10 things about me

1. I don't like strawberry-flavored food. But I do like stawberries.
2. I can't stand to have my fingernails painted. Painted toenails are fine, though.
3. I don't force my daughters to brush their teeth every day--I got tired of fighting with them about it. Niether one has had a single cavity yet.
4. I love, love, LOVE trees. Trees of all kind. I can't even explain it, but trees just make me happy. Especially if dappled sunlight appears through them.
5. My favorite scent in the world is lilac. I have two huge lilac bushes in my backyard that are about to bloom!
6. One of my favorite inventions of all time is contact lenses, especially the kind you can wear for 30 days straight--even at night.
7. I'm not very good at motherhood. I find it extremely challenging, something that doesn't come easily to me. But I love having kids.

Okay, for now: Seven. Seven things about me.

Testing, 1, 2, 3...

Just want to see if I can create an internal link: www.theonion.com

My English 111 students rock!

Really, they do. Just yesterday at a committee meeting, I was bragging about how bright and interesting they are. Many of them have taken to the blog thing really well. They're blogging even when they don't "have" to (for our course, I mean). And their writing is lively, funny, thoughtful. Plus, I feel like I'm getting to know them more as people, not just as students.

I have them doing this narrative collage thing for their first paper. And they've been willing to experiment a little--playing with tense, dialogue, visual design. I'm really, genuinely looking forward to reading their papers.

My students are way ahead of me

Okay, we've had a few problems with the blogs. Weird error messages. Strange templates. Slooooow postings. But we're working through the kinks, and I think all will be well.

As usual, many of my students are way ahead of me technologically. Which is cool. Shawn already figured out how to use the "hello" software (or whatever it is) for photos. Vince figured out some other method for linking to photos. Brian S. figured out how to change the html code so that we could link to other websites. I suspect a few of them will figure out the blogroll and RSS feed thing soon!

They're doing other neat things too. Star's posting poetry. Corinne wrote an engaging piece about her son's birth. Marita's got some funny stuff in her profile. They're so creative!