Late again! The end of this semester has been a little busy.
For my final blog post, I would like to say that so much of what I've learned this semester has been valuable, and from a strictly pragmatic point of view, this class has been fantastic. But really, what I think I value most about what we've discussed is this idea of beginning with the end in mind.
I would really like a job. This sounds like a completely obvious statement but it's not. For the entire MFA, I heard there were no jobs to be had, and so I never really considered that I'd like to end up tenure track faculty in a strong English department. But now I think of this path as a real possibility, and I have a few years at TTU to work on this goal.
(With that in mind, I find myself looking at this link quite often: http://academicjobs.wikia.com/wiki/CreativeWriting_2016.
This website takes some of the opaqueness out of the process, but the content is user-generated, so maybe not 100% accurate. Still, useful. )
Also, to go with this idea, I learned how to think and talk about composition in a much more informed way. The theorist I most responded to was Peter Elbow, and I'll be sure to use his ideas about learning the language of SWE in future classes.
Nice post, Nancy. No problem on being late on this one. Glad you found the course helpful. I harp on that a lot, beginning with the end in mind, whether that be a position in a school or making sense of something specific. If students see reading, writing, and thinking as a big puzzle, with a larger picture in mind that they need to get to, the pieces fit better. Keep working on the professional development aspects of your degree program, which may be outside of the coursework you do but nevertheless incredibly important. Find the support you need, create the support you need.
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