Reading Blogs, Journals, and Discussion Boards

Grading assignments is just part of the life of an English professor.  It takes time.  It is frustrating.  It is a struggle to remain fair and balanced.  But it is also fun and enjoyable, plus it brings a smile to my face very often!  Today was a day at home for me.  My students were working on source evaluations and they didn't need me to be there physically to help them.  The original plan was for me to spend the day with my grandson who has the croup, but he was taken to the ER last night and admitted to the hospital overnight, so my day today was my own. (He is home now and breathing much easier.)

So here I am.  Reading blogs, checking emails, grading evaluation papers, and looking at Pinterest for recipes to make in my pressure cooker (Instant Pot, if you will).

Grading over 100 summary/analysis/response papers was grueling this fall.  Grading evaluation papers is fun because they are more personable, less stressful to write (I hope), and enjoyable to read because they contain recommendations for restaurants and movies, two things that my husband and I enjoy.  Half Moon Brewery in Kokomo was the subject of at least two evaluations and we plan a dinner there soon after harvest.

This brings me to the AmLit course.  Each time I read the selected aphorisms in a discussion board I have to smile.  Each class is so different in their selections and the trend that is the focus.  Sometimes the selections are very personal, but often there is an influence of current events or concerns about the direction society is going.

Other interesting discussion board posts include those about memorable speeches.  I cannot remember the focus of the speech when I graduated from Indiana State, nor can I remember the subject of my daughter's speech when she graduated from high school in 1999.  I am always impressed by the speeches that have made impressions on my students---and that they remember those! 

In my ENGL 111 classes last week the students completed journal entries in response to two articles from This I Believe, which some of you may remember as our Common Book for the previous two years.  Once again I read approximately 175 journal entries from the four classes, but I enjoyed every one of them.  One related to the 'Designated Celebrator' of family celebrations, and I took comfort (I think) in the fact that just about every person in charge of hosting the family Thanksgiving dinner is stressed out about it.  Including me.  Also it was fun to read about the special talents that are found in each family---the grandmother who always makes the best noodles or the father and sons who run cross country together or the uncle who always brings his guitar and sings as every family event.

Writing is a way to share our lives with each other.  When we can't sit and talk, when we can't actually BE with each other, we can share what is most important, our thoughts and feelings, our fears and our concerns with each other through the written word.  It doesn't take much to do it, just hitting the keys and seeing the words on the screen or putting the pen to the paper.

If you are reading this, respond!  Then open your blog and write a new post.

Fall Camping

This past weekend my daughter and son-in-law and their children, along with my husband and me, camped at Tippecanoe River State Park north of Winamac.  Their friends, Tony and Beverly, and their son Brandon and one of his college friends, joined us.

Sunday morning we walked to the Tippecanoe River from the family campground and enjoyed a bright sunshiny fall day.  The temperatures were warmer than they had been in the tree-shaded camping area.  The sunshine was bright and the air had the smell of fall. 

As we sat on the bench overlooking the river, and my son-in-law and Landon were below us throwing rocks to make big splashes, I was reminded once again of the beauty of nature.  Much as I love spring and summer, warmer temperatures, not wearing coats and hats and gloves and boots, there is a certain beauty about fall.  Mother Nature is whisking her paintbrush across the trees.  The fall flowers are blooming.  The grass is taking on the slight brown colors as it prepares for the dormancy of winter.

How timely that we are reading Emerson and Thoreau.  The two best-known Transcendentalists conveyed their thoughts about the beauty of nature.  Thoreau spent two years, two months, and two days living in his cabin at Walden Pond and wrote many essays about his experiences there.

My time at the campground this past weekend was limited.  My heavy student load this semester has been bogged down with grading essays from 100+ students in four ENGL 111 classes.  I didn't join the rest of the family until late Saturday afternoon, and I spent some time in the camper that evening grading.  But I did feel refreshed and relaxed on Sunday.  I slept for 10 hours in the camper Saturday night.  Nothing can compare to breakfast cooked over the open fire - thick slices of bacon, scrambled eggs, hash browns fried in the cast iron skillet.  My Fitbit logged over 10,000 steps by the time we left the campground at 2:00 p.m. , just for Sunday's steps! 

Take some time, even if you don't think you can spare it, to ge outside and enjoy nature.  Your spirit can be lifted by emulating Thoreau, even if it is just for an hour or so.

Lincoln Funeral Train Replica

A replica of the Abraham Lincoln Funeral Train was on display at the Fall Festival in Francesville, Indiana, in mid-September.  The funeral train passed through Francesville on its journey from Washington, D. C. to Lincoln's burial place in Springfield, Illinois.  The couple pictured are parents of two of my former students and grandparents of several of my former high school students.

Fall Has Arrived!

Isn't fall a fantastic season?

After the heat of summer, the air conditioning that we must endure just to be comfortable, and the bugs that seem to attack every time one steps outside, fall is a welcome relief.

I like fall for these reasons:

• cooler temperatures
• warmer clothes - I love sweaters and sweatshirts!
• boots - my favorite boots I purchased during our annual New Years Eve trip to Gatlinburg.  I can't wear them in the summer.
• brightly colored leaves
• bonfires
• roasting hotdogs
• harvest (I am married to a farmer)
• hunting (my son-in-law uses our woods for deer hunting)
• Thanksgiving - my favorite holiday
• burying myself under blankets for a good night's sleep

James Whitcomb Riley wrote this poem about a holiday during the fall season:

When the Frost is on the Punkin

By James Whitcomb Riley 1849–1916

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock,

And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin’ turkey-cock,

And the clackin’ of the guineys, and the cluckin’ of the hens,

And the rooster’s hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence;

O, it’s then’s the times a feller is a-feelin’ at his best,

With the risin’ sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest,

As he leaves the house, bareheaded, and goes out to feed the stock,

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.

They’s something kindo’ harty-like about the atmusfere

When the heat of summer’s over and the coolin’ fall is here—

Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossums on the trees,

And the mumble of the hummin’-birds and buzzin’ of the bees;

But the air’s so appetizin’; and the landscape through the haze

Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days

Is a pictur’ that no painter has the colorin’ to mock—

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.

The husky, rusty russel of the tossels of the corn,

And the raspin’ of the tangled leaves, as golden as the morn;

The stubble in the furries—kindo’ lonesome-like, but still

A-preachin’ sermuns to us of the barns they growed to fill;

The strawstack in the medder, and the reaper in the shed;

The hosses in theyr stalls below—the clover over-head!—

O, it sets my hart a-clickin’ like the tickin’ of a clock,

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock!

Then your apples all is gethered, and the ones a feller keeps

Is poured around the celler-floor in red and yeller heaps;

And your cider-makin’ ’s over, and your wimmern-folks is through

With their mince and apple-butter, and theyr souse and saussage, too! ...

I don’t know how to tell it—but ef sich a thing could be

As the Angels wantin’ boardin’, and they’d call around on me—

I’d want to ’commodate ’em—all the whole-indurin’ flock—

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock!

 

 

 

Happy Fall!