Thursday, September 6, 2007

Hello!

I'm absolutely loving teaching. My kids are so young and impressionable. It sometimes freaks me out when I think about all of them (there are nineteen) listening to me ramble on for an hour. I assigned their first essay today: a semiotic reading of an object that represents American culture. Hmmm....we'll see how that goes. I'm finally doing what I want to be doing for the first time in my life. Gosh, it took long enough. Hopefully there will be more classes for me next semester, or next year. I'm going to apply again at JMU. But in the meantime, I'm teaching, painting, and working on a novel. I've sent out a couple of stories, but haven't heard back yet. I discovered a cool podcast available from the New Yorker where writers read fiction that has been published in the New Yorker. It's really good. You should take a listen. My favorite story thus far is by John Cheever called "Reunion." I'm also thinking about starting to paint on canvas: big color fields painted with oils. I can picture them in my head, but I'm not too sure how to flush them out into colors and onto canvas. We'll see if that happes. Cyndi is working on a photo project. She is photographing every item she owns (like all our spices, one by one, every pair of underwear, our CDs, etc.). The show will be called "And This Isn't Everything." She wants to cover several gallery walls with prints of all our crap. It's a bit obsessive, but that's Cyndi! God bless her. She's also going to put it on YouTube as flashing images (about one per second) to some house music. I'll keep you informed when it happens.
Lily is liking Kindergarten. She's hot stuff now, and wants to pierce her ears so she'll "be the prettiest one there." Dear God have mercy on us all.

love to all,

Chad

2 comments:

hehelo said...

So glad to hear that you're finally doing something you're enjoying. How I would like to be a little fly in your class. Keep bugging the New Yorker, they're bound to publish you sometime. I look forward to checking out some of the books you've been reading.

Heather

Unknown said...

I love that you are enjoying teaching. Your blog will be a great influence on people who are thinking of becoming one. There are tons of blogs that say how they hate their job and wish they would have never started that kind of job. We need more people like you who can tell the good experiences you can have as teachers. Also because you like your job, you can give your opinions in person as well. I'm glad you love your job, that reassures me that I am choosing the right profession as well.