels. I planned, thought, and dreamt about it for days. Over the 4th of July weekend I wrote my agenda, put together examples and handouts. I had enough information for two lectures! I explained McCloud’s transitions and word/picture categories and gave a brief explanation of Eisner’s expressive anatomy. The students got to do Versaci’s one panel activity, work in groups to identify transitions and word/picture categories in four different graphic novels and they created a three panel comic about the books they’re reading for class.

It really was a very productive hour and a half. I also had them fill out my survey A for my grad project, which brought the total of students up to 73. After looking over their responses and their comics I’m even more assured of the value of incorporating this medium into the teaching of first-year writing.

Yesterday morning I began rewriting my grad project. The experience of giving the guest lecture helped to solidify my thinking, my revising, and the organization of my introduction. Now I just need to work on it everyday!

Back From the Big June Trip

What a wonderful sixteen days! I drove to Kansas City on June 1st. I joined my oldest son and his family in their RV and we drove to Estes Park, CO. Spent three great days exploring the many shops and touring Rocky Mountain National Park with my cousin from Denver. 

On June 6th we drove across Wyoming to Victor, ID to pick up my campervan the 2fortheroad. Met up with my younger son and his family that evening at Jessen’s RV Park in Ashton, ID. The next day we entered the west entrance of Yellowstone National Park. To our surprise there was still 3-4 feet of SNOW on the ground, but that did not deter us from having a great time.

The next day we took a

bus tour of the northern part of Yellowstone with Rich from Montana, a twenty-five year veteran guide. He was a wealth of information about Yellowstone.

Our third day together, we headed to the south part of Yellowstone and Old Faithful.

Old Faithful now goes off about every 90 minutes, to heights of up to 150 feet and she lasts for about 2.5 minutes. We had lunch in the lodge.

 

 

 

 

We then headed to Colter Bay and the Grand Tetons.

We had a great time skipping stones on the shore of Jackson Lake with the Tetons in the background. I showed my granddaughter how to choose a flat stone, the way to curve your finger around the stone, and the correct form for throwing and getting it to skip.

What a spectacular place! What a wonderful vacation! The time spent with my sons, their wives, and four of my grandchildren was priceless.

Writing, writing, writing . . .

Yes, I’m writing up the findings for my grad project. Today is the final push to get the first draft finished. I’ve been working on it everyday for the the last two weeks with this view at my feet.

So, its time to get back to writing, . . . because Toby is watching!