Teaching | BulgingButtons

June 25, 2015
by BulgingButtons 3 Comments

One More Day

Nineteen down, one to go. Days of summer work, that is. Not that it’s difficult work. It isn’t. In fact, it’s very rewarding work that come fairly easily to me, especially since I’m part of a terrific team.

We’ve been running a writing camp for kids at our local university. I did it last summer too, and enjoyed it. It’s fun to be with kids, teaching, in an environment where the strongest “discipline” that you ever dole out is a raised eyebrow, and the kids are all there because they want to be. Oh, and there’s no grading, no worry about common core, and no tests. Cool, huh? The kids think so. I have to agree.

Still, the alarm clock goes off each morning, and there’s a commute to deal with, made longer by summer construction (which is absurd where I live – do it during the cooler months, people!). Then there’s the trek from the parking lot to campus and back. Not so bad in the morning, but grueling in the afternoon heat. All in all, not a bad gig, but I’m looking forward to a few weeks of NO obligations. What will I do? Read. Write. Sleep. Swim. Visit family and friends. The usual. I can’t wait!

I’m looking forward to days where the biggest decisions I make involve which flavor of fudge to sample and which bathing suit to wear. Should I read another chapter now or wait until tomorrow morning? Do I want to cool off in the ocean or in the pool? It’s a rough life, but someone has to do it. This time, it’s going to be me. One more day. I know it’s going to be a good one.

June 13, 2015
by BulgingButtons 2 Comments

Summer Writing Marathon

Have you ever thought about all the places writing hides?

That’s the question we posed to our summer writers, kids entering grades three through twelve. There are several of us teaching these kids at our local university this summer, and recently we took them on a writing marathon on an unusually rainy day.

The writers were split into age groups and we toured the campus, stopping along the way to learn about the various sites, then sitting down to write before sharing and moving on.

We stood on a bridge and watched traffic whiz below us, we sat single file in the middle of a palm lined pathway, and we got comfy in plush chairs in the basement of the student union. We also visited the snakes in the life sciences building, discovered a secret garden, and imagined ghosts roaming the halls of one of the oldest buildings on campus.

It was amazing how these experiences unlocked the creativity of the writers. Some included their observations into pieces they had already begun, while others were inspired to write brand new pieces, including several poems and at least two ghost stories.

I took the opportunity to write also, since I told the students that I wouldn’t ask them to do anything I wasn’t willing to do myself. I wrote about the rain, and the students, and what it must be like to live your days in a glass tank, like the snakes we saw. I also wrote about how important it is to slow down and really notice your surroundings. That writing marathon took us all over campus, but the best place it took us was deeper inside our minds.

June 1, 2015
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Google Drive is Killing Me

Ok, that’s not exactly true. It is, however, driving me crazy. Sure, I understand how it works, and how it’s supposed to make life easier for me, but at the moment that’s not my reality. My reality is that I’m feeling confused and overwhelmed by it, and it’s making me feel ineffective at my job. There, I said it.

I’m teaching a summer writing program and we just started today. There are three sites operating simultaneously, and there are three age levels operating at our site. In all there are seven instructors, plus a director making sure that all of the moving parts come together. All of us are supposed to be sharing ideas and materials, including presentations, via Google Drive.

It sounds logical. It sounds like it would save a lot of time. It sounds like it should be a piece of cake. Unfortunately, I just can’t quite seem to get the hang of it. I can’t find what I need when I need it, and if I want to change something around, I feel like I’ve negated someone else’s work, unless I save it with a new name, and then how will they know which document they actually want?

My head is spinning, and the whole thing is making me want to run away from the computer and just stick to notebooks and pencils (which wouldn’t be an entirely AWFUL idea), but I know I can figure it out and it will make what we’re doing so much more meaningful for the kids.

Still, I feel frustrated and I’m glad that my colleagues in my main job don’t use this particular method to share information. This old dog has learned a lot of new tricks, but this particular one is giving me fits.