DONE!

I am done and am bringing in the summer with a nice long run.

5 pgs

I’m five pages until summer arrives.

FIVE.

MOTHER.

F***

ING

PAGES.

A list of excuses

All I have to do is finish this paper and summer is here, but I can’t seem to get it done. I keep finding new reasons not to work on this paper. Reasons like:

1) there is a sale on sundresses

2) I am brain fried

3) it’s beautiful outside

4) I hate my desk

5) I need ink for my printer

6) I’m too jittery from the coffee

7) I need to make food for the week

8) It’s Sunday, and by working on this paper I’m not following the 3rd commandment.

9) It’s not due until Tuesday morning so technically I have all of Monday to finish it

10) What’s 35% of my grade?

11) With summer here I should really paint my toes

12) I can’t concentrate unless everything is tidy, I should clean my room.

 

And I could keep going,  but it would further justify that I’m about two seconds away from going to the mall to look for sundresses. I think I’ll bang out two more pages and then look for some sundresses.

I would love to compile a really great list of excuses…please feel free to leave some suggestions or thoughts.

OneMean MFA is on social media

Hey you guys, I created a Facebook account for the blog and would love to have you all as friends. It’s not a private account or anything.

You can search for me by email onemeanmfa@gmail.com or by the site name Onemean MFA and I will pop up as picture of typewriter.

Feel free to send messages, friend me or post on my wall.

Looking forward to meeting you guys.

I’m also on Twitter. https://twitter.com/onemeanmfa

Procrastination Makes It Happen

I should be working on a research paper right now, but instead I thought I’d warm up and write a blog post. I’ve been really putting this paper off for a while, at least two weeks. I’ve known what I wanted to write about for about that long, but haven’t done anything for it, until Tuesday.

While, I am considering going into “self-loathing” mode, I figure, this is what grad school is all about. I’m preparing myself for that tenured track professor job I so covet, that with all the budget cuts going on in this country, I will have to bust my ass to get come graduation.

Think about it…when there is a call for papers for conferences you write a 250 word proposal stating some brilliant argument pertaining to the theme of the conference, send it out and get accepted to read. Then two weeks before the conference you get a reminder about the dates, what room you’ll be reading in and more.

Then it’s crunch time, it’s three days before the conference and you have a twenty minute presentation that needs to be written. All the stress, the research, the writing, it brings you back to your grad school days, when you were cramming to write a research paper on  Borges and Derrida. You were to “add to the conversation.” A conversation you’ve never been a part of…

So while it would be so easy to hate myself for waiting until four days before this paper is due to really get a move on, I’m going to look at is preparation for any other deadline that comes my way.

 

Thoughts? Memories you’d like to share? I’m going to focus now for real.

Research Schmesearch

Well, instead of working on my novel/thesis I am researching a paper and instead of posting regularly on the site, I’m working on a research paper, When that paper is done, I’ll be back…with a short short for you guys. I didn’t get any feedback on the poem and still would like some. It’s still up if you’re interested.

A Poem

I started to write this as a joke while I sat  in class, but I liked the concept and finished it. I would love some feedback on it. Suggestions for improvement, what you think about it.

Emotional Cheeseburger

(copyright www.onemeanmfa.wordpress.com)

 

I cried once,

eating a Wendy’s dollar menu cheeseburger.

My hunger palpable.

The pangs banging against

the inner lining of my belly.

 

Growl.

 

I’m fucking starving, I kept thinking.

Had you asked me what starvation was

I would have answered,

 

Empty.

 

We sat in the drive-through

 

Waiting.

 

I want my damn burger,

Give it to me.

I need the meat.

 

 

We drove, the car smelled like

potatoes drenched in reused oil and refrigeration.

Give it to me.

 

It was passed over

white paper bags and

cardboard potato holders.

The smell: greasy paper wrapped meat nestled

between white bleached bread

soaked with condiments and a meaty residue.

 

One bite

So satisfied

The lettuce ripped apart by

Teeth.

Meat, pickles, and ketchup

Ground together bringing tears to my eyes.

 

Copyright: www.onemeanmfa.wordpress.com

 

Thanks again for the feedback, in advance.

The Final Paper

My students have handed in their final paper for the semester yesterday and you know what? They stink.

It’s quite upsetting since they should be improving. What is even more upsetting is that they had TWO WEEKS to complete it. It’s no different of a paper assignment in comparison to the other writing they’ve done this semester.  It’s very clear that they don’t care. The mistakes they are making are errors I’ve been commenting on all semester. These papers aren’t proofread and not well thought out.

At first, I thought I would inflate the grades. Maybe it’s me? I thought. But NO! I’m not going to compromise on my standards when I’ve seen my students write well. While it will lower the average grades for the class, I don’t want my students to get away with writing trash and be rewarded for it.

The mistakes they are making on these final papers are errors in formatting, lack of thesis, and organization, as well as an obvious neglect in proofreading. I’m sorry, but I’m frustrated.

While I still love teaching. I am convinced I have chromosome or something that makes me a teacher. I’m just wired that way. It’s just seeing college level students not give a F*&! is sad. Shouldn’t you be self motivated in college? I’m not saying, I want  my students to all strive for A’s. I know that is not going to happen because sometimes you just want to get by, but not caring when you’re going to get a D or F is ridiculous. I am tempted sometimes to tell them “you don’t deserve to be in college,” but that would be mean and the wrong thing for a teacher to say. 

I need some motivation to teach this summer. I don’t know where I’m going to get it. Do they sell motivation at Target?

Advice? Comments?

Copyright www.onemeanmfa.wordpress.com

The Writing Experiment: The Results

Before I go into the results of this experiment, I would like to apologize for not writing as often as I intended. I found myself looking for excuses to not write everyday and this scared me. I don’t want to fall into a well of excuses and not be writing. It is my career choice after all. Please forgive me and thanks for continuing to stop by and read. Okay, enough of that, and on to the results.

  To review, the students were complaining about the prompt that had been assigned and so I suggested we write a prompt as a class. This excited the students and it forced them to have the reading complete in order to participate in the discussion.

I first provided them with the original prompt assigned for the reading. Then as a class we discussed what the goals were for this prompt. What major issues should the paper discuss if using this prompt, issues like ethics, social concerns, and government control (just as an example). We then took the original prompt, the goals for writing the papers, and created another prompt that encompassed the same goals. The prompt that students ended up writing was very close to the departmental prompt, but they claimed they understood it better.

Finally, they had to actually write the paper. I will admit I was quite concerned with what the outcome would be. I was so concerned I allowed the students to choose from either prompt. While the papers would undeniably be very similar as far as the big picture, letting the students decide allowed them to feel in control.

So what happened? Well, the papers were great! I was so pleasantly surprised. In the past, using the prompt style of teaching writing I found that students end up writing about the same general topics; inevitably topics discussed in class. This time, however, I read about so many different topics. I am so sure this is because in writing the prompt themselves the students were able to think of topics that they were excited about. Instead of reading 40 some odd papers about abortion and illegal immigration, I was reading about different cultures, fascinating ethical issues, technologies, and so many other unique topics. I was thrilled.

While I’ll be teaching again this summer and next fall, I will not be using the department’s reading choices and prompts, instead, I’m choosing to write my own prompts, and decide on whatever readings I please. I still think I will allow the students to attempt writing the prompt again. This will not only provide them with a better understanding of the reading but it will also provide me with more prompts to use in the future.

I would love to hear some feedback on what you think about this experiment and if you teachers out there have done anything similar.

Sorry Sorry Sorry

Sorry I haven’t posted in forever, it’s the end of the semester and the work is piled high. I promise to get back on track soon. The update for the writing experiment is coming soon.