NaNoWriMo

Last year, much to my jealousy and . . . other adverbs, my younger brother particiapated in National Novel Writing Month. He wrote an over 50,000 word novel.

As an English major, I was not very happy being shown up by some punk high school senior. But I was.

And many are. NaNoWriMo has a student novel writing program, if you're wondering what to do in class next month. I know I'd feel pretty cool writing a novel in middle or high school.

First Day of School

Tomorrow is the first day of school for Poudre School District and CSU, here in Fort Collins.

I'm jealous of my peers who will begin new semesters tomorrow, who have developed lesson plans and are ready to meet their new students. I'm having my own little pity party, wishing I had another chance to teach in a classroom, even student teach again.

Instead, I'll be returning to school tomorrow to take a linguistics/grammar class that was so boring last year that I skipped class. Numerous times. So, granted, it is my fault I'm where I'm at. But if I understand the material, should I have to go a listen to a professor read the chapter we read for homework? As an educator, isn't part of my job to make my students want to come to class? Shouldn't I want to make my class an enthralling and exciting place?

So I'm stuck putting off my career for another year, and working as a marketing assistant for a travel company. Yuck.

I can critique my college professors all I want. But, I have no one to blame but myself.

Summer Reading

I doubt I need to argue that good teachers keep up with what their students enjoy reading. Tim Fredrick has done some of the work for us by reviewing three pieces of YA literature. One of the books, Cut, was a hot comodity among my female students last semester, and it definitely addresses some major issues teenage girls are going through. You should consider checking it out (I still need to!)