I love Christmas break, and I had a great time in Chicago and Michigan with family and friends, but when everyone else is back at work and I'm still sitting at home... it kinda sucks. Especially because I didn't have my car for a few days and was stuck at home with nothing to do. I shouldn't say nothing. I have super cleaned my room (dusted, vacuumed, and rearranged some things) and prepped for the semester more than usual. Master copies of ALL assignments and handout have been printed and organized in my brand new binder so all I have to do is make photocopies throughout the semester. I even set up my online gradebooks down to every detailed assignment and participation point and am prepared to give my students access codes to track their grades online. Look at me go.

So with all this great prep - I am ready for classes! Yesterday I went over to one of my schools of employment where I will be an Academic Advisor this semester instead of an instructor. (I'm teaching at two schools and advising at a third. Busy!) Especially after this brief meeting involving paperwork and setting up my advising schedule for the semester, I feel ready. That half hour was the most alive and purposeful I've felt since I got back from my travels a week and a half ago. Part of it was being in a campus environment. Part is the excitement of a new job and challenge. And part was how welcoming and validating the other staff were. I met a few other advisors who all welcomed me warmly. And the head of advising, who I have been training with since Thanksgiving, had some very complimentary things to say. Ordinarily, part time advisors like myself need to also be teaching at the school during the semesters they advise. The way the cards fell this semester left me with no classes at this particular school due to scheduling and low enrollment. I was pretty disappointed. But the head of advising recommended me to the dean as a potentially strong advisor specially because he said I have a welcoming presence. He insisted that you can teach the computer stuff, the rules and details of course scheduling and prerequisites. But you can't teach the heart, the caring for the students. Once in awhile, it's really nice to hear that kind of thing.

On top of that, I've gotten some very kind compliments from colleagues who are writing my reference letters for my ongoing full-time professorship search. I just have to keep crossing my fingers that I land one someday (sooner rather than later). This is what I'm good at. This is what I want to do. Maybe what I'm meant to do. And I feel validated about that regularly. So it has to work out as a full-time career one of these days - right? Here's hoping.

New Years Resolutions 2010

Well my Christmas miracle came through. I flew home standby on Dec. 23rd and spent a lovely two weeks with family and friends in Chicago and Michigan, including family holidays, a nephew's hockey game, sledding with my sister, sister-in-law, and nephews, and NYE at my favorite Michigan microbrew with dear, dear friends. But now it's 2010 and I'm back in New Jersey and ready to get serious about the new year.

I don't usually make new years resolutions because I tend not to keep them. But last year, Kyle and I resolved not to eat at chain restaurants and we did very well. We started eating out less overall, which is simply because we live in the same place and cook together alot. But I think we also managed to go the whole year only eating at TGIFriday's once (with a buy one get one coupon), Applebees once (with friends for drinks), and Bonefish Grill twice (which is a chain, but neither of us had ever eaten there before). Not bad.

This year, I have a few little resolutions/goals. Like keep going to the gym regularly/more, write poems, put together a chapbook of poems and start submitting it for publication... but I have one, big, main resolution which I have a feeling is going to be tough but I'm determined to keep. No more shopping.

Yes, you read correctly. No more. However much I try to cut back or only buy things I really want, I still spend more than I should. When I'm having a rough day, a trip to Target or the mall always seems to cheer me up. This is not a healthy outlet. And over the last few months I've been tracking my spending and found that my "personal" category is a little higher than I think it should be. So in 2010 I resolve to only buy what I need - food, toiletries, etc. I can only buy clothes or shoes if my existing clothes and shoes become unwearable. And by this I mean I cannot buy a new pair of jeans unless ALL THREE pair I currently own have holes in them. I cannot buy new cute black shoes unless EVERY pair of black shoes I own falls apart. No purses. No jewelry. Nothing.

I think if I can make it through the year with this, I'll be much more mindful in the future of what I am buying and when. And the real purpose of this whole endeavor is to pay off credit card debt. I have three cards carrying a balance, and if I apply my usual frivolous spending money to paying one card, I am confident I can reasonably pay it off by the end of 2010, if not sooner. Which, I think, would motivate me to keep paying off my debt in large chunks and I could be credit card debt free by the time I turn 30. (Now my student loans are another story, but with lower interest rates I don't feel like those are hanging so heavy over my head).

So here we go. Wish me luck!...

Praying for a Christmas Miracle

Booked my flight home for Christmas two months ago - US Airways from Newark to Philly to Chicago. When I found the flight, after comparing costs and airlines endlessly, I looked up the direct flight from Philly to Chicago, figuring it'd be easier to cut out that first leg. But it was considerably more expensive, so I went for the connection. Should have paid the extra...

Yesterday, my first flight was delayed by 45 minutes. But the new departure time came and went with no plane or explanation. By the time we took off (2 hours late) chances of making my connection looked slim. I RAN when I got off that plane, but by the time I took the shuttle bus to the right terminal and ran to the farthest gate, my flight to Chicago was long gone. I actually landed one minute AFTER my next flight was scheduled to take off.

After standing in a customer service line for over an hour, they rebooked me for Wednesday night, 2 days after my original reservation. Everything out here is sold out, even after searching multiple airports and airlines. And now there is snow and ice expected in Chicago tomorrow afternoon, making my new flight look not-so-promising.

Going to the airport early tomorrow to stand by on every possible earlier flight, even though most of them are seriously overbooked according to the airline. There is one that the woman said looks possible.

Praying for a Christmas miracle... all I want is to get home in time for our family Christmas Eve celebration...

No More Research?

Why don't students know how to cite research anymore? I would estimate that 75% of my students each semester do not know how to put together a bibliography or provide proper in-text citations. I don't just mean that they make small errors, but that they don't even produce anything close!

I get lists of sources at the end in no order whatsoever. I get students who include the entire entry right after the quote and don't put any bibliography at the end at all. Students use Google and Yahoo for research and have no concept of what a scholarly source is.

I expect a certain amount of mistakes, but don't they teach you to alphabetize your list of sources? Don't students at least know to include the author, title, publisher, and date? I know other professors (in history, psych, etc) don't teach research. That's my job as the composition instructor. But freshman comp is about strengthening skills of grammar, essay structure, and thesis statements. Most composition courses include research, but don't focus on it wholly. And why not? I feel like freshman comp should spend about half the semester on research, citations, bibliographies, etc. How else will the students be prepared when other professors expect they know how to do this?

What really blows my mind is that my students who seems to be struggling are not in freshman comp - they're all in the second level of English composition! So I wonder not only what high schools are teaching these kids, but what did their freshman comp professors teach them? And maybe part of the problem is the curriculum, not the teachers or professors themselves.

This is a very scatterbrained dumping of frustration. I just had to pause in my afternoon of essay grading to express a little confusion and frustration over the mistakes I seem to correcting on paper after paper after paper...

Thanks

For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?

And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?

And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!

Do not worry then, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear for clothing?' For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Publication!

http://www.yellowmedicinereview.com/id13.html

Sadly, my actual poem is not printed here. But you can see my name and order the issue! And I posted the poem here, along with my other fall publication from The Kelsey Review.

http://devotesherlife.com/Poems.html

I had a strange moment this morning when I learned that some of my past and current students found and read my blog! I'm not sure why this surprises me because I read a blog written by one of my former graduate professors. Sometimes I think no one reads this because I get so few comments, but apparently, there are anonoymous readers out there somewhere! I try to keep some this private, or blocked to friends only, like my Facebook account. But this website and blog is meant to be both personal and professional. So naturally, students may stumble across it. I think one of the advantages about teaching at a college level rather than elementary and high school is that it's ok for students to see me as a "real person." While I certainly try to maintain a tone of professionalism in the classroom, I enjoy the mutual respect that a professor/student relationship offers.

I went off on a bit of a tangent here, and I'm really not sure I'm being very clear in my thoughts. Early class today. I really just wanted to say - hello students! Say hi once in awhile; I always enjoy hearing what former students are up to. :)

You and I

Let's get rich and buy our parents homes in the South of France
Let's get rich and buy everybody nice sweaters
and teach them how to dance
Let's get rich and build our house on a mountain
making everybody look like ants
from way up there, you and I
You and I

(Ingrid Michaelson)