Wow, I thought summer would be a relaxing time for me to blog, but apparently not! A few people have insisted that I keep blogging, so here goes. Let me tell you what's kept me away from the blog (though not the computer) for the past seven weeks!
Grad Class
I'm still plugging away at grad school. I enjoy taking the classes, but thinking about how I've been doing this now for two full years, and that it'll be another two years before I finish can be a bit depressing. This summer it's a course on poetry writing. I'm not really a poet, nor do I teach poetry writing much, but the class has really helped me to analyze poetry better. Not that I didn't know how to teach it before, but now I feel as though I have a better sense of it because I've been writing some. The poems are decent, but as I said, I'm not much of a poet.
The Writing Project
For the second year I served as Technology Liaison for the Northwest Indiana Writing Project. We held our Summer Institute for four weeks from June 16-July 11. I worked with the fifteen teachers on how to do electronic research, using Google Docs, and how to create wikis. In fact, the participants posted their research projects on the wiki, which you can see here. I also did a presentation for our Advanced Institute, a one-day program for our alumni where they can get up-to-date information on writing. While it wasn't a huge time commitment, planning the presentation was a little time-consuming. However, I love the writing project!
Our Town
This is our summer show. We opened it on July 18 and it performs on July 25 and 26 at 7 PM. Sarah has taken over most of the technical directing for this show since my grad class overlapped the rehearsals some, and she'll be the technical director for the fall show. Everything looks good, though, and it has given us a chance to use our new lighting system!
This is our summer show. We opened it on July 18 and it performs on July 25 and 26 at 7 PM. Sarah has taken over most of the technical directing for this show since my grad class overlapped the rehearsals some, and she'll be the technical director for the fall show. Everything looks good, though, and it has given us a chance to use our new lighting system!
Fests, Weddings, Etc.
In between all of this, Sarah and I have been planning our own wedding, going to local fests and the Taste of Chicago, doing projects around the house, attending a wedding, and....
Getting a Dog!
Yea, Sarah and I are the proud parents of a greyhound named Frieda. She came to us from Sarah's cousin who was unable to take care of her anymore. She's a quiet yet adorable dog. I can't believe we ever didn't have one because she's fit in so well here! She loves running around the big yard, chasing me on the tractor, and digging up her beds in the house.
So you can see that I've been quite busy. School starts back up in less than a month, and as things die down for the summer, I'm starting to get excited to get back to the classroom and start teaching again. I promise to be better about posting to the blog and providing pictures where appropriate! Thanks for reading!
