A Beautiful Spring Morning

I'm grateful that I don't work today -- it's a beautiful morning with cool temperatures, a bright clear sky, and I'm listening to Heidi Talbot's album Bleeker Street while I'm avoiding getting to work.

I caught up on my e-mails this morning, where yesterday afternoon I had nearly a dozen waiting for me. I've taken Rox for an early morning walk, and just returned from a bike ride of about six miles -- the first time I've been on my own bike in perhaps six months. I've put on much weight this semester as I've continued poor eating habits and nearly no daily activity. I'm sure I'm over 200 pounds, but I'm aware of it and will address my activity.

Sitting in Middle English class -- always a frustration -- came up with some ideas for a "Best Practices" document I want to write over the summer for humanities graduate seminars:
  1. Reading List, but
  2. Seminar to write the Syllabus, assignments, discussion/presentation rules and expectations
  3. Collaboration -- multi-week projects and full-term projects
  4. Peer review of all projects and writing
  5. Practice professionalization
    1. Practice writing CFP abstracts
    2. Public Presentation
    3. Conference participation
    4. Seminar publication (Web, wikis, etc.)
  6. Review and critique published articles, including creating/editing Wikipedia articles
  7. Inter-seminar collaboration -- technology beyond Blackboard
  8. Envelope the texts
    1. provenance
    2. context
    3. versions
    4. audience
    5. transmission
    6. publication history
    7. pop culture
    8. rhetorical elements
  9. Review very current publications for
    1. critique and rhetorical/publication analysis
    2. - grad students to be trained as peer reviewers
  10. Cross-discipline context: guest lectures from other departments
[10:56] Just finished reading, in a chair in the back yard, Kirsh and Royster, "Feminist Rhetorical Practices: In Search of Excellence" in CCC 61.4. Several things I think I can use for my 2012 CCCC proposal.

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