I believe everybody should have a chance to brag (briefly and in moderation) about their accomplishments. So I’m going to take a pre-semester minute and reflect on mine. I spent three years researching and writing about the brilliant Virginia Woolf and hoping that one day I could influence somebody in the way she influenced me. After the past few months, I’m beginning to feel as though I’m on the track to achieving that goal.It all started a few months into my classes last fall. I received an email from my thesis director asking if she could use the biography chapter of my thesis for the Woolf class she was teaching this Spring. Of course I agreed, but I had no idea that it was going to be the first rung in the ladder that has me feeling as satisfied with myself as I do right now. Soon after the email, I did a presentation on using blogging in the classroom (yes, my current obsession) and my professor did nothing but rave about how brilliant it was–rung two on the ladder. Sure the feedback was great, but I’m used to receiving good comments on my work. However, I was not prepared for what was to come.
In the middle of working on a paper for one of my classes, my thesis adviser emailed me once again to ask if I would come speak to her upcoming Woolf class about Mrs. Dalloway (the subject of my thesis). I was delighted to accept the invitation, and did so with only minimal bragging about the opportunity.
Around the same time, I decided to submit a paper on blogging in the classroom and a paper on using blogging and instant messaging as invention strategies to two different conferences. I had a strong feeling that the blogging paper would be accepted since it was to a local conference. However, the other paper I was a bit hesitant about since the conference is a national conference. Both were accepted and I was once more adding rungs to my cloud climbing ladder.
But then it happened. At a post-semester party, one of the professors in my department asked about my work with the blog in the classroom and I realized that what I had been doing was slowly making its way around the department. Now I have him in the blogging loop as well as my mentor professor from another university. I have that “all eyes on me” feeling and I finally feel as though I’m on the right track.
That’s the funny part. Three years ago I felt that teaching was a means to getting somewhere else for me. I wanted nothing more than to sit at home and write for a living, but I couldn’t make ends meet at the time doing just that, so I took a teaching assistant position while working on my MA in literature. Then, instead of pursuing an MFA in creative writing, I made the decision to pursue a PhD in Rhetoric and Composition. By this time I had decided that I did enjoy teaching, but I wasn’t sure I was really getting into the right field. With the amount of literature background I had, I felt that I should continue to pursue my literary interest. Now, however, I cannot dream of doing anything else with my PhD. I want to pursue various ways to help my fledgling students (and I mean that in a nice way) realize that there is something about writing that they can appreciate. My students are receptive to blogging and I like teaching it (as well as keeping up with my own blog). It’s going to be an interesting ride, but for now I have to stop blogging and get somewhere with my reading. The semester starts in a week and I still have countless things to do.
Don’t think I’m too pompous. I just had to toot my own horn for a minute. I don’t do that often.