Blog 9 . . .

Okay, Ms. Spandel bugged me this time. All of her student writers were female: her sheet of paper, she will be alone on top of a Mesa. And then, and then . . . a reference to Olympic ice skating judges!? One hundred sentences for Spandel to conjugate and diagram! Due tomorrow!
Maybe it's just me.

As for assessment, it can be of help, if the assessment is constructive. To assess, to peer review, is not always the easiest thing. What to say, how to say it, in a way that helps the writer can be as confining as the writing process itself. I found the peer review process to be much more comfortable in my Creative Writing classes than in my current classes. The "vibe" was different.
I sometimes find it difficult to criticize my peers' writing due to the inadequacies I perceive in my own. I have never pictured myself as a teacher, still don't, could be part of the problem.
Maybe it's just me.

Interesting essay about teaching in prison. Good to see that she allowed them to find their own way. It really is the only way to learn how to write. Make mistakes, find a subject of your choosing. Not sure if I could teach in a prison though. Could be that teacher thing again.
Maybe it's just me.


Smith. I write that name and I hear Hugo Weaving in my head say, "Mister Anderson."
Maybe it's just me.

The Smith reading was going along fine until I got to this point: page 222, middle of the page, "In writing, the old rural joke often applies: It may not be possible to get where you want to go from where you are at present." WHAT? Was the farmer a retired professor from Harvard?! How does "you can't get there from here" turn into "it may not be possible to get where you want to go from where you are at present." Aauughh!
Maybe it's just me.