Grammar Wednesday!

Gerry, over at TwoBlueDay, has asked for some clarification where quotation marks are concerned.
* Rule number one – NO DOUBLE PUNCTUATION! Don’t put a question mark in the quotation marks, then a period to end the sentence. You only need one mark:
Susan asked, “would you please just stop tapping [...]

Learning to See

I’ve talked before about how important it is for a writer to be observant. I am working on ways of sneaking observation into every lesson plan I design for the rest of the term, and I think that my students are really starting to figure how to put what they see (or, more importantly, [...]

Another Monday

So, I met with my Monday hybrid class this morning. The class itself went pretty well; nearly everyone was there and we managed to get through an amazing amount of material in the scant two hours we have alloted to us. I’m feeling much less pessimistic about this class as a whole after [...]

I Wish to Convene a Pow-wow

I’ve been thinking a lot about my Monday hybrid class.  I’m horribly concerned, and I need some guidance.
I wrote here about what I assigned for them.  While my “full compliance” average is going up – THREE students did everything I asked this week -  the number of students who completed only part of the work [...]

They Just Don’t Get It

I asked my students to write two, one-page papers for me.  When they were done with that, I asked them to write a short reflection piece, telling me what the actual act of writing was like for them.  I asked them a couple of leading questions (what came easily for you?  What was difficult?  Why?) [...]

I Love My Job

I really, really do.
Nothing spectacular or out-of-the-ordinary happened in my composition class today. Actually, it was a rather uneventful class: we went over some commonly confused words, then we talked about Op/Ed writing and how to construct a brief but powerful opinion piece. I gave them another bit of my writing (but didn’t [...]

Grammar Wednesday!

Picky edition!
As you’ve all given me your wonderful suggestions for Grammar Wednesday topics (keep ‘em coming, please!!), I’ve been wondering for a while about the proper use of some words that continue to stump me. Since they may also stump you, I’m putting them here for the collective good.
Lend / Loan – The general [...]

The Winner Lesson Plan

Today’s class was focused on observation.
One of the most important qualities for writers to have is a keen sense of what’s happening around them. Meg, in her beautiful post about her self-identification as a writer, tells us that she pays attention. She notices things – sometimes big, obvious things, sometimes just little details [...]

Monday, Monday

So, today’s class went off pretty much as I expected it to, though with far fewer students than I imagined I’d have.  It seems there’s some sort of stomach yucky going around the college, and I ended up with only 15 of my 23 students showing up today.  Not that I’m complaining even a little [...]

Ready or Not

My Monday/Online kids come back to class in two days.  They are NOT going to be pleased.
I’ve decided that I’m only going to make PASSING reference to the work the students did (or didn’t do) from the last class.  I’m not going to make a big deal out of it because I don’t want the [...]