Aug 05
By Traci GardnerUncategorized
Feeling like a writer means that your writing process accomplishes the following things when you’re trying to finally finish chapter three:
- rewrote deadlines on the whiteboard
- erased deadlines and rewrote them as a calendar
- cleaned up the desk
- cleaned up the old PC desktop
- burned 2005 server logs out to backup CDs
- downloaded Jan-Jun 2006 logs
- figured out how to copy songs from ipod to work machine w/o wiping out ipod, because i’m really tired of the options on the weekend and need my own music to survive
- foraged around for and ate many snacks
- Wrote Belief #9
That’s how real writers work, right? So I really have to get #10 and #11 written tomorrow. I have to turn them in on Monday. I guess I’m going home to write some more (which I hope doesn’t mean that I have to clean the sink and load the dishwasher just yet).
Aug 04
By Traci GardnerUncategorized
After two days of crazy writing in the office this week, I finally managed to finish an article for Classroom Notes Plus. It’s actually really long, so I’m sure that there will be rewriting to bring it down to the right size. But I met the deadline, and that’s what I’m focusing on right now. It’s title right now is “Teaching Language Experts,” and it works through 5 language-focused writing assignments.
In a month I’ve written two different articles for print journals. Who knew I could be so prolific? Oh, and Kathi Yancey, who is at NCTE for the Executive Committee meeting, mentioned that she’d seen my Kairos piece (my C&W2006 presentation). I feel almost like a real writer :)
Aug 01
By Traci GardnerUncategorized
Baby bird (only one is in the nest) is growing. He’s exceptionally uncooperative and moves when I try to take his picture. He’s now able to hold up his little head, and his eyes are open. Mama was hanging around tonight, when the last picture was taken, so I only got one shot. The other photos are from Friday the 28th. More pictures…
Jul 30
By Traci GardnerUncategorized
Belief #7: Done
Belief #8: Done
Belief #9: Started :)
Nine is harder, but it’s about language and the complexity of social relationships. Still maybe I’ll manage to get this done on time. Did well in the office this afternoon anyway. #9 will have some possible connections to a short manuscript that I need to write for Classroom Notes Plus by Friday (at least I think it will have some overlapping sentences; if not I’m in big trouble as I have a MS due on Friday and another due on Saturday).
Jul 29
By Traci GardnerUncategorized
Belief #5 done. Thank God. And now, on to #7, 8, 9, 10, and 11. It’s going to be a long week, and yet also incredibly short, as I have to have this done by Saturday, along with an article for another journal. I expect more red anxiety patches and bad dreams in my future. :( But before that starts, I’m getting out of the office and going back home.
Jul 29
By Traci GardnerUncategorized
Out of either laziness or incredible wisdom, I’m posting notes on things I taught in the past. Really this is just a collection for me to pull from as I’m working on the chapter. It’s likely that none of it will make sense to you. So move along if you’re easily confused.
First, it’s always fun to go through a folder and find things you’ve written and don’t remember, especially when you also didn’t post them online or publish them anywhere.
- Making Decentered Discussions More Comfortable for ESL Students
- Using Active Techniques in Online Discussions
- Some unnamed draft of tips on using online discussion tools.
Now on to the various notes from my FYC teaching folder:
- Writer Analogy (already a RWT lesson)
- CSI/Detective Questionnaire (for descriptive paper I think)
- College education analogy
- Library Description (peer review)
- Argument Analysis (peer review, editing review)
- Orientation Library Tour Assignment
- Ritual writing assignment
- Reflection on school experience
- Childhood memories (special place)
- Golden Shovel assignment
- Folk/Fairy Tale comparison
- TV influence on dreams
- Fairy Tales, culture, stereotypes
- Classification of Full-page Ads
- Atwood’s "you fit into me"
- Pastan’s "Marks"
- Future Dream and definition of dream
- Mood in a place
- Celebrity endorsement (editing checklist)
- Letter to an author
- Recent self-discovery paper
- Audience Analysis paper (tied to ISearch)
- Newspaper column introduction
- New York essay
- Writing from another perspective (e.g., a dog)
- Insignificant personal experience (perhaps with large consequences)
- Who is the speaker?
- Literal versus Figurative
- Opening Paragraph workshop (also titles)
- Fable behind a poem
- Your Own Myth
- Doublespeak
- Jargon and nursery rhymes
- Nursery rhyme from another perspective (e.g., accident report)
Jul 24
By Traci GardnerUncategorized
So I decided to check, and at least one has hatched :) and s/he really didn’t understand why I wasn’t providing food. Unfortunately, all I did was torture the poor thing. I couldn’t get the picture that I wanted, so I sat the basket on the porch, and baby settled all back down. I accidentally bumped the hanger for the basket, and baby was all perky with open mouth. “Ahh,” tengrrl the bird torturer realizes, “if i touch the basket he thinks it’s mommy and pops up.” So I just tortured him/her a couple of times till I got that last shot. I know. I’ll definitely be in the woodshed for this one. Mama is back out there tending them now, so he’s probably forgotten my evil.
more pics…
Jul 24
By Traci GardnerUncategorized
Anne Frank 2006: War Diaries Online – New York Times—a great article for one of my ‘how would this text be written if the characters were writing today instead of in the past.’ Yes, I know that Anne Frank isn’t a fictional character; but this would be a good way to introduce such an assignment. My Romeo and Juliet lesson plan plays around with these ideas.
Jul 23
By Traci GardnerUncategorized
I did a little bit of writing today. Figured out the very general outline for a possible Notes Plus piece, and did a little work on Belief #6. I have the notes worked our for #5, so it seemed more useful to move one and figure out the next one rather than finish writing #5. Beyond that I have been a depressed slacker. I slept till almost noon and then took a three and a half hour nap. I don’t know what’s wrong with me anymore. The disturbing dreams are back, making sleep hell–hard to get to sleep because I’m worrying about everything I’ve done wrong today and will do wrong tomorrow, sleep is occupied with troubling dreams, waking up is impossible because I’m so worn out from the dreaming and trouble getting to sleep in the first place. I think that the book that the doctor asked me to read is just confusing me and making things worse overall. In my head there’s this endless list of things I should do, but I never manage to get them done. I didn’t even get the trash to the street today. I cry over pictures of cute children. I cry over commercials. I worry about things in my house breaking. I can’t manage to get the clothes out of the washing machine, so I just keep rewashing them cuz they smell sour. I just seem to fail at all the things I’m supposed to be doing, and it’s apparently making me over-anxious more than I realized because I’ve rubbed the patches on my eyes again. They’re all red and blotchy. This only happens when I’m stressed and anxious. I wish I could be normal instead of such an infernal mess.
Jul 22
By Traci GardnerUncategorized
I just wrote a devilish sentence for Belief #5. Wonder if they’ll let me keep it or “correct” it in editing:
| The e-mail that a student sends her fathers saying that her favorite band is coming to town is different from the text message that student sends to her best friends about the concert. The general information in the messages may be the same, but the language and specific details of the two pieces of writing will probably be quite different.
|
I couldn’t help it. I had “father” and then I decided that maybe that was stereotyped (asking the patriarch), so I started to change it to “mother” and I got the inspiration for the current version. I bet I get sent to the woodshed.
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Hi, I’m Traci Gardner, known in most circles as Tengrrl. I’ve been exploring and writing about the best ways to teach composition using digital technology for over 20 years. You may have come here because you’re looking for my 
