I hadn't popped into a CCCOER (Community College Consortium for OER) webinar in months, so I gathered links like a cave woman today. The Open Faculty Patchbook is one resource I would like to dive into; one participant said when he was getting into Open Educational Pedagogy/Resources, he read one story from that site per day to help him prep for that sort of work. https://wicked.liberatedlearner.ca/ https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/learner/front-matter/beats-to-study-to/ https://openfacultypatchbook.org/ https://awards.oeglobal.org/awards/2022/oer/liberated-learners/ https://awards.oeglobal.org/awards/2023/open-reuse-remix-adaptation/modern-humanities-on-manifold/ I don't think I'll move to a "site" for my OER, beyond Google. I like having a folder of all the stuff, backed up on my computer, and I like that anyone has access to that folder and they can download my stuff at will and tweak/revise to their hearts' content. Right now, I like the "less cl

Easter 2024. As much as I detest the Easter holiday (insert traumatic childhood story about my pet bunny), this “date” marks five years since I decided against a Ph.D. program and fell into a rabbit hole (ooh, a pun!) on Twitter that led me to #OER webinars and #ungrading posts (that freaked me out), among other learning opportunities.  The summer of 2019 is when I took a MOOC class on Open Pedagogy and spent $500 of my own money to enroll in the Creative Commons Certification Course for Educators. That summer marks the turning point in my pedagogical journey. And it was a path set out by the universe after Sadie passed away in October of 2018. I wanted to distract myself, so I applied - sent in the application on Christmas - to the School of Ed at my alma mater. Yes, they eventually, sometime after Easter that spring, informed me that I didn’t make it into the program, and I believe that was the second time I applied to NDSU (first time might’ve been to the earn a Ph.D. in English). A

*reading through the draft of what might be my next book* I found this nugget from when I was brainstorming for the Great Plains Alliance in Computers and Writing conference (2007):  This presentation comes out of frustration.  It finally occurred to me after reading Kinsey’s piece (and other pieces online regarding recording/reflecting one’s thoughts somewhere) that it was okay to have a teaching blog, to be a teacher who put her thoughts OUT THERE for public display. I knew it was okay, to a certain extent, before I found these articles and online postings by others, yet I didn’t have any evidence beyond the fact that it was working for me, so bugger off type of excuse/answer/reason.  Sure, some colleagues thought I was showing students how “human” I was which was detrimental, according to “them,” but, um, who cares? Aren’t all teachers human, really? And aren’t the best teachers those who bring a part of themselves into the classroom?  [If you are a teacher of writing, you should be

I just sent out this announcement to students: “ My apologies for the delay in updating the gradebook; I’m out sick right now. I’ll assess things asap. Thank you for your patience.” For some reason, just this brief note lessens my stress over not “keeping up” with things, and I hope it’s a gentle reminder to students that I will extend grace to them, too.

Anytime I feel “off,” I really have no idea what to blame it on. My age? Did I forget to drink lots of water? Did I take all my supplements? Did I simply sleep weird? Is it my body and its general mental and physical complexities: anxiety, past depression, headaches, dairy issues, vertigo…? Is it the white matter disease in my brain? Is it just a phase? Is it long covid?  And when I deal with these off feelings, I have to ask myself: if I’m dealing with things like this, others are too, so truly, that’s why you should extend kindness to colleagues and students. Message given to me on my birthday recently:

With all the reflecting I do, and with how much I emphasize it in my own classes, you might think I would always refer to it as a good thing - a good process to take one's self through from time to time. But I'm second-guessing that today. You see, I have a birthday tomorrow. I found a pic from 2014 (at left below) from today. I was hours from turning 37. On the right, I snapped a selfie before heading to campus this morning, hours from turning 47. I like taking time to reflect on what has happened in years' passed. I like reflecting on almost everything in my life: what I thought when, what I used to do in my classes, what things bothered me and what things I was extremely passionate about. But today, there was a pause and a question: What if reflecting TOO much is causing me harm? So, tomorrow marks the first birthday in decades I will not have a pet. This may not seem like a big deal to most people, but I said goodbye to Sushi (my 20yo kitty) last February, and I don'

My former teacher Mr. Wall said it best when he told me in an interview that he turned down a different non-teaching job because "I just want to wake up and deal with students. Doctors have to deal with the sick, and lawyers with jerks; I get to be with students." I still have anxiety each and every new FIRST DAY of a semester, but the students are always so wonderful. I've only just started to meet each class this week, but my first one was in a semi-fancy computer lab, plopped in the basement of a "green" building the campus built not too many years ago. The class is at full capacity, and while not everyone spoke up today, I have a few who felt comfortable enough to speak up when I asked the "question of the day."  I also have a few students in there who have had me before, and they seemed to be happy to have me again. One might've said I was "the best" teacher, and to her, I might be, and it's not that I need that reassurance; it&#