From Mundane to Marvelous

As the first full week of blogging is coming to a close, I am worried.  As the last two years of teaching AP Language and Composition has shown, I should be.  And as the students have their first at-home writing assignment due tomorrow, I am especially anxious.  For them.  For me.

Writing a thoughtful post, about a meaningful topic, that doesn't sound or look like a diary entry, an entry from Wikipedia, or a Pinterest item, is hard - I know!  I've been working on this post for, like, an hour - and it is bad.  How to bring a voice?  an angle?  a perspective? to a topic that hasn't already been posted  a thousand times, and done a thousand times better?  That is the question.

The first week of class we watched ""The Best Coin Ever Spent" because I wanted students to get a grip on how many angles are out there - especially if there is a conscious effort to make connections to other sources and texts.  I like poetry and want to make a link to my topic?  Then I'll throw Ludwig Van Beethoven's Return to Vienna by Rita Dove into the pot, and Bam!  Now what new inkling has started to take shape?

Good writing is hard to do.  Interesting writing is even harder.  As I start to read the blogs, I hope I'll be able to offer suggestions that will help students go from the mundane to the marvelous.  (Maybe that is a bit of alliterative hyperbole, but I can hope, can't I?)

Write on!!!