Today marks our second day on our journey to complete Kean University’s Writing Project or KUWP for short. The day doesn’t start off smoothly for me because I was late. I don’t like to be late, but a last minute decision to move my car made this so. Anyhoo, I say all of that to say that I was so busy trying to get myself together from being late that I missed the conversation at the start of class that followed Colin’s reading of yesterday’s log. He did a really good job with that. His writing had great voice. Anyway, while Kim was showing everyone around the Letters to the Next President L2P website, I was trying to connect to the WiFi on my phone.
Eventually, I’m able to connect and join the group as we look over the L2P website. We learn about the features of L2P and makes. Makes are literally something that you make. We will make something that will be posted on the L2P site. We were told that we had to do one of them. We could do them all but we only had to do one. Kim then took us back to the main site. She told us that this page was chuck full of resources but to be careful.You don’t want to “go down the rabbithole” If we like something, bookmark it because we may not be able to locate it again. Colin asked a question, I was looking out of the window thinking about how I could use the makes in my class so I missed it. But, I heard Kim say that we could use this in our classroom but again she reiterated that we only had to do one.
Hope then asked a question and again I missed it while I was typing this log and rereading it to make sure it doesn’t sound boring. I’m not sure how successful I will be with that. Wait, I think she asked something about poetry. Yep, that was it. But now, I totally missed Kim’s response. It’s not looking like I am too good at this. I could never be a court stenographer. I am missing most of the conversation. Kim keeps saying that we only have to do one make I’m thinking that I am only going to do one. There is no need for me to be an overachiever.
Andayie our resident vegan chef asked what a CLMOOC was again. L2P is the CLMOOC. It stands for: Connected learning massive online open course.) Kim likens it to Wikis then she points out that Wikis are old and outdated now. She goes on to tell us that if you are a teacher, you will use this. Especially in light of this election season. You can use the CLMOOC to teach how everything is an argument, making a claim and providing evidence in an academic setting.
Marykate asked if L2P was akin to Makerspace and Kim said yes, I may look that up. I am all about using technology in my class. Kim goes on to tell us that one her Ohio hating children wind up attending Kenyon University. Listening to Kim talk about Ohio makes me want to visit there. I don’t know much about Ohio other than Cleveland and that doesn’t seem like a top five place to visit. As I listen to Kim lament about Ohio my eyes are drawn to the coffeecake sitting in the middle of the table. Looking at the coffee cake makes me think about yesterday’s banana bread that Colin so masterfully incorporated into his blog. Today much like yesterday’s sweet treat, the coffee cake sits. I can’t help but notice it because it’s in our view as we watch the David Foster’s picture on Kim’s laptop.
Foster’s speech, This is Water is very insightful and somewhat existentialist. As he spoke I realize that my blog is very self-centered. I have interjected my thoughts, throughout this entire post. Yikes! How very narcissitic of me. But, as Foster continues on in his speech I realize that this is okay. I am at the center of my own perspective. That wasn’t a direct Foster quote. I paraphrased that big time.
So, moving right along, Kim segways from the Foster speech to us discussing the Authority piece that we read. She left us with a question, Who is the authority of language in New Jersey? After a few awkward moments of silence where no one wanted to start, Colin prompted a discussion about prescriptivists and descriptivists and trying to see ourselves in either of those titles. Imogen talked about her Autistic student and her style of writing being acceptable or not. I through in a Zora Neale Hurston reference to talk about her writing style and there was a time when that was deemed acceptable. Quanesha referenced what she learned in a Writing seminar class then when engaged in a really good discussion about what is acceptable writing and why should we care about hammering kids so much a grammar? After our colorful and somewhat off track discussion about language and who can or should say what when and where, Kim was back. She inquired about the highlights of our discussion. Hope shared a story about her children and how vernacular so vastly different from two towns as close as Rahway and Newark. She told us about how her Newark relatives think her children talk “proper.” Kim wrapped up our thoughts and moved on with our agenda. And in the words of Colin and the banana bread, the coffeecake sat.
Kim shifts us to Writer’s chair. But not before explaining the difference between Author’s and writing chair. Author’s chair is more sharing and Writer’s chair is more task based. She is going to give us handout to clarify this further. Imogen decided to be the first brave volunteer to allow the group to read and critique her work. Imogen read her story to the class and it left us all in suspense. She’s got some great imagery moments in her piece. A budding writer if I do say so myself. Class ended and Kim sent us off to write. After hearing Imogen’s piece I realize that I’ve got a lot of work to do. We missed Debbie’s spirit today. In a last ditch effort so the coffeecake didn’t continue to be lonely. I took a piece before departing from class. It was rather tasty.
And that concludes our day.
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