Month: January 2019

The Teacher Becomes the Student Who Be Clubbin’: January Wrap-Up

1. I went to a club with my friend last week because it was 90s’ night. First of all, the start time for the event was 10 p.m. AT NIGHT. And yes, I said that like the old person that I am.

Her: Did you nap?

Me: Of course! I have to take a nap just to make it to bedtime.

Anyway, we had fun, but the music was not great. We found at when we got there that it was a mix of 90s/00s, and at the end of the night, we both thought of songs that should have been played.

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#MustReadin2019

Once again, I’ll be participating in Carrie’s Must Read community.

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Will this be the year I finally read The Mistress of Spices??? I hope so because it’s the book that’s been on my TBR the longest. (Proof: I added it to my Goodreads want to read in 2009. It is at the top of that list if I sort by date added. So.)

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Picking Favorites: Heavy on the Feminism

These have been hanging out in my Evernote for a while, so it’s time I posted them. Also, there’s at least one of these I don’t necessarily agree with but just found an interesting read because it made me think.

Links

George Bailey dreams of a life perpetually out of reach, always right around a corner he can never quite round. He makes all the responsible choices, the safe ones, the necessary ones, and in exchange gives up nearly all of his youthful ambitions—an adventurous Man of the World becoming, instead, a Family Man stuck back in his old hometown, running the family business. It’s heartbreaking to watch. And worse, it happens to almost every single one of us, in one way or another. — It’s a Wonderful Life?

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I went to Hawaii!

Some colleagues and I presented at the Hawaii International Conference on Arts & Humanities (our topic was multimodal assignments), which means I finally got to go to Hawaii, one of my lifelong dreams.

Our conference presentation went well, though the turnout was light. We think it was a combo of being scheduled to present at 8 a.m. (later sessions had higher turnout) and not using some keywords that may have intrigued more people (e.g., “creative problem solving”). My colleagues are amazing and do really creative and innovative work, so it’s always exciting to hear what they’re doing in their classrooms–not to mention hearing from people at other institutions about the interesting things they’re doing in their classrooms. I got so many great ideas for assignments and not always from other English teachers. A really cool one I got from some drama/costume teachers is to have students create a shoebox that represents the mood of the play. I may play around with that next fall.

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The best of all quotes which is a picture I took of someone else’s picture on their phone because the slides went by too fast. Text says, “Critical thinking is thinking about your thinking while you’re thinking, in order to make your thinking better.”

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It’s Monday, and I’ve read some books since the beginning of the year

This is strictly a reading update!

Giant Days, Vol. 5 (Giant Days, #5)Giant Days, Vol. 5 by John Allison

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was so fun. A plagiarism plot, a mean professor, Susan being a stalker, Esther dabbling in pens, Daisy being the all-around best, and a trip to Ikea. Did I mention Daisy is the best? I love her. I mean, they’re all pretty great IN GENERAL, but specifically in this volume Daisy is the best.

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I threw some axes

(Note: I wrote this two days ago but finally got a moment to post it.)

I’m on a plane to Hawaii, which means I finally have time to update my blog. Y’all, being on vacation is hard work. Between my trip to San Diego and prepping for this conference (why I’m headed to Hawaii), I have been super busy. And somehow I left my house a wreck before this trip. Oh well. I can’t do everything.

Okay, so I went to San Diego because my oldest (by which I mean longest running since she is actually younger than me—we have been friends for over 30 years, a fact that makes both of just sit back and go “Whoa” when we think about it. Over 30!) friend was there for a conference (not the one I’m headed to, obviously). She asked if I would be around, and I was like YES!!! so I headed down there for a visit.

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2018 End of Year Book Survey

Hosted, as always, by Jamie @ The Perpetual Page Turner. I am also cross-posting this with the #AMonthofFaves blog event. Today’s prompt is squee worthy reads, and I think I more than cover that in this post!

Reading Stats

Number Of Books You Read: 75
Number of Audiobooks: 10
Number of Rereads: 4
Number Unfinished/Abandoned: 12 (3 of these were audiobooks)

Best in Books

1. Best Book You Read In 2018?

The Mother of Black Hollywood: A MemoirThe Mother of Black Hollywood: A Memoir by Jenifer Lewis

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I listened to the audio version of this, which I highly recommend. It’s like sitting in a room with her while she tells you her story. Plus, she sings! So that’s fun.

I appreciated Lewis’s honesty here, especially as she spoke of her sex addiction and bipolar disorder. I *loved* all the stuff about how she came to terms with her childhood and how she learned to forgive her mother. The story about the white man coming to the door and insulting her mother? WHEW.

Lewis makes liberal use of the f-word and isn’t shy about detailing her sexual history (there’s a chapter called “Dick Diva,” for example). If these are things that may offend you, probably don’t read this. But if you want a brutally honest account of working in show business while learning to accept and manage a mental illness, then definitely check it out.

Also, I totally want to hang out with Jenifer Lewis and Brandy. How do I make this happen?

Read Harder 2018, Task 12: A celebrity memoir

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