Running Out of Air

1 April 2025: Got to hear a former student read from her debut novel on campus this evening. Another chance to just marvel at how lucky I am to get to do what I do. 

Convention Time!

20 March 2025: Writing this from my hotel room in Pittsburgh after a great first day at the Sigma Tau Delta Convention. Our students are so terrific and spending time with them is such a joy.

When they get it...

10 March 2025: "I learned that writing is a way of connecting with others." --one of my ENGL 102 students in the cover letter for her essay. 

Grading essays isn't the best way to spend a day of Spring Break, but stuff like this makes it much better.

Week of conferences: day one...

3 February 2025: "I went from social distancing to infantacide..." --a statement from one of my ENGL 301 students that sounds absolutely unhinged out of context. (She was talking about two sources for her annotatad bibliography about Wuthering Heights.)

Anyway, one day down. Four to go. 

Wednesday night grading fuel...

29 January 2025: I am telling you: when everything else is absolute trash, my students keep me going. They are so funny and smart and beautifully human. Here's a bit from an essay proposal for ENGL 102.

My kind of metaphor...

20 December 2024: Definitely on my top five list of favorite student evaluation comments, from a student in ENGL 101: "dr. hanrahan shot from half court and made it...." I burst out laughing. 

Other memorable posts about evaluations here and here.

We make good writers...

18 December 2024: Spent entirely too much time today working on the program newsletter, something that mostly falls on me since zero students completed the practicum this semester. And there so much more to do. Tedious stuff. Grumble, grumble. (While also asking why I feel the responsibility to do this darn thing...I am my own worst enemy.) 

But! Here's a great thing: I worked through four pieces written by students who basically volunteered to write (or accepted my eager invitation). And they are great. Our program is making good writers. It's so much fun to see that in action. 

Topic sentences...

21 October 2024: "I realize I just threw a bunch of stuff together and called it a paragraph..." --terrific insight from one of my ENGL 101 students as she looked at her draft.

Can you tell we are working on topic sentences? Seriously, though, her realization is so important. And then we talked about why this makes sense when she's drafting--and it's why rewriting and revision is so important. 

That's the good stuff...

5 October 2024: "I was always excited to do this, but I never fully expected such an astounding number of examples to work with. It opened my eyes to the presence of rhetorical tactics outside of just the classroom, and recently when I watched the JD Vance and Tim Walz debate, I felt that I had a better idea of the underlying tactics both candidates tried to use. I never expected this project to have any effect on me outside of the classroom, but I was proven wrong within a week." --a student reflecting on his rhetorical analysis essay (about an press conference before an MMA match!) in his cover letter. 

I mean, that's the good stuff. Made me really happy. 

Those 101 conferences...

12 September 2024: Just like yesterday, every one of them today was the good kind of surprising. What a gift to get to teach these students. 

Release party...

17 April 2024: Almost, almost, almost missed the Sans Merci release party for the first time in...forever? First, I was confused and thought it was tomorrow night--and was pretty tempted to skip it. I have so much to do, especially between now and my 25th (!) college reunion this weekend--and tomorrow will already be a long day. 

But, it turns out, the release party was tonight--which also made me inclined to skip it, as I didn't realize my mistake until right before it started. And I have so much to do.

But I put my shoes back on, hopped in the car, and went on over.

And it was really quite nice (as always).

Honestly, I am realizing it might have been kind of a good thing that I went, even though it means I won't get any writing done today. Because today I really needed a reminder of how wonderful college students are and how amazing it is to see them grow and shine. (It was rough day in ways that I can be public about here [though I don't think anyone actually reads this.]) 

Celebrating student-created art and literature? Worth it every time. 

So long, #23!

2 March 22024: It was bittersweet watching my student/advisee, Cara, play her last game as a Shepherd Ram today. It was quite a privilege to see her grow and endure in her time here. And it makes me smile to think of her out there, teaching English. 

Checking in with SGA...

27 February 2024: Sat in on part of an Student Government Association meeting today and I am so pleased to report that the kids remain alright. They so often bring a unblinking moral clarity to what they do and give me so much hope. 

Office hours visit...

7 February 2024: Had the best conversation today with a student in my Dickinson seminar. We talked about his paper, the class, his life, where he might be heading career-wise...just everything. And he asked me really interesting and engaging questions about my work and my book. There's such a kindness in that. 

One of the things I keep thinking about since we talked: he says he might be a K12 teacher and I just went on and on about how wonderful he would be. He said he was touched and flattered--and I think he really was. But then he talked about how, as a black gay man, there are so many reasons that he is worried about going into the profession given the ring-wing's current tactics. 

I paused on it and thanked him for telling me that. Easy for me to say, "You'd be so great! We need teachers like you!" without stopping to think about the risk and burden. 

But he is exactly the kind of teacher we need. 

More quotations from conferences...

1 February 2024: "Wait--there are perverts in universe?" --me, someone who knows nothing about anime except that it sometimes attracts perverts (along with lots of sweet and wonderful people), talking to an ENGL 102 student who is writing about the more problematic aspects of the genre.  

Unexpected poetry...

31 January 2024: Met with fifteen students today for conferences, all between 20 and 30 minutes. Like Monday, it wore me out, but was also exhilirating. And I had to stop and write down a line from one of them, an English 102 student talking about a video game he loves to play: "I looked up," he said, "and saw a galaxy." 

Conference Week...

29 January 2024: Conferencing with my ENGL 102 students this week--and my seminar students have a paper due on Friday, so needless to say, I will spent a big part of this week in one-on-one meetings with them. One day down and it's the same as always: on-your-(mental)-toes work that wears you out but is also often so much fun. 

Emma and the oil change...

3 January 2024: A former student who I am very fond of, Emma, basically runs the service department at the Subaru dealer. Every time I go, it's fun to see her and catch up. The last time I went (over the summer, I think?) she had just found out the gender of her second baby. Social media updates let me know when her baby arrived (another girl). 

When I scheduled my appointment yesterday to get an oil change/tire rotation today, I wondered if she would be back from maternity leave. And she was--in fact, it was her first day back. So, we got to catch up again, this time with lots of baby and big sister updates.

Always grateful for chances to connect with former students. Just more evidence for how lucky I have been. 

Look at her go!

31 October 2023: Absolute highlight of the day was seeing this news about one of our fantastic English-Education graduates. 

1402 good things...

25 October 2023: 1402 good things...

1400 straight days of 10K+ steps, which really is something. 

1 former student/current Shepherd employee who I am very fond of, telling me she prayed for me last night. I almost wept right there in the hallway.

1 current student who used the phrase "thunderstorms and fireflies" in place of "apples and oranges" and I just thought that was the most wonderful thing. "That's your Appalachain showing, my friend!" I told him.