I’m nearly finished grading for the semester. Only half a dozen or so late papers left. Yay! I have so much I can’t wait to get working on and finish up. Anyway, the class “final” was a two-ish page paper explaining what each student learned this semester. Research shows that such reflection cements their learning even better.

For several reasons, this has been my favorite paper to grade: they’re short, they’re well written, they’re enthusiastic and personal, they report significant learning and progress in writing abilities (which is evident in their final research papers), and for the most part, they’re highly complimentary of the course and the instructor.

Now comes the part that explains this blog post’s title. Convention dictates that you shouldn’t brag. It says you shouldn’t think too highly of yourself, and if you happen to think you’re a fairly quality person, then you’d better hide it so no one mistakes that for pride. Continue Reading »

Every day is a new beginning. Every morning, the sun rises over the eastern horizon and chases the day across the sky. As it goes, the current moment swallows the future, chews it quickly, and spits it out as the past. Every second is a new beginning and ending all wrapped up together in one narrow slice of forever. Every steady tick of the clock opens and closes doors and windows, taking the infinite “possible” and transforming it to immutable “history.”

I’ve watched beginnings and endings for a very long time. I wrote an entire book about them – they made an unavoidable subtheme in the account of my first spontaneous trip to Taiwan and China as I moved from place to place, with people and places continually appearing in my life before falling away behind the steady march of time like watching railroad ties fade away from a train’s caboose.

Today marked a new ending for me. Today was the last day of class for another semester. My work has only begun with the five-inch pile of papers stacked on my dining room table, but the faces of my students that I recall smiling, laughing, listening and speaking won’t return.

As always, this has been an enjoyable semester. We not only had a good time, but I’ve seen an impressive amount of progress in my student’s writing. We successfully accomplished our objectives. I had to get on their case once about putting in more effort and following the steps I had taught, but they rose to the occasion and impressed me with high-quality writing immediately after.

At the beginning of the semester, the majority of the students admitted to not liking writing much. I asked why and got the expected answers: it’s hard, it’s time consuming, grading is often ambiguous, and it often seems boring and pointless. Continue Reading »

Looking for a Christmas book list? Then check out eclecticbookscatalog.com.

In the spirit of “Shop Locally” and “Buy Made in America,” this is a list assembled by authors and connected fans with suggested “safe” clean reads. Some are Christmas related while others just make good gifts.

Enjoy!