T.O. (and not the football player)

It’s been a while since I’ve actually focused on writing something creative; nevertheless, I’ve been waiting for the opportunity to sit down and hatch one of the ideas that have come to my mind.

As I’ve been primarily focusing on literature and pedagogical studies, it’s been hard for me to spend time writing anything else at all for myself. But, despite the fact that I still have a lot on my plate, I figure I'll allot myself some time to work on something(s) to calm my mind. So, amidst all the chaos and flux, I am going to try to post one creative piece a week, here. This will help keep me level, I suppose.

[Side Note: it’s weird when some of the things that a person is passionate about in life (for me reading and writing) are the things that you are studying. I go to school all day, reading and writing about various different cannons, gathering all sorts of personal ideas about what to write about, and then when I get home I have no brain-power left because it has all been exhausted... It's unfortunate, I assure you.]

This is something I wanted to try to experiment with for a while now, and I figure that I will guide my readers (I can say “my readers” because I know people read this blog, even though they disrespect it and don’t comment) through my personal writing process. Therefore, as I write this poem, and when this is published, I would suggest that it is far from complete. I am a firm believer in the idea that a work of writing is NEVER finished. So, here it goes:

Trip

Along Interstate 81: it’s raining-
Hard for Him to validate the gauche-
Strange monotony which buries our hopes

Wipers contrapuntal to the splashing-
Water fogging every move we’ve made-
From here it can’t be that far

“Dude, I’m not feeling like driving-
Anymore burgers left? There are fries everything-
Spilling over into the soggy brown bag”

Listen to the book-on-tape, dude-
Any dummy can understand it Makes-
Time, go faster

Off-Ramp towards NY-Rt.13: damn-
Time we’re back, 2AM awful-
Sounds as if we had no choice but to listen

I can’t believe that we have no class-
Keeps people around here looking better-
Left alone things can get pretty lonely

“Dude, wouldn’t it be bad-
Ass was so tired from sitting down four-
Hours in a car- must be low on gas”

The ride wasn’t as rough this time-
Seems to halt for a while it seems-
We’ll make this trip again, right?


There is not better time for y’all to leave a comment; it would be greatly appreciated if you did. Let me know what you think. I think I'm going to try some creative non-fiction next week. Cheers.

Cell Phones and MY Class

My original plan was to use this blog solely for personal pleasure outside of the classroom; therefore, I was trying to omit issues concerning my education from this specific blog. However, I have become quite passionate about the subject of technology and pedagogy, and I feel that the idea of the “flat world” could be intriguing for everyone.

I’ll let YouTube start this discussion…



As you can all probably see from this video, it’s hard to justify the usage of cell phones in a classroom. I, as an upcoming teacher who is pro-cell phones in class (I don’t think I’m crazy… there’s more to come to rationalize this), would have had a similar reaction if a student had the audacity to not only keep his/her phone’s ringer on but also talk on it during the middle of class.

I guess, before I go on, it would be necessary for me to explain the “type” of classroom that I would like to create. I envision a total learning environment. I want to teach the students, and I want to learn from the students. The first day of classes I will queue up my classroom website which will have links to the class blog, the class wiki, an iMovie of what we will be creating with iMovie, and the some of the hundreds of titles that will be available for the students to read for book club (as well as other things, obviously). I can see a cell phone, which 99.9% of students have these days, being helpful rather than hurtful. Let’s help the students by teaching them how to utilize the aspects of their lives that aren’t going to disappear (cell phones, social networking, etc.).

From the video below we can see that students are aware of when and when not to use their cell phones. A video like this could also be helpful in teaching a sensitive area such as cell phone use, MySpace, and so on.



I guess my primary point is this: instead of pushing away from things that make teaching difficult we, as educators, should embrace them. No matter what happens, students will use their cell phones, they will go on MySpace and Facebook, and they will use ALL of the sites on the internet.

Driving a car can be very dangerous especially when you’re just learning… that doesn’t mean that we don’t let students learn how to drive, right?

Let me know what you folks think about this. Cheers.

Hmm...

I found this video and it automatically struck my attention. I haven't had time to really look into this website; however, when I get some more time I will definitely check it out.

For now, though, what do you think about this video?

Anxious

The best thing about the first day of classes (for most) is that they usually don’t last for the entire scheduled period. I guess this is entirely too unfortunate for all of the happy, yet naïve, college students who are paying for this loss of time. Ignorance is bliss, I guess.

For me, today, I’m on the opposite end of the spectrum. As it usually goes, students have about a week to “drop/add” their classes based upon changes in program, load quality, and overall like/dislike of a specific class. Professors usually don’t take attendance during this week, for obvious reasons.

I am experiencing the latter; I need to drop/add classes and I don’t know which to take. This semester marks the official switch from the MA to the MAT program for me and because of this I am without definite classes. I am waiting for a response from my new “advisor” as so I can figure out what I need to do; hopefully without getting too far behind.

[Side Note: It’s a bittersweet change. I know I am making an intelligent career decision but at the same time I am going to miss the English classes that fueled my passions.]

So as most students crave for the opportunity to be able to legally miss class, I am pretty upset that I don’t have a schedule right now, and I am not pleased to be missing anything that I am paying for. It’s like people who try snowboarding for the first time—they pay $30 for the lift ticket and $20 for rentals—they find out that this process is much harder than they would have imagined; they do one run. For $50 I’m going to go down that slope more than once, that’s for sure.

I write to calm my nerves. Cheers.

Trivial

“It’s safe to say I really don’t know a think, but I choose to believe.”
--Dustin Kensrue

It’s finally starting to feel like winter around here. I’ve been miserable lately; I can’t explain it either. I haven’t been able to read the books that, during the semester, I was dying to read. I had high aspirations to start working on the novel that I’ve been pushing aside for six months now.

This struggle seems to be a little more of a personal foofaraw. Let’s just hope that it is trivial.

For the first time I went to the slopes by myself, for a couple of runs. I’ve come to find out two things from doing this:

1. It’s not a big deal to go snowboarding on your own.
2. Just like taking a long drive, the tranquility of the lift and the isolation of snowboarding without distractions is a great time to think. Between the river and the ravens, right?

Some of the things that I mused through while on my own:

1. I’m hoping to be more ostentatious.
2. Having a snowboard that actually fits you makes it much more enjoyable.
3. My problems with writing.

I’m trying to become more pretentious as to not hide my greatness (see it’s working already). Sometimes I think of things and keep them to myself and smile—giving people the benefit of the doubt; for what reason do I do this though? Here comes that notion of tact again.

It seems that there is a greater debate as to whether height has a true bearing on the size of a snowboard that one should use. A couple of years ago, when I bought my first snowboard, I was told that it should stand equal to the height of my nose (or a little bit less). This past year when I bought a new one I was told that snowboards don’t know height (leaving weight as the bigger--but not only-- determiner) So my newest installment is a 154 while my original was a 164. I must admit that snowboarding is not only more fun, but much easier for me this year. The incompetence of snowboard salesmen and online references which all seem to butt-heads in the proper technique of choosing your hundred-dollar investment is why I will now choose to be more pretentious.

As for my writing problems… I guess I’ve just come to terms that I’ll never be a famous writer. Check that—it’s like McDonald’s’ catch phrase “hey, it could happen!” Plus, maybe someone will find my work after I’m dead. I’ll be a legend.

I’m trying to find out what is different in my life now that is retarding my writing process. Could it be that…

1. I have a true life goal
2. I’m spending much more time with my girlfriend
3. I don’t know why, but I believe.

I don’t know what is impeding my writing, but I do know that I will fight it and win. But, for whatever reason, I’ve decided to put my novel on the backburner for a while. Blogging will suffice. Cheers.