My Vanity

In my Teaching Reading for ESL class today, I learned that I read the majority of the wrong (dull, dry, boring) book. LAME. The actual required text is pretty interesting and engaging. Now I have to read it and write a paper on the right text by next week. *sigh*
Silly me.

Ehhh, I am so over-committed. I already dropped a frivolous class and quit the play (:( ) but I still don't feel like I can get it all done in the next three months. Arg! I want to dance tomorrow... but I have to design my photo journal, finish all the photo editing, make some money, and do homework. Sad. I guess I will have to wait until Thursday. ;)

I need to blog more often for my Writing class so here are the rest of this week's questions:

What methods have worked for me?
My writing always improves when I read good literature. This directly relates to what we discussed in Teaching Reading class today, but it really is applicable. For instance, when I started reading excellent blogs, like Debbie's, Michelle's, etc, my own blogging improved.

I also benefit from freestyle writing exercise, or stream-of-consciousness writing. It forces my thoughts out onto paper so I don't get hung up on the little details. Then I am free to return to editing later. This may not always be effective with ESL students, but it could force them to move away from their dictionaries and experiment with the English language.


What are my likes and dislikes about writing?
I love to tell stories. Memoir is probably my favorite creative writing genre. I suppose I am pretty vain to assume that people want to hear about my life, but I just love to tell about it. I tend to be a bit facetious, so my memoirs may be a tad more fictional than literal, but I try to stay true to the spirit of the events. ;)

As per academic writing, I guess what I really enjoy is the formulas. Often times I see academic assignments more as a math assignment than a creative expression. I get a thrill out of breaking apart a problem or assignment and attacking and solving it. I am not sure I am attacking this particular question very well, though.


Well, friends, I hope you don't mind my using this blog as the outlet for my TESL blogs, but at least this will guarantee that I will actually post once in awhile, and I will try to include something profound or clever once in awhile. Not that I should assume you want to hear what I have to say.. ah, there goes that vanity again.
Happy Inaguration Day! (I cried when he walked down the street... oh, if only I could blog about THAT.)