I’m joining the weekly celebration hosted by Ruth Ayres on her blog.
1. The semester ended! Summer reading, here I come! I still have grading to do, but I took a day mostly off on Thursday to read. It was a cold, rainy day, and the cats were in search of warmth. My lap became the bed for a rotating series of cats, sometimes more than one at a time:
2. For our final in Contemporary Lit class, students presented their original creative work–short stories, 6-word stories, collages, drawings, multimedia projects, and even a rap video. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect in terms of quality–I mean, this is the end of the semester, everyone is tired and busy, and I wasn’t sure how much time and effort students would really put into their work. I needn’t have worried, because they did phenomenal work. I was blown away. I especially enjoyed Jaycie‘s comics of the short stories we read, done in the style of Lev Yilmaz’s Sunny Side Down. This is Aimee Bender’s “The Rememberer”:
This is George Saunders’s “Sticks”:
3. My work on my department’s search committee for a Writing Specialist concluded with an excellent candidate accepting the position this week. I’m excited to work with and learn from our new colleague!
4. The last papers I have to grade are learning reflections from students in three of my courses. I love reading about what my students learned. Because these papers are graded on completion rather than content, students have a tendency to be very honest. I love the opportunity their reflections provide for me to reflect on what worked and what I can improve on for next time. I have only read about half the papers from Children’s Lit, but I think 100% of students so far have listed One and Only Ivan as their favorite book of the semester.
5. It’s been another tough parenting week here–some really great moments, and some really, really rough ones. Healing kids from hard places and hard backgrounds is not easy. To put it mildly. But I celebrate anything and everything that helps my son get unstuck and move toward healing. I certainly do love this kid:
the dirigible plum 
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