August 30, 2021

Poem Posting covid-19: day 535 | US: GA | info | act

I’ve posted two contrary poems by William Blake: “The Lamb” and “The Tyger.” Posting poems is an enjoyable process: I love coding them and seeing how they turn out on the page, and I love doing the research and interpretation to flesh each out. I also like that it could be an on-going process: as I discover more, I can add more. I hope this is an effective way to teach poetry online. It gives students one page with the poem and a decent reading of it. I’m trying to post all of the poems that have accompanying short-answer quizzes for my Brit Lit II class. They take some time to do, but it’s worth it. Let’s see if the students like them.

Today, we covered Silko’s “Yellow Woman” and Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour.” Both of these LitWiki articles need work, and I tried again to get my students to start editing the wiki. I was a bit more forceful today, telling them they should really get into the habit of editing everyday. That every edit they make will promote their literacy as writers and editors—and improve their grades. “Folks, instead of telling me what you’re going to do on the wiki, just do it!” I implored. Hopefully my message got through; it does seems as if more edits have been made today.

I sent out several emails this morning trying to organize this year’s Graduate Studies Council, since I am the new chair. I found out, too that I’m ex officio on Academic Affairs. There goes my Friday mornings.

I tutored a student in the Writing Center today—well online at the WC. And I have another appointment for Wednesday.