Week 2

Ten piles of papers arranged in perpendicular stacks of five waited on the desk for my assessment and grade. I needed to complete two and part of a third stack of papers per day for four days to be comfortably ready to return them to the students by the next class meeting. The papers were journal entries about reading and writing habits and unforgettable places. I read about a hated fourth grade teacher who made a terrified little girl read aloud. She hasn't liked reading since. Two students made Baghdad with its heavy heat and second by second danger come alive. Someone else wrote about tending horses with her dad in the way back part of Montana. It reminded me of cowboys riding the range in the days of the Old West. One woman wrote about the loss of eight cousins to a house fire. And another writer described the "forest" next to his boyhood home where he and his friends built forts and trails to their own young boy specifications. Others wrote ineffectively about "awesome" trips to Disneyland, Hawaii, and the Oregon Coast. They don't understand yet that those meaningless words just lie flatly on the page not even attempting to kick up some life into the experience of wind-whistling rides or a sun that sinks into a tepid sea like a slowly dipped teabag. But they all try and if some essays jump off the pages while others just lie there barely breathing, it's all okay. I finished them in time to read more of my murder mystery before taking them all neatly graded and commented upon back to class.

Week One

Hello Terry,
My name is A. Student and I have been attending Clackamas for 2 years ago just wrapping things up this year and trasfering out!
I was supposed to take MWF classes due to working full time, but have to now switch to TTh. Your class works perfect for my schedule and I was hoping if I come to class prepared on thursday, and have an add/drop slip, did attendance today look like there is any room? If you could shoot me back an email and let me know that'd be great!

Thanks so much for your time,

A. Student



A. Student,

You may check in with me at the beginning of class to see about space availability. Your first assignment is to re-write your e-mail. Type it up double-spaced with all the errors corrected. I will review the content of the first day for you. For now, think about the power of language.

Terry

Last First Day II

And then came Thursday. I attended three consecutive two hour meetings with very little breaks in between. The first was a workshop presented by the keynote speaker. His technology broke down. Several minutes later after two techies managed to plug in the correct cord to the correct outlet, he did a power point presentation complete with an exact handout of what we were intended to look at while he talked. I read the handout in about five minutes. I don't like power points. I think they're way over used and do little if anything to keep listeners/learners engaged. This seemed such a glaring contrast to his learning theory as presented the day before. His gig rescued itself, however, with his showing of Father Guido's Five Minute University as an introduction and an activity called "Cooky Assessment" in which small groups of us compared ideas about how to measure the goodness of a chocolate chip cooky based on appearance only. The president of the college and a really smart chemistry doc were in my small group so it was really fun and interesting. The rest of the two hour power point was average. I took a few notes and left thinking that maybe I could go on for another few terms based upon how my methods seem to line up with the latest brain research.
Next: the part time faculty luncheon and meeting. We peeled our cold pizza out of the cardboard boxes, poured ourselves some lukewarm soda, and ate while we listened to our union leaders update us about negotiation progress. One of about 15 issues has been agreed upon. And we were reminded to attend board and negotiation meetings so "they can see that we're watching them." This sort of language always makes me uneasy in that I don't feel comfortable in the "us v. them" role. I prefer being with colleagues when we talk about teaching even if power point presentations are the method of delivery.
Then I hurried off to my mid afternoon department meeting that went on til after 4:30. You would think that being with my English department fellows would calm me down. Introductions were followed by something that I've completely blanked out but it took a long time. There was a discussion about Moodle. Apparently our department blog will morph into this. I don't know what Moodle is and I don't want to. After a snack of raisins, natural almonds without salt or flavoring and the darkest chocolate in the world, we began to share our concerns about plagiarism. I don't have any. I've never had much trouble with this I think because I'm careful about assignment design. And then one of the gang got up and used the doc camera to share his reading notes from his big summer read called What Is College Writing? I will refrain from comment here. And then we talked a lot more about plagiarism with several department members detailing (and I mean detailing) some of their experiences with plagiarizing students. I could not get to the parking lot fast enough.
The only thing that sort of made me feel better was after I finished telling Pat all about my day, he responded, "Well, try doing that and then driving home from Seattle afterwards. In traffic." That made me feel a tiny bit better.
This. Is. My. Last. Term. Of. Teaching.

Last First Day?

Inservice week. I began the week by delivering a workshop called "The First Day of School" in which I helped teachers understand how to effectively manage space, time, information and persona involved in the first day of school or class. I qualified my expertise by describing how I've conducted over 50 successful first days of school. I used a paper manipulative to share ideas about all the topics I mentioned a few sentences ago. I was interactive with the attendees. I gave some hints about student management that help to preserve the dignity of both the student and the teacher. I demonstrated how to keep students actively involved. I talked about how to execute an explanation of the course content in one or two sentences. I sensed that the workshop was a success. Maybe I'll just keep on teaching for a few more terms rather than to truly retire at the end of the quarter based on this confirmation of my teaching methods.
Then Wednesday I attended the all staff/campus general gathering in the gym where we ate cold powdered scrambled eggs, something that looks sort of like sausages and drank someone's fair effort at making coffee for the masses. I listened to the deans introduce the new people on their staffs. Then the deans sang a long song called "Acronyms" that attempted to include every committee in the college that has letters that describe its purpose. It was kinda cute. For about five minutes. But it went on for about 12 more minutes. I'm not kidding. Next, the president spoke. She delivered a really good speech. If she'd been in my speech class, she would have earned extra points for quality and presentation for basing her content on a nifty kaleidoscope metaphor and numbering her major points so you could easily keep track of when she'd finish. And finally, the person I'd been waiting to hear, our keynote speaker Terry Doyle, delivered his speech.
The speech began with his validation of his role as presenter by telling us that he'd had over 80 first days of school. He described what we can do to be more effective educators: involve ourselves in the learner centered process. We can do this by focusing attention on space, time, content and personalities. Yes, it did sound familiar and,boy, was I glad I'd presented first! I left even a little more determined to keep teaching.
Then came Thursday. My epiphany completed itself. I'll tell you about it in the next few days because this entry, like most all my others, is too long as it stands.

City Pics

I didn't take my camera with me on our recent trip to San Francisco. I wanted to experience my own perspective rather than that of the one behind the lens. I've discovered that photo ops often rule how I "download" my time when I travel and that the trip becomes more about the camera than about me. So I'll share a few word pics to let you know about this amazing trip.
Picture us in a narrow alley in China Town. We're in a line to see a fortune cookie factory. Ahead of us is the doorway through which you see a dark, narrow little room where three Chinese women sit one behind the other rolling discs of cookie dough into fortune shapes after they've slipped in the paper fortunes. Notice the "boss" moving back and forth between them keeping them on task and reminding us to pay 50 cents per picture.
Envision an intimate, darkened theater. There are seats for about two hundred people with small tables in the first two rows. We are sitting in the first row laughing at the spectacle of male dancers dressed in poodle dog costumes standing beside a hugely coiffed Sarah Palin figure singing about how Snow White can find a husband. There are several full and empty beer steins in front of us. We're watching "Beach Blanket Babylon."
Study the group as we make our way around Angel Island on Segways. We are neatly in line as directed except for Pat who is seen out of line and zigzagged to our left where his stunt riding has led him straight smack dab into the hillside. Again, notice the hard laughter.
See the seven of us sitting on the steps facing Macy's in Union Square. It is a beautiful night and we are eating cheesecake in celebration of my 64th birthday. There are a few homeless people scattered around us and the sidewalk in front of us is full of walkers even though it is past 9:00. The sparkly lights of the tall buildings all around us illuminate the area in a magic sort of way.
And just imagine the cityscape as seen from an Edwardian balcony in the Buena Vista area of San Francisco. The Bay Bridge is in the horizon, Union Sqare and the rest of the city is in the middle distance and just below us two floors is the tiny manicured knot garden of our hosts. The sky is an outrageous blue and the sun dominates all.
Finally, a shot of us on the ferry sitting with our faces in the cool breeze yet warmed by the big sun to the west of us. The Coit Tower can be seen to our right and Alcatraz is close by to the left. We are sharing our outside deck seats with all manner of young people returning to the city from their adventures in the nearby locations where they have been bike riding, walking, picnicking and otherwise spending leisure time in the rare Bay Area sun just as we were.
It was unbelievable. It is like that every time we visit The City.

Tree Hunt

It's time to consider what to do with the ugly, bare spot left in my sister's lawn because of the loss of the 50 year old maple in one of last spring's storms. We figured we'd just plant a tree or three and compose a little mountain woodsy sort of landscape with some found objects and our communal artistic ideas. I can sort of see it already.

So within the last few days, we've explored five different nurseries. We've covered a fair piece of ground up and down the I-5 corridor including the famous Al's Garden in Woodburn. Guess what? It isn't all that easy to find conifer trees to purchase here in our naturally thick with conifers Oregon. We were really surprised.

After some real time browsing at actual nurseries and some internet exploration, Bobbie decided she likes mountain hemlocks and alpine firs the best. Pat and I know that alpine firs are not that easy to find and mountain hemlocks can be tricky to locate as well but, boy, did we find some good ones in a Salem area nursery. I won't say which one because their trees go on sale tomorrow and you'll all probably rush out to buy the very trees we want. I'll tell you about this fabulous source after we've made our purchase. Suffice it to say that this place has great nursery stock and helpful though rather unsmiling clerks. Their nursery stock is beautifully cared for and thriving in an accessible and very navigable lot.
And the gift shop has some great stuff in it too.

So we'll finish our research on soils (we want to berm the trees up a bit), figure out yards to units (Pat's job), and get on with the buying. Someday soon all three of us will be out in Bobbie's front yard creating the new piece of landscape and planting something new in the place where my dad cautioned my sister to let the twiggy little maple alone all those years ago.

Writer's Block

Oh, um. . .what to write about? Need to update the blog-no more fancy trips just the one long and hot weekend in Prineville keeping cool by the swamp cooler or breezing in the boat on the Reservoir all with fun friends-slept on memory foam mattress and bought our own on the way home but it's the new and improved one with memory gel along with the foam or some such thing and, boy, is it comfortable and my back feels better than it has in a long, long time-thinking lots about turning 64 next month especially with the Beatles' song "When I'm 64" running through my head many times per day-want to get in touch with my Stayton friends for a walk in the Wilderness (maybethisweekendifyou'rereadingthis?) so did a practice walk in the cool of this morning-was lovely but I was puffing a bit-it's the extra weight which is driving me crazy but I can't resolve what to do and I can't believe I'm actually putting that thought out into cyberspace-yikes!and fall will start next week with childcare responsibilities shaping our schedules again but then it's off to San Francisco to see our Derek and Brian special friends for some Bay Area fun and hi jinks before I have to prep for the in-service workshop I'm doing. That's it! A blog update!