Whirlwind

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of visitors and errands and miscellaneous misadventures. My accomplishments include: writing my service philosophy statement and documenting almost all of my service at SU. My goals for next week include: finishing the service documentation, starting the service reflective statement, and actually tackling that summer syllabus. No promises.

In closing, here is some advice that I have no intentions of following from one of my all-time favorite educators, Coach Eric Taylor.

This Week

I've submitted all my writing projects (including the Emecheta article from last week). This week, back to the portfolio and catch up on emails. Also, unpack and organize my home office. On the portfolio this week: finish organizing pages and reflective statements per the refined outline I cobbled together from the Faculty Handbook. Next step there is to finish html cleanup and then populate the appropriate areas with relevant documentation.

Screen Shot

Andrea and her blank screen are in good company. I last posted about 10 days ago with the following goals:

1. Finish Service Reflective Statement
2. Finish Armah encyclopedia entry
3. Write Emecheta encyclopedia entry

I finished #1 and #2. I really do not think it's relevant that I finished #2 a mere three minutes ago. It is finished. Enough said.

Regarding #3: blank screen.

I lost the race with Alice Cooper. My boys are out of school and I am taking them to the pool, the water park, playing more chess and checkers, and having more play dates. I am enjoying all of the fun things we are doing together, but I bristle whenever another parent asks, "So, are you off for the summer?"

It is difficult to say, "No," when I am at the pool on a weekday, so I explain that I still have work but that my time is more flexible. Why does this question irk me? Possibly, it's that I can't tell whether I am confusing or clarifying because most people believe that teachers are off in the summer. Compared to the schedule I kept during the school year, I am off now.

Off to finish that Emecheta entry, that is. By Monday.

A Day Late and a Syllabus Short

I am happy to report that last week was a productive one re: portfolio. I completed the entire pages for student evaluations and for sample assignments and examples of student work. Unfortunately, the document for my summer course syllabus is still blank. By next Monday, my goals are to 1) start my teaching philosophy and/or advising summary and 2) make my HP 502 syllabus less blank.

Racing Alice Cooper

Alice Cooper, "School's Out," Live from Montreaux

Michelle here. The orchestra is tuning up to play "School's Out (for the Summer)" by Alice Cooper. I have precisely three days left to use my brain and I've got a long Honey-do list for it.

1. Finish Service Reflective Statement

2. Finish Armah encyclopedia entry

3. Write Emecheta encyclopedia entry

Then my boys will be at home with me until school starts up again. We're going to have lots of fun: don't get me wrong.

But I'm racing to at least get the difficult thinking parts out of the way before they finish up and start singing a la Alice, stage makeup and all. It really is going to be a Lord of the Flies redux around here on Thursday afternoon. 

I'm racing Alice because difficult writing--the kind that takes two hours to ease into, think about, draft and revise, and take breaks during--is difficult to do with an audience around. And by "around," I mean running circles around my chair, screaming, "GIVE IT!!" "IT'S MINE!!!" "MOOOMMM!!" Maybe that's why my fun summer research project is an examination of mothering bodies. 

A Sloth No More

This morning bore witness to my transformation from lifeless blob to slightly-less-lifeless-but-no-longer-completely-incompetent blob. I blame both on Kelley Crowley, PhD. I completed the task of writing the introduction for my portfolio but cannot yet face the task of starting my summer session syllabus.

In conclusion, this is not me:

In search of cohesion

Cohesion is the order of the day. I have written several pages of nonsensical blurbs, transcribed lyrics, etc., and now I must organize them into an intelligible unit. I would like to have five complete pages by the end of the week. Since today is Friday...

In other news, Heidi Feldman's book on the African Music Revival in Peru is amazing. It was a huge help to me in researching for this article, and I highly recommend it to music- or Peru-lovers out there. For an academic text, it was a page-turner.