Tag Archives: personal goals

Books I Should Have Read in High School

Posted by Jackie in blogging, book reviews, daily blog challenges, personal goals and tagged with , , , ,
Vanity Fair (2004 film)

Image via Wikipedia

This year, I’m taking on the Books I Should Have Read in High School, But Didn’t challenge Dana is running, and I’m pledging to read six books I feel I should have read, putting me in the Graduate Student category. The over-ambitious part of my personality wanted to try the Literature Professor category, but decided not to, since I’m tackling a notoriously long book as one of my choices. A few of these books I wouldn’t expect to be assigned in high school, nor would I want to teach them, but I feel I would, might or should have read them if my graduate degrees were in literature.

Here’s my proposed list, in no particular order:

Frankenstein
War and Peace
Song of Solomon
Things Fall Apart
Julius Caesar
Vanity Fair

War and Peace and Vanity Fair take place against the same historical backdrop, so I’m looking forward to those. Also, I have to confess two more superficial reasons for choosing Vanity Fair: looking forward to watching the Reese Witherspoon film, and finally/fully understanding the Becky Sharpe allusion Anne makes in Anne of Windy Poplars!

This is certainly a lot of reading, but I have a few strategies. First, I’ve gotten into a really good habit of reading before I go to bed every night, so that will be helpful to keep me moving forward. Second, I’ve always been a voracious reader, so I’m not daunted by the sheer number of pages I’ll be tackling. Third, I’ve also always been a relatively fast reader. Fourth, I’ll probably start my longest book (W&P) at the beginning of the summer, which is when I often get a lot of reading done, either in the long summer nights when I don’t have to wake up for school the next day or the long summer afternoons I spend poolside (yes, it’s clear why summer is my favorite season!).

Some of these are titles I’ve wanted to read for years, but I also like the idea of challenging myself to do what I ask students to do–read an unfamiliar, challenging text simply because it’s in front of me, and see what I can get out of it along the way. I’ll be blogging reviews and thoughts along the way, and will be watching film adaptations too. This is my first time participating in one of these kinds of reading challenges, but I think it’s going to be a lot of fun–feel free to join in, or try one of the many reading challenges Dana is trying. Dana is encouraging participants for hers even if you don’t have a blog, so jump in!

All links provided via my Amazon associates account, though I have received no compensation for these reviews. If you click through these links to buy the books, I get a very small cut. Thanks!

Related Articles

2010: A Recap

Posted by Jackie in all about me, blogging, personal goals and tagged with , , ,

Even though I jumped off the Reverb 10 train, I am still and always interested in reflecting on where I’ve been to see where I want to go. So I’m continuing my tradition of recap posts for the third year in a row–won’t you join me, please?

I finished 2009 by setting a lot of goals for myself in several different arenas of my life, and attacked my blogging goals by challenging myself to do NaBloPoMo, which worked out really well and helped me set some trends for the year as I moved into more teaching-focused posts like my series on what makes a great teacher. I also joined some conversations about working moms and leisure time, as well as overscheduled children. These posts all ended up in my Spotlight page, highlighting my best posts, which makes me realize perhaps another round of NaBloPoMo is in order!

In February, I was feeling a little bittersweet, talking about the Bible as literature, celebrating my catfish friend and surviving some major blizzards.  By March, I was recognizing the need for some re-centering, blogging about student blogging.This was a slow blogging time for me–I wonder if it was a NaBloPoMo hangover, or just a busy time?

April brought the cruelest month for schoolteachers trying to hang on till the end of the year. My first supper club night and some other lovely moments helped get me through it, as well as my first annual public poetry project with my students. Watch this space–I’ve got big poetry month plans this year too!

In May, I tried my first experiment with student evaluations, which I’m going to refine and try again at the end of this semester. I realized that while my teaching of poetry had grown richer, it wasn’t the right season for me as a poet. My girls turned eight and took our first trip to faeryland. Finally, just when I needed a boost, my first teaching article, on scaffolding with digital media in the English classroom, was published!

In June, I was thinking about Twitter and tinkering, as well as piles of summer reading. We took our first journey to Green Gables, and I looked through a blog, darkly.  In July, I felt ambivalent and struggled to exercise. I added up nine teaching accomplishments, updated my most popular post ever, and realized how blogging as made me a better writer.  These summer months saw me blogging pretty regularly, helping me process my year and look forward.

August, my birthday month, saw me a a little teary after a lovely surprise reader email. I spent a perfect sewing day with my sister and my own girls, and blogged a series of posts about dialectical notebooks before beginning the back-to-school countdown.

My own school uniform showed up in September–of course, it’s a uniform I choose for myself, which makes all the difference! I cheered for Teach Like A Champion, got to know my new students and stumbled a few times during my first week back.

How do we teach kindness, and how can we make it better? These are some of the thoughts on my mind as we headed into October after a hectic September. I got more than a little cranky about the old “180 days a year” teaching stereotype, reflected on my life as a writer, and still felt I was at full speed ahead into November.

In a month where my calendar felt overstuffed, I blogged about teaching by calendar, and still had time to fall in love with some great books and music. Finally, in one of my most-commented posts this year, I realized I was going gray, and no, I don’t feel any more resolved about it than I did then.

December began with me attempting a reflective challenge that I didn’t finish, though it did help me think about my writing next year, possible (and better) versions of myself, what I need to let go of, which added up to at least 11 things. I succumbed to the holidaze and read some great books, which brings us to……

today, the last day of 2010! As appropriate for a new decade, this year has definitely been one of change and growth for me. I made some real progress on my goals and am working towards some new ones–you can find me on 43 Things if you are curious, and we can cheer each other on!

Thanks for spending some of your time with me this year–I hope it has enriched your life, as much as your presence, emails and comments have enriched mine.

Related Articles

Possible Jackies

Posted by Jackie in conversations, personal goals, writing and tagged with , ,

Recently, my blogging-friend Sharon posted a great entry about possible versions of ourselves, how part of being a productive person can be imagining different, better versions of ourselves and then working towards becoming those people.

Sharon has a consistently witty blogging voice, so her possible selves include “The Sharon Who Has Become a Better Photographer and The Sharon Who Once Again Writes Poetry on a Regular Basis and The Sharon Who Gives of Her Time and Energy and Talents to Others and The Sharon Who Has a Really Cool Mostly Organic Garden Going and The Sharon Who Writes About Important and Interesting Things on Her Blog and The Sharon Who is Not an Embarrassment to Vegetarianism Because She Cooks Healthy and Delicious Meals and Has the Energy Levels and the Blog Pictures to Prove It and The Sharon Who Does Wonderful and Innovative Things in the Classroom and The Sharon Who Finishes Novel Chapters and Textbook Chapters Alike.” I can insert my name into some of those, and easily write others (and will, in a future post).

I think this is really inspiring, but also provocative; what better selves do I want to be, and how will I get there? This is also a fresh way to think about resolutions, I think, and was more inspiring than the Reverb prompt for today, to be honest.

What possible selves do you want to be in 2011, and how will you get there?

11 Things

Posted by Jackie in cooking, daily blog challenges, personal goals and tagged with , , ,
Fruits and vegetables from a farmers market. c...

Image via Wikipedia

What are 11 things your life doesn’t need in 2011? How will you go about eliminating them? How will getting rid of these 11 things change your life?

I’ve missed a few prompts over the weekend, including this one and the one about body integration, so I’m going to try and meld them together here.

One of the areas of my life in which I am continually unhappy is how I take care of my body. I’ve written about my struggles with self-care and also about my issues with veggies. I’d like to say I’ve made a lot of progress since I wrote either of those posts, but that would not be entirely true. I’m not much better about taking care of myself at all, especially in the exercise arena. And while I have been eating more salads and incorporating greens into other meals more, I still don’t eat enough vegetables, and have not been very adventurous in cooking them. So part of what I’d like to lose next year is my reluctance to exercise, my resistance to starting the exercise habit, and my past record of not maintaining the exercise habit once I start it. I’d also like to lose my absentmindness when it comes to drinking enough water, and trying new vegetable recipes. I’d like to leave behind my habit of forgetting my lunch too. Those are six weights I’d like to eliminate in 2011.

I’d also like to lose some related emotional weight: the guilt I feel over not eating better, over not making as much progress on the health front as I would have liked, over not maintaining the strong resolve I keep thinking I feel about taking care of myself. I’d like to leave behind the gap between how I feel about my mind and how I feel about my body, and I’d like to replace all that guilt and disappointment with pride and a sense of accomplishment.

This is my Reverb 10 post for the day.

Possible Jackies

Posted by Jackie in all about me, blogging, conversations, personal goals and tagged with , , ,

One of my bloggy friends, Sharon, posted a delightful entry recently on possible selves, and a theory that productive people envision better images of themselves and work towards them. She hypothesized all the Possible Sharons she’d like to be and what it would require for her to really be working seriously and productively towards being those Sharons. I especially love her self-reminder that of course, it wouldn’t all happen at once, in great Herculean strides, but would be a matter of small steps and chunks, staying focused and persistent on her goals.

Her possible Sharons include: “The Sharon Who Has Become a Better Photographer and The Sharon Who Once Again Writes Poetry on a Regular Basis and The Sharon Who Gives of Her Time and Energy and Talents to Others and The Sharon Who Has a Really Cool Mostly Organic Garden Going and The Sharon Who Writes About Important and Interesting Things on Her Blog and The Sharon Who is Not an Embarrassment to Vegetarianism Because She Cooks Healthy and Delicious Meals and Has the Energy Levels and the Blog Pictures to Prove It and The Sharon Who Does Wonderful and Innovative Things in the Classroom and The Sharon Who Finishes Novel Chapters and Textbook Chapters Alike.” I can see my own Possible Jackies in that list, and find it very inspiring, especially as the New Year creeps ever closer. I’m feeling a few related blog entries percolate even now…..

What about you? What best possible versions of yourself would you like to see in the New Year, and what would it take to get there?

Reflecting and Manifesting

Posted by Jackie in blogging, personal goals and tagged with , ,

It’s no secret I’m a devoted proponent of self-reflection; I don’t think I could have survived or persisted in as many years of blogging (seven and counting!) as I have if I wasn’t. The end of the calendar year is a natural time to reflect and gaze into the future, and in the past, I’ve done that by doing a round-up of my best posts from that year, as well as a series of posts on personal and family and writing (among others) goals for the upcoming year. I’ve also chosen to do blogging challenges before, as a way to give myself some new blogging energy, challenge myself as a writer, and pursue writing as a daily practice.

So I was thrilled to find #reverb10, a daily blogging challenge, with prompts, during the month of December and focused on “reflecting on your year and manifesting what’s next.” I’ll be starting it on December 1st, with a post after this one answering the first prompt, but I wanted to talk about why I was doing the challenge first (and thank Dr. Crazy for introducing me to it!).

I’ll probably still post regular posts as well, so during December, you may feel a little overwhelmed by my words! I hope you find something useful or interesting as you travel along with me, and feel free to join in the fun!

Community

Posted by Jackie in conversations, personal goals and tagged with ,

Community. Somewhere there are people to whom we can speak with passion without having the words catch in our throats. Somewhere a circle of hands will open to receive us, eyes will light up as we enter, voices will celebrate with us whenever we come into our own power. Community means strength that joins our strength to do the work that needs to be done. Arms to hold us when we falter. A circle of healing. A circle of friends. Someplace where we can be free.
–Starhawk

I saw this quote recently, and it really struck me.  Do you have this in your life, or are you striving to have it?  If so, how did you get it?  If not, how do you feel about it?


Blah Blah Writing Blah

Posted by Jackie in blogging, personal goals, writing and tagged with , ,

 

Stephen King signature.

Image via Wikipedia

 

I borrowed this post title from the wonderful Dr. Crazy, who’s on sabbatical and blogging her torturous and funny path through her current book project in posts tagged that way. Plus she likes one of my new favorite bands, Florence and the Machine!

Her posts on writing have made me laugh, sympathize, and be so glad I’m not doing that kind of academic writing anymore. I used to love the way it stretched my mind in new ways, and loved poring over new theorists I’d just discovered, but I was never thoroughly convinced that I needed to be doing this writing, that it really fulfilled me or had the potential to make an impact on the world in a meaningful way. Now of course, I’m not saying academic writing can’t do that, or even that mine couldn’t have, but I never felt like I was, and that feeling has become more and more important to me.

Then I spent about a five-year chunk writing for progressive magazines and websites, which was incredibly fulfilling and made me a better writer, but requires a level of engagement and focus on culture that I had trouble maintaining any longer after my teaching-based employment ramped up. Through those years, I was blogging, of course, which I credit with my continuing ability to write through years that were tumultuous, to say the least.

In the past year or two, my writing energy has all been directed towards poetry (intermittently), creative nonfiction, and writing about teaching, just as my blog entries have become more and more about teaching as well. I’ve got a nonfiction piece out right now that had its original genesis in a blog entry and am polishing up a personal essay that will go out shortly as well. My pace has gotten incredibly slower now that I’m working full-time, so I’m even more pleased that I have these pieces lined up and ready to launch.

So what’s all this to say? I guess reading Crazy’s posts has just brought home for me once again what I’ve come to believe more and more strongly. Writers don’t write because it’s our job, or because it’s fun, or because we have a way with words, or are just killing time. Writers write because we have to–even when it feels like torturous “blah blah blah,” even when the stuff we see on the page looks horribly amateurish or embarrassing, even when it feels like we never have time to write or to make our writing better. My friend Dawn has had rotating “writer’s quotes” on her blog for years, all to this effect, all from incredibly famous and successful writers. Stephen King said it in his essential On Writing, and there are some great quotes from E.B. White in this Maud Newton post too.

We write because we have to, because it’s part of how we see and enter the world, because as hard as it is, it lives deep inside our bones, because it comes spilling out or is always humming below the surface, because not to write is not to be who we are.

We are writers, and we write.

My First Prezi

Posted by Jackie in personal goals, teaching, technology and tagged with , , , ,
Image representing Prezi as depicted in CrunchBase

Image via CrunchBase

Remember all those new tricks I’m trying this year? Well, I haven’t made as much progress on that list as I’d like–I’ve implemented the two-blog system, but haven’t been blogging with them myself yet, for example, though I plan to start soon (more tech snafus than I anticipated have slowed me down).

But we began our grammar study this week, and to review parts of speech, I made my first Prezi! This is the first step towards my goal of encouraging my students to make more interesting visual presentations, while also making mine more exciting as well. The immediate visual benefit of Prezi is the way your presentation swoops around the screen, but working on mine this weekend showed me others: the clean design styles, the easy-to-use uploading of images and videos, and the ability to easily and publicly share it. I added the relevant Schoolhouse Rock videos for each term, and it was a snap, seriously. Definitely a fresh take on presenting and a real challenger for Powerpoint, and that’s considering that there are functions I haven’t even used yet, and that Prezi is now allowing real-time collaboration on presentations.

Feel free to click over to my Parts of Speech Review and see what you think, and please use it for your own classes if it would be helpful!

Related Articles

What I’m Trying This Year

Posted by Jackie in personal goals, teaching, technology and tagged with , ,

Richard Byrne recently posted a survey asking teachers what new things they were trying this year–a survey that I missed, unfortunately. However, in true “Free Tech 4 Teachers” style, he also made a slideshow of all the answers he got and wrote a blog post about it, where you can view the slideshow of all 140 answers.

So in the spirit of collaboration, I’m adding my answers here:

* For the first time this year, I’ll be keeping a teacher blog on my faculty website and blogging alongside my students, completing many of the freewrites or exercises I ask them to do as well as highlighting student work and adding important information. I was partly inspired to do this after reading Write Beside Them this summer and am looking forward to it!

* I’ve planned out ways to use wikis for the first time in my ninth grade classes, which I’ve never used before, and I’m adding more discussion boards as well (all through the functions on my Sharepoint site, which are much easier to implement in the newest version).

* All of my students will be blogging all year long–I’ve had classes keep blogs, but none consistently throughout the year. This will be a combination of journal and notebook for them, where they will do freewrites, classwork, homework and graded pieces of writing.

* I’m setting up a class wiki for each of my ninth grade classes, and will require my students to use this wiki as an e-portfolio. They’ll begin by putting up profiles of themselves, and will link throughout the year (or semester) to what they feel are examples of their best work.

* I’m hoping to encourage all my students to use more interesting ways to do visual presentations. I’m thinking particularly of Prezi and Tagxedo here, especially once I’ve made some sample Prezis and worked my way through 101 ways to use Tagxedo, as well as making some samples.

* I’m hoping to connect with another ninth-grade class in another state to study “Macbeth,” if planning goes well, but that won’t happen until fourth quarter

* I was also inspired by the FT4T slideshow to think about ways my ninth-grade students could incorporate current events in their blogging during our Bible As Literature unit.

Yes, it sounds like a lot, but especially with blogging, I’m just building on work I’ve already done.  I also think that these projects of mine will not only strengthen my student’s writing, but also help develop how they think about their own writing process in a more sophisticated way. Once I do the initial set-up work for the blogs and wikis, I think they will integrate smoothly into our coursework and really be useful for our class communities.

Related Articles