Tag Archives: national writing project

Is It Over?

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One of the items I worked on this week was originally produced while I was an MFA student. It was my critical/seminar essay titled: Is it Over? Finding Poetic Closure. I have it out to a reader after a lengthy revision.

I thought, however, that the title was also fitting to close out the four day Teacher Research Conference that I attended at UNCC this week. I’m not sure I have even come close to digesting all the terrific conversations I’ve had. I wrote a blog each day this week, tying them to regular topics discussed here. Monday it was thinking about balance (health, life etc), Tuesday I focused in on the connections we make that perhaps try to pull us towards some kind of final equilibrium/balance/sense of closure (with some TV watching reviews worked in). And yesterday I worked some book reviews while discussing the particularly online connections that we make. I’m still getting back to a few comments as well, but I’m glad that several people have kept up with me this week as I went through this second summer of professional development for a career in teaching.

One thing I found myself thinking about today as I tied up loose ends on remaining projects (and a new poem draft that was really recycling an old poem!) was how I’ve been (off and on) unsure about my career choice as a teacher. To work in academics is to be constantly seeking and questioning. When, like a writing life, do you shut off from all of it? Can you? I’ve been trying to decide where to take my career next. I’ve felt scattered, but it came to me today that this isn’t unlike how I felt in my first years working as a claims adjuster.

Everyday there was always a new type of claim to handle, or a new topic to discover. Sometimes that became too much and I doubted myself. I wanted to be “good” and thus successful. Becoming a “good” teacher takes time and I’ll never stop learning. I think I realized at the end of today that I need to cut myself a little bit of slack.

I don’t think I’ve made a final decision about whether or not I’ll continue on with my education or continue trying to publish academically versus creatively, but the conversations I had this week gave me insights into how other educators feel at different grade levels and different job classes about these same issues.

I can’t thank the participants from this week enough for those opportunity. And maybe, next time, I’ll have more to say – a better voice in the conversation :)

Writing Marathon

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On Sunday April 15th I took part in a Writing Marathon as sponsored by the UNC-Charlotte branch of the National Writing Project. There is no hard and fast rule on how a writing marathon should be set up but Lacy Manship did a great job!

We started out at Amelie’s French Bakery in the NoDa area of Charlotte (which I always get lost getting to – which became something I wrote about during the marathon!). There were at least two dozen people who came to meet up. After a snack we all “wrote into the marathon” on the topic of our choice before grouping up to head out to a new location. I drafted a poem idea that came to me on the drive over. I’m hoping to post it tomorrow for Make Friday Write.

We wrote for about 15-20 minutes and then shared within our tables since there were so many people. The group I was with then decided we would head to The Last Word Bookstore. You were also supposed to say to someone when you arrived at your location: I’m a writer, but we didn’t all do that. Instead we wrote and shared and then picked another location to go to.

The group I was with decided to finish up at Ikea which made me happy! I LOVE ikea and when I had heard previous writing marathon participants had written there I just knew I had to be one of those people.

But, no, no one bought meatballs this time :) It was great to hear what other people were writing and how we could help each other yet keep our work individualized. There was such great energy amongst the participants. I hope to do this again and I wonder if I can figure out a way to do something like this with my students? I had them write a journal about it after I got back to see what they thought a writing marathon would be. They had terrific ideas as well.

Our last stop was to the Wine Vault where, despite the loud music, we had an open mike type share. I left my house at about Noon and I was home by about 5pm. This was well worth my afternoon. If you ever hear of anyone holding a writing marathon you should definitely consider going. Or, why not try one yourself? If there is enough interest, and we can find a good date and time, I think it’d be fun to host one here via the blog or via a twitter hashtag soon? Any takers?

Write on :)

Writing Marathon

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Yes, I am blogging on a Saturday again. And, yes, I was up early this morning to make it to Amelia’s in the NoDa area of Charlotte to meet up with a good 10 or so current and prior participants in the UNCC Summer Writing Institute.

We started out at Amelia’s at 9am. I needed breakfast so I had some of their fantastic lemon rosemary tea and a croque monsieur. Got to say: tasted better than some of the croque monsieur’s I had in France! Fantastic location to hang out in. I will have to go back :)

We wrote for a good 30 minutes and then shared a bit of our writing before breaking off into smaller groups to head to other locations for writing. The idea was that in each location you were supposed to tell someone you were a writer. I told the lady when I was buying my food, but I’m sure she has heard that before!

I headed over to Jackson’s Java with a group and once again the barista had to hear how we were all writers, but we also chatted with at least two other people who came in. One that turned out to also be a writer with a terrific yellow handbag who was working on a YA novel.

The vibe was so good at JJ’s that we just stayed and the other group ended up coming that way as well because we had all decided to have lunch at Passage to India which has a buffet. YUM! Once lunch was finished we finished up by sharing work with each other at the Wine Vault. A few more people trickled in and it was just a terrific atmosphere.

This is the cut and dried version! I don’t think I can do it justice right now until I’ve had time to process the whole event. I loved acknowledging for everyone that you were writing and that you were also in this community of other writers. It was also fun to try different venues to work in. I wore my laptop out typing up items I had written last week which meant most of my writing time was spent deciphering my handwritten and putting some pieces through revision.

Back at my desktop computer, as I continue to catch up on all that I have handwritten lately I find myself thinking again about the writer/teacher as inquirer. I know that I love this idea of writers (teachers, everyone!) asking questions and engaging so they can be part of the conversation. I want to really work on that with my students (and with you fair readers), but I think I also want to dig in a bit about the idea of genre theory (any good book suggestions and/or magazines?) because I wonder why we have to spend so much time putting our writing into categories . . .

If you ever want to try a writing marathon, I highly recommend it! If you want me to pick a day and we all do one virtually – I’m game!

 

Declining by Degrees

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I recently finished watching the PBS documentary Declining by Degrees: Higher Ed at Risk (it is available on Netflix streaming right now and you can also pick up a copy of the DVD from PBS). It is a little dated as it aired in 2005 so the students it documents are from the early 2000′s, but I think a lot of the issues raised in the documentary still hold true today. I wanted to take a few paragraphs here to think about this given the work I do and the study I am undertaking with the UNCC writing project this summer.

There are many issues brought up in the documentary regarding higher education, but what I found myself regularly draw to were the stories of the cost. I mean this here mostly in a financial sense, but (for many students) there is also the emotional and intellectual strain that comes with trying to obtain more than a high school diploma.

Is a college education worth it? Should a student be forking over tens of thousands of dollars in loans etc just to get a degree that might help them get a higher paying job. Sure, they might get that higher paying job but then how long will it take them to pay back the loans? Is it, therefore, better to just take your diploma and make less but not be saddled with that kind of debt? Does it depend on how you define the American Dream? And, I’m not even going into the discussion of going on for Master’s (like what I have) and PhD programs (which I am still considering).

And should college just be about getting you ready for a job? What ever happened to study just for the sake of broadening your mind? Can we, however, in our current economy afford to study just because we are interested in a topic?

I’m asking a lot of questions and I may not have the answers but I felt for the girl who was accepted to NYU but couldn’t imagine saddling her parents with a ton of debt just so she could go. Instead she stayed home and attended her local community college while working so that she ends debt free after her two year degree. Some people say was that a loss for her, but if I was talking to her I’d say: good work, I wish I had known about the community college program when I was graduating from high school; it could have saved me a lot of debt and heartache!

There was also the girl who was working nights full-time while trying to go to school full-time. Yeah, been there to but did my grades suffer? Yes. Did my job performance probably suffer? A bit, but I’m sure I was less concerned with job performance than my grades.

Is a college education: two year, four year etc still worth it? What do you guys think? Can you get by without a degree? What is the best way to fund one?

Just some questions that I’m posing right now. I’d love to hear from my regular readers and any of my UNCC Writing Project Peeps on their concerns and/or thoughts.

Teacher as Student

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I always have a difficult time putting a “name” and/or “title” on myself. When I started teaching at the college level, I asked around to see what other community college English Instructors, for example, called themselves. Are we instructors, professors? And what difference does it make which name we take? Does it matter if my students call me Mrs. Carty or just call me Jessie? Do I tell them I am also a writer, poet and editor? Which bits of that do they need to know? What about my cats and husband? Are those important to what goes on in the classroom?

One of the names, I must admit, that I do often put up for myself is that of teacher. I could go back and tell you tons of stories about me trying to teach my younger siblings how to read, or how I originally went to college on a teaching scholarship; but, it all boils down to the fact that I love to teach. Why? I do like to help others, but teaching is in one way also very selfish: I also thrive on learning. I learn best when I know I will need to explain that information to someone else so I really feel like I’m always a student, even while I am a teacher.

I haven’t been blogging often on the weekend anymore, but now that I am taking a special summer writing/education/graduate level course via the UNCC Summer Writing Project you might see me pop in from time to time on the weekend as I think about some of the topics we are covering in our coursework. For example, today they are introducing us to Google sites as well as twitter and blogging. Since I already have twitter and a blog, I decided to try and incorporate my existing life right in with my course because that is important to me: that I am as much the same person you see in person as I am online.

This orientation today is making me want to take even more courses and to engage my own studies (which will then influence my students later) at a higher level. So, here I go again being the eternal teacher and student who might just find some time to write.  :) And who is still considering that PhD….