Wednesday, November 10, 2010

The Antithesis of NaBloPoMo

Yes, I am pretty much the opposite of the people participating in NaBloPoMo, who promised to post a blog entry every day for all of November. Nearly November 11 and my first post.

I always get nervous, the first post after a short (or long) hiatus. What do I have to say that makes it worth hanging around? Surely I've been doing something in my time of silence, right?

We're getting to the novels in my classes. I'm teaching The Things They Carried in two classes and Frankenstein in the other one. It's exciting to teach novels that I've taught before, which might sound like the antithesis of exciting, but not to me! I've already read the books multiple times, I have summaries and discussion questions and essay questions prepared.

I'm really learning to like the 2nd or 3rd time teaching a subject. I feel like the classes are so much more mine, more engaging, deeper. I can only imagine what the 4th or 5th time would be like, and I can't imagine the 10th or 20th!

Hey, maybe this relates to the start of this post, after all. Maybe it will get easier, the first post after a hiatus, with practice? Or is it more like the first day of class, that I think will always be exciting and nerve-wracking?

2 comments:

Jonathan said...

I have had busy days during NaBlo so far, when I've wondered what kind of crap I can churn out to satisfy the "post every day" requirement.

If anything, it forces you into the mindset of taking notice of things happening around you during the day, and making concrete notes to *really* write about something that happens to you, instead of thinking you will, and then forgetting all about it... if that makes any sense.

M. Lubbers said...

How does it affect your blogging after November is over? Is it better, more focused? Or do you feel like you're all over the place, I wonder?