Welcome

I'm excited for this semester's Intro to Fiction class and the opportunity to get to know all of you. Your first blogging assignment is to introduce yourselves by posting a brief biography (with pictures, if you can!) in your respective group blogs. Feel free to click on other groups' blogs to get to know classmates outside of your own group, but remember to comment on at least three fellow group members' biographies (so I can make sure that everyone knows how to (1) publish a blog post and (2) publish a comment to someone else's blog post).

To be fair, here is a brief introduction of myself. I am currently a PhD student studying to take my qualifying exams in eighteenth-century British literature over spring break (no vacation for me!). However, teaching at the university level is not new for me. I have been teaching composition courses at the college level since 2003, and I have been teaching literature since 2008. I also lived in Japan from 2004–05, and I spent 2007–08 in the Sonoran Desert as a wilderness counselor, where I survival camped with at-risk teenagers. I have loved all my adventures. My latest adventures include getting married in 2009 to another English-geek (who also happens to play the guitar and own a SuperNintendo—some minor perks) and having a baby daughter with him last October (just after midterms).

My husband and me, adventuring in Scotland.

Our little turkey.

I can certainly empathize with those of you who feel stretched thin time-wise, and I assure you that the reading and writing exercises we do in this class will be worth your effort. I am looking forward to learning from each of you, too. All of you will be bringing individual experiences and insights to our discussions—both in class and online—that I could not provide by myself alone. And I look forward to reading your own biographies!

Remember:
Brief biographies (100–200 words) need to be published by 9:00 a.m. Monday (Sept. 3) morning. (Remember, if you don't want to be posting your biography on Labor Day, make sure to post it earlier in the week!)
Consider including details about your hometown, family life, your major, hobbies or interests, etc. (Just be careful not to include anything too personal, like street addresses, phone numbers, etc.)

Comments on group members' posts need to be published by 5:00 p.m. Friday (Sept. 7) afternoon.

The prompts for Phase 1 students' posts (due Monday, Sept. 10), will be available on this blog on Sept. 3.