A break from academics...

I went to Hawaii for my cousin's wedding and had the opportunity to go snorkeling at Waikiki Beach where I saw many varieties of tropical fish, including surgeonfish, butterfly fish, Golden Butterfly Fish, Reef Triggerfish, Parrotfish, Cornet fish, and Unicorn fish.

What was really fantastic was how so many different kinds of fish were swimming together over the reefs. I regularly saw parrotfish with butterfly fish and triggerfish. For some reason, the triggerfish were often alone, swimming far away from other groups of fish.

Comps Preparation

I have been doing more reading about the teaching of composition since my syllabus will focus on teaching writing teachers. A daunting task, in some respects. What are all of the things that they need to practice doing so that they feel able and ready in the classroom. Surely, there are some skills: responding to student writing and creating assignments that facilitate student learning are two.

As to commenting on student writing, the article that many people mention is the one by Nancy Sommers that paints the then-current situation in a negative light: teachers appropriate student writing, provide confusing comments that simultaneously ask students to fix local problems and make global revisions, and give advice that is vague and interchangeable with other student papers.

So these are things to avoid. Noted.