(Re)Initializing

Four of us started this blog in the hopes of continuing a long-distance book club that had begun when we were in grad school. The time we spent together talking about books (not assigned for classes) are some of my fondest memories during that period in my life.  However, life and distance intervened—as they are wont to do—and it was no longer possible to continue the book club. And, the blog fell to the wayside.

Recently, Heather and I were talking about how much we miss writing and talking about things that are important to us. Because we are both teaching all of the time, we devote our time to developing curricula, lesson planning, grading, student-conferencing, and simply dealing with challenges of everyday life. We, therefore, spend little time on ourselves. As English teachers, book-lovers, and thinkers, writing and sharing our ideas are not only important to us, but also necessary to remind us why we do the things we do. We teach our students about the power of writing and in becoming more culturally aware. To do so, we explain to them, we must be able to communicate our ideas and to realize that we must participate in the conversations around us. Instead of being passive consumers, we should be active participants. We teach these things, yet we were not doing them as much as we would like.

So, the two of us decided to revisit and revamp the blog. This blog will allow us to talk about the things that matter to us: books, popular culture, teaching, and anything on our minds. Our goal is to post at least one blog a week, and we will alternate weeks. Part of the problem with our inconsistency in posting before was that we felt too much pressure to take time to write, especially when we are busy teaching, grading, attending meetings, and conferencing with our students. We hope that by alternating, the pressure will be relieved and that the blog will be a pleasure to maintain instead of a chore. In the next few weeks, we will post about our summer reading lists, our summer Netflix binges, and the challenges/rewards of teaching. Should be fun!