#4 One Day...When I Grow UP

In year 26 of teaching, at the age of 50, one day before I retire, I want to have my doctorate.  Although the timing seems poor, as we will have two kids in college next fall, this secret, not-so-minute desire...now revealed to the whole wide blogging world...keeps bubbling to the surface, seeking to find an outlet.  Yes, without a doubt, I am a nerd, one who loves school, classes, teaching, learning, ever professionally growing.

Why now? This degree is the next step on the rung of my professional career ladder, especially since Arkansas State University has since changed their degrees, resulting in my two endorsements now being equivalent to their specialist in curriculum...AND especially since I do not aspire to obtain any of their other educational specialist degrees (superintendency, gifted and talented...).  Thus, this becomes the next natural step.

Why now?  That husband of mine?  He just keeps encouraging me, always saying he would like to be married to a doctor, to Dr. Gillmore.  That does make him a definite keeper!

Why now?  For the first time in some time, I am ready to return to being the student, to breaking out of the box in which I have resided for maybe too long (?), to meeting other professionals, to thinking...learning...creating...challenging me.

Twenty-six years in teaching and 50 years of life probably does equal the right timing to choose to enter the next phase of my life.  Taking that first step has actually already begun, as I gather transcripts and resolve myself to this:  no better time exists than now.  Then...I think...homework?  Papers?  Presentations?  Hours of studying?  Tell me:  am I really ready for this?

2017's My One Word

INTRODUCTION:  My one word for 2017 is diligent, continuing a now seven-year tradition from which I have gained much more insight about myself.  In what ways do I need to become more diligent, more conscientious?  I suspect in many, including personal and professional areas of my life.

CHUNK 1:  In some ways, some would say that I chose this word.  Maybe I did, for as the month of December rolled around, I did begin thinking of what my next word would.  I think.  I read.  I ponder. I listen.  I read some more.  I awake at night...and think.  This time, no word came.  Until.  Until New Year's Eve...about 10:30.  Then, I knew.  My one word would be diligent.

CHUNK 2:  I would say, though, that diligent chose me.  So how does a word choose me? Hummm...it just happens.  (I know...I am not supposed to use the word it.  That's right...I am counting on my students NOT reading this!)  So how does a word choose me?  I just feel that nudge, that conviction.  When I think of another word...and I did...my brain just immediately shifts back to this word.  As I assigned this word choice assignment to my students, this method worked for some of them, for before I was finished, I heard some saying, "My word is..."  Words do choose people.  Ask them.

CHUNK 3:  Some harbingers that might suggest this word's success in my life would be my diligence in completing tasks I begin in a timely manner.  This is already occurring as I continue to clean out areas of my life within my house, including closet, some boxes of papers, but, no...not my books.  Maybe this will occur throughout this year as I progressively work with this word...but I love books.  I own too many.  I have stacks I have never read, but I need them in case one day I want to read that particular book that I bought once upon a time that even, unfortunately, I cannot remember where nor why nor when.  Sooo...I will remain diligent as I continue to clean...for the most part, that is.

CONCLUSION:  For these reasons, I look forward to the results of this word diligent in my life...both its impact on me and the ways in which this word will affect others in my life.  From my previous years' experience, I know this is a life-changing experience...if taken seriously.  Just the other day, a lady shared with me her word...and then her two previous words and the impact they had had on her.  Awesome!

Essay 4.1

Assignment:  Write an essay explaining your views on work.  REMINDER:  this is NOT a paper on your future career.

Purpose/Audience:  Senior Seminar Board

• You will NOT read this essay to them.
• Information presented in your essay will be the topics for speech.

Choices!

• Format:  APA? MLA?
• APA!
• Type:  Argumentative?  Informative?
• You choose!
• Tell us while annotating on your cover which type you primarily used.

Length:  500-750 Words

Sources: 

• 1+ Primary
• 2+ Secondary

________________________________________

Mrs. Gillmore's Prewriting

• Claim:  Work fulfills the inner call to "help thy neighbor."
• My Sources:  
• "Teachers Spending out of Pocket for Supplies, Projects, and Field Trips"
• "Teaching Virtue"
• Lumpkin's "Teachers as Role Model..."
• OH, NO!
• No primary source!

Mrs. Gillmore's Drafting:  
View Essay Here!

• Step 1:  Identify claim and complete outline.
• Step 2:  Write four signal phrases and evidence sentences
• = the A's and B's from the outline
• Step 2:  Write commentary.
• = 1's and 2's from the outline
• Step 3:  Write introduction and conclusion.
• Step 4:  Format essay.

Mrs. Gillmore's Editing and Revising

Mrs. Gillmore's Publishing

Experiencing BHS History

My time spent on the years for the BHS History Project....has been sooooooooooooo stressful yet so rewarding!  This adventure has had more turns and twists than anticipated, but being a lover of roller coasters, I will survive the ride!

Stress Paragraph

Rewarding Paragraph

Conclusion

Ms. Hackworth: Her Pilgrimage

There was a student named Ms. Hackworth

Who boldly decided to go forth.

She went to college for a degree,

Planning to major in Biology.

Alas, she failed miserably at those,

And her lack of talent was exposed.

English, however, did her good,

So in Alphin Building she finally stood.

In the next three years she learned

And many papers out she churned.

Reading Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Keats,

She learned she loved poetry from the Beats.

But that was not all she did in college.

Sophomore year was a year of knowledge.

Ms. Hackworth decided to become a teacher,

For spreading knowledge, she’d be a preacher.

And so that journey finally began;

Ms. Hackworth finally had a plan.

But all must eventually come to an end,

And from college did she finally transcend.

Leaving behind the shoddy apartments and subpar food,

Finally getting paid put her in a great mood.

She got the job she always dreamed off.

She taught at BHS – what wasn’t to love?

Fresh out of college, she lived with her parents.

She wasn’t that old; still, she couldn’t bear it.

So she paid off her loans, several thousand or so,

And in a few short years she was free to go.

She saved up her money, a dollar here and a quarter there,

She rented an apartment made with change and a prayer.

Teaching near and teaching far,

Ms. Hackworth eventually got a new car.

She applied for grad school and got in,

So that little car was going for a spin.

She drove to Old Miss and got a degree.

But it definitely isn’t in biology!

Now she teaches at Cedar Ridge,

Where once she learned, now she builds a bridge.

She sends students along to Lyon too,

A generation she builds new.

One thing is for certain,

This is not the final curtain. 

Gender Roles: Mrs. G's Essay

First Claim:

• Today, publishing companies more positively impact writers of dystopia literature.
• No sources to support this.

Revised Claim:  Writers of dystopian literature impact female characters in a positive manner.

Outline:

I. Creative Lives

II. Stronger Roles
     A.  Male Expectations


Introduction

• Hook:  live vicariously through female main characters in dystopian literature
• Claim: Writers of dystopian literature impact female characters in a positive manner.

Body Paragraph 1

• "Portrayals of passive females can certainly be found; nevertheless, readers are often offered a chance to experience what females could be instead of what they are." (Source, pg 12)
• Some say
• I say

Body Paragraph 2:

• I Say:  "female characters demonstrated male characteristics, but male characters typically did not deviate from their stereotypical norm" (Source, pg 11)

• I say
• I say

Source List

• Check out my list of sources on Delicious.

Thematic Analysis: Fall 2014

Click here to view Mrs. Gillmore's Literary Analysis paper.