Daily Archives: January 21, 2022

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Getting to know you a bit….

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Thank you for a hopeful and inspiring first evening together.  At the heart of any learning community is the power of peer wisdom and knowledge.  We are embarking on a co-learning journey together.  A highlight for me during our first gathering was the unique insight you each brought forth when engaging in the quick free-write exercise –  “why you write”.  Moving forward, once your personal blogs are syndicated onto this course website, please be sure to make it a regular practice to read your colleague’s posts before class.  That practice can help you along in this journey (in a myriad of ways).  To read your colleagues’ thoughts is not only an enjoyable way to get to know each other better, but it is also a wealth of “food for thought”.  You can see what your peers think about the readings.  Your shared blogs can also be a resource for both insight and reassurance.

Our agenda slides from 1/20/22:

The Course Calendar

We will build the calendar together the next time we see each other in Zoom (next Thursday 1/27/22).   The mechanics of our calendar is, at its heart, a negotiation.  It is important to me that you are all active in setting the content of the course.  Each year, the focus and tone of the selected readings differs, which makes each class memorable and unique (and each class/cohort has its own special chemistry).  The “puzzle” of our reading syllabus will be completed through our jigsaw-style collaboration – and this sets a tone of cooperation and co-learning for moving forward. You can take a look at the Reading Roster to anticipate what we will consider together next week in class, and we will negotiate the “when/what/who” questions together in real time.   As I mentioned, the Course Calendar is a “live” document, that we will build together, based on your interests.

Your “to-do” list for next week:

  1. Please remember to make a new WordPress blog and your class twitter account and share here.
  2. Please post your first blog by next Thursday morning.  Introduce yourself to your new MA in Writing Studies cohort (in whatever way you would like to). 

Suggestion: Share what you would like about your background and include some visuals.  Perhaps a short video, or an image – this does not need to be a personal photo, but can be photo(s) representing something about you. Take a creative or metaphorical approach if you like. Tell us a little about yourself, and why are you pursuing an MA in Writing Studies? If you feel compelled, you can also include in your first blog post some reflections on your “Why I Write” freewriting exercise in class. Why do you write?

Building good weekly “prep” practices

Here are the general steps to take each week before coming to class:

Jumping in!

Next Thursday during class we will jump right into the work of building our Course Calendar togther and we will continue to “set the tone” for our work together.  I look forward to seeing you then on Zoom for “Part 2” of our general orientation to the course.

 

Sincerely,

Dr. Zamora

 

Student Blogs

A Bit About Me

Hello! I’m Chelsea Gray, a graduate student at Kean University. I’m in the writing studies program. I love reading and writing. I’m a night owl, some of my best writing ideas come at night or from my dreams. This is my writing journey through grad school.

At the time of this blog post, I have just completed my first week of graduate school. I’m in my first semester and really excited about this journey! I fully intend to keep up with this blog as the semesters go on.

Why do I write? I write to express myself, to understand my thoughts and feelings and to create. Growing up, the characters I read about and the authors I read did not look like me. I started writing my own stories at a young age to sort of make up for that. Writing has always been something I turned to when I had free time. Whether it be my own or another author’s.

Writing has been my go to. It helps me understand everything going on. I’d rather read than watch a video on something. Which might be why subtitles distract me. Learned a new fact about myself. Being able to see the words explaining something and visualizing it for myself is just easier for me.

I always say reading is fundamental. But I always focus on the fun part first. Because to me, reading is fun. But you have to write before you can read and that’s the mental.

Let’s see where this journey of graduate school takes me and my writing!

Student Blogs

A Bit About Me

Hello! I’m Chelsea Gray, a graduate student at Kean University. I’m in the writing studies program. I love reading and writing. I’m a night owl, some of my best writing ideas come at night or from my dreams. This is my writing journey through grad school. At the time of this blog post, I have just completed my first week of graduate school. I’m in my first semester and really excited about this journey! I fully intend to keep up with this blog as the semesters go on. Why do I write? I write to express myself, to understand my thoughts and feelings and to create. Growing up, the characters I read about and the authors I read did not look like me. I started writing my own stories at a young age to sort of make up for that. Writing has always been something I turned to when I had free time. Whether it be my own or another author’s. Writing has been my go to. It helps me understand everything going on. I’d rather read than watch a video on something. Which might be why subtitles distract me. Learned a new fact about myself. Being able to see the words explaining something and visualizing it for myself is just easier for me. I always say reading is fundamental. But I always focus on the fun part first. Because to me, reading is fun. But you have to write before you can read and that’s the mental. Let’s see where this journey of graduate school takes me and my writing!