I Wish I Could Say This Was Funny

I received a text message from one of my TCC students at ten minutes to nine this evening.
“How much of the story do we have to read?”
The student is asking about A Christmas Carol, which has been on the syllabus since the first day of class and was assigned to them last Monday.  We’re discussing [...]

Grammar Wednesday

Another question offered by Dudley!  He’s really getting into this!
Mrs. Chili,
This one is a serious question.  It’s not a beef.  It has to do with titles like Attorney General, or Mother In Law.  If we have more that one, it’s Attorneys General or Mothers In Law; HOWEVER, how to we write the possessive?
Is it the [...]

Ten Things Tuesday

Alternately titled; Ten Things I Want My Freshmen to Leave My Class Knowing:
I’m printing this and handing it out on the last day of classes.
1.  The practice of drafting through papers is kind of unique to your English classes.  Almost every other professor you’ll ever have is going to assign you a paper and expect [...]

I Want a Crystal Ball for Christmas

My professional future is not so clear.
I was not asked back to teach at L.U. this spring.  Of course, this comes as no surprise to me, and I’m not even a little dejected by it.  My boss went out of his way to make sure that I knew the possibility of ’round-the-calendar employment at the [...]

Grammar Wednesday

I’m taking this week’s Grammar Wednesday fodder from two things that were brought to my attention by readers and friends.
Dudley called me the other day.  He’s an old and dear friend of mine, and he’s known about my personal blog for a long time.  He only recently found out about this site, though (and I’m [...]

Just Rip My Heart Out, Kid

Leanne is a student in one of my L.U. classes.  Since the beginning of the semester, Leanne has been mostly present – as in, in her seat – but never really engaged.  She doesn’t volunteer information in class, she’s never been part of the conversations, and she often doesn’t have an answer when I call [...]

You Don’t Get It, Do You?

My chin-scratcher turned in his “paper” the other day (and yes; the quotation marks are deliberate).  After procrastinating – for perhaps far too long – about what he was going to use for a topic, he decided that the expedient thing to do would be to cut-and-paste his three page paper from four different sources.
Now, [...]

Fortunately, the Pats Played on Thursday Night

Otherwise, this would be me…

I’ve still got about a third of my students’ essays to finish assessing.  The kids have definitely improved their writing skills since the first assignment, but I can tell we’ve still got some work to do between now and the end of the term…

Grammar Wednesday

Grammar Wednesday is taking a break this week.  I’m neck-deep in analysis papers and I’m single parenting and, to be honest with you, Wednesday just slipped my mind (I tend to get a little confused when there’s a holiday – my whole schedule shifts forward and I forget what day it really is).
Kizz sent this [...]

Is This Hate? **EDITED**

I got this memo through the mass-email system at Local U. the other day:
For the past several years the L.U. Library has been finding fake $100 bills with religious messages like “This is counterfeit but Jesus is the real thing” and bible verses on them.  These bills have been found in books all over the [...]