I wanted to jot down a few preliminary thoughts and concerns about our literary magazine. I think this project has so much potential! I'm excited about taking all of our fresh ideas and weaving them into a cohesive unit that makes a great impression on our readers and allows our writers' voices to be heard. This task brings us great privilege and responsibility.
Along with this excitement, some challenges await us as well. Since our literary magazine is a new endeavor, I believe the largest challenge our team faces is lack of experience with a project of this type. Because this is our first installment, we will need to ensure that it is a success so that a possibility for future additions of the magazine exist. I know that we want to produce a literary magazine that is significant; one that truly speaks. With this in mind, I'm planning on conducting some research on the methods and products of other literary magazines to see what kinds of ideas and strategies we can glean (or not glean) from them.
Please water this seed with your own thoughts and concerns...
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
Agendas... I've never really been one to set an agenda. Maybe they left a bad taste in my mouth after I was scolded by an adviser due to lack of an agenda for a meeting (even though it was totally informal and covered about 3 topics). Overall, I've never seen a point of an agenda in an informal setting. I can understand if the topics are broad and plentiful, having an outline to guide the meeting, but I don't think it would be useful for me in a tutoring session. I also am a firm believer in Murphy's Law, and that anything that could go wrong would go wrong given that I had planned out the session. I have problems with micromanaging situations, and I don't want the focus to be on what I believe is important in a tutoring session-- having an agenda would predispose what would, or according to what I said previously, would not happen. So, to put it simply, they just really aren't for me.
Wrong turns and traffic jams....of being a tutor
I love to make an agenda for everything I do in life, that is just the way my mind is comfortable. I not only make a list of what I need from the store, I make a list of what stores I need to go to and in what order. So I felt having an agenda for my tutoring session was important, almost needed, for me to be successful. I discovered in a short time that my set agenda needed to be tossed.
I can appreciate what William Macauley says in his paper "Setting the Agenda for the Next Thirty Minutes", "I like to think of this plan like planning a trip with a road map". I can appreciate more his line "Anyone who has ever driven on an expressway knows that having a map is no guarantee against wrong turns and traffic jams". There are so many wrong turns and traffic jams that come with the program, they just cannot be avoided. I have discovered the best way for me to deal with this is to leave my agenda with open ends and set it around my needs instead of the writer (what do they need from me, what does their instructer want, how can I help). It is always good to have a plan....brainstorm, pick an idea, write a thesis statement....but you can never know what may be asked of you or what may come up. So my agenda now is set for me. An agenda for what I need to do. After that I listen to the writer and help them direct the flow.
I can appreciate what William Macauley says in his paper "Setting the Agenda for the Next Thirty Minutes", "I like to think of this plan like planning a trip with a road map". I can appreciate more his line "Anyone who has ever driven on an expressway knows that having a map is no guarantee against wrong turns and traffic jams". There are so many wrong turns and traffic jams that come with the program, they just cannot be avoided. I have discovered the best way for me to deal with this is to leave my agenda with open ends and set it around my needs instead of the writer (what do they need from me, what does their instructer want, how can I help). It is always good to have a plan....brainstorm, pick an idea, write a thesis statement....but you can never know what may be asked of you or what may come up. So my agenda now is set for me. An agenda for what I need to do. After that I listen to the writer and help them direct the flow.
Setting the agenda
I am easily distracted. I can get lost in the beauty of pretty words just as easily as I can get lost in the chaos of a disorganized paragraph. Setting an agenda at the beginning of a tutoring session has helped me work with the tutees who come to the writing center. Having a clear set of goals or tasks to achieve in the session helps me to stay focused on the job at hand. Regardless of the work that I see that I might want to work on, it is important to keep in mind that the session does not belong to me, it belongs to the tutee who has come for my help. I am here to help him or her achieve the goals that he or she has set.
William Macauley Jr. compared setting the agenda to following a road map."I like to think of this plan like planning a trip with a road map. A road map is open ended in that it shows you many possible routes to travel, but the specific course you choose on the map never lets you forget that you're on a purposeful journey to your destination. Charting the course for a tutorial session is also a way to mark, simply and graphically, the things you wnat to do in the tutoring session." Each student who comes to the writing center has a form to record their specific goals for the tutoring session. This is our roadmap. I am sometimes unsure of the propriety of offering advice that does not apply to the specific goals on the form. Will I offend my tutee if I offer additional feedback? What about students who come in, unsure of what help they need? What about the students who simply want me to edit, and "fix" their work? As a teacher, who is accustomed to reaching for the red pen, it has been an adjustment, going from paper grader to writing tutor.
William Macauley Jr. compared setting the agenda to following a road map."I like to think of this plan like planning a trip with a road map. A road map is open ended in that it shows you many possible routes to travel, but the specific course you choose on the map never lets you forget that you're on a purposeful journey to your destination. Charting the course for a tutorial session is also a way to mark, simply and graphically, the things you wnat to do in the tutoring session." Each student who comes to the writing center has a form to record their specific goals for the tutoring session. This is our roadmap. I am sometimes unsure of the propriety of offering advice that does not apply to the specific goals on the form. Will I offend my tutee if I offer additional feedback? What about students who come in, unsure of what help they need? What about the students who simply want me to edit, and "fix" their work? As a teacher, who is accustomed to reaching for the red pen, it has been an adjustment, going from paper grader to writing tutor.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
(Grrr...It took me 30 minutes to get logged on...shows how often I blog.)
Done with school --for now.
Want to buy a house, but how?
Can't pay the rent,
Car's covered in dents,
This wallet just won't allow.
So much time on my hands,
What happened to all of these plans?
Creative juices?
All I have are excuses,
But life is pretty grand.
I hope you enjoyed this horrible limerick!
(Did I mention that I hate blogging...it makes me feel like I'm being vain.)
Done with school --for now.
Want to buy a house, but how?
Can't pay the rent,
Car's covered in dents,
This wallet just won't allow.
So much time on my hands,
What happened to all of these plans?
Creative juices?
All I have are excuses,
But life is pretty grand.
I hope you enjoyed this horrible limerick!
(Did I mention that I hate blogging...it makes me feel like I'm being vain.)
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
My Road
My grandma and grandpa gave me a card for graduation, and my grandma wrote something along the lines of this: You are not where you have been. You are not yet where you are going. You are well on your way.
Well, I have been on this seemingly never-ending road to “somewhere” for a damn long time! It has been a trip and not always a bad one. But I am tired of this road. I feel like I am in a pothole. Isn’t it time I find my final destination? Do I need a new road? Perhaps I should veer sharply off the road, hit the rumble strips and hope for something to happen.
My Road
Long and dusty,
pothole-ridden,
roadkill-littered
no edge lines…
continually under construction.
Blah. blog. blah. blogged out (although I have not blogged in ages) and bogged down. Does that make sense to anyone? I feel like yuck. I feel stuck in the land of limbo. Stuck between past and future, and not feeling very present.
Well, I have been on this seemingly never-ending road to “somewhere” for a damn long time! It has been a trip and not always a bad one. But I am tired of this road. I feel like I am in a pothole. Isn’t it time I find my final destination? Do I need a new road? Perhaps I should veer sharply off the road, hit the rumble strips and hope for something to happen.
My Road
Long and dusty,
pothole-ridden,
roadkill-littered
no edge lines…
continually under construction.
Blah. blog. blah. blogged out (although I have not blogged in ages) and bogged down. Does that make sense to anyone? I feel like yuck. I feel stuck in the land of limbo. Stuck between past and future, and not feeling very present.
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