Crawling To The Finish Line

Jejak PandaHai.. Jumpa Lagi Di Blog Kesayangan Anda
ceme online terbaik

The end of the semester insanity is upon me at UConn.  Do you remember those monster.com commercials from about six years ago?  They were shot in black and white and featured children talking about their dreams—except these kids all said things like, “When I grow up I want to file all day,” or “I want to climb my way up to middle management.”  The end of the semester often makes me feel this way.  (Actually, administration often makes me feel this way, in general, but it is worse at semester’s end).  I sometimes joke that I feel like Bartleby, and if you have ever been to my office, you know why.  Don’t get me wrong; some folks don’t even have windows, but I have this funny little office at the back of an office with a window that looks out onto a small enclosed courtyard.  Thank god there is a Japanese maple in the courtyard that is vibrant green through spring and summer and a brilliant red in fall, because otherwise I look out onto a brick wall with oblique sunlight and blue sky coming from four floors above.  That and it’s everyone’s smoking lounge, which is great for redolent ambience.

But I digress.  My little office is all right.  What I was really complaining about was end of semester and end of year administrative tasks.  There’s the personal merit report we each have to complete.  Not that there’s any money for merit, but we still have to complete the form.  And the kegiatan report for the department.  And the data mart report for the dean and provost.  And the pembinaan session for using the new digital data mart system.  And we must provide an up-to-date CV for the upcoming departmental review.  (Thankfully mine was pretty up-to-date).  And a report to the Aetna Advisory board, with a budget request for the coming year.  And a no-cost extension form for the federal government.  And new grant application deadlines, and a rebudgeting.  You get the point.  These are mostly due between April 30 and May 4, though a couple have more extended deadlines.  My students’ selesai is May 3, and grades are due before the May 6 graduation ceremony. So, I will be spending an inordinate amount of time at my computer, writing and submitting one thing or another for the next two weeks.

No sooner are these report done then we have the CWP’s 30^th Anniversary Reunion Celebration May 11, the Connecticut Student Writers Recognition Night May 15, and the Summer Institute Orientation May 19.  All those things are cool and exciting, but having to organize them makes a part of me eager for them to be over, just because I will worry about their success until they are past.

And then there are the stressed out students coming to office hours.  The very sweet girl who broke down in tears and couldn’t explain why.  The desperate email from the young man who doesn’t think he will be able to get the courses he needs to graduate.  The student who just realized he never filed his plans of study for graduation back in January when they were due.

I really had to exert a great deal of self control a couple days ago when I got an email from University Information Technology Services detailing the elaborate procedure I was going to have to perform on all the networked computers in my office in order to update their network security software.  The email stressed that this needed to be completed before next week or my computers would be denied access to the university servers.  I thought that maybe this was a phony email—we get a lot of those—but it didn’t look like it.  So I called UITS and was told that, Oh yes, that email was for real, and I really did have to drop everything and upgrade my computers or be denied access to the servers.  Well, don’t let anyone ever tell you that being an agitating jerk doesn’t pay off, because after a couple of phone calls and a couple of terse conversations, I received an anonymous but otherwise apologetic email from someone in UITS that also granted me permission to upgrade my computers later this summer.

Anyway, I feel like Andy Rooney ranting like this, but it helps prevent ulcers.  That and red wine.  I hope your end of semester involves less paperwork than mine, and eases you gently into summer.

Teacher Appreciation Week

Jejak PandaHello.. Selamat Datang Kembali Di Blog Kesayangan Anda
bandar judi ceme -->

About this time of year, Amy and I both receive lots of thank you cards from students.  Amy got a beautiful note from a father the other day thanking her for all she did for his daughter.  Earlier this week, I got two very sweet handwritten notes from former students for whom I wrote letters of recommendation for graduate school.  I have kept all such notes over the last, well, 21 years if you count student teaching and three years teaching as a grad student at Humboldt State.  I have a very swollen folder in a file cabinet in my office at home, and many of the most recent notes are propped up or affixed somewhere in my office at UConn.  I also have several tchotchkes and other gifts, like books, that I have been given lining the shelves of my office.  One very considerate former student sent me a Spanish-language edition of Moby-Dick this year for Christmas and a very nice copy of Dos Passos’ U.S.A. trilogy for my birthday.  Another from my first year teaching in Connecticut just sent me a signed copy of her first novel. 

Of course social media has changed this dynamic, and often I now receive emails and Facebook posts or messages to thank me, and of course Facebook lets me keep in touch with so many of these former students.  Just today I wrote a happy birthday message on the wall of a beloved former student I named my daughter after.  I love being able to stay in touch with so many former students this way.  They send me articles they think I’ll find interesting, or write me with funny classroom stories.

I’m also really amazed and pleased to see how many of my former students have become not just teachers but English teachers!  The same is true for Amy.  Many of her former students have gone on to study languages, travel and study abroad, and go into teaching.  The last two Outstanding Scholars in Spanish at UConn were Amy’s former students.  And at this point, I’m starting to see more and more former students come back to take graduate coursework with me in the Summer Institute.  Four of this year’s participants are former undergrads!

I, too, have managed to locate and be in touch with several of my favorite former teachers, like my high school Spanish teacher Kathy Bonn or my English teacher Joe Miata, both of whom are still teaching.  But there are so many, especially from elementary school, that I have completely lost touch with.  One former teacher I’d love to locate is Mr. Brucker, my second grade teacher at what was then High Hill Elementary School in Madison.  Mr. Brucker was an amazingly kind and gentle man who softened a difficult year of transition for me after my family moved from Hamden to the shore line.

When I first sat down to write this evening, I debated whether or not I wanted to rail against Malloy’s reform proposals, or promote some of the CWP’s May events, like our 30^th Anniversary Reunion or Recognition Night for Connecticut Student Writers magazine (the 11^th and 15^th, respectively, in case you’re wondering).  But then I got thinking about the thank-you’s Amy and I received this week, and I also realized that Teacher Appreciation Week is coming up next week, and it made me think about the teachers I appreciate most, not just the good teachers, of whom there were many, but the ones who made more than just an intellectual impact.

I know from the stats page that Blogger provides that many more people read this blog than ever post responses.  (I might get only two or three posted responses but a typical post gets about 125 views).  We’re all so, so busy, but if you can find a moment, please post something brief about your favorite teacher or about a student whose appreciation made you feel special.

I imagine most of you have read the reports about how demoralized teachers are these days, so let’s all give ourselves a boost by celebrating our profession.  Use this space (or my Facebook wall, which often times gets more posted responses to the blog than within the Blogger account!) to share a good anecdote, or even shout out a name.  Who do you appreciate for their teaching?

OK, so this is the last week of the semester at UConn, and I’ll be taking a break from this blog for the summer.  Do check out the CWP’s website for upcoming events, and think about us next year for PD in your school or maybe a recommendation for the Summer Institute.  Have a good last few weeks.  Enjoy your students, read some good books this summer, do a little writing for yourself, and I’ll see you in September!

What I Did For My Summer ‘Vacation'

Jejak PandaKembali Bertemu Lagi Di Blog Ini, Silakan Membaca
bandar ceme 99

            As soon as finals ended the first order of business was the annual Recognition Night for Connecticut Student Writers magazine.  This year was successful, with a little more than 1,000 submissions, 150 students published or honored, and about 450 students, parents, and teachers in attendance at Jorgensen.  Next year will be the 25^th anniversary of the magazine.  Wally Lamb has agreed to be the keynote speaker, and we are still waiting to hear if we have received a grant from Pitney-Bowes to help fund the event.  Mark May 14 on your calendars!

            From there we dove right into the Orientation for the 30^th Invitational Summer Institute.  We had a great bunch of teachers representing third grade through college—and we even had a science teacher.  Three of my former undergraduate students attended, and two more former undergrads of mine attended the CWP-Fairfield’s Summer Institute, which is very rewarding to me.

            No rest for the weary as a few days later we held an anniversary celebration for the CWP-Storrs, attended by 75 Teacher-Consultants, UConn faculty and grad students, local children’s authors, and a handful of teacher-friendly elected officials, including Susan Johnson, Greg Haddad, and Mae Flexer.  Got a nice proclamation from Governor Malloy (had mixed feelings about that), a nice certificate from the legislature, a nice certificate from Senator Blumenthal, a letter from Representative Rosa DeLauro and another one from UConn President Susan Herbst.  Representative Chris Murphy’s education aide Linda Forman actually flew up from DC to attend.  She also accompanied me on a site visit to EO Smith High School to observe the Writing Center we helped establish there, and to observe Denise Abercrombie’s creative writing students.

            At that point I switched hats and departed for Florence, Italy, where I organized and ran an international literature conference for the members of the Nathaniel Hawthorne Society, Ralph Waldo Emerson Society, and the Edgar Allan Poe Studies Association.  We had great weather, great food, and 110 scholars from 19 different countries, including Brazil, Israel, India, Japan, Russia, and Taiwan.  I even got to spend some time with friends and family while I was there.  And I was elected to be the next president of the Nathaniel Hawthorne Society, which sounds prestigious but I think will be less work than organizing an international conference.

            Returned to the states just in time to run the Summer Institute, which went extremely well.  My son and daughter attended four weeks of summer day camp while my wife took her own vacation, thanks to points on our credit card and the generosity of friends who let her stay with them.  I ran around like a mad man playing single parent.

            The Summer Institute ended July 20, and on July 23 I was driving a 19 foot U-Haul with faulty steering as we moved for the second time in ten months.  Our new home is exactly 1.5 miles from the place we were renting.  We have a two year lease, maybe an option to buy, poor cell phone service but a lovely wooded yard, and the kids get to stay in the same school district.

Once that was done, we were off to Maine to spend one week in a somewhat rustic cabin on a lake with two other educator couples and our collective brood of children—eight kids ranging from four to 14.  Lots of swimming, bickering like siblings, and trips to Hannaford’s.  Seems like every day ended with marshmallows over the fire pit, and then lots of alcohol after the kids were asleep.  Between camp and occupational therapy, both of our kids are now swimming and biking independently, just in time for me to strap four bicycles onto the back of Amy’s car and pray they didn’t fall into the highway and cause a multi-car pile-up.

            Back in Connecticut, it was just the mad rush to be prepared for the start of the school year.  The CWP was awarded two SEED grants, one for Teacher Leadership and one for Professional Development in a High-Need School.  We were honored with a literacy award by the New England Reading Association, and I have a new course to teach, one for freshmen and sophomores interested in becoming high school English teachers.  Plenty of preparatory work to go around.

            And then, on the first day of school for my kids, they were put on the wrong bus and I drove around town trying to locate them.  Elsa thought it was a big adventure.  And so the new year begins.

           

Am I Ready To Parent A Teenager?

Jejak PandaSelamat Datang Dan Selamat Membaca
play bandarq

Sunday, I became the proud father of a teenage girl.  I said this to my colleague Doug yesterday as we walked together to our offices, and I believe he thought I was confessing that I had fathered a child out of wedlock seventeen years ago and she had just emerged from the recesses of my shady past.  But no, in fact, the truth is simpler and less shady.  Amy and I have taken in an American Foreign Exchange student for the year.

I must be crazy.

Or I just can’t resist my wife when she comes to me with the look of a kid asking if he can bring home a puppy.  Amy and her siblings all studied abroad (as did I) during high school, and they had a great experience hosting a student for a year.  Jose and Amy are still close more than twenty years later.  Amy has visited him and his family a couple times in the recent past, and he and his wife and daughter came to visit us just two years ago.  So when AFS contacted Amy, desperate to find a few more families in the Storrs area to host students, she came home ecstatic.  Now that we have moved into our new home and we have a finished basement with a bedroom and private bathroom, etc, etc …  Of course I said yes.

Originally we were going to host a boy from Bolivia, but he withdrew from the kegiatan suddenly, and I thought that was it.  Amy was pretty crushed.  But then AFS sent us several packets of students to review and select from.  It was oddly like buying a car.  You look at the photos, check out the specs.  Really.  I’m only being slightly facetious.  One student jumped out at us as a good fit.  Maria’s from Remini, Italy, not far from where our friends and my cousins live.  Amy speaks and teaches Italian, so that will make communication easier than if we accepted one of the German kids they offered us.  She has a little sister about my daughter Elsa’s age.  She likes to read.  She loves American movies and music.  Classic rock and Johnny Depp are favorites.  She studies languages and law at her high school, and her grades are fantastic.

So suddenly I have all the typical responsibilities of being a father to two elementary school children—monitoring Cormac’s homework, driving Elsa to gymnastics, making breakfast, packing lunches, screaming “Go brush your teeth now like I asked ten times already!  We’re going to be late!”  That sort of thing.  And I have added teen issues.  (I’m trying to avoid the word drama).  In one week, we have had to change one teacher because the first one had the social skills of an inanimate object and neither introduced Maria to the class nor spoke to her, for that matter.  We have pushed the envelope for getting to school on time each day because of hair drier issues.  We’ve encountered pickiness with food (no onions) and funny cultural differences with food (the Italians pour the milk first and then scoop the cereal into the bowl).  We went shopping for posters for the walls of her room (Pink Floyd, the Beatles, James Dean, and Audrey Hepburn—at least she has good taste).  These now adorn the walls of an incredibly messy room.  She brought one suitcase, but from the looks of the clothes strewn everywhere, I swear she had four more brought in under cover of dark.  And we went shopping for cleats for JV soccer, which turned into a shopping spree at Dick’s where she purchased several cute outfits, shorts, tops, and a new swimsuit, all of which prompted her biological Dad to declare, “How did you spend $500 already?!”).

In all seriousness, however, Maria has been a delight.  She and Amy have bonded like big and little sister.  She’s been terrific with Cormac and Elsa, playing with them, reading to them at night, and showing them affection.  She and I have bonded over shopping but also over school work.  We spent an hour last night reading and discussing the first 400 lines of Beowulf, which I haven’t read or taught in years.  She’s also very excited to take classes at EO Smith that she can’t typically take in the Italian system, like art classes.  She’s going to try her hand at painting and sculpture.

We’re all still adjusting to the newness of everything, but I think we’ll make it to June.